“You’re not serious about her driving your truck, right?” Zander asked without greeting Linc.
“It’s good to see you, man. It’s been a while,” Linc said. “And no, I think it’s clear she can’t safely drive it.”
Zander grunted.
Linc turned and lifted her down, giving her a wink. She slipped her hand into his, feeling uncertain.
“Zander, this is Marisol. Mari-girl, Zander. He works for JSI.”
Another noise came from Zander. She couldn’t work out if he was agreeing with Linc or not. She held out her hand and Zander just stared at it.
“Um, Zander doesn’t shake hands, teeny,” Linc told her gently.
Okay.
Linc squeezed the hand he held in comfort.
“What’s up? Do you need something?” Linc asked him.
“Heard you got trouble with the Devil’s Sinners,” Zander said.
“Ah, yeah. Kent spoke to you?”
Zander just crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Linc.
“How did you get here so quickly?” Linc asked.
“I’m superman,” Zander said.
Wait. Was that a joke? She looked up at Linc, unsure. He appeared just as confused.
“I was also in the area when Kent called. Need to talk to him about increasing the security for the ranch. I snuck in without setting off any alarms.”
“I’m sure he’ll enjoy that conversation,” Linc said dryly.
“Yes.”
Was he serious? Did he not understand that Linc was being sarcastic? She just couldn’t tell.
“And you have no security on your cabin. The door was unlocked.”
She moved closer to Linc as Zander gave him a disapproving look.
Linc wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Zander tilted his head slightly as he studied her. “Are you scared of me?”
Okay. She hadn’t expected him to ask her that outright. “You’re a bit intimidating.”
He just nodded. He didn’t offer any reassurances. He was an odd guy.
Zander turned to Linc. “Are you inviting me in or are we having this conversation out here?”
“Conversation?” Linc asked.
“About what to do about the Devil’s Sinners.”
“Oh right. Yep. Come in. Ahh, Mari needs her lunch soon, though.”
“Would you like to stay for lunch?” Marisol asked, thinking they should be polite since it sounded like he was here to help them.
Zander watched her as though confused by the offer. “No. Thank you. I like to prepare my own food. Less likelihood of being poisoned.”
“Poisoned? You mean food poisoning?”
“That too.”
That too? Who was this guy?
“This won’t take long,” Zander said.
“Sure. Come in, we’ll talk in my office.” Linc took her hand again, leading her into the house.
“Your doors should be locked,” Zander lectured. “And you need an alarm system. Do you have a weapon?”
“I’ve got a rifle.”
Zander shook his head, looking incredulous. “You need a weapon in every room. Loaded and hidden.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Linc said. “And it would be dangerous with Mari around.”
Zander glanced down at her. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
She shook her head as Linc stripped off her jacket, scarf and hat, putting them away. The foyer was already pretty small, with Zander in here, it felt tiny.
Marisol really didn’t want to learn how to fire a gun.
“She should know how to use one. Everyone on the ranch should,” Zander countered.
“The ranch is a safe place to live.”
“Doesn’t mean trouble won’t come here. Always be prepared for the worst. I told Clint to build a safe room into each cabin. Didn’t listen to me. I have one in each of my houses.”
A safe room? Guns? Self-defense? One in each of his houses?
She looked at Linc in alarm. He smoothed back her hair. “Why don’t you go rest for a while, teeny. Read Caley’s book. I’ll put some leftovers in the oven to heat. We’ll eat in about forty-five minutes, okay?”
“Don’t you need me for this meeting?”
“I’ve got it.”
Zander gave her a nod. Linc led him into his office and she raced off gratefully. Even if she did feel a bit guilty about leaving Zander to Linc.
Linc led Zander into his small office. “Take a seat.”
“I don’t like to sit,” Zander replied, leaning against the back wall and staring out the window. Linc sat with a sigh. He hadn’t had much to do with Zander, even though the other man had worked for JSI for years.
Blunt and eccentric, Zander didn’t live here on the ranch. Nobody knew exactly where he lived most of the time. Doc had to go and help him a few months back when he was shot, but he said he’d been blindfolded before being driven to him.
Paranoid.
Rumors were he had his own small group of mercenaries that he led. Linc wasn’t sure why he even continued to work for Kent.
Anyway, none of that mattered right now.
“Kent told me everything he knows. Can you go over it in case he missed anything,” Zander said jumping straight into business. He didn’t really do small talk.
Linc told him everything that had happened with Tiger and Marisol.
“You want him taken out?” Zander asked bluntly.
Yes. Fuck. He didn’t want this asshole breathing the same air as his girl. But could he order his murder and live with that on his conscience? “I’d like to know where he is. Maybe deliver a message.”
Zander just raised an eyebrow. “Guys like that, they don’t usually take messages like that well.”
“If we kill him then Saber will have all of his men gunning for us.”
Zander frowned. “Saber needs to go, too.”
“You know him?” It was weird Zander turning up like this. He never came to the ranch.
“Got some business with him.”
“So this is personal?”
