Devil's Pawn (Devil's Pawn Duet 1)

He is a different man with her. I watch them in the pool but keep to the side, dipping my feet in and looking after Baby Bear. They’re splashing and laughing. He pretends to be a shark and she squeals with laughter when he bites her toes. He teaches her to float on her back. Teaches her to doggy paddle. Tells her she’s never allowed in the pool alone.

They’re having fun. It’s the strangest thing to see. And the sweetest. So at odds with the man of just moments ago. The one who threatened violence to anyone who laid a hand on me. I can’t reconcile the two very different sides of this man.

Angelique adores her father. Shines under his attention.

“Isabelle,” Jericho calls from across the pool.

I raise my eyebrows.

“Get in the water.”

Setting Baby Bear aside, I slip into the pool and swim toward them.

“Watch, Isabelle!” Angelique says and I stop a few feet from her. Jericho reluctantly releases her and for a moment, she goes under, but her head pops back up in a heartbeat and she’s smiling and paddling toward me.

“Wow!” I clap my hands and reach out my arms to catch her. She can only manage a couple of moments but it’s a great start. We send her back and forth between us a few times until she tires out just as Leontine walks out toward us, a warm smile on her face.

“Well, look at you,” she says to Angelique who is beaming.

“I can swim, Nana!”

“I see that,” Leontine says, unwrapping the little yellow towel that matches Angelique’s bathing suit. “Maybe your daddy will take you swimming again later but for now, we need to get you bathed and ready for your lesson. Mrs. Strand will be here soon.”

Angelique deflates at the mention of the woman’s name. “I don’t want her.”

“She’s your teacher. Don’t be silly,” Leontine says.

“Why can’t I go to school like Nina?”

Jericho’s expression darkens but before he has to answer, Leontine does.

“Come Angelique. Catherine made you a snack and there’s going to be cake for you and Nina later. We’d better hurry.”

She pouts but Jericho carries her to the stairs where he climbs out and hands her over to be wrapped up in her towel and lifted up by Leontine.

“I don’t like her,” Angelique mumbles. “She’s not nice.”

“Now, she’s fine. You just have to get used to each other,” Leontine says as Jericho wraps a towel around his hips and watches them.

I walk to the edge of the pool and haul myself up. “Don’t forget Baby Bear,” I tell Angelique.

“Will you come too?” she asks me, taking the bear.

Although I’m not sure Mrs. Strand will like that I nod because from my brief meeting with the woman, I am on Angelique’s side. I don’t like her much either. “I’ll come after I shower.”

“Okay,” she says and lets Leontine walk her away. I don’t miss the look Leontine gives me.

Jericho turns to me, eyes sweeping over me. I’m wearing one of the bikinis I found in the dresser. I wonder if he chose it for me. I pick up a towel and wrap it around myself, flushing when his eyes meet mine again.

“You saw the woman?”

“Briefly.”

“How is she?”

“I don’t know.”

“First impression.”