"Then we have a chance at getting higher into the structure." He held her gaze. "Diaz knows. She's coordinating with the Kansas City field office."
"And Dozer?—"
"Has resources and access that work faster than federal channels in some respects." He paused. "He's good. I trust him. He’s one of us, former special operations. He works for a company that Rider runs. A private security firm of sorts. His boss is one of my best friends, I would have called him but he’s out of the country with his girlfriend."
She nodded. Let it settle. Looked at her coffee.
"I want him caught," she said. Not with heat. Just simple and clear and direct. "I need you to know that. Not for me. For the other women."
"We’ll catch him."
"Whatever I can do. I meant that."
"I know that too." He looked at her across the table. "Right now what you can do is exactly what you've been doing. Staying here, staying grounded. You're the evidence. You staying safe and intact is part of how this gets resolved. I hope to God you aren’t the only surviving witness, but if you are… your testimony is vital."
She nodded. Picked up her mug and took a long drink. He’d made it exactly like she told him she liked it the first day here.
"I slept," she said, because it felt relevant. "Actually, slept. All night."
Something changed in his face, was it relief? "Good."
"I think—" She stopped. Decided to say it. "I think that was because of last night. Because you came in."
He was quiet.
"I'm not saying it as a — I'm just telling you, because you should know that it helped. Specifically." She kept her eyes on her mug. "Playing with my hair and you just being there, helped."
The kitchen was very quiet.
"Okay," he said, in the voice that wasn't justokay, that wasI'm keeping this, I'm adding it to what I know about you, this matters.She’d discovered he was a man of few words but if you listened to the tone and watched his body language, he actually said a lot between the lines.
She looked up at him. He was looking at her with that direct, level attention that she'd stopped flinching from sometime in the last week, the attention that saidI see exactly what's here and I'm not going anywhere.
“I’m not sure what I’ve done to earn this,” she said.
“Earn what?”
“The care you’ve shown me. In the shower, last night…”
“You don’t have to earn care, little girl. I hope you learn to accept it without feeling guilty about it. It brings me pleasureto care for you. More pleasure than I get from doing literally anything else.”
He looked at her for a long moment. Outside, Clover was in the yard, doing his morning assessment of the fence posts. The coffee maker clicked and hissed on the counter.
"This will be easier between us when you stop being afraid of wanting it," he said. “And let me be your Daddy fully. I won’t pressure you. Take all the time you need. Ask me for what you need and I will always give it to you.”
She absorbed that.
"That's very insightful," she said.
"You are worth paying attention to."
She looked at her coffee. At his hands flat on the table across from hers, close enough that the distance between them was a deliberate thing, a thing that existed because he was choosing to hold it until she didn't need him to anymore.
"I'm working on it," she said. "The afraid part."
"I know you are."
"I'm faster at some things than others."
