A Crime Boss Daddy Christmas (Crime Boss Daddies)

Chapter 1

MAEVE AND GRAY

Maeve sat back on the bathroom floor, wiping at her mouth shakily.

Oh, this wasn’t good.

Her stomach rolled and she let out a small whimper.

Get it together, girl!

You can’t let Gray see me like this. Get up. Get sorted.

Unfortunately, her little pep talk didn’t immediately have her springing to her feet, ready to take on the day.

Instead, she dragged herself up until she was standing and glanced wearily into the bathroom mirror.

A tired, pale woman with limp hair stared back at her.

This was terrible. As soon as Gray saw her he’d know that something was wrong.

That she was ill.

This wasn’t fair! She was always sick when something important was going on. She’d missed Cat’s wedding because the Surgeon had said she was too ill to travel.

Why the heck Gray trusted a doctor who didn’t even have a proper name, she had no idea.

But the Surgeon wasn’t going to ruin Christmas for her.

Not happening.

They were meant to leave tomorrow morning for Southampton to spend Christmas and the New Year with her family.

And Maeve was determined that nothing would stop her. Certainly not a stomach bug that had appeared out of nowhere.

She had no idea where she could have picked it up. She’d been working nonstop on the large number of doggy outfits her customers had placed for Christmas and had barely left the house. The only people she’d seen lately were Gray, Markovich, Triple-T, Ilya, and Dahlia.

It made zero sense.

Maybe it was something she’d eaten?

That had to be it. She turned on the shower and got in once the water warmed up. Gray wouldn’t be home until this evening so she had some time to get over this.

God, she couldn’t wait until they were on their way.

It felt like ages since she’d seen everyone. She hadn’t even been to Tennessee yet to see the new family compound.

The only dark spot on the holidays, besides her weird stomach bug, was the fact that Isaiah was still missing, and no one knew where he was. He’d disappeared two months ago. Immy had been the last one to see him and she’d said he was tracking wannabe Deity.

A shudder ran through Maeve as she washed herself. The last thing she wanted to think about was the fact that there might be a copycat out there. Someone who was going around pretending they were now the Deity.

No.

She definitely didn’t want to think about him or any of this. After turning off the shower, she dried herself and got dressed in her favorite purple tracksuit with gold and purple striped socks. They were so worn that Gray had threatened to throw them out several times.

That wasn’t happening.

He needed to keep his big paws off her stuff.

Maeve put on a bit of makeup, hoping to hide the paleness of her cheeks. Although she was starting to feel better. Perhaps it had just been something she’d eaten.

Then again, maybe there was another reason for her sudden illness . . . she put her hand over her stomach.

No.

There was no chance. She was on birth control. She’d know if she was pregnant.

That was stupid.

So what if her period was late . . . that didn’t mean anything. She’d been under a lot of stress trying to complete all of her online orders. Dahlia was helping her package and send everything off.

Speaking of which . . .

Maeve heard the front door slam and rushed through the bedroom into the dining area of the cottage they lived in.

Which was also the area she’d set up as her office. They had a spare bedroom, but Maeve preferred to work out here and it was easier for Dahlia to have a table for packaging items.

“Morning!” Dahlia said cheerfully, unwrapping a lumpy, misshapen scarf from around her neck. “Brr, it’s getting so cold out there.”

“Morning!” Maeve said cheerfully.

Maeve was grateful she had a friend close by who could help her when she got busy. It was a bonus that Dahlia was also a Little.

“Did you come over by yourself?”

Dahlia shook her head. “Triple-T walked me over. I’m not to leave without him. Our Daddies just left to go get some stuff done before you guys leave. I am going to miss you!”

“Me too!” Maeve told her, giving her a hug. “Cute scarf by the way.”

It really wasn’t. It was terrible. It looked like a toddler had knitted it. But Maeve would never say that because Dahlia was super proud of her knitting ability.

“Thank you! I knitted something for you and Grumpy Bear.” Dahlia took off her knitted hat, which matched the scarf.

They were both red-and-white-striped, but the stripes weren’t of equal thickness and sometimes a red stripe would just end, and a white one would start up.

She drew out two items from her oversized tote.

Uh-oh.

Dahlia had once knitted Gray a sweater. It had been yellow with a brown smiley face that had looked more like a weird blob. The arms of the sweater had ended at his elbows and the bottom had only reached his belly button.

Gray had called it a poop sweater. Although not to Dahlia’s face, of course. Markovich wouldn’t think much of that, plus Gray would never hurt her feelings.

