Page 29 of Nanny for the Wolf Daddy

Kelli once again sank into the darkness, the wet sopping joke of a sandwich resting between her fingers like an omen.

He hadn’t said how long he would be or even what he had planned for that day. So she stashed the rest of the sandwich beside her pillow for when she became hungry later.

Kelli ended up sitting for hours on end in the sea of black, wondering just what she had gotten herself into. She would never have done such a thing for anyone else. Not unless it was planned out from start to finish, and even then, she would need a shit load of time to figure it out.

Plus, she wasn’t some fucking secret agent. She was a woman with a company to run. She felt Nox’s sorrow about his brother and sister-in-law, the parents of sweet little Violet, but how far was she willing to go for a man she wasn’t sure wanted her beyond sex in the first place?

Her mind lit up like a barrel of fireworks as she tried to decipher her plan of action. If she went along with what this Archie guy wanted, there was a likelihood that she could get some helpful intel on where Nevel and Elise were. He wasn’t the stupid man he appeared to be, though. The accent was a good cover for intelligence. He hadn’t been quick to share information with her, which solidified that fact.

Kelli lay in the dark and would get up from the bed every now and then, memorizing the shape of the room with her hands and how many paces it took to walk back and forth. She had seen it all in a flash of a few minutes earlier, and she thought it would be beneficial to know it well, perhaps even better than Archie himself.

She ate the rest of her sandwich after what felt like forever. She had no concept of time, but she knew it had been a while because her stomach started to rumble. She ate it slowly, once again, wanting to avoid illness.

Kelli tried to think about things beyond her predicament, like Violet and Nox. Nox’s body sang to her in her mind. The way his hands had pleasured her a few nights ago was an utter dream come true. No one had treated her so well in her entire life, especially when it came to activities in the bedroom.

Her body warmed with the thought of him on top of her, his head between her legs, treating her the way a lady should be treated. Her heart rate picked up, and she ran her hands through her hair, recalling their entanglement in vivid detail.

Her thoughts then moved to Violet, the little girl she had come to love beyond the status of a caregiver. She wondered if the attachment came from her growing feelings for Nox and tried to push that thought away entirely.

She hoped the little girl wasn’t confused or concerned about what had happened to her, and even Nox. He was likely looking for her day and night, and Violet’s care had been left to some other person who she didn’t know well. Kelli was starting to regret using the little girl as bait, as well as herself, in a way.

She tried to sleep, but it wouldn’t come. She wished that Archie would just get to whatever strange shit he was involved in so she could help the man she was falling for find his brother and his sister-in-law.

The thought of Nox and Violet calmed her, and she waited with her eyes closed in a meditative state. She breathed in good thoughts and breathed out the poisonous ones. She had to do something. She had to help Nox.

TWENTY

KELLI

Kelli was relieved after the endless hours of boundlessly daydreaming when some of Archie’s escorts brought her food. They encouraged her to eat it quickly as they were sent to take her to where she would observe the event.

Kelli did her best to scarf down yet another soggy sandwich, once again unsure when she would be fed next. She chugged water, hoping it wasn’t going to come up at the worst possible moment.

“Let’s go,” one of the henchmen said, taking her by the arm.

She went with them willingly, ignoring the grumbles in her stomach from the abrupt rush of food and water. Once she was outside of the room, they wrapped that handy-dandy blindfold around her eyes, plunging her into darkness once more.

They took her into the same van, which Kelli recognized from its damp, tangy scent. They drove for almost half an hour with Kelli’s hands bound, her fingernails digging deep into her palms.

She told herself to stay calm, which was something she was good at. When faced with the various behavioral issues children could display, one could not recoil. One had to face the music, assess the challenges, and go on headfirst.

That was what she planned to do that day. First, she would observe and study what the hell she was being faced with, then assess the challenges of possible escape and reporting.

They shoved her out of the van, the scent of its internal fragrance fading fast. It was replaced by yet another damp smell, musty with a hint of natural earth.

“You can take off the blindfold,” an escort grunted.

Kelli had been pushed down to what felt like a bench, the two henchmen pressing against her like the bread of a hamburger bun. She slowly reached behind her head, untied the blindfold, and was greeted by an abrupt wash of color and light.

She gasped at the sight as it looked positively surreal in its tackiness. Neither of the escorts responded to her expression, which was good, so she gazed around as if sublimely inspired.

The three of them, squished together on a tiny bench, were perched slightly above a crowd of roughly thirty people who whooped and hollered at a beckoning stage. The stage itself was dimly lit, but Kelli could still see the washed-out shades of neon yellow, bruised orange, and jam red, showing itself off in a stitched-up pattern. She thought it looked a lot like the quilts she’d seen in storefronts back home.

“This place is …” she began, gazing around, “magical.”

One of the escorts gave her some intense side eye, then honked back some phlegm and fired it out below their feet. It took everything within Kelli’s power to keep from grimacing, so she used the opportunity to gaze down.

“Is this a cave?” she inquired.

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