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Then again, considering their charge’s former occupation, maybe that had changed too.
“You’re compromised,” Bones said. “Happens to the best of us, Doc. You called us in for help. That’s what you’ll get. You’ve saved every single one of us, so we all owe you a few lives.”
I wanted to argue the point, except that it required more energy than I had at the moment. “It’s a favor I never needed repaid, but I’m grateful for the assist. So, thank you.”
Bones just nodded, then said, “We don’t have to hug or anything, right?”
I chuckled. “No. I’m good.”
He gave me a thumbs up then grabbed the second bag. It left us both with one hand free. Voodoo remained with the vehicle and on watch. No more bombs on the vehicles. We’d all started double-checking any car we got into and we had mirrors to scan beneath them.
If the car couldn’t be secured, then it had to have a guard—no more risks. Well, life was a risk, but minimizing them was good.
We pulled back into the warehouse at the twenty-nine-minute mark. Little Bit stood with Milo, her expression tense and her arms folded. That didn’t look like a fun conversation.
“Voodoo, can you run the shit inside and check on Alphabet?”
“Yep. Gonna relieve him to get some sleep. I can handle surveillance for a bit.”
Bones nodded. “Check in with LB too. See how she’s doing.”
Voodoo stopped dead and cut a look at Bones.
“Suck it up,” Bones told him without sympathy. “You didn’t have to be an asshole about it.”
“Fuck,” he muttered, then grabbed the bags from the back before stalking off. Ignoring that as not my current problem, I headed for Little Bit.
“I don’t know if I want to see him, especially after what Mom said.”
“You don’t have to,” I told her before Milo uttered a word, and she shifted her gaze to me. The intense darkness in her eyes called to me, but the flicker of a smile on her lips when our gazes collided made me open my arms. She slid right into them and wrapped herself around me.
Bones moved past us and headed for the office where Kellan and Jasper waited with Vaughn. I didn’t see the twins or Freddie, but they were likely nearby.
Holding her tight, I rested my chin on her head and peered at Milo. His expression hadn’t changed, though it relaxed some as she did. He rubbed the back of his neck.
“I know I don’t have to,” she murmured against my chest. “But I should.”
Milo closed his eyes and blew out a breath. Yeah, she would make herself do it even if she didn’t want to be anywhere near him.
“Little Bit,” I said, pulling back and meeting her gaze. “There is noshould. We know what we need to know. I’m not sure about what you need to know. However we can find that out, and you never have to see him again.”
“What I need to know is if he knew,” she said slowly. “If he knew and did nothing. I need to know if he was ever really my father or if I was just the toy they picked up for Uncle Fuckbucket.”
Rage kindled in my gut, hot and wrathful. No child shouldeverhave to learn their parent was such an epic fuckup. “Tell me how knowing will help you.”
I needed one good reason tonotstop her. Because every instinct I had said not a chance in hell did I let her walk in there, did I let her see the steaming pile of shit.
“Because if I don’t see and hear it, I may always wonder…and I can’t live with what-if or maybe anymore. I need to know. I need to know so I can put him behind me if I need to do that.”
Fuck, if that didn’t stop me cold. My anger was still there. So was my need for vengeance for Steph and for Little Bit. Only I wouldn’t take this from her…
Milo tugged her hair gently and she twisted to look at him. “Will you promise me one thing?”
“If I can.” Good girl, don’t promise anything without hearing what it was first.
“If it gets bad, or you need to stop, just go. Don’t explain to anyone or try to muscle through it. Walk out. Can you promise me to do that?”
“I can try,” she said slowly, then let out a shaky breath. When she held up her hand to show us it was trembling, I wanted to drag her away from all of this.
