The Last Boss' Daughter

"And whatever else you need," I add.

She manages a smile. "Thank you. It'll be fine. There's... no stove?"

I nod and reach into a lower cupboard, pulling out the pot I hang over the fireplace. I nod to the cold, dark fireplace while holding the pot until she gets the picture.

"Oh. Okay. Cool."

"It's just for a few days," I tell her.

She nods, but still looks anxious.

I grab a book of word search puzzles off the countertop and hand it to her.

She regards me with raised eyebrows.

"Not a whole lot to do out here," I explain. "There's a pond not too far behind the cottage, but... it's not really fishing weather, and I'm gonna go ahead and guess you're not the outdoorsy type anyway."

Full-on grinning, she asks, "What gave me away?"

I merely shake my head and make my way to the fireplace so I can get the place to start warming up.

Annabelle wanders around a little more, then takes a seat at the edge of the couch and watches me work. "Do you come out here a lot?"

"Not a lot."

"How long can you stay tonight?"

I have to pull the night shift guarding the junkyard, but I can stay for a few hours. After the tense car ride, I wasn't so sure she'd really want me to.

"I've got a bit," I say.

"We should've grabbed food on the way," she realizes.

I smile, but my back's to her so she can't see me. "I'll bring food tomorrow night."

"Is that the next time I'll see you?"

My shoulders tense at the question. I don't know how tomorrow's gonna go. It could be pretty bad, if the worst case scenario plays out. I don't know exactly how Raj gets all of his information and I don't know how Pietro will react to what I've done today. Could be I won't be able to come back tomorrow, because I'll have a shitstorm to deal with.

"I'm not sure. That's the soonest. I'll have to go back to my apartment in the morning and wait to see what happens after today. Assuming all goes smoothly, I'll come back tomorrow evening."

Now she looks anxious again. "How will I know if things don't go... smoothly? If you just don't show up, I won't know how to... I won't know anything. How long do I wait?"

Standing from my crouched position, I abandon the fire and head into the bedroom to get into my lockbox. I don't expect her to follow me, but by the time I'm turning to go back to the living area, she's there in the doorway.

She glances at the cell phone I offer to her. "It's a burner." I hand her another small, cylindrical object. "This is good for about a dozen charges. This phone'll be yours in case you need to reach me. Obviously you should only make contact sparingly, if at all, but if something goes wrong or you need me for something, I'll put my number in it for you and you'll have a way."

“Thanks,” she says, taking both items, regarding them awkwardly. She glances around for somewhere to put them, but it’s pretty sparse. She settles on shoving them in the puffy front pocket of her sweatshirt.

I’m not the most socially graceful in the best of situations, and this is definitely not that. Annabelle stays just inside the bedroom door, and I turn to squeeze past her.

“Wait,” she says, a hand tentatively grazing my side. Even through my clothes, her touch makes me tense.

I watch her with a straight face, but I almost feel bad because she’s completely open, and she looks more than a little unsure of herself as her fingers trail across my hip. There’s not much sound out here, just the faint hum of the creatures outside, so I can hear her gulp.

Stilling her much smaller hand with mine, I stop her, brushing her off. “You don’t have to do that.”

Falling back a little, almost shrinking, she says, “You don’t want me to?”