Page 28 of Baby Bodyguard

Chapter 5

“Aw, hell.”

“Darn it, Noah. Iknew you weren’t going to take this well.” Sami paced the length of the bedroom. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you.”

“Shy little Widget snatched your purse?”

“It was an act of desperation.” Sami paused in her tracks and attempted an encouraging smile. “Aren’t you proud she actually got up the nerve to do something so decisive?”

“Proud?”

Sami winced. “All right, maybe ‘proud’ isn’t the best description. But it shows promise,” she insisted doggedly. “It means she’s capable of standing up for herself when necessary.”

“So what did you do when Widget took your purse?” He held up a hand before she could answer. “No. Let me guess. You didn’t call the police.”

“Of course not. I’m shocked you’d even suggest such a thing. Why would I do something so cruel?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because a thief belongs in jail?”

“You think Widget belongs in jail? Our poor, little Widget?”

“Correction. Your poor, little Widget.”

“Oh, no you don’t.” She stalked closer, her bracelets jangling in time with each bouncing step. “You can’t back out of your responsibilities that easily. You’ve been working with her, too, which makes her ours now. And for the record, she only swiped my purse because she was starving and had a brother to care for and couldn’t find a job.”

“So what did you do?” He held up his hand again. “No, no. I’m getting pretty good at this. You took her and Pudge home and fed them.”

Sami shoved her chin in the air. “I assume by your nasty tone that you wouldn’t have?”

“Not a chance.”

“What would you have done?” It was her turn to hold up a hand. “Oh, no. Let me guess. You’d have turned her over to the cops.”

“In a heartbeat.”

“How would that have helped her?”

“It would have kept her from stealing anyone else’s purse.”

“For your information, she hasn’t stolen anyone else’s purse. Her run-in with me was a one-time mistake. By helping out,Iensure she’s training for a job instead of wasting away in a jail cell, miserable because she broke the law and even more miserable because her actions put Pudge into foster care.”

Noah thrust a hand through his hair. His expression remained grim, but at least he didn’t argue the point. “What’s she qualified to do?”

“Not a blessed thing. Yet.” She stopped him before he could make any more rude remarks. “But I intend to change all that. You’ll see. She’s going to be one of my greatest success stories. Heck. She’ll be her own greatest success story.”

“And in the meantime she and her brother live off of you, along with Rosie, Daria, Carmela, their children and all their various relatives?”

“They work for me, they don’t live off me. And even if they did, Ican afford it.”

“Honey, my father would have loved you.”

Sami released a groan of exasperation. “I see what your problem is now. You’re a cynic. You’ve lost all belief in the basic goodness of your fellow human beings.”

“I believe in their basic goodness. Ijust don’t trust that goodness to last in the face of desperation or temptation or revenge.”

That stopped her. “Revenge? What an odd thing to say.”

“Why?” He gave her a curiously intent look. “Haven’t you ever known people who wanted to take revenge for a wrong committed against them? Or that they believe has been committed against them?”

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