Page 16 of Daddies' Little Spitfire

"We can call Michael if you want to know if we're telling the truth or not," Oliver said.

She jerked her body but Oliver wouldn't let her go. How much longer was she going to be able to do this? Her muscles were starting to ache with how much she had used them and she was exhausted. She knew it didn't help that she hadn't been eating and fueling her body.

Hedda relaxed in his arms and took several deep breaths in. She didn't realize how much energy she had expended until she was fully relaxed.

"Such a good girl," Oliver said.

She wanted to start struggling again, trying to break free, but she didn't have the energy to do that. Hedda needed to be wise on when she chose to fight her battles. Maybe right now it was wise for her to relax and regain some of her energy back before she fought again.

She nodded her head to herself and relaxed even more.

CHAPTER SEVEN

OLIVER

Oliver held Hedda in his arms as Leo drove them home. His grip was still firm in case she was going to try and get out, but he made sure she could still easily breath. He hadn't realized how much whatever happened to her had affected her.

What could have happened to make her like this?

He was trying to think through every possibility. Oliver and Leo knew that her brother was the head of the Ricci Crime Family, but he thought that she was sheltered from that. Monroe had talked about her brother and how women weren't involved. What had occurred then?

Could she have been kidnapped and that made her like this? She was angry but he could also hear the slight hitch in her voice sometimes and he thought that she could also be scared. Maybe he had imagined it, but it seemed like it was a mix of anger and fear.

What was she scared of?

There were so many questions that were going throughhis head and none of them had answers. Why wasn't she taking care of herself? Did she want to die?

Oliver's body stiffened at the thought of her wanting to die. What if she was planning on slowly withering away? He prayed that it wasn't the case, but he needed to remember to bring it up to Leo. They needed to be aware in case they needed to be on suicide watch.

He closed his eyes for a brief second. It wasn't going to come down to that. Michael hadn't said anything about her being suicidal and Oliver knew he would've mentioned that.

Oliver had seen too many people die in his lifetime and Hedda wasn't about to be one of them. If she hated him for the rest of their lives, he could live with that but her dying, he wouldn't. And he knew Leo would feel the same way.

Several of their friends, when they came back to the United States after being honorably discharged, couldn't integrate themselves back into the lives that they had before they were deployed and ended up killing themselves.

Leo and Oliver had talked several times about opening something to help veterans who were struggling but didn't know where to start. They knew what it was like to contemplate suicide but Oliver and Leo had a good support system. They didn't give up on them and not everyone had that.

Maybe they should talk to Michael about that. He had his own clinic and maybe he and his brother could volunteer or do something to get veterans to come in.

Oliver caught Leo's eyes in the rearview mirror and he looked down at Hedda. She had definitely changed from the girl they knew before she started to ghost them. She hadcursed a lot more and yelled that she didn't want to be near them.

It had hurt him to hear those words, but he knew she didn't mean them. The look in her eyes told a different story. Something was holding her back and they were going to get to the bottom of it. Hedda cursed some before she stopped talking to them, but it wasn't anything like this. Oliver had noticed that if someone got close to her, she would curse more to try and run them off, but that wouldn't make them go.

If anything, they pushed harder to get to know her and show her that they weren't going to go anywhere.

"We're home," Leo said as he pulled into the driveway.

Hedda moved her head and looked around. Their house wasn't like a normal house. They made sure that they had top security around and in their house. Being in the military had made them aware of things that normal people might not even think about, and they wanted to be prepared and secure for anything.

Call them paranoid, but Oliver and Leo would be thankful if anything was to happen.

"Not my fucking home," Hedda mumbled.

"It is for now," Oliver said.

Once she got better they would see if she wanted to stay or not. He hadn't talked to Leo about that, but he was going to soon. But not until she got better. It would be hard to let her go when the time came, but if that was really what she wanted, Oliver and Leo would do it.

There wouldn't be anyone else in their lives. Hedda istheir baby girl, their Little. No one else would fill that void if she decided to leave.

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