Page 40 of Daddy's Little Foreigner

“Be kind,” Jaxson scolded her.

Sofia so badly wanted to glare at him, but she knew once she looked up, he was going to ask a million questions.

“Tell him to let go of my arm!” She raised her voice. “I’m going to be late for my shift.”

“Dominic,” Jaxson said. “I’ll take it from here.”

“I want to see what she’s hiding,” he said. “I watch her come and leave work and something is definitely wrong.”

She felt touched for a second that he recognized that, but at the same time, she didn’t need it. She wanted to go on with work and get it over with so she could go home and sleep. This day was beginning to become exhausting, and she just wanted it to end.

“Sofia,” Jaxson said. “Can you look up at me?”

She brought her head up slightly but knew with the angle he wouldn’t be able to see anything on her face. She hoped this would suffice, but deep down she knew that it wouldn’t.

“More?” he asked. “Or you can take your hat off.”

Sofia didn’t want to do that. She thought both of them knew that and wanted it even more.

“Sofia,” he said. “Hat off. Now.”

“No,” she said. “I need to get to work.”

“Freeze!” he commanded as she took a step to the side.

She closed her eyes and winced as the skin around her eyes started to hurt. The bruise just seemed to get worse as time went on.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked. “You’ve never acted this way.”

“I just want to get to work. I’m covering for Monty and my hair is greasy. There isn’t anything wrong. Will you two just leave me alone now?” she raised her hands in the air.

Jaxson grabbed one of her hands before she could pull it back to herself.

“Let go of my hand,” she said. “Please. Just let me leave so I can get to work.”

“Your hands have little cuts on them,” Jaxson said before he turned to Dominic. “You weren’t working last night?”

“No,” he said. “Pete was.”

“What happened, Little one?”

She bit the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from spilling her guts. Jaxson needed to know that she got mugged last night, but she didn’t really want to tell him. It was so hard when he got all soft for her and asked her what was wrong.

It made her want to spill her guts to him. To tell him all of her worries and what was going wrong with her life.

“Little one,” he softly said. “I can’t help unless you talk to me.”

She shook her head as tears filled her eyes. She wasn’t going to tell him what happened. Sofia just needed to keep her head down the entire night and make sure no one else saw her or asked questions. It wasn’t going to be easy, but she was up for the challenge.

“Sofia,” he said. “If you won’t tell me, then I’m going to take the hat off of you. You’re worrying me and I want to make sure that you’re okay.”

She took a calming breath in. He wouldn’t take the hat off of her. Would he? She didn’t think he would, but he had surprised her the last several times when he said something.

Should she take the chance, or should she just take her hat off? She knew it looked bad, and she didn’t have any makeup to try covering it up. Not that it wouldn't have done any good because she didn’t know anything about makeup or how to apply it.

“Can I please just go to work?” she softly asked. “I’m covering for Monty and it might be super busy tonight.”

She needed to get in there because there could be several people in there waiting to get snackies and drinks but she wasn’t there.

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