Page 58 of Her Hero Daddy

He took in a deep breath and walked over to the table, sitting in the chair next to hers. He picked up a piece of her toast and held it up to her lips.

“Open for Daddy.”

She stared at him blankly. Why was he ignoring her question? He furrowed his brow at her, and she quickly opened her mouth for a bite. His eyes watched her with such intensity that she had to lower her gaze from his. Something was wrong.

“Open,” he said again, holding another piece up to her mouth.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

“Open for a bite, Haylee.”

“Kane…”

“Take a bite.”

“Daddy!”

Her eyes went wide, as did his at her calling him Daddy. She shocked herself with the force she had behind it as well. She wasn’t usually so demanding.

“What, baby?”

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

Kane put the piece of toast down and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs.

“That was my friend Ian. He’s a tech expert, and I sent him your phone to check for any tracking devices. He also set up his own tracking devices on it so that if there were any more calls or texts from that lowlife, Ian would be able to see the location the call was coming from. Tim sent a text this morning. His location was tracked to Bend.”

The room suddenly felt as though it was closing in on her, and all the air whooshed out of her lungs. Everything began to blur as she started breathing so heavily that she couldn’t even catch her breath. Kane jumped out of his seat, kneeling down in front of her.

“Haylee, breathe. Slow breaths. Slow, baby. One in, one out. Deep breath in and deep breath out. Good girl. Look at Daddy—focus on me.”

She looked at his face, his strong jawline, the softness of his lips, and reached out, touching the scratchiness of his beard. His eyes were darker than usual as he stared back at her, murmuring soft things until her breathing became normal again.

“That’s my girl. Where’s your alligator? Did you name him yet?”

“He’s up in my bed. His name is Virgil.”

Kane looked at her incredulously, his lips twitching at the corners. “You named your alligator Virgil?”

She nodded. “Uh-huh.”

She could tell he was trying very hard not to smile, and she didn’t know what he found so amusing about the name she chose.

“Why did you name him Virgil, baby?”

“What’s wrong with Virgil? He looks like a Virgil! Are you making fun of his name?”

Okay, she knew she sounded like a temperamental child, but why would he make fun of her new stuffy’s name? It was a good name. She glared at him, sticking her bottom lip out. Kane schooled his face and just began to nod.

“You’re right, baby. Virgil is a great name. Do you want me to go get him for you to hold?”

Oh right… Tim. Shit.

“What am I going to do? He’s going to find me. He said he’s going to kill me.”

Her voice continued getting higher until she was near hysteria.

“Haylee, baby, I am not going to let him anywhere near you. I will protect you. We have several people outside of the house to protect you. He might come and try to sniff his way around the town, trying to find you, but he won’t be able to. The only people who know you’re here are us, Luke and Ally, and my brother’s security team. He will sniff and not find anything, and then he will either return to California or go back to Texas and get arrested if he doesn’t get arrested before that. So right now, Daddy needs you to calm down and trust that he will keep you safe. Can you do that for me?”