My Favorite Daddy (Dark Daddies 6)

Brady’s silent for a second. “Getting caught?”

“His wife found out about me. I don’t know how, but he said… he said she found some receipts. Thought he was cheating. Had him followed.”

“Oh, shit,” Brady whispers.

“That’s what really did it, right there. I was trying to keep Louis and his wife together, but instead I screwed it all up. I made things worse, and he can’t even see it.”

“Because he thinks he loves you,” Brady finishes for me.

“Right.” I sigh and put the wine down. “So I don’t know what to do.”

Brady leans back in his chair. “For now, you’ll stay here. You can’t go back to your apartment.”

“Which one?” I ask.

He laughs softly. “Either of them. How much does Louis know about your real life?”

I stretch my legs out. “I try to keep them separate,” I say. “I take a long route back to my real place, I’m careful about what I say, they don’t have my real phone number. The only real thing they get is my name.”

“That might be enough,” he says, looking concerned. “You’d be surprised how much information there is floating around online about us.”

I stiffen a little bit as the thought of Zoe alone in that apartment suddenly hits me like a train.

I lean toward Brady, a little bit of a panic in my eyes. “My roommate,” I say.

“You have a roommate?”

I nod. “She knows what I do. Anyway, she’s there, all alone. What if… what if he tries to hurt her? What if he knows where I live?”

Panic starts to set in. I throw the blanket off me, jump to my feet, and start to pace the floor.

“Can you call her?” he asks.

“I don’t know. I mean, I can, but she doesn’t answer. She’s studying for exams, and…” I grab my phone and dial. Sure enough Zoe doesn’t answer.

“This is Zoe! Leave a message. Actually, text me, bitch. Bye!”

I hang up without leaving a message. I text her real quick, just to check in. “How’s it going?” I say, hitting send.

“I have to go check on her.” I look at Brady, eyes hard and serious. “I have to make sure she’s okay.”

“You’re not going alone.”

“And you’re not coming with me.”

He laughs softly. “I guess we’re at an impasse, then.”

I glare at him, “I don’t bring people back to my real apartment.”

He stares back at me, a sad little smile on his face. “Aren’t we past that now, little Aria?” He stands up and steps toward me. “I own you this week. I’m your Daddy. And I told you I’d take care of you. If you won’t let me come with you then I won’t let you go.”

“You can’t keep me here.”

“Oh, I absolutely can.”

I step toward the door, suddenly walking fast. He catches me in three easy strides, grabbing me around my waist and lifting me up into the air.

I kick and try to swat at him. “Put me down, asshole!”

“No,” he says, holding me tighter, his muscular body pressed against mine. “Not until you promise you’re not going to try and run away.”

“Fine, just put me down!”

He drops me onto my face. I whirl around and glare daggers at him.

“This isn’t a game,” I say in a harsh whisper.

“I know. That’s why you’re not going alone.”

We stare at each other. He’s such an arrogant asshole. Why does he think he gets to come to my apartment, my personal space, the one place I have left that’s separate from this whole world?

But he’s right. I know he’s right. If Louis is there, I’ll need Brady’s help. Louis may be an older man, but he’s still bigger and stronger than I am, and much more dangerous.

Fucking hell. Brady took my virginity. He showed me his life, opened up about his past. I’ve been trying to keep my distance, thinking about what happens after this, but…

Things aren’t so simple anymore. It’s not black and white, it’s not clear-cut. I wish it were, but things are complicated and messy and wild. It’s time I accept that I’m not in control.

“Okay,” I say, letting out a breath and deflating a bit. “But let’s go right now, okay?”

“Okay,” he says.

I follow him to the door. He stops to grab his keys before we head down beneath the building into a parking garage.We park outside my place and, for the first time since I started this, I bring a client with me up to my real apartment.

I unlock the main door and we head inside. He follows close, and I can feel the tension in his body as we move through the hallway. I stop outside my door and hesitate a second before opening it up.

It’s quiet in the apartment.

“Zoe?” I call out.

No answer. I glance at Brady and he nods at me.

I step inside, moving cautiously. I keep expecting Louis to jump out of a closet with a gun or something like that. Maybe I’ll find Zoe tied up in the back room, or maybe he did something worse, maybe—