“I thought you might need them for your trip. You could wear them on the plane. Or on Christmas Day.” Dahlia showed her the two sweaters. One was red with tassels hanging off the end of it. It had a large brown blob on the front of it and one arm was definitely shorter than the other.

“It’s Rudolph!” Dahlia cried. “For you!”

“Wow, thank you. I love it.”

“Now, I know that Grumpy Bear loves yellow, but unfortunately, that just isn’t a very Christmasy color, you know what I mean? However, I did this for him. Ta-da!”

Dahlia held up a sweater that was mostly forest green. It was so long that it would likely reach Gray’s knees. Although the front did seem a lot longer than the back. In fact, the back might not even cover his bottom.

“I ran out of wool to do the back. Do you think he’ll mind that it’s a bit longer in the front?” Dahlia asked worriedly.

“Oh, I don’t think he’ll notice at all,” Maeve reassured her friend. That would really be the least of his concerns, considering the very strange image on the front of the sweater. It looked like . . . was it . . . hmm. How did she ask without hurting Dahlia’s feelings?

“Don’t you love the Christmas tree on the front?” Dahlia said cheerfully. “Since I did most of the sweater in green, I couldn’t do the tree in green too. So I made it yellow since that’s Grumpy Bear’s favorite color.”

It really wasn’t.

“Cool. The tree is large on the bottom.”

“Yeah, I realized it was very straight up and down, so I tried to make it bigger at the bottom. Do you think it doesn’t work?” Dahlia chewed her lip, appearing concerned.

“No, no, I think it absolutely works, and we’ll definitely take a photo of us wearing them on Christmas Day and send it to you.”

Gray would love that. Maeve had to hide her grin.

“Yay!” Dahlia bounced up and down, clapping her hands.

“I’m so glad you love them. I even made some things for your friends.

I’ll leave them in the bag for you to hand out.

I wrapped them and put their names on them.

I really, really hope they like them. I couldn’t knit sweaters for everyone, unfortunately.

I just didn’t have time. Daddy keeps telling me that I’m doing too much and to rest. I have no idea what he’s talking about. ”

“I get it. Gray isn’t happy about how much work I took on. He’s always on at me to take a nap.”

Dahlia eyed her for a long moment. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way because you are always beautiful . . .”

“But?” Maeve asked.

“But you do look a bit tired. Are you feeling all right?”

Maeve grimaced. “I had a bit of an upset tummy, but I’m fine now. Must have been something I ate.”

“Are you sure? Do you want me to call Gray for you?”

“No!” she cried. Immediately, she felt terrible as Dahlia jumped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s all right,” Dahlia said. “I just didn’t expect such an emphatic answer. Um, is everything okay between you and Gray?”

“Oh yes!” she exclaimed. “Yes, everything is fine between us. It’s just that if I let on that I wasn’t feeling that great, he’ll make me get checked over by the Surgeon.”

“And that’s bad because . . . you don’t like the Surgeon? I get that. He’s an acquired taste. What kind of guy just calls himself the Surgeon? We get it, man. You’re a doctor. But does that mean you don’t have a name? Surely his parents didn’t call him Surgeon when he was born?”

Maeve nodded. She completely agreed. “It’s not that I don’t like him, although he’s not terribly friendly. It’s just that he might say that I can’t travel.”

Sympathy filled Dahlia’s face. “I get it. As long as you feel okay now?”

“I do. But if you don’t want to be around me today, just in case it’s catching, I understand.”

“Pfft. I’m not worried about any germs. I’ll stay and help. And don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

When Gray walked in the door later that night, she was sitting on the sofa under a Christmas blanket, sipping on ginger tea.

She hadn’t been sick all day, but the ginger was a precaution, just in case the nausea returned. Better to be safe than sorry.

“Daddy!” she cried, setting the cup of tea aside.

As she fought the blanket, which didn’t seem to want to release her, Gray moved toward her.

He was a large guy, covered in tattoos with a thick, dark beard. The first time she’d met him, she’d been kind of intimidated. Now, she knew he was just a giant teddy bear.

Well, for her anyway.

Finally, the blanket freed her from its evil clutches and she ran to him. He picked her up, swinging her around before settling her against his chest.

“Hello there,” he murmured, kissing her. “I missed you.”

She snuggled into him with a sigh. “Missed you too, Daddy.”

“What were you up to? Watching a Christmas movie?”

“Yep. And drinking some tea. Do you want something? Did you eat dinner?”

“I’m good, my girl,” he told her as he sat with her on his lap. As she stared up at him, he brushed the hair back off her face. “You look tired. You should have gone to bed.”

She pouted. “But I wanted to see you. Besides, I’m too excited to sleep!”

