“Everything went okay?” he asked Lochlan as she leaned her head into his shoulder. She reached out and ran a finger over his cheek.
“It all went fine. Drained the abscess and I gave her one filling. I want to keep a close eye on her teeth, though. I think she’s been rundown for quite a while and it’s affecting her oral health.”
“Blah, blah, blah,” she said, shocking them all.
“Keira, that’s not nice,” Zander scolded.
“I don’t like when you call me Keira. I’m Little Thief or baby girl. I like baby girl best of all, but don’t tell Zander.”
“Why not?” he asked. “Also, I am Zander.”
“Because then he might figure out the truth.”
“And what is the truth?”
“Um, Zander, I’m not sure you should ask her these questions,” Webb said. “Not when she’s like this.”
But how else would he discover the answers? She was always so guarded, it was hard to get anything out of her. But right now, she was being open and honest.
“I’ve never had a Daddy before. All of my boyfriends have been jerks. They either stole from me or beat me or forced me to do stuff I didn’t want to. Sometimes they did all those things.” She giggled even though there was nothing remotely funny about what she’d just said.
“What the fuck?” Lochlan growled. “Does that have something to do with the marks around her wrists and the bruises still visible on her face?”
“Ooh, Lochy said a naughty word. Tut-tut.”
“Sorry, sweetheart.” He reached out to put a hand on her back but she shied away, holding onto Zander tight.
“Sorry.” He snatched his hand back.
“Don’t take offense. She only seems to like Zander touching her,” Webb told him.
There was nothing wrong with that. Actually, it was how he preferred it.
“We found her tied up with ropes to a bed,” Zander explained. “She’d been beaten and left there by her boyfriend.”
“I don’t like him. He was mean. He made me help him steal that money. I didn’t even know about the photos. Then everyone was mad at me. I don’t like it when people are mean to me. Carl was meant to help me. He promised. And he was kind of scary when he was mad. Now I feel really bad, ‘cause I’m a thief. I don’t like being a thief. Are you mad at me, Daddy Z?”
She sniffled like she might cry. And no matter what he’d told her about being unaffected by a woman’s tears, he was starting to think she might be the exception. Because he really didn’t want her to cry.
“I’m not mad,” he reassured her. “No one is mad at you.”
“Ammo doesn’t like me. Neither does Honey or Eli. And you don’t trust me. I have to be locked up.”
“Locked up?” Lochlan asked.
Zander shot him a look and Webb said something quietly to him.
“Do you trust me?” Zander asked her.
“I shouldn’t.”
“You can trust me, baby girl.”
She sighed. “I like being called baby girl. I really like when you praise me too.”
“I know you do,” he rumbled. He had noticed just how much she liked when he praised her.
She touched his short beard. “Prickly.” She giggled. “I like. And you smell good. Like the ocean. Daddy Z, let’s go.”