Zander just stared at him. “My guys and I will find Tiger. Figure things out from there. Deliver a message. Marisol needs to stay here, under close watch. We can’t have them figuring out where she is. Gonna tell Kent to lock down everyone as much as possible. Nobody leaves the ranch alone.”
“Do you think that’s necessary?” Linc asked. “He doesn’t know where she is.”
“If he’s obsessed with her, he’ll be searching for her. And you’ve been seen with her recently. He might be a dumb fuck, but he’s not that stupid.”
Zander just grunted and opened the office door. Then he stilled. “You need a proper car seat for her.”
Before Linc could answer, he was gone.
25
“So he’s going to track down Tiger?”
Linc looked up from the whiteboard he was writing on to see that Marisol had barely touched her lunch. Shit. His fault. He knew better than to talk about anything upsetting when she was eating. Her mood affected her hunger.
“He is. And he’s the best tracker there is. He’ll find him.”
“He’s unusual,” she said carefully.
“I know. But if he says he’ll do something then he does it. Now, that’s enough talk about that. Eat your lunch, please. Or would you like Daddy to feed you?”
She pulled a face but spooned up some lunch. “But—”
“Marisol, I’m serious. That’s going down as a rule.”
“What is?”
“No serious talk while eating. Now, after lunch we’ll go through your rules then you can have a nap while I work. After your nap, would you like to read?”
She crossed her arms over her chest with a glare. “I don’t need rules. I definitely don’t need a rule about not talking about serious stuff while eating.”
“Really? Because you don’t seem to be eating.”
“Maybe I’m just not hungry.
“Or maybe yo
u need Daddy’s help.” He dragged her plate over towards him, stealing her fork.
“Hey! Daddy!”
“Since you’re not eating, Daddy is going to help you.” He spooned up some food. “Open wide like a tyrannosaurus rex.”
“Daddy!” She laughed. “I’m not a dinosaur.” But she opened her mouth obediently.
“That’s it. Good girl.”
“You’re meant to say open up for the choo-choo train.”
“I am? That doesn’t seem nearly as exciting. What about here comes the princess’s unicorn flying through the air, ready to land?”
She opened her mouth and he gave her another mouthful. “That’s better, Daddy.”
“You’re a good girl to open your mouth so obediently for Daddy.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “I’ll have to remember that for later.”
She blushed as he’d thought she would. “Daddy!”
“What?” he said with mock-innocence. “I was talking about for dinner. Dirty-minded girl. Here comes another unicorn!”
After she’d eaten enough to satisfy him, he sent her into the living room to read while he tidied up. He looked down at the whiteboard of rules he’d started creating. Picking it up, he walked into his office to grab another whiteboard as well as a spare notebook.
When he walked into the living room, she looked up, her gaze narrowing in on the whiteboards.
“It was a two-pack,” he explained with a grin.
She rolled her eyes.
“Right, time to talk about rules. Put down your eReader, please.”
“But I’m reading, Daddy.”
“You can have ten minutes of reading time before your nap, but you need to put the eReader down and listen to Daddy.”
“Don’t wanna.”
He had to bite back a smile at her show of rebellion. He took it as a sign that she was now more relaxed around him. Although he didn’t intend to let her see how amused he was.
“Marisol. You have until the count of three to put the eReader down and listen to Daddy.”
She didn’t appear to even hear what he said.
“One.”
She didn’t look up.
“Two.”
Nothing.
“Three.”
He plucked the eReader out of her hands and turned it off. She sat up straight. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”
“No more reading until after your nap.”
“What? Noooo. That’s not fair!”
“Daddy needs to talk to you about your rules. And you need to pay attention. Which you can’t do with your eReader in your hands.”
“Daddy. That’s just mean.”
“Daddy is very mean,” he agreed, writing on the rules’ whiteboard.
“And I don’t need a nap.”
“Sure you don’t, teeny.”
“I won’t sleep. I’ll just lie there, bored out of my mind.”
“As long as you stay in bed for the whole hour, that’s fine,” he told her.
“A whole hour! This is cruel and unusual punishment.”
“It’s terrible,” Linc agreed as he continued to write on the whiteboard. “Not sure how you put up with me. I figure you’re only with me because of my looks.”
“You’re definitely good eye candy.”
He put down the whiteboard and leapt towards her, tickling her until she begged for mercy.
“I have to pee.”
He chuckled as she raced off to the toilet. Little brat. When she returned, he was looking down at his list of rules with satisfaction.
“There, I think we’ve got most of the rules. No doubt more will come up but I reckon that covers it for now. What do you think?” he asked her as she sat next to him, turning the board towards her.
Marisol gave him a skeptical look.
“What? You think I missed some? Let’s see what we’ve got. Mari’s list of rules. No lying. She must talk to Daddy if something is worrying or upsetting her—”
“Those rules apply to Daddy too, right,” she interjected.
“Of course. Next rule. No going anywhere without Daddy’s knowledge. That’s not me being a controlling jerk. It’s about safety. I simply want to know where you’re going and when you think you’ll be back. You can’t leave the ranch until we’ve decided that it’s safe. And until you’re more knowledgeable of the ranch, I’d prefer that you didn’t walk around on your own. If you want to visit one of the other Littles or go on a walk, tell me. I’ll take you. I don’t want you getting lost. Okay?”
