Page 46 of Delinquent Daddy (Banks/Kincaid Family 2)

"Why?! She's my daughter. I have to know where she is."

"Oh?" he drew out the word slowly. Then he glowered.

"You mean, like you let me know where my daughter was for the past nine years?"

Ellie probably would've wound back her arm and hit him square in the jaw if the older woman behind him hadn't tugged on his arm and jerked him around.

"Are you telling me you didn't get permission to take Cassidy tonight?"

"Permission?" he said incredulously. "She's my child. I don't—"

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Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

"Yes, you damn well do," the woman growled sternly, and Ellie suddenly realized this matriarchal figure was his mother.

She looked too much like Boston not to be. When she turned her attention to Ellie, Ellie instinctively moved a leery step back.

But the woman gave her a beseeching look. "Please excuse my son," she begged. "Sometimes, he just doesn't think."

"What? You're siding with her?" Boston yelped. "Jesus, Mother. She purposely kept my daughter from me for damn near a decade. I think I deserve one night."

But Diane Kincaid merely lifted a hand to shush him. " She is Cassidy's mother," she argued. "She's been the one raising this child. She's your daughter's ultimate guardian and caregiver. Legally, you have no right to her, and you know that."

"Yeah," Boston snorted. "Because... she...kept...my child from me. Did you not hear that the first time?"

"Boston," his mother said calmly. "You're the lawyer here.

You should know better. You have no claim to Cassidy. I doubt your name's even on the birth certificate."

"It's not," Ellie cut in, earning a scowl from both Boston and his mother.

"She could have you arrested for kidnapping," Diane finished. She and her son glanced Ellie's way again, obviously wondering if she'd do just that.

"I just want my daughter," she told them. Turning, she grabbed Cassie's hand and said, "Come on. We're going home."

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Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

"What?" Cassie exploded. "No! I want to stay. What does he mean you kept him from me?"

Ignoring her daughter's final question, Ellie glanced toward Nora, who was standing with a quivering Keller cowered next to her. Her friend gave a slight, supportive nod.

Boston stepped forward. "But she hasn't even eaten yet,"

he entreated.

"Can't she stay long enough for supper?" his mother added.

Her daughter wrapped both arms around her left leg.

"Please, Mom, please."

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