He grinned. “Yeah? And why are you excited? Was it because I was coming home?”

“No!”

His eyes widened with mock-surprise as he placed his hand on his chest. “What? No? It wasn’t because you wanted to see me?”

“Silly Daddy! I always want to see you,” she told him, realizing her mistake. “But I’m just excited about going to Southampton tomorrow. For Christmas!” She threw her hands up into the air as he chuckled.

“I know, my girl. I was just teasing. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t be getting some sleep tonight.” He gave her a stern look. “I want you nice and rested for traveling tomorrow.”

She sighed. “I’ll try, Daddy. It’s going to be tough, though. It’s only three sleeps until Santa arrives.”

“Yes, that’s three sleeps that you still have to behave yourself, otherwise Santa might not bring you any gifts.”

“But that’s so unfair! I’ve been so good the rest of the year, I must have banked up lots of good girl points. Surely I can be a little bit naughty and still get my gifts from Santa.”

Like not telling Daddy about her upset tummy this morning.

It wasn’t really that big of a deal, right?

Well. She didn’t think so. And, hopefully, Santa didn’t think so either.

Because she really wanted these gold sparkly shoes that she’d seen. And when she’d written her letter to Santa, she’d asked him for them.

Surely, Santa would understand.

Her bladder gave an urgent signal.

Shoot. She hated having a nervous bladder. She scratched at her cheek nervously.

Gray grasped hold of her hand and drew it away from her cheek. “Is everything all right, my girl?”

Shoot. Now he was going to sense something was wrong!

“I’m just hoping that everyone likes their gifts.”

Urgh.

Idiot.

She was making things worse by lying to him.

“Of course they will.” Gray tapped her nose. “And you’ve got to keep being good. Is there anything you need to tell Daddy?”

She shook her head. Nope. She wasn’t telling him anything. And Santa would never know.

Right?

Well, she hoped not.

Because those gold, sparkly shoes were extra super-duper cute. And she really, really needed them.

“Come on, then,” Gray said. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“But the movie isn’t over yet!” she protested.

He shot her a stern look.

“However, I suppose I should be getting to bed,” she said reluctantly as he stood with her in his arms.

“Did you get all your work done today, my precious girl?” he asked.

Maeve sighed and snuggled into him. Her eyes were drifting shut. Seemed she was more tired than she’d thought.

“Uh-huh,” she said sleepily. “I got it all done. Dahlia came and helped me. Oh, she gave us a Christmas gift each.”

Gray groaned as he set her down on the bed. He placed his hands on his hips as he stared down at her. “Do I want to know what it is?”

Maeve bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. “Probably not.”

“Great,” he grumbled. “It’s a sweater, isn’t it? She knitted me another sweater.”

“Um, maybe.”

He rolled his eyes heavenward. “This is obviously punishment for all of the bad things I’ve done in my life.”

“It’s not that bad.” She couldn’t hold in her giggle.

Oops. She really needed to pee now.

“The way you just let out an evil laugh tells me otherwise,” he said to her with a frown.

“That was not an evil laugh!” she protested. “That was my normal laugh.”

“Nope, that was an evil laugh. Do you need to pee?” he asked.

“Umm,” she replied.

Shoot. He knew all too well that she had a nervous bladder. And it didn’t help that she’d been holding on for a while. “Yep! Gotta go!” She attempted to run to the toilet, but he simply picked her up and cradled her against his chest as he carried her to the toilet.

After she’d used the bathroom – and boy was that a relief – he helped her clean up before turning her to him with a stern look on his face.

Uh-oh.

“Did you lie to me before when I asked you if you needed to go to the bathroom?” he asked.

Double uh-oh.

“I just needed to pee a little bit back then,” she told him.

It wasn’t a full lie, right?

“Then you should have told me you needed to go a little bit,” he repeated her own words back to her.

She bit her lip. “Am I in trouble, Daddy?”

He eyed her for a long moment. “You’ll need to write twenty-five lines in the morning before we leave saying that you will tell Daddy when you need to pee.”

Bummer. But it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Now, show me the sweater. I need to prepare myself.”

“I already packed it,” she told him. “Probably for the best that it’s a surprise.”

She also didn’t want him to conveniently lose it or leave it behind.

She really wanted to see him in the sweater.

Gray just sighed. “Just tell me it’s not another poop sweater.”

“Uh, it’s not a poop sweater.”

“Well, I guess that’s good then.”

Actually, when he saw the sweater, he was going to wish it was another poop sweater because this one was far, far worse.

And maybe she really had let out an evil laugh.

Hopefully Santa was too busy to pay attention to how naughty Maeve had been.