Chapter Seven #2
“Of course we’re not going to England.” She wasn’t getting
hauled out of the country. This whole thing was spiraling out of control. “Da,
we need to be reasonable about this.”
Her father’s jaw went stubborn, his emerald eyes as hard as
stone. “You just got shot at, girl. Don’t you think for a second I’m going to
be reasonable about that. And if our bodyguards ain’t up to the task, then I’ll
find me own. I’m sure Damon’s got some good people.”
“Li, come on,” Ian said with a long sigh. “I know you’re
worried, but we need to stay calm.”
“Stay calm? What would you do if your girls were being shot
at?” her da asked.
Ian shrugged. “Think it was Tuesday and tell them to duck.”
“My sweet Daisy don’t play dangerous games.” Sometimes her
da made her sound boring.
“She doesn’t have to. She’s dangerous simply walking down
the street,” Brian said.
“Is there a reason you’re still here, Brian?” Uncle Ian
asked in a tone that had the man slipping away.
It was for the best, but now she needed to figure out how to
convince her father not to haul them all off the continent. “I understand this
is scary for you, Da, but we need to be reasonable. Uncle Ian is right, and you
know what? I had a brilliant idea. Maybe I should help the twins for a while.”
It could be her new career. “I’m sure the team needs someone to like take notes
and get lattes and stuff. No one would be worried if I was hanging out with
that crowd.”
She didn’t say CIA team because they weren’t supposed to use
those words. But the idea played around in her head now. Maybe the reason she
hadn’t found anything she was good at yet was because she hadn’t considered
espionage.
Uncle Ian had gone a bit pale. “Uh, I don’t think we have
any openings for interns, Daisy.”
Her father looked like he was going to have a stroke. “You
are absolutely not working for the bloody Agency.”
“Da,” she said on a gasp. “We’re not supposed to say that.”
Her da’s jaw tightened. “Listen to me, girl. You are going
to get on a plane for London. We’ll leave as soon as your mother gets here.”
“She has a bodyguard and she’s not going to London, so let’s
stop panicking,” a deep voice said. “And Daisy, you’re absolutely not going to
become a spy. While I’m sure you would be great at it, the world would
collapse. And you are not where I left you. That’s twenty. Do you want it now
or later?”
Devi gasped and put a hand on Daisy’s elbow. “Holy crap.
That’s Nate Carter?”
Nate. It had in fact been Nate. He was standing in the
middle of the hallway in front of her Aunt Erin’s office with a bandage around
his big bicep and a fierce expression on his face.
He towered over everyone. He even had a couple of inches on
her Uncle Ian, and Nate was so masculine and perfect it made her heart skip a
beat. Beyond that she knew how tender the man could be, but he didn’t look
tender now. He looked pissed, and his growly persona did something for her,
too. But she had to remember he wasn’t hers. She wasn’t sure why he was talking
in an incredibly possessive way. Probably because the events of the morning
were still affecting his masculine sensibilities.
“Yes, that’s him, Devi, and I appreciate everything he did
for me this morning but I think we’ll handle it from here.” Had he threatened
to spank her in front of her father? And uncle and aunt and best friend? And
pretty much everyone since they were all watching now. All eyes were on her and
the scene starting to play out. She had to bring this under control.
“You’re going to dismiss me?” Nate asked the question as
though he wasn’t worried about her answer, merely curious.
“Yes, she is,” her father announced. “Your poor driving
nearly got my Daisy killed. I’m going to talk to Tessa about testing your
driving skills. This ain’t the outback, son.”
“No, it’s far more dangerous, and I am not your son,” Nate
replied steadily. “Nor are you my uncle. There’s not a bit of blood between us,
Liam O’Donnell, and you should remember that.”
Also rude. There was a lot of rudeness running around this
morning.
Erin sighed and looked at her daughter. “This is way too
much testosterone for this time of day. Devi, you know something I don’t?”
Devi leaned in and whispered to her mom. Daisy would have
tried to stop that, but Nate was staring at her like he was going to spank her
here and now if she didn’t comply. Which was ridiculous. Or she was letting her
romantic dreams run wild the way she sometimes did. She was Daisy, the one with
her head in the clouds. Daisy, the one with all the big dreams, the butterfly
flitting from job to job with nothing to show for it.
“You listen here,” her da began. “I don’t know what you
think you’re doing, Carter, but you’re not getting close to my daughter. She’s
a good girl, and she doesn’t have any idea how to handle the likes of you.”
“She handles me fine.” Nate seemed determined to blow up her
whole world.
