Claimed By her Daddies by Laylah Roberts
21
“How is she?” Tavi demanded as he walked through the door of the penthouse.
Aric ran a hand over his face, breathing out a sigh. “She’s all right.”
“All right? What does all right mean? Is she angry? Is she scared? Is she worried?” Tavi looked around the room as though waiting for her to appear. “Fuck, I can’t believe someone threatened her with photos of us together.”
“Looks like she was right and someone put a small recorder in the copier room to catch you guys at it. Aleki and Wolfe are going through the palace, so far they’ve found four of the damn things.”
Tavi swore.
“Not your fault,” Aric reassured him. “You couldn’t have known.”
“I still feel like I should have protected her better. Is she all right?”
“She’s in Little headspace,” Aric told him. They were switching places for a while. Kassim had basically taken over the small waiting room at the hospital. From there he was coordinating everything with Caleb back home. Acquiring new guards as well as attempting to figure out who the hell would have sent the photos. Photos that Wolfe had found at Pippa’s cottage and sent copies.
Fuck. He hated that she’d had to deal with that alone. She should have been able to come to them. For anything.
“She’s Little?” Tavi repeated in surprise. “Okay. Well. I suppose that’s good?”
Aric thought so when he first woke up to find she’d retreated into Little headspace. But he couldn’t help but feel concerned.
“I felt sure she’d be pushing you about getting to the hospital to see Matek,” Tavi told him.
“I thought so too,” Aric told him. “But she hasn’t even asked about him since she woke up.”
“What?” Tavi gave him a shocked look. “Not at all?”
“I think she’s regressed in order not to deal with it all. I mean, I get it. She . . . she’s scared of losing us. She lost both of her parents. She doesn’t have other family. She wanted to leave last night and I stopped her. I got handsy with her.”
“Handsy?” Tavi asked. “You forced her to stay?”
“Um, basically.”
“Good. I’d have done the same.”
Aric let out the breath he’d been holding, worried his brothers would disapprove.
“She can’t go anywhere. What would happen if we lost her? Hell, if Matek had woken up to learn she was gone, he’d go insane. As it is, Kassim and I had a hard time convincing him to stay in bed when he remembered what happened. All he wanted was to see her. We had to tell him that she was exhausted and we’d sent her home to bed.”
“You didn’t tell him everything?”
“Hell, no. Could you imagine if he learned that someone may have deliberately tried to hit her with that car? Last time he destroyed Kassim’s office. We couldn’t let him destroy the hospital room.”
“How is he? How long will he be in the hospital?”
“Hopefully, he’ll be out tomorrow.”
“That soon?”
“Kassim is arranging for a private physical therapist to look after him at the estate. He’s going to hate it. Especially having some stranger touch him. But hopefully they won’t be needed for long.”
“Christ, maybe we can convince Pippa to help with that,” Aric groaned. “He won’t deck her like he would us.”
Tavi nodded.
“And Kassim? Is he coming home when I go over?”
Tavi grimaced. “He’s being distant. When he’s not on the phone, he’s on his laptop.”
“Crap,” Aric muttered.
Tavi patted his brother’s shoulder. “Good luck. I’ll go look after our girl. You try to keep our brother in his hospital room and from not trying to kill anyone who touches him.”
“I know who got the worst end of this stick.”
* * *
The doorto the bedroom opened as she switched over the channel on the television.
“Hey, little one.”
She glanced away from the television briefly then drew her pacifier from her mouth. “Hi, Daddy T.”
“What are you doing?”
“Watching TV.” Silly Daddy, couldn’t he see that? Mind you, he did look tired. “What you doin’, Daddy?”
“Checking up on my favorite girl.”
That should have made her squirm with happiness. But nothing made her happy at the moment.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?” he asked as he moved around the bed to sit down next to her. “What is this?” He picked up the Batman plate they’d bought yesterday. Wow, that felt so long ago.
“Batman plate,” she said.
“No, I mean the food. Is that chicken nuggets? Did Aric buy you fast food?”
“We got it delivered. Do you want it, Daddy?”
“Ah, no thanks. This sort of food isn’t good for you. Aric should know better.”
“I didn’t eat any of it, Daddy. You want me to order you something?”
“No thanks, little one. I can do it.”
“Okay.” She slid the pacifier back into her mouth.
“What are you watching?”
She drew it back out with an impatient sigh, staring at him. “I dunno. Some cartoon about a cat. It’s funny.”
“Would you like to have a bath with me?” he asked her.
“No, thank you, Daddy.”
“How about something else to eat?”
“No, thanks.”
“Would you like me to get you dressed?” he asked.
“No, thanks.”
“Little one, look at me.”
With a disgruntled sigh, she turned her gaze to his. Couldn’t he see she was busy? “Yes, Daddy?”
“Is everything all right?”
“Course Daddy, why wouldn’t it be?” She ignored his worried look and turned back to the television. Silly Daddy. Why was he worrying so much? She was just fine.
Sure, that’s why you’re hiding in Little space, not wanting to face reality. You’re being a coward.
Shut up, stupid adult voice.
“Matek is asking for you. We didn’t tell him everything or he would have pulled himself out of bed and dragged himself along on his hands if he had to in order to get to you.”
God. She wanted to see him so bad. Wanted to hold him. Wanted to tell him how sorry she was. How this was all her fault.
Guilt bubbled inside her stomach and she felt like vomiting up the protein drink that Aric had given her earlier. What would Matek think? What did Kassim think? Were they both angry at her?
“Little one? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Daddy.” She ignored the concern in Tavi’s eyes, as she started coloring.
At least for a small while she might be able to forget how much she’d messed up.
* * *
Kassim walked into her bedroom.
Carefully, he closed the door so as not to wake the two people sleeping in the bed. The light from the bathroom was on so the room wasn’t pitch black despite it being the early hours of the morning. He moved around to her side then knelt down just staring at her.
He closed his eyes and let the guilt envelop him.
He could have lost her.
What would he have done if he had lost her? If she’d been hurt? He was meant to protect her. That was his number one job.
A failure.
Never again. Never again would his brother lie in a hospital room, injured. Would his woman come close to being harmed.
He couldn’t be around her. Not until he’d made up for his failure.
Not until he deserved her.
