Daddy, Sir (Dirty Daddies 2024 Anthology #6)

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Fiona

Landon was good as his word. From the moment I’d walked into his office, I’d not been alone. Even though he’d talked about coming up with a schedule, the only one ever on the night shift detail, was Major Landon Westerly himself. I might have teased him about it except this morning I’d remembered I actually did own a car when the trill of my phone had me digging it out of my pocket.

“Who’s calling?” Landon asked, already halfway across the floor.

“No one, it’s the tone for my reminders,” I said while reading the details on the screen. “Good thing too as I’d totally forgotten I have an appointment tonight.”

“Where?”

I looked up at his sharp tone. “At one of the clinics where I volunteer.” When his mouth opened, I shook my head. “And no, I’m not canceling. I doubt the stalker is going to be there, and if he does show up, maybe some counseling will help.”

“Not funny, Fee.”

He was right. “I’m sorry, but honestly, it’s ridiculous for you to have to haul me around, Landon. I do have a car, you know.”

“I’ll drive you.”

I shook my head. “You work all day and gave me an office so I can talk to clients via Zoom until this is all over. And I appreciate it, I do, but you can’t tell me that instead of getting a real break and resting, you’d rather sit in a flimsy plastic chair in the lobby of a clinic.”

“If the chair is too flimsy, I can stand.”

“Good grief, that’s the most ridicu?—”

“Save your breath, Fiona,” Zeke said as he and Matt came into the room.

“But Landon hasn’t had a break since I walked into this building the first day.”

“And you can talk until you’re blue in the face and not change his mind,” Matt offered over his shoulder as he opened the refrigerator.

“It’s not you, it’s just Westerly’s way,” Zeke said as he slapped Landon on the shoulder on his way back out the door.

“’Westerly’s way’? Is that like a real thing?” I asked.

“Seems so.”

How did one argue with a brick wall? One didn’t, that’s how. Landon did agree that I could grab anything I might need out of my car and also assigned me a spot inside Citadel’s garage to park it.

Once at the clinic that night, I left him with a lukewarm cup of black coffee and a kiss. He gave me a smile and pretended to be comfortable in a chair that I seriously feared would break beneath him. Still, I’d seen two of my clients and was pulling a notebook from my backpack in preparation to tear out a sheet where I’d made some notes to give to an expectant mom I’d started seeing when my heart skipped a beat. Sticking out of the spiral coil was a slip of white paper. Praying it was the corner of a sheet that had gotten caught and torn, I pulled it free.

“Dadd—”

I hadn’t yelled or even completed the word before Landon was standing in front of me, his hand out. Without hesitating, I dropped the paper into his palm.

Unfolding it, he read:

You think you’re safe, that all will be well,

But deep down inside, you know yo U ’re going to hell.

“Damn it!”

“I’m sorry?—”

“No, Fee, I’m not mad at you, babygirl. I’m pissed that this guy managed to get to you on my watch!”

I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s true. I mean, the notebook was in the backpack in my car which has been in your parking lot since the day I came to Citadel. When we left that evening, I asked you what I should do about it and you told me the lot is always under surveillance. I didn’t think about it until I remembered it was my night to volunteer here. I wouldn’t have even pulled out the notebook except I’d promised to do some research on places in the area who offer assistance for single mothers that we can’t here. Like help in getting discount formula, diapers, and stuff. I needed the paper I’d written the notes on.”

“Then why on earth did you leave the backpack in your car?”

“I don’t keep anything in it except for pamphlets, samples, and a couple of notebooks that don’t contain any personal clientele information. I don’t carry it like I do my purse because there’s nothing inside worth stealing.”

That’s as far as I got before I found myself apologizing to another volunteer for cutting my hours short. “I’ll make it up to you. Oh, and here!” I managed to pass her the sheet I’d ripped out of the notebook before Landon’s pull had me needing to quick step and catch up or chance being lifted off my feet and tossed over his shoulder.

We spent the next couple of hours in the monitoring room at Citadel. That’s where I met Tommy who calmly pressed fast forward and rewind buttons as many times as Landon requested. I was yawning by the time my Daddy Dom was satisfied no one had breached the walls of his fortress and finally drove us home.

I was standing at the sink with a mouthful of toothpaste when something occurred to me. Rinsing and spitting, I put my toothbrush in its charger and walked into the bedroom where Landon was already sitting up against the headboard.

