Daddy's Adorable Assassin (Daddy's Little Deviants)

COSMO

Myfacehurt,and my body was bruised all over from being pinned under my cellmate as he’d tried to take privileges I hadn’t wanted to give him. When Hunter entered my room, carrying a large stuffed bear under his arm, I couldn’t help smiling. For the past two days, he’d been almost a permanent fixture at my bedside, always checking I was comfortable. If I needed anything, he didn’t hesitate to get it for me.

They’d brought me to the hospital with nothing but the torn overalls I’d been wearing when the attack happened, but thanks to Hunter, I had new underwear, clothes, a pair of fluffy purple bedside slippers, a tablet, and earphones for the music he’d downloaded for me. He’d also bought me an audible membership and audiobooks so I could listen to bedtime stories when he had to leave and I was at the hospital all alone.

Every time he came to visit me, he brought fresh flowers. The nurses had to get another table to place all the vases. Crossword puzzles—which he seemed surprised I was good at—sudokus, and word search puzzles were stacked on top of each other.

“Is that for me?” I held out my arms, and Hunter chuckled, placing the bear into them. I hugged it to my chest. “So comfy.”

“I thought you’d like it.” He kissed my hair, which was nice but frustrating. Would he ever kiss me on the lips?

“I do. It’s humongous. Almost as big as me!”

He took the chair beside my bed. Why didn’t he sit on the bed? Other than when he’d visited me the first time and allowed me to cry all over him, he hadn’t hugged me again. In fact, he avoided touching me altogether apart from the chaste kiss on my hair when he came. Sometimes he patted my head like I was a pet when he left.

“How are you feeling today?” He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it across the arm of the chair. Today he had on a light blue shirt that stretched over his shoulders and biceps. I’d love to see Hunter naked. He must be beautiful.

“Better.”

“Comfortable?”

I nodded and lay on my side so I could look at him. I couldn’t believe I’d done it—gotten them to release me in Hunter’s care. Getting to that point hadn’t been pleasant at all, but everything had worked out far better than I could ever have hoped for. When all this started, I had only been able to rely on myself, but now I had Hunter on my side. I just knew I did.

“Good, because we need to discuss something.”

“What? The doctor said I can leave tomorrow.”

“That’s exactly what I want to talk about. To change your mind about coming home with me. I don’t know why you trust me that much, Cosmo, but where your safety is concerned, I don’t. You need to go into WITSEC.”

“No.”

“Please hear me out.”

“Okay.” I hugged the bear to my chest and listened.

“They’ll give you a fresh start. A new identity, a new place to live, help you find a job and get settled in life.”

“Will you be with me in WITSEC?”

“No.”

“Then my answer is no.”

“I don’t think you understand what you’re turning down, Cosmo.”

“All I know is that I’m alone in this world. You want to give me a new identity when I don’t even have one now. Who am I, Hunter? Where did I come from? Those people weren’t really my parents, were they? I don’t think so, and you don’t believe that either, do you? I’d like to know who I was, who I am. If I disappear into this program, I’ll never know.”

“Cosmo.”

“Don’t you care about me?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “I do.”

“You know who else does? No one. It’s not so bad in here because they give me a routine. The nurses and doctors come at specific times. The meals are at specific times. Visitors even come during specific hours. Not that anyone visits me, but you get the point. If not for the-the other things, I would have done well in prison. Did you know that? That it was less scary in there because every day was the same, and they told me what I could and couldn’t do. Out here, I’m left on my own to figure things out. I wasn’t raised to figure things out on my own, Hunter. I need a Daddy to do that. You, Daddy.”

“No, I—”

“Yes, you will be. I want you to be.”