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“Hey, man. Hungry tonight?”
Tank just grunted. Maybe he’d gone a little overboard. But he had no real idea how much a four-year-old girl ate. And Kaylie needed to eat more. She was still perfect, obviously. But the dark circles under her eyes and the obvious bagginess of her clothes told him that Kaylie had lost weight, and he didn’t like the idea that she’d been skipping meals and working too hard.
He signed the receipt and gave Taylor a generous tip before shutting the door.
“Pizza’s here,” he called through the house.
Lia’s squeal of excitement came in response and a low chuckle escaped.
After dinner and a rousing game of hide and seek, Kaylie explained to Cecelia that they would be sleeping here tonight and that it was time for bed.
“Can you tuck me in, Mr. Anthony? Please?”
Tank’s eyes immediately flew to Kaylie’s. He didn’t know how to answer that. Sure, he’d put the girl to bed the night her mom was sick, but that had been the only option. This was different.
“Oh,” Kaylie said. “I guess if he doesn’t mind—”
“I don’t mind,” he said in a low, firm voice.
Kaylie helped Lia into her pajamas and kissed her forehead as Tank stood awkwardly off to the side.
“Read me a story, Mr. Anthony!”
Tank looked around nervously. “I don’t really have any books at my house, princess.”
Her lip poked out in a pout, so he quickly added, “Can I tell you a story instead?”
Lia considered it for a moment before nodding seriously. She scooted over on the couch and Tank sat on the edge, the cushion compressing under his weight and rolling the little girl toward him. He shifted her slightly until she rested comfortably against him.
Then he stumbled through the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk” as best he could. Lia shrieked with joy as he lowered his voice to do the impression of the giant. Throughout the story, his eyes jumped to Kaylie. She was leaning against the doorway, watching with an unreadable expression on her face.
When he finished, he tucked the blanket around Lia. Following his instincts more than anything else, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, like her mother had done. “Good night, princessa. Sweet dreams.”
Lia snuggled into the pillow and murmured something unintelligible back. He didn’t need to know what she said, but it made him feel ten feet tall. This perfect little girl trusted him. And so did her mother.
Now, he was going to learn exactly what threat he was dealing with. Even if he couldn’t be the man who tucked Lia in every night, he’d be the one to make sure they had a chance to find that man. Because having them here tonight proved that he would do whatever it took to keep them safe. They deserved that much.
In fact, he was strikingly aware that they deserved so much more. He just wished he could be the one to give it to them.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Apprehension swelled in Kaylie’s chest as she backed out of the small office ahead of Anthony. It had been surreal to watch a man put her daughter to bed. Everything about Anthony Olson screamed “dangerous,” but the more time she spent with him, the more she was seeing the softness under all the hard edges.
How could she resist a man who called her daughter princess and kissed her good night?
The intense feeling of dread and anxiety that had held her captive since Drew’s phone call hadn’t quite released, but watching Anthony with Lia helped a little. As did being here with him. The fact that he knew she was running from the Moreno family had caught her off guard, but she had suspected there was more to Anthony Olson than she knew.
But he clearly didn’t know the whole story. And now that Lia was asleep, her time to avoid telling him the truth was over. She just wished… Well, no use in wishing for something that couldn’t be.
She liked the way Anthony looked at her, like she was someone worthy of protecting. But when he knew her real story, surely that would end. He knew she was running from the Moreno family, but he had no idea that it was her own mistakes that had put her in that situation to begin with. Anthony didn’t know that she had essentially been the personal property of Paul Moreno himself. And Kaylie didn’t really want him to know. Just in case he stopped looking at her in the intense caring way he did now.
She tugged on her sweater, tucking it around her waist with one arm and plodding down the stairs. In the kitchen, she busied herself making tea.
While Anthony didn’t say a word, she could somehow feel him behind her in the kitchen. Patiently waiting. Somehow, she knew he’d wait as long as it took.
She pressed her hands into the counter, hanging her head between her shoulders. She stared at the beveled edge of the granite countertops. “I can’t do this.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
