Rugged Daddy (Dark Daddy Doms Book 2)

by Ava Sinclair

  “I love you, too, little girl,” he says. “More than you’ll ever know.”

  Chapter Ten

  We get the call. The authorities moved fast, deciding that what I saw and heard was enough reason to get a judge known for a strong stance on environmental issues to issue an emergency order to go further. If I’m still willing to wear a wire, Joel tells us, they would like my help.

  It’s about to get real, and I’m glad we were contacted later in the day, otherwise it would have spoiled our lovely morning.

  Zane takes me shopping for clothes, and I quickly learn that he wasn’t kidding when he said he would spoil me. Who knew the same man who slayed an attacking bear would have such strong opinions about clothing? He has me model each pair of jeans, instructing me to turn so he can view me from all sides. At one point, I emerge from the dressing room to find him gone, only to have him appear a few moments later carrying several sweaters, one he says would complement my eye color.

  We leave with practical clothes, pretty clothes, shoes, underwear, and several sets of baby doll pajamas that he wickedly whispers make him hard to see on the hanger. My daddy is kinky as fuck, and I love it.

  I’m perfectly happy to ditch the old-fashioned dress that garnered curious looks when I enter the mall. I emerge fashionably dressed in hip-hugging jeans, a fitted sweater, vest jacket, and fur-lined boots accented with cute pom-poms.

  And now, here I sit several hours later, back in the town where it all started, in a van where I’m being wired by two officious wildlife agents. They coach me on the dos and don’ts. Act natural, they say. Don’t act in any manner or say anything that may tip him off. They run a number of mic checks, and tell me not to worry, that the mic won’t pick up the beat of my pounding heart.

  “Are you sure you’re up to this?” One of the officers looks at me with concern. I nod at her.

  “I’m fine,” I say, and they seem more convinced than I am.

  Finally, it’s time. It’s the middle of the afternoon, and I’m dropped off near the bus station. I linger there for a bit, listening as the officers continue to check the mic, asking me to repeat words as they say them. Finally, satisfied that everything is working, they give me the go-ahead to head to Workman Outfitters.

  It’s a small town, and the business isn’t far from the bus station. I keep my head down as I walk, not wanting to meet eyes with anyone who might recognize me. But what few people I pass are tourists. Finally, I reach the cabin with the hand-tooled wooden sign over the door. It’s new, and depicts two silhouetted hikers standing on a mountaintop. A couple walks out, smiling, with a handful of brochures. It seems that Workman’s cover business is still going strong.

  There are no clients in the office, and my former desk is now occupied by another petite brunette with the kind of manicure that assures me she did not apply to be a guide.

  She smiles warmly. “Can I help you?” Her accent is southern. Like me, she’s a long way from home.

  “Cindy, could you…” Ken Workman was preparing to give my replacement an order when he walked out of his office, but now he stops midsentence.

  “Well, well, well,” he says. “If it’s not the dirty quitter.”

  I hold my breath, waiting for him to say something about the money, but as it turns out, Zane was right. It appears my theft went undetected, because Ken Workman’s not concerned about his money so much as his pride.

  “Come begging for your job back, I suppose.”

  “Her job?” Cindy, who I suspects spells her name with an ‘i,’ scowls.

  “Yeah,” he says. “You’re her replacement.”

  “And a better one, I bet, right, honey?” She walks over and rubs Ken’s arm, eyeing me cattily. And were I not wearing the wire, I’d happily tell her she has nothing to worry about. But she’s given me an idea.

  “I never got the chance to prove myself,” I say.

  This gets Ken’s attention. “Cindy,” he says. “I need you to run down to Gruber’s and get us some more printer paper.”

  “But we don’t need…”

  “Go,” he says, and she jerks her purse off the back of the chair and leaves.

  We’re alone, me and the man who betrayed Zane. And worse. I just have to get him to admit it.

  He watches until she’s out the door, then turns back to me.