“It wasn’t an ‘R’, was it?”

“No, baby. The capital was a ‘U’.”

I climbed onto the bed and slipped between the sheets. “I guess I’m not as good at this investigation business as I thought.”

“The letters might not be in order, Fee. It could be a code. It could be some sort of anagram. I don’t think you’re wrong, I just don’t think we have all the information we need yet.” When I sighed and laid my head on his chest, he dropped his arm around me and pulled me closer. “But I promise you, we will. Now try to forget it and sleep.”

“Okay, night, Daddy.”

“Night, baby.”

The kiss we shared would have been a very sweet thing to take with me into my dreams. Unfortunately, a string of six letters came along for the ride.

Another week passed and I’d attended every meeting, brainstormed over lists of people that had me questioning my demand to be included on the team. Just the mere thought of considering people I had come to respect as colleagues, thought of as friends, or had trusted enough to play with made my heart hurt. The dread of when the next slip of paper would come and what it would say made my stomach ache. I wasn’t surprised when I noticed Audra had started giving me longer looks, had touched my shoulder or hand more often. So I had no reason to be surprised when my Daddy did even more.

“Enough. You need a break.”

“No more than any of you do,” I protested.

“Fiona, look around and tell me what you see,” Landon said, gesturing to the team seated around the conference room table.

I was just about to pop off that he had eyes and saw the same thing I did which was people but when he leaned forward, the look he gave me reminded me who was at the top of that chain of command. Sighing, I glanced to my right and took my time, looking at each person, offering a nod or a shaky smile to those who met my gaze, while others continued to make entries into laptops crosschecking information I’d swear had been checked at least a dozen times already.

When I reached Audra who was sitting on Landon’s other side, she met my eyes and then slowly dropped her gaze, drawing mine down as well. I wasn’t sure what she’d intended or if perhaps I had misread something in the gesture, but all I saw was her picking up a pickle spear. Landon also met my gaze and when I saw the muscle in his jaw tic, I instantly felt as if I’d failed him without knowing how.

“Please don’t think I’m being sarcastic,” I said, prefacing my answer. “I see a team who is working so hard to find a person I’m not even sure exists any longer.”

“I assure you he exists,” Zeke said before Landon could respond.

“No disrespect intended, but unless you are that person, I don’t see how you can know that, Zeke.”

“Easy. Stalkers don’t just throw up their hands and say, ‘oh, well,’ when the object of their infatuation disappears. They don’t even do it when someone sticks a for sale sign in their front yard and pulls away in a U-Haul. They follow. Maybe not right away, but they do. As for your case, Fiona, you haven’t moved. Yes, you’re staying at Landon’s, but how many times have you been back to your house?”

Not sure where he was going, I shrugged. “I don’t know, however many times Landon’s taken me over there. I had to get some clothes and then there is that little thing about looking in the mail for the next fu… freaking note even though not a single one has been in an envelope much less came with a postage stamp!” It didn’t take Landon’s hand moving to cover mine for me to feel awful. “I’m sorry, Zeke, I’m just…”

“Exhausted,” Zeke said, giving me a smile.

“How can I be exhausted? Granted, I hadn’t been sleeping much before I found Citadel, but since that day, since I met all of you and you agreed to help me, I’m sleeping every night.”

Audra wiped her mouth with her napkin before saying, “There are different types of exhaustion, Fiona. As a psychologist, you know that. But as a woman who is dealing with some unknown person threatening you, you’re not thinking with your head. Your heart is leading and your body is struggling to keep up.”

I gave the occupants of the table another glance and nodded. “You’re right.” Glancing to my left, I added, “Is that what you wanted me to see?”

“Partly, but unlike Audra, I was talking about what is actually visible.”

The fact I was pretty sure I looked clueless despite trying to figure out his meaning, was most likely what had him releasing my hand and tapping his finger against the edge of my plate.

What am I missing? A pickle? I didn’t even like pickles sooo…

“Babe, you’ve had that plate in front of you for an hour. You’ve picked up that sandwich exactly twice. Neither of those times did you take a bite?—”

“I’m–”

“Interrupting.” Landon disappeared in an instant and my Dom appeared. I wasn’t even sure it was my Daddy Dom until his eyes softened. “The single potato chip I handed you after opening the bag does not constitute lunch, Fiona. Look around? Everyone else except for Audra finished thirty minutes ago and she is just toying with the stupid pickle because she is trying to give you a clue. A clue you are too exhausted to pick up on.”

