Page 16 of Break Me, Daddy

“She’s here, but some of the other girls came by and they’re holed up in the parlor. What do you need?”

Hesitating, he weighed how much to say before just deciding to go for it. He needed answers and if anyone had them, it was Lottie. “Has she said anything to you about Frankie flunking out of college?”

“What?” Braden’s voice rose sharply with surprise. “No. Not a peep. Is that what happened?”

“I’m still piecing it together, but yeah, looks like that may be at the center of her relapse. Don’t say anything to Lottie unless she brings it up. If she doesn’t know, I want her to hear it from Frankie.”

“What a fucking mess. I won’t say anything. Will you be bringing Frankie by the club anytime soon?”

“Not sure. She needs some time to settle, get her strength back up. But maybe we could have you and Lottie over in a couple days for dinner or something.”

“Lottie would love that. She’s going a little nuts with worry so the sooner she can lay eyes on Frankie, the better.”

“Understood. I’ll let you know when she’s feeling up to it.”

“Sounds good. Give her a hug from all of us.”

So his little siren hadn’t even told her friends what was going on. Was that normal for her, he wondered, to keep everything bottled up inside until the pressure built up to the point it blew the lid off? Was that how she’d ended up in rehab the first time?

All questions for later. For now, he needed to get some things squared away, delegate some tasks so he could take the time he needed to focus on Frankie.

She was still sleeping when he returned to bed, so he fired off an email to Cassie letting her know he’d take over from here and thanking her for all she’d done. And then he contacted his team leads, letting them know he’d be taking the rest of the week off and handing off various assignments to them to complete in his absence.

He was just wrapping up the delegation portion of his day when his phone rang. Blaze, one of his team leaders.

Phone in hand, he headed back to the bathroom. “What’s up?”

“Just got your messages. Everything all right with your girl?”

Normally he wouldn’t talk about his personal life at work. But considering his personal life was very much affecting his work right now and he considered all four of his team leaders family, he gave Blaze a short rundown of everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours.

Blaze let out a low whistle. “Shit, boss. I’m sorry to hear that. She’s lucky to have you.”

“I’m not sure she’ll agree when she realizes how many rules I have,” Holden said with a chuckle. “But I have a feeling you didn’t call me just to check in.”

“Nope. That group you’ve had us watching, the one that’s been silently protesting across from the club?”

The hairs on the back of Holden's neck raised. “Yeah. What about them?”

“They’re not being so silent now. Guess they got tired of waiting, I don’t know. But now they’ve taken to chanting, hurling insults at anyone they see entering the club.”

“Fuck. You tell Braden?”

“Yeah, just got off the phone with him, actually. He’s going to send another memo to all the members and his staff, give them a heads up and reinforce the buddy rule. And he’s filing another report with the police.”

“About all he can do, for now. Your team have the bandwidth to double up for a little while?”

“I’ll figure something out. Gonna cost you a lot of overtime, though.”

“Focus on the busy hours, about nine to closing. And see if anyone has people they can spare for additional shifts. Don’t run your team ragged, but in case they get violent I want at least four people on site during those busy times.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Thanks, Blaze. You know where to find me if you need me.”

Ending the call, he swore loudly at the blank screen. Just what he needed, goddamn protestors making waves outside his club.

But he had a good team in place, and they’d handle it. And one of the club’s silent partners, Braden’s brother Desmond, was a retired cop, so he could pull in reinforcements if needed.

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