  “She’s not very good in the sack,” he says. “But I had to do something to pass the time before you came crawling back to me. I got tired of waiting.”

  Is he insane? The thought is so loud in my head for a moment I worry the mic will pick it up.

  “It was a good job,” I say. “But you promised me a bonus. I got tired of waiting, too.”

  “Well, about that…” He shakes his head. “If you’d stuck around for your performance review, I could have, ah…” He sighs, and I smell cigarettes on his breath. Gross. “I could have evaluated you.”

  “Look, Ken,” I say. “I know what you wanted. But I wasn’t hired to fuck you. Could something develop? Sure…” I call upon all my acting skills here. “But I was hurt. I wanted to be a guide.”

  He rolls his eyes then falls quiet, looking me up and down. His eyes linger on my legs and hips. His tongue darts out to lick his thin lips. “You know, you look even better than you did when you got on that bus and left.”

  “All right,” I say. “This was a mistake. You aren’t interested in working this out.”

  I’m taking a risk. It pays off. His hand is on my shoulder. “Hold up. Hold up, now…”

  I turn back and cross my arms. “What?”

  “You need to know something, Eva. I didn’t put you in the office because you weren’t qualified to be a guide. I put you in the office because the kind of trips I was taking folks on called for a different kind of guide. You couldn’t cut it, baby.”

  I look up at him, affecting a wounded look. “Why not? I may have handled this better if you had been honest. I mean, I noticed that some of the folks coming in looked like they could handle themselves without a guide.”

  “Hold on.” He walks over and looks out the window.

  “Looks like Cindy’s going to take a while. Good.” He regards me for a moment. “You really want this job back? Because I have to say, I’ve missed watching your ass when you walk across the office.”

  Ugh, I think. What a pig. But I drop my eyes and force my gaze to soften as I look at him.

  “I was stupid, okay?” I say. “I shouldn’t have left. A girl like me…” I shake my head. “It’s not like I’m going to find another job like this working for somebody like you.”

  Of course, he takes this as a compliment.

  “But you need to be honest with me. I can’t come back unless you let me know why you passed me over as a guide.” I pause. “Please tell me.”

  He looks out the window again. “Look. If you come back and play your cards right, I might let you guide part time. I’m starting to take on some regular tourists. Those guys we were guiding, we had to lay low on that.”

  “Why?”

  “Can you keep a secret?”

  “Sure.”

  “I can’t go into a lot of detail, but I’ve got some rich clients who enjoy going out on specialized trips, doing things most ladies like you wouldn’t want to see.

  “Look,” he continues. “I don’t want to say any more. But if you want your job back, come the spring, you can expect a nice fat raise. And maybe a trip to New York. Would you like that?”

  “I’ve never been to New York,” I say, forcing myself to inject some excitement into my voice.

  “Well, there’s a bunch of money waiting for me there, and I would love to spend it on you.”

  “How much money?” I giggle.

  “A lot.”

  I grow serious then. And I can almost imagine how the officers in the van will be freaking out when I ask the next question. They told me not to make him suspicious, but I’ve been around Ken Workman long enough to know what he thinks about women. He sees
us as walking pussies, and himself as superior.

  “All right,” I say. “I’ll come back then.” I incline my head toward the door. If I’m going to fool him, I’ll need to stay in character. “But I want her gone,” I say spitefully. “I don’t share.”

  “Lord, you women are jealous.” He laughs, delighted, and I realize he honestly believes me. “Fine… I’ll fire her.”

  He moves in for a kiss but I turn my head. “I want to see you do it,” I say.

  It feels cruel, what I’m about to do, but I realize that my judging Cindy as a bimbo makes me no better than him. What I’m about to do is for everyone’s own good, hers included. When she comes back inside, I stand watching as Ken Workman coldly tells Cindy that he’s giving me my old job back and that she’s fired.

  The look on her face almost makes me regret it.

  “Are you fucking kidding me, Kenny?”

  Kenny?