“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.”
“If someone like Abby comes to visit and asks you to go to her place or one of the other Littles’ houses, just send me a text okay? Not trying to keep you locked up. But I would like to know where you are. Coming home and finding you gone would have me panicking and sending out a search party.”
“All right, Daddy.”
“Next rule. No walking while reading.”
“Okay.”
“You must always wear a seatbelt, no matter if you’re on the road or the ranch.”
She sighed dramatically. “Fine, Daddy.”
“And if you ever are driving, you must drive safely, which means no speeding or using your phone while driving. And no driving my truck.”
“I still think I could manage it.”
“Teeny, you can’t even see out the front window. I ever catch you trying to drive it and you’re getting my belt. Breaking a health and safety rule will always result in you getting a hot ass. And those punishments will be done as soon as is safely possible.”
Damn, she was cute when she pouted.
“Next rule. No talking down about yourself. That’s very important. You’ve had a small punishment, but the next time you do this, the punishment will be much harder.”
She nibbled at her lower lip nervously. “Okay, Daddy. Although for the record, I thought that punishment was plenty hard.”
“Did you? No talking about serious topics while eating. No moving from Daddy’s lap without his permission. When you are Little, you will not swear and you will address Daddy as the most wonderful, handsome Daddy in the world.”
“What? Daddy, that’s not in there!” She glared at him as he stared down at the list in mock-surprise.
“It’s not? It should be!”
She rolled her eyes at him. Little brat.
“Fine. I won’t put that in there. But you can feel free to call me that whenever you like.”
“Thank you, Daddy. I’ll keep that in mind,” she said dryly.
“No doing anything that might put you in danger.”
“That seems rather vague.”
“Well, I couldn’t put down every example. But anything that might put you at risk is a no. Understand?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“No panties unless Daddy puts them on you or grants permission.”
She huffed out a breath but there was no real protest.
“Bedtime is nine-thirty.”
“Nine-thirty!” she exclaimed. “But I can read in bed, right?”
“No way. Doc said no devices right before sleep.”
“I’ll get some paperbacks then.”
“Nope.”
“But what will I do? I can’t go to sleep at nine-thirty.”
“I can think of one or two things.” He gave her a pointed look.
She blushed at his pointed look. “Oh.”
Oh? Was that all she had to say? She was so cute sometimes.
“Now, in this notebook, I figured you might want to keep track of what you eat and when. We could leave it in the kitchen. What do you think?”
“I guess it would be a good idea. What if I forget to do it or write it down, though?”
“Well, I guess that depends on you. If you want my help, I can do that. But this is up to you. I want to help you be as healthy as possible because I don’t like the idea of my baby ill or injured. Why don’t we see how things go first, okay? When you’re in Little h
eadspace, I’ll take more responsibility, but you need to tell me if something I’m doing is wrong or if you feel unwell. That’s very important So I figure this will help me too.”
“Okay, Daddy. That makes sense.”
He wrote out breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as three snacks on the first page, leaving room for her to write next to each heading.
“You sure do love being organized, Daddy,” she told him. Then she wrinkled her nose adorably as she saw what was going on the top of the next whiteboard.
Mari’s Naughty Girl Chart.
“Daddy, we really don’t need that.”
“Oh, I think we do. This will help Daddy keep track of your behavior so he doesn’t miss anything. Each evening we can count up how many ticks you have. I don’t want to wait until the end of the week. I have a feeling there could be quite a few on there by then.”
“Daddy. I is not naughty!”
“Uh-huh. We’ll see. Now, health and safety rules get an immediate spanking and several ticks on the chart, just so you know.”
He placed her rules and naughty girl chart on the mantel above the fireplace while she sulked.
“Hey.” He crouched down in front of her, gently placing his hands on her thighs. “Is this too much? I mean, you haven’t agreed to be totally mine so maybe I should have waited, huh? I think I got too excited. We can adjust the boards or even get rid of them if you’d prefer.”
Marisol saw the wistfulness in Linc’s gaze as he stood and took a step towards the boards.
“No.” She reached up and grabbed hold of his hand.
He looked down at her.
She shook her head. “It’s not too fast. I want . . . the boards. The truth is, the rules make me feel . . .”
Damn it. She couldn’t believe she was going to admit this.
“They make me feel secure. Cared for.” Loved. “My aunt never cared much about what I did as long as I kept the house tidy, did my work and kept out of her way. She never cared about my safety or health.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. It’s just a lot of changes. Living here. Being free to explore my Little side. Having you as my Daddy.” She gave him a shy look. “I really like it here. With you.” And she definitely never wanted to leave. She opened her mouth to tell him that, but the words wouldn’t come. And she thought she knew why. Because despite his reassurances, there was still a worry in the back of her mind that he would leave her.
Daddy in Cowboy Boots (Montana Daddies Book 9) Page 24
