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I held her to me and exited the room that had grown noisy. Carrying her to my office, I closed the door behind us to create some quiet. Sitting, I rested her on my lap and met her gaze while taking hold of her arm. “It takes a lot to break a bone. I doubt yours is, but I’ll give it a good look, okay?”
She didn’t seem convinced, but she agreed with a quick nod. Her bottom lip quivered, though, so I quickly inspected her arm. The sooner I could confirm there wasn’t a break, the sooner I could get to work on calming her down.
Meeting her gaze again, I said, “Good news, it’s not broken.”
She wiggled in my lap, the look on her face telling me she remained unconvinced. “But it feels like it.”
I nodded. “I know it does, and I know you’re scared, but have I ever let you down?”
Exhaling a shaky breath, she shook her head. “No.”
I gently rubbed my hand up and down her forearm. “Do you know what will make it feel better?”
Hope flickered in her eyes. She’d stopped crying, but I knew the tears weren’t far away if her fear took over again. “What?”
In one swift movement, I stood, scooping her into my hold as I did. Heading back towards the kitchen, I said, “My chocolate milk.”
The hope in her eyes turned to excitement, and I knew that promise had done the trick. She scrunched a handful of my shirt in her little hand and said, “With extra chocolate like you did last time?”
I met her smile with one of my own and nodded. “Yeah, with extra chocolate. But this is between us, okay?” I never kept anything from Annika, but I liked Rebecca to think I did because it drew her closer to me, and that was a place I always wanted her to be. Close as fuck so I could always keep her safe.
Her smile grew and she nodded enthusiastically while leaning in close and whispering, “I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”
I cleared everyone from the kitchen and made her a hot chocolate with extra white choc chips melted into it and plenty of chocolate powder sprinkled on top, all served in her favourite Winnie the Pooh mug I kept here for her. We sat together at the table while she drank it, and I ignored the text that sounded from my phone so I could give her my full attention.
Glancing towards where the sound came from, she asked, “Are you going to check your message?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m busy.”
Her forehead wrinkled as she frowned. “No you’re not. You’re not doing anything.”
I leaned toward her. “I’m spending time with you, which means I’m very busy.”
“But the message might be important.”
I shifted the lock of hair that had fallen across her face and hooked it behind her ear. “There isn’t any message to check that could be more important than hanging out with you. When we’re done here, I’ll check it, but until then, I don’t want you to worry about that message again. You got it?”
Nodding, she blasted me with a smile. “Got it!”
“Good. Now, I want you to tell me all about the trampolining party you guys went to the other day.”
“I already told you about it, silly!”
“I know, but I wanna hear all about it again.”
She looked at me like I was the silliest person on the planet before sighing. “Okayyy, but you’re probably gonna get bored.”
I settled back in my seat and crossed my arms. “Never.” I jerked my chin at her. “Now start talking, little miss.”
She giggled. I didn’t call her that very often, but I knew she liked it when I did, so I reserved it for when I was working hard to take her mind off something. It did the trick this morning. Ten minutes later, we were laughing over the funny stuff that happened to her at the party, her sore arm and anxiety completely forgotten.
This was the shit I lived for and was the reason why I’d bury Tony Romano for even thinking about fucking with my family and my club.
I leant back in my chair and rubbed my temples. A headache pounded against my skull, interfering with my ability to think. The painkillers I’d taken after finishing my conversation with Rebecca had started to kick in, but still, the headache lived and breathed pain that I didn’t fucking need. Looking up at Hyde, I asked, “Where are we at with
Tony?”
“Our guys are in Melbourne but are yet to get eyes on him. His men are busy, but he’s nowhere to be seen.”
