“No wonder you’re upset. There has to be something you can do.” Mia looked at him with all the faith in the world.
Faith he desperately needed to believe in. “I hired a private investigator to look into her life. Top to bottom, from her finances to her personal life, her contacts, friends, men she hangs around with. You name it. I don’t care how intrusive, I want everything he can dig up.”
Mia nodded her approval. “Good. I’m sure if she’s willing to play dirty with you, she’s not squeaky-clean in her personal life.”
“That’s my hope. But all this just sucks. Because it comes back to what Bailey remembers. If she does recall what her mom did to her, my custody situation would be that much stronger… assuming a court would rely on the memory of a small child.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, a headache forming at his next thought. “But what kind of shitty father… am I to even want her to recall that just because it’ll help me to keep her?”
Mia leaned onto her knees and scooted closer to him, the warmth of her body a much-needed balm to his senses. “You’re the best father I know. Seriously. Bailey is the luckiest little girl in the world. Don’t ever doubt it,” she said, reassuring him.
“You have no idea what it means to hear that.” He paused, thinking about what possible plans his ex could have in the future. He didn’t put it past her to act underhandedly. “I want you to be careful when you’re out, especially with Bailey, and if you see Kayla or she tries to approach Bailey, I need to know about it immediately.”
A flicker of uncertainty crossed Mia’s face. “Umm…” Her voice trailed off, her tone concerned.
“Mia? What’s wrong?”
She swiped her tongue over lips in a definite nervous gesture. “This afternoon, I was grocery shopping and a stranger approached me. He said something really odd and I couldn’t figure out what he meant, but now that you said Bailey’s mother is playing dirty, I can’t help but wonder if she had anything to do with it.”
Austin stiffened. “What happened? And don’t leave anything out.”
“Okay.” She raised her gaze to meet his. “So I was putting the bags into the car and someone slammed their cart against mine. I looked up and there was a man standing there.”
“You’ve never seen him before?”
She shook her head. “He walked around the cart and got really close to me. He said…” She closed her eyes, as if trying to remember the words exactly.
She opened them again. “He said, ‘Mind your own damned business and you’ll be fine. Stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and you’ll have problems.’ Then he shoved me. I asked what he was talking about. And he just said I looked like a smart girl and to figure it out. And then he walked away.”
His hands curled into fists at the thought of anyone laying a hand on Mia, threatening her, scaring her in any way. He thought back to this afternoon. She’d come home from the store and he’d heard a crash, run downstairs, and found her on the floor surrounded by broken glass.
He shook his head, understanding now. “You were shaken up and you dropped the glass. That son of a bitch really frightened you.”
She glanced up at him with wide eyes and nodded. “It reminded me of when I had to testify against my old employer. He tried to threaten and bully me into keeping quiet.”
“But you didn’t,” he said, proud of her for standing her ground.
That was one of the reasons he’d hired her. Instead of her past scaring him off, he felt the opposite way. In his job as a bodyguard, he knew how hard it was for a person to show up in court and send someone else to jail. He’d seen people run instead of standing their ground. He’d felt that if Mia was strong enough to testify against her wealthy former employer, she had good moral character and she was someone he’d want around his daughter.
“Do you think your ex-wife hired someone to scare me away?” Mia asked.
He doubted she realized it but her hand was still on his shoulder, stroking him through his shirt. And though he wanted to answer her, her caress felt too good, making it difficult to concentrate. His body was beginning to respond to her nearness and her fruity, sweet scent. His cock was hard and it was all he could do not to draw her into his arms, devour her mouth, and work his way down her body, tasting every luscious inch of her.
“Come here,” he said instead of replying. Unable to help himself, he opened his arms. He told himself he was offering comfort from her earlier fright, that he needed the same consolation from her.