Page 34 of Daddy, Sir

“Gives whole new meaning to the phrase,handling your shit, don’t it?”

“Haha, funny.” Sadie rolled her eyes but couldn’t help smiling at Beatriz’s joke.

“I can clean it up,” Beatriz offered. “I was going to, but figured you’d want to see it first.”

As if. No way was she letting her employees touch it. The buck—and the shit—stopped with her.

“See if we have any bleach in the supply trailer. Don’t let anyone get close until we can sanitize the area.”

“We don’t, but I can run to the store for some.”

“Thanks. After we get the biohazard dealt with…” She sighed and grimaced at the spray paint. “I can’t decide if I want to get out the sandblaster or see if we can scrub it.”

“It’s oil-based,” Beatriz replied. “And the stucco was still wet. We have to start over, so we might as well just sandblast it.”

“Fuck.” It seemed to be all she could say, but she figured there wasn’t a better word to describe her morning.

“You can say that again. Anyway, I’ll be back in about twenty with bleach.” Scowling at the mess, Beatriz added, “You don’t think it’s human, do you?”

“It doesn’t really smell like it came from a dog.” They both shuddered with revulsion. “Either way, it’s a health hazard.”

Beatriz nodded and tossed her keys in the air before catching them. “I’ll be back soon.”

Sadie got a roll of caution tape, a garbage bag, and a shovel from the supply trailer, noting the scrapes on the heavy-duty padlock from where someone had tried to cut it.

Thank goodness for small favors. She texted Beatriz to ask her to stop by the hardware store for another lock. The last thing she needed was to lose thousands of dollars’ worth of tools and equipment.

As she was wrapping tape around the porch, Daniel strode toward her, a ferocious scowl on his face. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, his voice dangerously soft.

“What does it look like?” Stepping around him, she tied off the tape and grabbed the shovel. “I’m handling my shit.”

He clenched his teeth, and a muscle twitched in his cheek. Clearly, he didn’t find the joke any funnier than she did. “Give me the shovel. I’ll take care of it.”

God help her; she considered it but shook her head. “No can do, Lieutenant Dan. My worksite, my liability insurance—which you are not on.”

“I’m the property owner,” he countered.

“Yeah, and I’m not about to let my employees do it either.” Without waiting for him to reply, she scooped the mess into the garbage bag and tied it off. “Stay away from the porch, please. Once we have the area sanitized, we’ll sandblast the paint and start over with the stucco. It will add an extra few days to our schedule, but?—”

He grabbed the bag from her and tossed it aside, then put his hands on her upper arms and shook her gently. “Did it occur to you that whoever did this might come back?”

After taking a deep breath and counting to ten, she asked, “Are you my father or my husband?”

“What?” He shook his head and frowned. “Those questions are irrelevant to this?—”

“I’m also not in a consensual power exchange relationship with you, which would not have included my business in the first place, so…” She lifted her chin and met his angry gaze. “Back off, Lieutenant Dan.”

“Again, I’m the property owner,” he snapped, giving her another shake. “It’s like you’re begging for me to fire you or turn you over my knee.”

Damn. She’d hoped Daniel would be better than this. As much as she wanted to do bad, bad things with him, she wasn’t about to let a man she barely knew order her around like she was a child or threaten to fire her for protecting him and her employees from a dangerous substance.

Fuck that noise.

“All right. You need to take your hands off me before you lose them.” Refusing to back down, she waited until he cursed and let her go. “This is my business, my crew, and my responsibility. You can fire me if you want to, but you do not get to tell me how to do my job.”

Once again, the muscle in his jaw twitched, then he gave her an ugly smile. “Fine, sweetheart. You’re fired.”

Chapter Five

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