Page 86 of Daddy P.I. 3.0

Emily wraps her arms around me, sliding her hands under my sweater and rubbing her palms up and down my bare back.

“Thank you, baby doll.”

“You’re shaking, Daddy.”

I am. I flushed with adrenaline talking to Sutter. When I managed to control myself and refused to rise to his bait, the adrenaline had nowhere to go. That’s why I needed Emmy. I need to bleed off the adrenaline or I’m going to crash.

“That feels good, sweetheart. Talk to me.”

“Should I tell you about the exhibit? Or what I learned about Saoirse and Sutter? Or what Matty was telling us about the properties of corundum?”

“The first and last sound a little dull, baby. Gimme the tea.”

She smiles up at me as she continues to rub, giving me the tactile comfort I need.

“I really like Saoirse. She’s a swimmer; she was headed to the Olympics when she tore her rotator cuff. She had a reaction to anesthesia during surgery. She’s much better now but she still has seizures under stress. She teaches swimming. That’s how she met Sutter. She was working at a lifestyle club out west. He was cleaning the pool.”

My eyebrows shoot skyward. “That bloke is not a pool cleaner.”

Emily grins. “No, he’s a billionaire. Or a multi-millionaire at least. His family business is wine and kink clubs. Isn’t that cool?”

“Very cool, except if part of his motivation for joining Blunts and destroying it from within is eliminating the competition.”

“Daddy, I’m not sure what’s happening but Saoirse really didn’t seem like that. She’s friendly. She wants little friends. She’s excited about coming to playgroup and she was describing the most wonderful scenes that they’ve been doing. I understand why her daddy might want revenge if the members at Blunts hurt her but I don’t understand him bringing her back to the club for all those good scenes if he’s going to destroy it. You wouldn’t do that. I think ... I think maybe Sutter’s more likeyou than is comfortable. Maybe that’s why he made threats and upset you, Daddy. Maybe he needs to start from a position of strength. I’ve seen you do that, too, sometimes. Like when you interact with Mr. De Leon?”

I sigh and relax even further into her touch. “No one starts in a position of strength when dealing with Myles. We all start at a severe disadvantage and just claw our way up the hill.”

“What’s the hill?” Emmy asks.

I shake my head.

She peers up at me, squinting one eye closed. The quizzical koala. The cuteness of it does as much to even me out as the gentle circles she’s rubbing over my back.

“Is this like the Miranda thing that I don’t need to know and don’t want to know, or is this like the Lucy thing where I don’t need to know but kind of want to know?”

My breath catches in my chest. What now? Emmy’s seemed okay with me topping Lucy. I’ve been careful to include Emily in any scene where there’s physical topping. The mental topping and caregiving has all been via Max’s app. Emmy doesn’t like the app and only uses it to log her water consumption. I thought what I’ve set up to help Lucy is sufficiently different from our relationship that it wouldn’t bother my baby girl.

“The second. We’re going to circle back to that in a minute, little girl. The hill with Myles is that he’ll always be willing to domore. Myles doesn’t operate within the social and legal limits the rest of us do. Everyone’s at a disadvantage in dealing with Myles because there’s a point at which all of us stop where Myles keeps going.” I drop kisses on Emmy’s forehead and then Livvy’s, smiling at the soft giggles I get from each of them. “Now, let’s circle back. What do you mean like the Lucy thing where you don’t need to know but kind of want to know? What do you want to know about Lucy?”

“I don’t really need to know why you’re still topping her but I kind of want to know.”

I shift Livvy until she’s cradled in my right arm and I have a hand free to stroke Emmy’s cheek. “Still? Did you think there was an expiration date on me topping her?”

“Not an expiration date but I thought once she was better, she’d go back to the club.”

“Ah, I see. Yes, that’s the goal. I don’t have a twelve-point plan or anything but that’s what I’m working toward. I specifically asked Rob and Karl to handle the punishment she earned last week in order to reintroduce her to Karl. I’m planning to do the same thing with Franco when she next earns a punishment. I think that’s better than just throwing her at them when I feel she’s up to their level of sadism.”

Emmy smiles up at me. “You’re right, Daddy.”

It’s good to be right about one thing today.

“I need to talk with a few people about Sutter. I can’t let them be blindsided by this.”

Emmy runs her warm hands up my back and squeezes my shoulder blades. “The way you were?”

I nod. “Chess set me up. He set us all up. He ran Sutter right through under our noses, while we were all fighting over Mac’s application. I don’t understand why. Even if he doesn’t know about Sutter’s revenge, he knows Sutter’s working for the competition. Why let him in?”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” My little wonder suggests.

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