Page 49 of His Sassy Little

She hadn’t realized tears were running down her cheeks until Daddy came over with a tissue and wiped them off.

“Thank you, sheriff.” Daddy pulled her into his arms as he spoke, “I’m sure you can see your way out.”

Arabella sat draped across Daddy’s lap, head resting on his shoulder as she cried. The tears were part relief that her parents might finally get justice and part the grief she’d never stopped to feel finally coming out. Safe in her Daddy’s arms, she cried herself to sleep.

“Ditched the tracker,” a voice said, “A necklace just like he said.”

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! How will they find me now?

Arabella whimpered as the scene flooded her mind. Her body was screaming that there was danger, and each word confirmed it.

“Yeah, got her no problems. Everything went smooth. The code he gave us worked and James got lucky. Found her in the bathroom after he took care of the guy.”

Shit, fuck, damn! There is an inside informant.

Arabella woke with a start. She remembered! Looking over at Daddy, she saw he was sleeping and she really didn’t want to wake him up; he’d lost so much sleep lately. She debated for another moment but decided this was too important to wait.

Reaching over and gently shaking his shoulder was all it took for Daddy to pop up in bed, awake and fully alert. He scanned the room as if searching for danger and, when he found none, finally turned and faced her.

“What is it, Little Hurricane? Are you in pain?” His voice conveyed his worry and Arabella felt bad to have startled him so.

“I need to tell you something I remembered. Something important.”

Arabella was shaking from the dream still fresh in her mind but she couldn’t panic now. She needed to tell Daddy everything she’d remembered.

“When they took me, they were given the code to get in by someone who knew it. They had also been told about the tracker and what it looked like. They knew where to take me because they’d been told that as well.”

When Daddy remained silent, only scrubbing a hand over his face, Arabella thought maybe his brain wasn’t as awake as his body. So, she spelled it out.

“There’s a traitor in the club, Daddy.”

“I know,” he said quietly, “or at least, I suspected. We’re working on finding them but haven’t had any luck so far. We will find them, though.”

“Can I be kept in the loop?” She was worried and really needed to know what was happening in finding the traitor that had assisted in her kidnapping.

“I’ll tell you what I can, when I can,” Daddy semi-agreed. She decided she’d take it. For now.

It took two more weeks for her name change to process. In that time, Daddy had taken excellent care of her and each day, she was able to do a little bit more than the last. She’d overdone it a few times and Daddy had mentioned how she regressed to a much younger age when that happened. He didn’t mind. He’d even told her that if she wanted to be Littler on a more regular basis, he would love it. Arabella thought that she just might. She felt so safe and free when she was with her Daddy. She didn’t think she’d ever been so happy or felt so loved in her life.

Chapter Forty-One

Tanner lay awake, listening to Arabella’s even breathing as she slept deeply in his arms. He also had one ear listening for any sound that might indicate an intruder. His talk with Stone a couple of weeks ago had helped some but he still faced this fear that if he went to sleep, he might lose her again.

Tanner had considered seeing a doctor, but they might prescribe something to help him sleep and he feared not being aware enough to help if there was any problem. It was a catch twenty-two he hadn’t found a solution for yet. Something had to give soon, though. He was exhausted.

Arabella stirred in her sleep then moaned. She was healing on schedule but was still facing a good deal of pain. She’d started refusing the medication unless it was bedtime and would only take Tylenol and ibuprofen during the day.

Tanner couldn’t believe how brave and strong his girl was. How she could face what she’d faced and come out of it with an even more innocent and sunny view of the world he had no idea, but he admired it. He thought about waking her to see if she needed more meds; they were probably wearing off–it was about that time. He decided against it, though; if it wasn’t bad enough to actually wake her up, he’d let her get all the rest she could. One of them needed to.

Rocky came bright and early the next morning. When the doorbell woke Tanner from a light sleep, he trudged to the door on heavy feet. Greeting his brother with a grunt, he barely opened the door for him before turning and making his way to the coffee machine. He needed to do something about his lack of sleep. Apparently he’d been muttering to himself about it because Rocky was quick to answer.

“That’s why I’m here, man. You’re exhausted and you can’t keep this up. Arabella is so worried about you that she called me.”

That got Tanner’s full attention.

“She called you?”

“Yeah, she said if you’d trust anyone with her enough to actually get some sleep, it would be me. So don’t drink that coffee. Get your ass back in bed. I got this for as long as you need.”

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