  “Hey,” he says. “Nothing personal. But I told you I had a history with the girl who used to sit at that desk…”

  Liar, I want to scream.

  “So you’re just getting rid of me? What about all the stuff you promised me? Like how you were going to take me to New York. To Chinatown when you went to see Mr. Chang?”

  I almost gasp. He’s had looser lips with this one.

  “Was that just a bullshit promise to get in my pants?” Tears spring to her eyes.

  She picks up the purse she dropped when she came in. “Fuck you,” she says to me. “And fuck you, too, Kenny. While you’re in New York, make sure you tell your bimbo here how you’ve been selling animals on the black market.”

  “Wait? What’s she talking about?” I ask, feigning surprise. I’ve taken a gamble and it’s paid off.

  “Nothing,” he says. “She’s just running her mouth. And the black market is bullshit. The resources out there…” he points to the window. “They don’t belong to the fucking government. They belong to whoever is smart enough to get them. As for you.” He points at Cindy. “Watch yourself. Bad things happen to people who get in my way. I once fucked my own stepbrother over for trying to keep me from what I wanted. So the best thing for you to do is to just keep your fucking mouth shut.”

  “You can both go straight to hell,” says Cindy, and I’m pleased that she’s more angry than hurt. If the agents caught it all, they’ll have her in the van before she gets to the end of the street. But I’m not out of the woods yet.

  “Fucking cunt,” he says, watching her go.

  “Was she making that up?” I ask, resuming the innocent act.

  “Yeah,” he says, and moves in again. “Where were we?”

  “Nowhere,” I say. “I’m having second thoughts.”

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “It was a test,” I lie. “I wanted to see if you’d just cast her aside for someone else. The way I see it, if you’d do that to her, you’d do that to me.”

  He looks at me in shock. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “No,” I say. “I changed my mind.”

  “Bitch,” he says as I leave. “You’ll regret this.”

  “Thank you,” I reply. “And no, I won’t.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Nothing is every quite as easy as it seems. In the movies, the agents swoop in and arrest the villain immediately. In real life, it doesn’t work that way. After I leave Workman Outfitters, I rendezvous with the officers. Just as I suspected, they’ve sent someone to talk to Cindy.

  “Was she willing to talk?” I ask.

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” says the agent who carefully removes my mic. “Would you be?” This last question is delivered with a wink and tells me all I need to know.

  Now, we have to wait. And in some ways that is harder. Before I got involved, I was dealing with the chance that I may have to deal with Ken Workman. Now, I have to deal with the reality. A few days after the wire is transcribed, a federal prosecutor calls me to his office. He asks me to bring Zane, confirms that he’s Ken’s stepbrother, and presses us about our relationship. When we tell him we are involved, he looks concerned.

  “The defense is going to make an issue of the fact that you’re involved with the stepbrother he admits he targeted. You may want to think about hiring an attorney.”

  The day before we leave town, Joel tells us that Ken Workman has been arrested on suspicion of trading in black market bear parts. Billy and Angus are arrested, too, and since the ranger is still refusing to admit collusion, I’m pretty sure everything is hinging on me and Cindy.

  I was expecting to leave town feeling a sense of relief, but as we head back to the cabin, Zane and I are both quiet.

  It’s a long tiring trip, but the logging roads are clear enough now to navigate by truck. When we are back home and settled, I make tea as Zane gets a furious Kali settled back in. When he arrives in the cabin, I usher him to the table. “We need to talk,” I say.

  “Do I even need to ask what this is about?” His face clouds in anger. “Goddamned Ken…”

  “If it hadn’t been this, it would have been something else,” I say. “But the fact of the matter is that living off the land is only possible if you don’t have other bills or responsibilities. I have to hire a lawyer, Zane. That means I have to get a job.” I pause and put my hand over his. “I can’t make any money out here. You can barely make any money out here.”

  I expect him to get angry, to slide back into resistance and denial, but instead he just runs his hand through his hair. His brow is furrowed with worry. I hate to see him like this. I hate seeing us like this.

