Page 140 of Clean Slade
“You don’t like it?”
There hadn’t been a morning since last week’s events that I hadn’t woken him up like this. Or that I hadn’t taken him to bed with the promise of a good time.
“Are you kidding? I love it. I can’t get enough,” he said.
“Then”—I raised my head to look at him—“shut up and enjoy it. It’s the least I can do after…”
It was still hard to verbalize what had happened. What had almost happened.
Did I sometimes close my eyes and see myself shooting my father? Yeah, yeah, I did.
But I would do it all over again to save my little girl. To save her from a life filled with Tony Ferraro and his monstrous ways.
“Hey,” Slade said. “How many times do I have to tell you? You don’t have to thank me. I did what I did because I love you, and I love Mac. Okay?”
Oh yeah, we’ve moved to I love you now.
It was crazy how easily we’d slipped into I love yous but after what he’d done? After he saved the piece of my heart that was pure? It was the only thing that was enough. Maybe if I said a lifetime, it would count for something.
I couldn’t quite believe a simple Navy SEAL had managed to hack my father’s phone and put an end to his reign, but then again, there was nothingsimpleabout Slade, was there?
Ever since he’d walked into my life, he’d been anything but simple.
He’d been my shadow, my companion, my guardian angel. And I couldn’t have done any of this without him.
“I know. But I want to,” I told him.
He may not want me to spend the rest of my life showing how much I loved everything he’d done for us, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do just that.
“Daddy!” Mac knocked on the door, and we both froze.
She knocked again, but we stayed quiet until she walked away.
“I guess we have to get up,” I said.
He shrugged.
“I mean, no one’s chasing us.”
And oh, how true those words were.
“Come on. Let’s go before she unleashes the hens on us.”
Slade laughed, and I helped him up. He went straight to my ensuite for a shower while I put a robe on and went to check on Mac.
I found her in the living room watching TV.Turning Red, of course.
“Good morning, sweetheart. You’re up early.”
Mac shrugged. “I’m excited.”
She didn’t look excited, but I kept that to myself.
“Are you looking forward to seeing Grams again?”
I couldn’t believe Mac had been oblivious to the events of last week, but I was praying to every god imaginable for making it happen.
Somehow she thought she was spending quality time with her grandma. It didn’t matter that there were weird men around the house or that Slade and his team had shown up with bulletproof vests and guns. God knew what kind of white lie Grams and Slade had come up with to explain it.
