Claimed by her Daddies

by Roberts, Laylah

  “You and Tavi where?”

  “In the room with the copier,” she whispered. “He was kissing me and other things.” Things she didn’t want to mention in front of Judd.

  “What the fuck? Who would send those to you?” Aric asked.

  “And how would they get them?” Judd wondered.

  “I think they were off a video feed maybe,” she said. “They were grainy. Not good quality and black and white.”

  “What kind of message is that to send? What did they hope to gain?” Aric wondered.

  “Was there a note?” Judd asked.

  She looked over at him and nodded. “On the back, it said: Slut, leave them alone or else.

  Tell anyone and they die.”

  “Do you still have them, Pippa?” Judd asked.

  “They’re at my cottage. In my bedside drawers.”

  “I’ll call Caleb, get him to grab them. We might be able to get prints. Did you tell anyone?” Judd asked.

  “No,” she whispered. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I still don’t. But Matek has been hurt. What if it’s related? I mean, maybe that’s far-fetched. But if it’s not then maybe someone thinks I talked or they’re angry I didn’t stay away from you all and they tried to kill Matek.”

  “Or they tried to kill you,” Aric said grimly. “Pippa, there’s something we didn’t tell you.”

  * * *

  Aric watched her face grow pale as he told her about the attack on her in the alley.

  “I didn’t fall?”

  “No, Poppet. Someone attacked you.”

  “I don’t remember.” She rubbed her temples as though she had a headache.

  “I know, but the doctor said that’s perfectly normal after a concussion.”

  “But I didn’t remember about the photos either.” She looked so small and shaken. It was killing him. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms, but he was worried she’d shy away from him again.

  Be the person she needs right now. Strong. In control.

  He’d been worried that she’d only ever see him as a jokester, someone who didn’t take anything seriously. This was his opportunity to show her that he could be all things to her. Someone she could have pranks with and play mini-golf or go shopping. And someone she could lean on when things were rough, who she could cede control to if she needed to. Someone who could be her man and her Daddy, if that’s what she needed.

  So he shored up his confidence and sat next to her. Then he lifted her onto his lap. She was tense but he just kept his arms around her. He was aware of Judd in the background, speaking on the phone. Probably updating Caleb and Kassim.

  Aric gently took hold of her chin, tilting her face back. “None of this is your fault, Poppet.”

  “How isn’t it? Someone sends me a message to stay away from you guys. I damn well forget about it and then Matek gets hurt.”

  “Yes, but it seems that it is you who are the one in danger, not us.”

  “But Matek got hurt.”

  “Matek wasn’t even supposed to be there, remember? He pushed you out of the way. The car was aimed for you. Someone attacked you. We need more protection for you.”

  She wriggled on his lap. “Why didn’t you guys tell me? I had a right to know I was attacked.”

  Aric sighed. “I wanted to, but Kassim made the point that you weren’t supposed to be stressed.”

  “Fine, I get that. But after a few days, you should have told me. Before I got on the plane, you should have told me.”

  “You’re right,” he agreed, seeing her eyes flare with surprise. “We should have. Then this might not have happened. So it’s our fault, not yours.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because we want to shelter you, protect you.”

  “But you can’t keep things from me when they affect me. Then things like this happen. If I’d known I was in danger . . .”

  “Yes? Then what? You’d have taken more care? Or you’d have run from us like you just tried to do?”

  A guilty look crossed her face and he started to understand exactly why Kassim had held this back from her. She’d do whatever she had to do to protect them.

  The thing she didn’t seem to realize is that they would do the same for her.

  “Poppet, we held information back to protect you. But as soon as you found that envelope, you should have told us.”

  “I couldn’t. They threatened you.”

  “They hurt you,” he said fiercely. “And you are more important than us. You are the most important person in our world.” And he would tell her that every day if he needed to.

  She fought her way out of his hold and started pacing back and forth. “Who could do this? Why? Why would anyone want me to stay away from you guys? Who could have access to those images? Why would they hurt me?”

