Page 44 of Eternally Bound

“He works too much.”

I shrugged. It wasn’t like I wanted to tell her Daniel was hunting for his uncle that wanted to kill us and succeeded in killing Callen. I told her his uncle was a sore loser, but failed to mention he was a murderer too. We just kept the information to the bare minimum. Daniel explained a bit more to Lachlan but we didn’t want to scare Mum by describing it all in gruesome details. As we descended the stairs and stopped at the bottom of them, a door to the library opened and Daniel came out, phone pressed to his ear.

He nodded at my mother, ruffled Bram’s hair gently, causing little giggles from him, and then his eyes settled on me. He studied me, as if checking whether I was fine or not.

“Sounds good,” he said into a phone, our gazes locked. Each time I looked at him, I sensed that magnetic pull, and it was impossible to resist it. “Keep me updated.”

Then hung up.

“Good morning.”

“Daniel, can we make cookies for Santa?” Bram chirped, happy and impatient. He eyed Daniel with big, hopeful eyes, and neck craned to look at him in the face.

His large, towering frame lowered to his eye level. He really had a special quality about him with children. Despite his harshness and rough upbringing, there was a natural and pervasive gentleness about him when he spoke to Bram. But also, fierce protectiveness. He didn’t speak many words but he delivered.

“Of course. When would you like to do that?”

“Now?”

Daniel chuckled. “How about we eat breakfast first?” Bram made a small movement with his shoulders. “Grandma and Mum are hungry. So am I. Aren’t you?”

“A little bit.”

“Good, then we eat breakfast,” Daniel concluded. “Then we make a big mess in the kitchen making cookies. Deal?”

Bram beamed happily. “Deal!”

Daniel stood up and smiled at my mom. “Good morning, Margaret. I hope you slept well.”

“Like a baby, Daniel.” Yes, my mother beamed like a bright sun in the summer. She was happy. “I love this place and never want to leave.”

My mother winked at me, and I couldn’t help but to roll my eyes. Well, that was a subtle hint.

“I am glad to hear that,” Daniel said, his eyes searching out mine. “Nothing would make me happier than to have you all here permanently.”

Something in his eyes was pulling me into his darkness, but fear held me back. His world was so much more dangerous than I thought. So much crueler. The video of Callen’s murder opened my eyes to the brutality of this underworld. Beforehand, I associated it with what I’ve seen in movies. It was fiction. But that video was most definitely not fiction. Callen was murdered in cold blood; he suffered a gruesome and cold death.

“Ainslee, I want to take you out tonight,” he drawled, his voice a deep timber washing over me. “A date.”

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could even accept or deny, my mother jumped in.

“She would love to.”

My head swished her way and I furrowed my brows at her response. “Mother, I can answer for myself.”

She knew how much I hated when others made decisions for me.

“I know, darling,” she murmured, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “I was just trying to help.”

Surprisingly, Daniel remained home for the rest of the day. He baked cookies with us, looking comical in his dark suit in the kitchen, but you couldn’t accuse him of not putting his all into it. His eyebrows knitted as Mother and I gave him and Bram directions on what to do. We put on some Christmas music and it even started snowing. It felt like a perfect day leading to Christmas Eve.

The cook, in turn, bossed us all around. He was busy preparing meals for the next few days since he would be gone with his own family, but he kept an eye on us with a smile, ready to jump in and let us know when we deviated from the recipe.

“Mr. Storm,” my mother was laughing happily, “-you are quite good at being bossy.”

I grabbed the salt and pretended to put it next into our sugar cookies mix. “Is this next, Mr. Storm?”

I looked at him innocently while Daniel and Bram watched the entire exchange with interest. Mother knew me too well; shaking her head, she mumbled calling me a troublemaker.

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