“What da fuck is that supposed to mean?” Her da practically
shouted the question.
Naturally Aunt Charlotte showed up with a bag of microwave
popcorn. “Has Liam figured out what’s going on between Daisy and Nate?”
How would her aunt know what was going on? Nate didn’t even
know.
Or did he? She’d said the words out loud, but had he really
heard them? They’d probably been lost in all the adrenaline and violence and
gunshots.
He’d been shot. Sure it had turned out to be fine, but he
could have been killed. He could have died and it would have been her fault.
All her fault because she was so dumb.
“Did you know, Dais?” Nate asked, completely ignoring the
rapt audience around them.
Her head was reeling. Maybe she wasn’t handling the
situation as well as she thought she was. Her heart was thudding a little and
she was back in the moment when she’d realized someone was shooting at them. “I
didn’t know they would come after me.”
A cartel. She had a cartel after her. As adventures went, it
was a shitty one. And she’d lost her job and she would probably lose her home
and her da was going to ship her off to Europe where she would very likely
start a land war, and she would definitely not see Nate again.
She’d pushed it all down and it was bubbling back up, a
torrential storm of anxiety.
“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Devi whispered.
“He needs to get back downstairs and leave my daughter
alone,” her da said. “I’ll be having a talk with my son about his choice of
roommates and who he’s letting around his sister. I didn’t work this hard to
keep the men off her only to lose her to the first Aussie to walk through the
door.”
Nate completely ignored everyone but her. He walked past her
father, staring down at her with a piercing gaze. “Did you know, Daisy? When
you approached me last night, did you know who I was?”
“What the hell is he on about,” her da started and then
batted something away. “Don’t throw fucking popcorn my way, Tag. This is
serious.”
“Did I know the six-foot-seven-inch dude with the Australian
accent was Nathan Carter?” The walls were closing in around her. Nate was
pushing her and it had been a terrible day, and he seemed ready to make it
worse.
“Of course she knew you.” Her da was unrelenting. “Do you
think she would get into the car with a stranger?”
“I mean she’s done it a couple of times.” Devi wasn’t
helping.
She’d had reasons for that.
“I think he means in a biblical way, not an ‘I called an
Uber’ way,” Uncle Ian snarked.
Nate moved into her space. “Did you know?”
She had to nod but she suddenly couldn’t breathe. He was
here and he was staring down at her and he knew. He knew what she’d done. They
all would know she’d taken something from him. Something he likely wouldn’t
have shared had he known it was her. And then she’d gotten him shot. And no one
wanted to protect her because she was trouble. But there was only one answer.
“Yes.”
“Then you’ve made your choice and you’ll have to deal with
it,” he said in a tone that brooked no disobedience.
Her father said something about not laying a hand on her and
her uncle said hands had totally already been lain and her aunt asked if she
was okay. She wasn’t. The world kind of went fuzzy and she felt a wash of utter
defeat come over her system as her knees gave way.
Right before the darkness took her, Nate caught her, and she
was in his arms as the world faded to black.
* * * *
Liam O’Donnell was going to be the worst father-in-law
imaginable.
“You let my daughter down this minute, Nathan Carter.” He
followed Nate as he carried Daisy to the conference room.
“I’m not dropping my sub,” Nate replied.
“No blood on the carpet, Liam O’Donnell,” Charlotte Taggart
said, pointing to Li. She moved in beside Nate. “Are you trying to push him
over the edge?”
“Nope. I’m only being honest. It’s a thing he should try.”
He was starting to wonder about the real reason none of the Doms at The Hideout
would play with Daisy. He had a hunch and it had to do with her father. Maybe
Aidan, too, and if he found out Aidan had been warning men off Daisy, they
would have a long talk. “Devi, would you get some water for Daisy? Maybe put on
a kettle.”
“What would I put a kettle on?” Devi asked. “Also, do we
have a kettle? And what would I put in it?”
Americans.
“I’ll help her,” Erin said. “Come on, sweetie. You can fill
me in on what’s happening and we’ll get some tea started.”
“We should call an ambulance,” Liam declared as Nate walked
into the conference room. “It’s obvious she’s been injured. She’s probably got
a concussion.”
Nate was almost sure she was conscious again. She’d had a
bit of a panic attack likely because she was about to have to face the music,
and it was obvious she hadn’t been forced to deal with consequences before. It
would be different between them.
She’d had every chance to save herself. She could have
continued to pretend like she wasn’t Dee. He’d pushed and prodded her, getting