What was a girl to do when not only her Daddy was right but so were the other members of the team. I picked up my sandwich and brought it toward my mouth.

“For fuck’s sake!”

The sandwich was taken from my hands and dropped. Half of it fell back onto the plate while shards of lettuce and a slice of tomato hit the polished wood surface. Before I could reach for my napkin to clean up the mess, I was lifted out of my chair and had my head pressed to my Daddy’s shoulder.

“Go,” Matt said from behind me.

“Take her out, Landon. Not home, not to your apartment, take her outside.”

“Forget lunch, buy her an ice-cream cone and let her sit in the sun to eat it.”

“Yeah, that would be great. She can listen to the birds chirping instead of yet another question.”

I’d known the people who made Citadel what it was were good people, brave people. I’d known they were intelligent in more than just what was learned in the pages of books or on the streets. But hearing them calling out suggestions told me they were caring people. The suggestions though, had me pressing closer, grateful his hand kept my head tight to his chest. While I couldn’t help it if people noticed my body shaking, I could hope that being this close helped muffle the sounds I was making as Landon carried me from the conference room, out of the building and into the parking garage.

Once he had deposited me onto the front seat, he shook his head, his fingers to his lips. I bowed my head and slapped my hands over my mouth as he slid behind the wheel and made quick work of exiting the garage. Still, he waited until we were halfway down the block before looking over at me.

“You’re clear, go for it.”

At that, I didn’t bother to try to hold back. The tears streaming down my face weren’t from sadness, they were from the laughter that was echoing around the car. I admit, I probably sounded a bit hysterical, but blamed it on the suggestions repeating in a loop in my head. It took another two blocks before Landon joined in, his chuckles calming my outburst to giggles, then to the occasional snort, and finally to hiccups.

“Take a breath and hold it,” Landon instructed as he pulled to a stop at a light.

I nodded and sucked in air, only to lose it all when I hiccupped again.

“Boo!”

Landon’s yell had me screeching and then slapping at his arm when I realized he was literally trying to scare the hiccups out of me. He allowed me a few harmless swats of his arm before he easily grabbed my hands and held them down. Opening my mouth to tell him how close he’d come to scaring the pee out of me, I paused. Hmmm, it had worked.

“Do you think it might behoove you to inform your team that the title of Daddy does not always mean your partner identifies as a Little? Isn’t a Middle either? That some of us are submissive adults who simply find the title comforting?”

“I believe I can see some benefit to your suggestion ,” Landon said.

My intent was to roll my eyes, but instead, they widened. “That doesn’t mean they weren’t good suggestions. I mean, I’m not sure I get why I’d want to hear a bunch of birds chirping, or that I feel deprived of Vitamin D, but… Daddy, look!”

Landon ducked his head slightly in order to look under his visor and followed my finger which was pointing out the windshield. He then straightened and turned to look at me. “Let me get this straight. You had no interest in your lunch until I made you feel guilty and then, instead of talking to me about your feelings, you were going to force yourself to take a bite that would most likely have choked you, correct?”

“Or made me throw up.” I waved my hand in a circle to hurry him along.

“Or throw up, got it. And yet now you actually think your Daddy is going to what? Buy you an ice-cream cone full of nothing but sugar and empty calories when you haven’t eaten a gram of protein today?”

“Don’t think of it is doing it for me, Daddy. Think of it as supporting your team members who were so concerned about my welfare. Besides, if I get a scoop of pistachio and one of butter pecan, that takes care of the protein, the ice cream… well, the dairy is in the name, and in case you’re worried I haven’t had enough carbs, I’ll get a chocolate-dipped waffle cone with sprinkles.”

Landon shook his head but he also flipped on his signal. “I know I should be telling myself how giving in is detrimental to my role as your responsible Dom, but luckily for you, there is a Daddy attached to that title and regardless of what you say, Miss Flanagan, and no matter how old you are, there will always be a little Foo-Foo in you.”

“You do know you’re nuts, right?”

“Yes, but I’m your nut.”

“That you are, Daddy, that you are.”