  As she paced, she tugged at her hair. She was utterly exhausted, running on steam and he knew she’d crash at some stage. But he’d rather get her into bed before that happened.

  “Those are all good questions,” Judd said, coming over to them. “Kassim wants to talk to you, Aric.”

  He took the phone reluctantly, keeping his gaze on Pippa. He was aware of how many times she looked over at the door. As though planning her escape.

  Not happening, baby.

  “Kassim,” he said.

  “How is she?” Kassim shot out.

  “About as good as you’d expect. Blaming herself for Matek getting hurt.”

  “Is he awake?” she demanded, looking over at him. “Let me talk to Kassim. Tell him I’m coming back to the hospital. I need . . . I need to see Matek.”

  “She wants to come back to the hospital. She wants to know if Matek is awake. I think she plans on coming to see him then leaving us.”

  She shot him a nasty look, holding out her hand imperiously.

  Uh-uh, Poppet. You’re not in charge right now.

  “She’s not to come here. From what Judd told me she’s nearly hysterical. Matek did wake briefly and asked for her, but do not tell her that. You’re to keep her there where it’s safer. We can’t keep her well-guarded here. And besides that, she’s supposed to be resting.”

  “I know. I didn’t plan on letting her leave.”

  “Fuck. I can’t believe this happened. That she was threatened and we didn’t fucking know.”

  Aric’s eyebrows rose as his normally proper, stoic brother swore. But he got it. These were not normal circumstances.

  “Do you need one of us to come back to help with her?”

  “No,” he said firmly. “I got this. You stay with Matek. We can swap around later.”

  “Right. I’m going to see about getting us more protection for her. I think Jameson might know some people. Ex-MI6.”

  “You organize that. I have our girl.”

  Aric ended the call and stood, handing the phone to Judd. “I’m going to take Pippa back to bed. Don’t disturb us unless it’s urgent.”

  “You got it,” Judd said. “I’m going to stay on duty for another few hours to let Hux sleep then we’ll swap out. We’ll be out here, watching the door.”

  “I want to go to the hospital,” she demanded.

  “Not happening. You need to rest. And it’s not as easy to keep you protected at the hospital.”

  Judd grunted in agreement. He knew having one of them in the hospital had to make his job more difficult. Hopefully, Matek healed quickly. His brother wouldn’t like being bed-ridden so he was likely going to push his recovery.

  “I just want to see Matek before I . . .”

  “Before you what? Leave us?” he asked in a hard voice.

  She looked devastated for a moment then she firmed her shoulders. “It’s for the best.”

  “No, you think it is. But what is for the best is for you to trust us to take care of this.”

  Pippa stared at him, her eyes swimming with tears. “But what if you get hurt? What if something else happens? Matek could have died . . . I can’t. I can’t do this,
Aric. I have to go.”

  “Pippa, no.”

  He grasped hold of her arms. She fought him, pulling at his hold. Her breath was heaving in and out of her lungs.

  “Pippa, calm down.”

  “No, let me go.”

  Fuck. Shit.

  “Damn it.” He bent and put his shoulder to her tummy, lifting her over his shoulder.

  “Aric!” she cried. “Put me down.” She slammed her fists against his back.

  Slap! Slap!

  He gave her ass several smacks. He immediately felt bad. She was only trying to protect them. He couldn’t blame her for losing it like this. She had to feel completely out-of-control, she was floundering.

  That was why she needed him to be firm. If he started giving in, she’d take that as weakness and she’d push him. And he couldn’t allow her to leave. Not with her safety at stake. And if she continued like this, she’d likely make herself ill.

  Totally unacceptable.

  “Put. Me. Down.” She squirmed around on his shoulder and he gave two more smacks as she attempted to knee him in the gut. One arm went over her legs as he moved towards the bedroom.

  “Stop it! You have no right to do this!”

  “I do when you’re about to put yourself at risk because you think you need to protect us.”

  “So? Wouldn’t you do the same for me?” she asked as he stopped into the bedroom.

  “If I set you down, will you run?”

  “Yes!”

  “Little hell cat. Settle down.”

  Smack! Smack!

  “Asshole!” she screeched.

