Page 49 of Five Fingers of Death

Feeling like absolute shit, I pulled her into my arms, giving her the biggest hug. Had I been wrong the whole time? I still didn’t know anything about him, but this explained the tears outside my house.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie. I didn’t know.”

“Daddy says she’s watching me.”

“I’m sure she is.” I pulled back from her, wiping the tears from her little cheeks. “Other than that, are you okay? You’re not hurt?”

She shook her head, wiping her nose on her arm. “Will you read me a story?”

I really only came here to check on her, and now that I knew she was okay, I just wanted to go home. But she just lost her mother. How could I say no to her?

“Yes, I can read a story.”

“We can read in here!” She hurried over to a sheer pink tent hanging from the ceiling and crawled inside. I followed her, wondering if I would fit, but inside was massive, filled with pillows and blankets.

“You can sit here!”

She patted her hand on the pink floral blanket and motioned for me to sit down. Crawling over, I sat down, but couldn’t get comfortable, so I wiggled until I was laying down and looking up at all the twinkle lights sprinkled throughout the tent.

“My daddy did this.”

“It’s really cool.”

“Read this one!”

She shoved a book at me with a donkey on the cover. The Wonky Donkey.

Giggles erupted from her mouth as she curled into my side, wrapping her hand around my arm. I stared at her fingers for a minute, wondering why she was so close to me. Did all kids act like this? She barely knew me.

“You have to open the book,” she whispered.

A smile curved my lips and I opened the book and began to read.

10

JASON

“Sorry about this,” Kavanaugh said, scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably.

“It’s fine,” I grumbled, staring at the top of the stairs where Isabelle had disappeared a few minutes ago.

“She took off from the house when I asked her why she went crazy on you,” Vira said. “Wanna tell me what that was about?”

I finally tore my gaze away from the hall and looked at the woman who stayed with Isabelle. “She thought I was going to hurt my daughter because I yelled at her.”

“Were you?”

That got my hackles up. I took a step toward her, ready to put her in her place for even suggesting something so asinine, when Kavanaugh stepped between us.

“Chill out. She’s just looking out for Izzy.”

“I would never hurt my daughter,” I snapped, glaring at Vira. “She means everything to me. I only yelled at her because she ran up the stairs to your house and I know Isabelle has a thing with strangers.”

“I didn’t figure you actually would hurt her. But Izzy needs to know that,” Vira pointed out. “It’s better if you find a way to show her that.”

“I did. I made sure I wasn’t a threat.”

“Then why did she run over here, sure that she needed to check on Carli?”

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