Page 114 of Broken Daddy
“We need to find out who attacked her,” another voice said. “Which means we need to speak to her.”
“She’s asleep. She just got out of surgery, you can wait.”
“Her doctor said she’s fine to be interviewed. Tell us when she wakes up.”
There was silence and then a low voice started swearing.
Hayes.
Opening her eyes, she stared up at him in worry.
Immediately, he wiped the anger off his face. “Baby, sorry we woke you.”
“That was the police?” she asked in a croaky voice.
“Yeah,” he replied as he picked up a glass of water from the bedside table. It had a straw in it which he held to her mouth. She latched on but it was an awkward angle.
Instead of raising the bed, he slipped his free hand under her head and gently lifted her.
Darn it.
She liked that. A lot. She liked him taking care of her like this.
Daddy will take care of you.
Had he really said that? Or had she dreamed it?
“I don’t want to talk to them,” she told him after he removed the straw from her mouth. He laid her back down just as carefully.
She wasn’t certain that anyone had ever touched her with such tenderness and if she wasn’t careful, it would make her cry.
He sat on the bed facing her and brushed her hair away. “Need to do something about your hair.”
Reaching up, she felt around. “Looks that bad, huh?”
Hayes grabbed hold of her hand, pulling it back down. “Stop that. It doesn’t look bad at all. It just keeps going in your face and annoying you.”
Devi froze. “You noticed that?”
“Yeah, baby. Of course I did.” He said that like it was a given. As though anyone would have noticed that.
She didn’t think that was the case, though.
“Unfortunately, I can try and keep the police away a bit longer but you will have to talk to them eventually.”
Devi bit her lip.
“Stop that,” he said firmly, reaching out to release her lip. “No hurting yourself.”
“I don’t know what to tell them.”
Hayes eyed her for a long moment. “You know who did this, don’t you?”
“I don’tknowthem. I know of them. And I know that they’re scary and I don’t want . . . I don’t want them to come back.”
He cupped the good side of her face with his warm, large hand. Devi was deliberately not thinking about the fact that part of her face was sliced up. That would take up too much mental capacity right now.
“No one is going to hurt you again. Understand me? No one.”