  Smack! Smack!

  “Put me down!”

  “I will once you calm down and agree that you’re going nowhere.”

  She went slack. Her breathing deep. His suspicions were aroused. That felt too easy. But he had to follow through so he set her down on the bed. She immediately tried to roll off but he crawled over her, grasping hold of her wrists in one hand.

  Part of him thought this was wrong. He shouldn’t just take control of her body. But the other part of him was terrified that if he didn’t, she’d walk out of here and get herself killed.

  “I would protect you until my last breath.”

  “So? Why are you doing this? Let me go. If I leave, you’ll be safe.”

  “You don’t know that. You don’t know what this person will do. I might be safe, or I might not. But the one person who won’t be safe, is you. They’ve already shown they’re willing to hurt you.”

  “But I don’t want them to hurt any of you!”

  “Don’t take the fact that we have bodyguards to mean that we can’t take care of ourselves. And you. But you need to let us.”

  “Matek ended up in the hospital!”

  “He protected you. Are you going to make his sacrifice for nothing? Are you willing to just throw your life away so easily? Does it mean nothing to you? Do our lives mean nothing to you?”

  “Of course they do, that’s why I’m doing this.”

  “No, because if you knew what you meant to us you’d realize that not having you in our lives would be the worst thing we could suffer.”

  “Aric,” she said quietly.

  “I love you, Pippa,” he told her. “All I want is you. In my life, in my arms. But you need to trust me.”

  He loved her. It was the first time he’d said it. But he wasn’t expecting her to say it back. Not yet, anyway.

  “I can’t lose anyone else. I can’t.” The fight slumped out of her.

  “I know. I know you can’t. Just like we can’t lose you.” He lay on his back on the bed and rolled her on top of him. She burst into tears, burying her face into his chest.

  He ran his hands up and down her back. “Easy, Poppet, easy. I have you. I have you.” As much as he hated to hear her cry, he knew that she had to get all of those emotions out. That she’d been bottling them up.

  “I’m s-so sorry I h-hit you.”

  “Hush, you don’t need to worry about that. I barely even felt those puny smacks anyway.”

  “Hey!” She leaned up to glare down at him. Her eyes were swollen and puffy, her cheeks were pale except for two splotches of bright red. He had to get her to drink something. He doubted she’d eat but he had brought some protein powder with him. He could make her up a drink.

  “Promise me you’re not going to try and leave us. We’re stronger together.”

  “Do you think the others will be upset with me?”

  “They will be upset if you leave,” he told her.

  “I’m so scared of something happening to one of you.”

  “I know, Poppet. I can’t promise it won’t. All I can promise is that we’ll take very good care of ourselves. And of you.”

  She slumped against him. He squeezed her tight. “You need sleep. And something to fuel you. I’m going to get you back into your pajamas and you can curl up with Cranky and your pacifier while I make you a drink.”

  “Don’t wanna drink.”

  “Not even in your new Batman bottle?”

  She eyed him. “That’s bribery.”

  “I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get you to drink something.”

  “Hmm, anything, huh?”

  She was putting on a good show, but he could see the exhaustion and fear in her gaze. “Everything will be all right, Pippa.”

  * * *

  She snuggled under the covers. She knew that she shouldn’t be here. That she should go. But Aric’s words kept playing in her head. What would she gain by leaving? Sure, they might be safe. But who knew what this crazy person wanted?

  Should she trust them to look after her? After themselves? The idea of losing one of them was devastating. But so was walking away from them all.

  She was so confused.

  All she wanted to do was hide. From the fear, the worry. She cuddled Cranky close as Aric returned. She sucked on her pacifier to ease her anxiety.

  He was carrying the bottle they’d bought today. She hadn’t been too certain about using it at the time. Now, it seemed nearly perfect.

  Instead of just handing it to her like she’d expected, he climbed in under the covers and drew her into his chest, pushing the nipple to her mouth.

  “Just drink,” he whispered. “Don’t think. Don’t dream. Just drink and sleep. I’ll keep everything else at bay.”

  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.

&nb
sp; “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.”