  “I know,” he says.

  “Zane,” I say. “I want you to come with me.”

  “Eva…”

  “Please.” I don’t want to beg, but I can’t deny my raw need for him. “I can’t do this without you,” I say. “And I’m not talking about money. I can get a job. But I’ve gotten used to having you to lean on, to having you by my side. You’re my strength, Zane.”

  He reaches out and cups my chin in his hand. “Baby, I want to be as strong as you think I am. It was easy being back there, but I knew we’d be coming back. We’ve talked about moving back to civilization, but I’ve been seeing it as something down the road.”

  “The road has come to us,” I say. “I have to get ready.”

  He tells me he needs to think about it. I tell him I understand. I busy myself making a nice homecoming meal. As I cook, I marvel at all the things I’ve learned to do without technology, from heating the stove to making the bread from scratch. I feel stronger than I did when I left, more self-sufficient. I feel like someone who could survive on her own. It occurs to me that I probably could make it without Zane, but now I’m strong enough to admit that I need him nonetheless. I believe we could make it, that we could continue our unusual dynamic, with me being his little girl when we needed it, behind closed doors, but being an adult partner when we needed that, too.

  But his hesitation makes me wonder if he feels the same. Does he see our time in town differently? Did he feel as comfortable as I did?

  He comes in later. I ask him where he went. He tells me he went walking. We have a nice meal, complete with a rare bottle of wine I begged him to let us bring back. Afterwards, he stands.

  “Come on,” he says.

  “Where?” I ask.

  He holds out his hand. “Don’t ask questions, little girl.”

  I take his hand, leaving the dishes for later. He leads me outside. It’s late in the day, and cold. The setting sun casts long shadows on the snow. He keeps hold of my hand, but doesn’t take me to the trail. Instead, we head into the trees, where we navigate between scratchy limbs before picking up a deer path. We continue on and come to a rocky outcrop. Zane stands back.

  “What do you think?”

  I can barely speak. It’s the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. The sun looks like it’s melted down into a fluorescent watercolor strip behind the craggy mountain peaks.
/>   “This is my secret place,” he says. “I’m sorry I’ve not shared it with you until now. It’s my thinking spot. It’s prettiest this time of day, but no matter what time you come out here, you are guaranteed a perfect view.” He points over to some rocks. “Over there is a rookery. A family of ravens raises their young there every year. One year a mama eagle tried to take their nest and she ran them off.” He puts his arm around me. “Damn, I’m going to miss this place.”

  I look at him, shocked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on, little girl, you think we’re going to find something like this in the city? We’re going to have to haul our asses out here to see this kind of sunset. But on the other hand, we’ll have running water and coffee shops.”

  I launch myself at him. “Are you sure?” I ask, burying my face in his chest. “I love you so much. I want you to be happy.”

  “Little girl, sunsets are nothing without someone to share them with. A bad change brought me out here. I don’t regret coming.” He hugs me to his chest. “A good change is taking me back. You restored my faith in people, Eva. I can’t imagine being anywhere in this world without you.”

  He carries me back to the cabin, which isn’t easy. The limbs pull at my clothes, and as he walks, Zane tells me how he carried me from where he found me in the cave, how carefully he undressed me, how hard it was to not have carnal thoughts about the helpless woman on his bed. He tells me this as he undresses me now, carefully removing my boots, my socks, my pants, my shirt, my underwear.

  He dresses me lovingly in the baby doll pajamas that he picked out, continuing to tell me how he sat by my bed, feeding and caring for me, even changing the diaper. I would have been aghast to hear such a description before all this, but now I’m touched, and touched again as his hands move under the nightie, rubbing my nipples to aching peaks.

  “Why’d you put this on me if you’re just going to turn around and take it off?” I ask.

  “Who says I’m going to take it off?” He cocks a brow. “I think that lacy little hem will make a nice frame for that pretty ass when I put my new toy in it.”