Page 72 of Daddy, Sir

Once at the clinic that night, I left him with a lukewarm cup of black coffee and a kiss. He gave me a smile and pretended to be comfortable in a chair that I seriously feared would break beneath him. Still, I’d seen two of my clients and was pulling a notebook from my backpack in preparation to tear out a sheet where I’d made some notes to give to an expectant mom I’d started seeing when my heart skipped a beat. Sticking out of thespiral coil was a slip of white paper. Praying it was the corner of a sheet that had gotten caught and torn, I pulled it free.

“Dadd—”

I hadn’t yelled or even completed the word before Landon was standing in front of me, his hand out. Without hesitating, I dropped the paper into his palm.

Unfolding it, he read:

You think you’re safe, that all will be well,

But deep down inside, you know yoU’re going to hell.

“Damn it!”

“I’m sorry?—”

“No, Fee, I’m not mad at you, babygirl. I’m pissed that this guy managed to get to you on my watch!”

I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s true. I mean, the notebook was in the backpack in my car which has been in your parking lot since the day I came to Citadel. When we left that evening, I asked you what I should do about it and you told me the lot is always under surveillance. I didn’t think about it until I remembered it was my night to volunteer here. I wouldn’t have even pulled out the notebook except I’d promised to do some research on places in the area who offer assistance for single mothers that we can’t here. Like help in getting discount formula, diapers, and stuff. I needed the paper I’d written the notes on.”

“Then why on earth did you leave the backpack in your car?”

“I don’t keep anything in it except for pamphlets, samples, and a couple of notebooks that don’t contain any personal clientele information. I don’t carry it like I do my purse because there’s nothing inside worth stealing.”

That’s as far as I got before I found myself apologizing to another volunteer for cutting my hours short. “I’ll make it up to you. Oh, and here!” I managed to pass her the sheet I’d ripped out of the notebook before Landon’s pull had me needing to quick step and catch up or chance being lifted off my feet and tossed over his shoulder.

We spent the next couple of hours in the monitoring room at Citadel. That’s where I met Tommy who calmly pressed fast forward and rewind buttons as many times as Landon requested. I was yawning by the time my Daddy Dom was satisfied no one had breached the walls of his fortress and finally drove us home.

I was standing at the sink with a mouthful of toothpaste when something occurred to me. Rinsing and spitting, I put my toothbrush in its charger and walked into the bedroom where Landon was already sitting up against the headboard.

“It wasn’t an ‘R’, was it?”

“No, baby. The capital was a ‘U’.”

I climbed onto the bed and slipped between the sheets. “I guess I’m not as good at this investigation business as I thought.”

“The letters might not be in order, Fee. It could be a code. It could be some sort of anagram. I don’t think you’re wrong, I just don’t think we have all the information we need yet.” When I sighed and laid my head on his chest, he dropped his arm around me and pulled me closer. “But I promise you, we will. Now try to forget it and sleep.”

“Okay, night, Daddy.”

“Night, baby.”

The kiss we shared would have been a very sweet thing to take with me into my dreams. Unfortunately, a string of six letters came along for the ride.

Another week passed and I’d attended every meeting, brainstormed over lists of people that had me questioning my demand to be included on the team. Just the mere thought of considering people I had come to respect as colleagues, thought of as friends, or had trusted enough to play with made my heart hurt. The dread of when the next slip of paper would come and what it would say made my stomach ache. I wasn’t surprised when I noticed Audra had started giving me longer looks, had touched my shoulder or hand more often. So I had no reason to be surprised when my Daddy did even more.

“Enough. You need a break.”

“No more than any of you do,” I protested.

“Fiona, look around and tell me what you see,” Landon said, gesturing to the team seated around the conference room table.

I was just about to pop off that he had eyes and saw the same thing I did which waspeoplebut when he leaned forward, the look he gave me reminded me who was at the top of that chain of command. Sighing, I glanced to my right and took my time, looking at each person, offering a nod or a shaky smile to those who met my gaze, while others continued to make entries into laptops crosschecking information I’d swear had been checked at least a dozen times already.

When I reached Audra who was sitting on Landon’s other side, she met my eyes and then slowly dropped her gaze, drawing mine down as well. I wasn’t sure what she’d intended or if perhaps I had misread something in the gesture, but all I saw was her picking up a pickle spear. Landon also met my gaze andwhen I saw the muscle in his jaw tic, I instantly felt as if I’d failed him without knowing how.

“Please don’t think I’m being sarcastic,” I said, prefacing my answer. “I see a team who is working so hard to find a person I’m not even sure exists any longer.”

“I assure you he exists,” Zeke said before Landon could respond.

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