“Paradise with that woman there too?” Bane chuckled. “I hear she’s giving you hell?”
I glared at Hades. “Yeah, the teacher isn’t as sweet as I’d been informed,” I growled, staring out of the doorway.
“Well, that one isn’t my problem unless you want her to disappear.”
“She’s holding Franny together.”
“I’ll assume that you should be nice then, Jameson.”
“I am nice.”
He sighed. “Probably nicer than me, I guess. Want me to send Pink there to keep her company?”
“No. Nobody wants Pink here. She’s more of a menace than both of us.”
Franny called my name from the doorway, and I turned to see her standing with her dog, Malek. Why she picked the meanest looking Doberman out of the litter a year ago was beyond me, but I loved how he stood next to her—and me when she wasn’t around—most of the day like he knew his job. Protect us at all costs.
“If Pink wants to come visit, I would like that, Daddy.”
Bane’s laugh was almost evil. “Well, Franny has spoken. The women will be filtering through to vet this Mia woman anyway. Make sure she’s an ally rather than an enemy.”
“No, I don’t want—” He hung up.
Then Franny sighed, resting her head on Malek’s forehead. “You’re always on the phone, Daddy.”
“Franny, honey, I have to work.”
“Uncle Bane is work?” Franny had about a billion uncles in her mind. They were like family even if they weren’t blood.
Bane Black ran the West Coast territory of the syndicate out of his Black Diamond Resort and Casino. And although his territory was a lot dirtier than mine and embroiled in money laundering, murder, and much more scandal, he was family. Most of our alliances were.
“Uncle Bane is sometimes work for me, but he’s always just your uncle, okay?”
“Okay.” She sighed and twisted the tulle from a black dress she always wore when she was feeling particularly blue. The syndicate had done this. My job, my position, my duty.
It didn’t negate that I had another duty to her now as the only parent in her life. She needed me to do more than just be a dad.
I got down on her level, kneeling before her, and brushed a curl from her shoulder. “How was the movie?” Rosy had taken her to the theater room with candy and popcorn about an hour ago.
“I think the cat was about to die, so I made Rosy turn it off. I don’t want to die. Ms. Darling doesn’t either. She screamed when we brought her here. Do you think she thinks this place is going to kill her?”
The child asked the most morbid questions some days. “Franny, no. What would make you think that?”
She hummed. “I don’t know, but maybe you could get her a Band-Aid. She told me her ouchie didn’t hurt, but there was lots of blood.”
“Right.” I closed my eyes in frustration. “Hades, can you take Franny to her room? I’ll get Mia a first aid kit.”
Franny shrugged at Hades but reiterated to me again, “Be nice to her, Daddy. Her wrist hurts.”
And that’s how I ended up right back in her room with bandages like I was a dumbass doctor there to fix her.
Fixing her attitude, though, was going to take a lot more than a bandage.
Mia
HE RETURNED WITH BANDAGES, a first aid kit, and a look of remorse. Jameson Knight was only supposed to be the drop-dead gorgeous dad who never talked to me but who I got to stare at from afar every day.
He was not supposed to be a man I had to live with. A man who drugged me, locked me in a room, and then offered to take care of me.
