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"Teagan Anne, I don't like to repeat myself. Little girls don't curse at their Daddies."
"Well, maybe their Daddies shouldn't act like assholes, then!" Teagan glared around the room, her angry gaze landing first on Luca before moving on and lingering on Octavius. She was so busy shooting daggers from her eyes at him, she didn't notice that Luca had closed the gap between them.
"That's enough, Teagan."
"Maybe I'm not ready for it to be enough." She snapped her head back around to face him. "He was mean to my sister. I have the right to defend her! She didn't even do anything wrong!"
"We've been over this. Octavius isn't mean to Ro. He was firm, yes. But he's fair."
"He put a child lock on her phone! That's the definition of mean."
"You care about Ro, correct, Tea?" Octavius stood and walked over to the pair.
"Obviously, more than you do, jerk-face."
"Teagan!" The growled warning from Luca chilled her. "You will not disrespect Octavius." He turned to his friend. "She'll apologize."
"I will not!"
"Teagan," Octavius started, his tone gentle, paternal. "I put a child lock on Rowena's phone because she demonstrated that she was incapable of being responsible with it. She's been up until all hours of the night and early morning reading family case law and texting with her sisters. Her immune system crashed from lack of sleep. She's been disrespectful and exhausted. I gave her three chances, and now, she's paying the piper. Eleven o'clock is plenty late enough for her to talk to you."
"What if there's an emergency? Huh? Did you think about that, Mr. Control Freak?"
"Teagan Anne, so help me God, I've had enough. Not another word out of you."
"Yes, Teagan. I did think of that, "Octavius said. "The call option on her phone is therefore never turned off. As for her being punished for something she didn't do, she has to be held responsible for her part in all of this. She knew you were putting yourself in danger, she schemed right along with you, and she should have told me." He stepped back and took his wife into his arms. "We don't have secrets."
"But, Octavius—" Teagan started, but Luca stopped her by taking her hand and squeezing.
"You have done a great job in distracting from the topic at hand. You never answered the original question. Why were you bugging Evie's room?" Jason asked, finally speaking up.
"Because, dammit, the bastard is beating her!" Teagan didn't think; she just announced it. The room became eerily silent.
"Are you sure?" Luca asked first.
"Yes," Ro said. "I've seen the bruises. They are low, where her clothes will hide the mark, but they are there. From what she's told us, he's been doing this for some time. He's put her in the hospital before."
"I'm going to fucking kill him." The ice-cold fury in Jason's voice sent a shiver down Teagan's spine. For the first time, she could see the SEAL beneath the sweet, geeky exterior.
"The cameras were to catch him in the act? That was your plan?"
"Part of it. We were going to blackmail him to stay away from her," Ro said.
"Ro!" Teagan gasped.
"Breaking and entering and blackmail? If I hadn't met your boss, I would be questioning your legitimacy as a sworn officer of the law." Luca frowned at Teagan.
"That wasn't exactly the plan," Teagan defended. "The recording was merely insurance in case he came after her after we got her out of there."
"Yeah, we had it all planned out. We would sneak her out in the middle of the night and only use the videos if we had to!" Ro sounded proud of herself. Teagan groaned again.
"In the middle of the night?" Octavius echoed.
"Their harebrained scheme keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" Luca asked.
"You don't understand." Ro did a little half-foot stomp, stopping when she saw Octavius' raised eyebrow.
"No? Tell us," Octavius said.
