Page 109 of Melt For Us, Daddy
But just a bit.
Pinning her girl with a glare, Cordelia raised a brow. “If neither of those options sound appealing, then maybe my girl needs a nap. With a nice hot bottom to help her fall asleep.”
Eyes wide, Ivy gripped the sides of her chair, as if that would keep Cordelia from hauling her ass upstairs. “No, Daddy. I’ll find… something to do.”
“Good girl.”
Before Ivy could look for anything else to keep her occupied, however, Merlin stepped into the living room, his face a blank mask. “Holden will be here in a few minutes. He needs to talk with you. Everyone is safe,” he said gently, preempting Cordelia’s question as soon as she opened her mouth. “Nobody is hurt, but there are some new developments he needs to speak with you about.”
No sooner had he finished explaining than the sound of tires on gravel reached them. “That’ll be Holden,” Merlin said. “I’ll go let him in.”
He turned to leave and her attention shifted to her subs, still seated at the small card table they’d dragged into the living room weeks ago. Jacob seemed frozen to his chair, his eyes round in his suddenly too-pale face.
And just like that, Cordelia’s own panic took a backseat to caring for her boy and her girl. “Jacob. Come here. You too, Ivy.”
They both obeyed immediately, soothing some of her own churning emotions as Jacob settled on the couch beside her and Ivy curled up in her lap. Linking her hand with Jacob’s, she leaned over, pressing a kiss to his temple. “Daddy’s right here, baby boy. We’re in this together.”
As she’d hoped, some of the tension drained from his shoulders. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Before she could respond, the front door opened and the deep, resonant sounds of Holden’s voice reached them. Too low to actually make out his or Merlin’s words, but they didn’t have to wait long.
Holden’s eyebrows rose slightly when he stepped into the room, Merlin right behind him with that frustratingly blank expression still on his face. “We need to talk.”
“Then talk,” Cordelia answered, surprised by how steady her voice sounded when everything in her was feeling the opposite of steady.
Grabbing one of the folding chairs from the table, Holden arranged it in front of the couch and sat, straddling the back of the chair. “Harlan Redding is gone.”
Beside her, Jacob inhaled sharply and she squeezed his hand, offering him silent support while she kept her gaze locked on Holden’s face. “What exactly does that mean?”
“It means he’s not at the compound. Our sources tell us that Silas is sick, and his sons have gone to be by his side. But nobody has actually laid eyes on Harlan in over a week.”
Silas was sick. Dying, if Holden’s sources were to be believed.
A dozen dizzying emotions welled up inside her but she shoved them back down. There would be time for a meltdown after Holden left. “So nobody knows if he’s actually in Arizona or if he’s just lying low.”
“Pretty much. Which is why I’m here.”
Alarm bells rang in the back of her mind and her grip on Jacob’s hand instinctively tightened. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”
“Not you. Jacob.”
Before he could even explain what he wanted, Ivy was up off of Cordelia’s lap, shielding their boy from Holden. Which would have been rather amusing under different circumstances considering she was barely taller than him even when he was seated. “Absolutely the fuck not,” she snarled, and despite the gravity of their discussion Cordelia couldn’t help but be impressed.
Holden, to his credit, took it in stride, barely reacting at all to her outburst. “I normally wouldn’t ask this. But this may be the best chance we have while the rest of the church is distracted by Silas’s potential passing. If we could draw Harlan out?—”
Fury bubbled in Cordelia’s veins. “You want to use my boy as bait?”
Now Holden did react, his eyebrows winging up and his gaze shifting between the three of them. “Your boy?”
“Yes. Mine. So think very fucking carefully about whatever you’re about to say next.”
“Shit.” Blowing out a breath, Holden ran a hand through his hair. “This is a complication I didn’t see coming.”
“Neither did I,” Cordelia said with a shrug. “But here we are. And you are not using him as bait, so I hope you came with a Plan B.”
“Look, Delia. I know it’s hard but he might be the only one who can draw Harlan out of hiding.”
“Jacob, Ivy, I need to talk to Holden. Alone. Wait for us in the kitchen.”
