“Keenan?” I turned towards John, who had a hand held out as if to block me. When he noticed the look in my eyes, he said, “Do you really want her first memory of you to be like this? She doesn’t know you, and she is already scared.”

“Papa?” The angelic yet timid sound of her voice nearly made me come undone. She recognized John and tried to sit up, but I noticed that her movements appeared sluggish.

Had she just woken up?

“Papa, I’m scared and wanna go home now.”

“Oh, sweetheart, we’re going to take you home right now. Your mother has missed you so much.”

“The bad man hurt mama.” She looked at me when she said it, and I couldn’t help the guilty flush that heated my skin. She looked just as her mother described. The perfect mix of her mother and me.

“She’s just fine, angel. She has been worried sick so let’s not waste any more time.” He picked her up, and I hated the way she clung to him. Jealously ripped through me fast and hard. I wanted to take her from him but knew it wouldn’t be a smart move. I was essentially a stranger to her.

“Who’s he?” She looked at me once again and ducked her head to hide against John’s neck. John looked to me for an answer, but I shook my head.

Seeing her in the flesh, I realized I wasn’t ready.

Would I ever be?

“They’ve been drugging her,” John stated as soon as we had Kennedy settled in the car. She fell asleep against the back seat almost immediately.

“How do you know?”

“Her pupils are severely dilated. Her movements are sluggish and her words slurred. She’s very developed for her age and can talk like a child twice her age. Sheldon has done very well with her.”

“Are you defending her?”

“I know what you are thinking of doing. Sheldon is a good mother and you were gone. Do you really think she would have kept her from you if she knew where you were?”

“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “She would have though she likes to think she wouldn’t have, and if I’m wrong, she will now.”

“With reason, I’m sure.”

“Would you like for me to carry out my promise now so my daughter can have nightmares of your death for the rest of her life?”

“Do what you want to me, son, if it will make up for all the years I—” He stopped and stared off into the distance for a few heartbeats. “If I had known what my absence then and later had been doing to you, I wouldn’t have—”

“I don’t believe it and neither do you. You would have because you were in pain, but most of all, you were selfish and weak.”

Footsteps approaching cut short our conversation, and when I looked back, Keiran and Q had emerged from the house. The blood that lightly splattered their shirts became more evident the closer they came.

“Don’t let Kennedy see your shirts.”

“Damn… a daddy for three minutes and you’re already bossy,” Q joked. Keiran wordlessly removed his shirt, followed by Q.

“What did you find out?”

“He claimed he didn’t know who his employer was. He kept talking about some rich guy who promised them a lot of money to kidnap Kennedy. He said they were promised double if they had to kill her.”

“Did you take care of it?”

“What do you think?” Keiran countered darkly.

“I don’t know what he thinks, but I think we need to call the Feds and get rugrat home soon,” Q interjected.

* * * * *

Up until the wee hours of the morning, I had gone through the interrogation process that usually followed a murder.

No, I didn’t act with malicious intent.

Yes, it was self-defense.

No, I was not given information on the whereabouts of Kennedy before acting.

They were all lies that I managed to tell well. I had no idea how Keiran fared given he’d just been released from jail on assault charges and not twenty-four hours later had been located in a house of dead bodies.

By noon, we were all standing on the sidewalk appearing none the worse for wear. Dash was there minus the girls as instructed.

“How is she?” I asked as soon as I was in talking distance.

“She’s fine. Sheldon wanted to take her back to her apartment, but we managed to convince her to stay at least one more night. It was an emotional night for them both. You should have seen them together.”

“Take me to them.”

An hour later, after showering and changing, I walked inside the Chambers Mansion just in time to see Sheldon serving Kennedy breakfast. Her gaze collided with mine as soon as I walked through the entryway. Even from across the room, I could see how her hands fluttered and her pulse quickened.

So many emotions passed between us in a short span of time.

“Mama, it’s him!” I looked down to see Kennedy pointing and staring up at me in awe. Her expressive round eyes still held the innocence of youth despite her abduction.

“She hasn’t stopped talking about you.”

“It’s fitting really because I haven’t stopped thinking about her.” I closed the distance between us and added, “Or you.”

I brushed her cheek with my fingers, but rather than responding, she flinched away from my touch. Instinct screamed at me to grab her, but I now had to remember the ever-watchful eyes of my daughter.

“Have you told her?” She shook her head and continued to watch me with a wary look in her eye.

“You?”

“No. Last night didn’t seem like the best time.” Her shoulders visibly relaxed.

“Good. I wanted to talk to you about that.”

The finality in her tone set me on edge and immediately put me on the defensive. Rather than going off on her in front of Ken, I pulled her out of the kitchen and into the large pantry.

“Whatever it is you think you should say to me, I want you to think about it again.”

“I don’t have to think about it. I don’t think you being in her life is a good idea. It’s too late—”

In that moment, I could really see myself killing her, so I shut her up the only way I knew how. The kiss wasn’t meant to arouse. It was hard and punishing. She fought to get away, so I crushed her against me. When she finally accepted the loss of control, I turned the kiss into a sensual embrace.

There was nothing I wanted more at this moment than to take her right here against the shelves full of canned vegetables and tomato sauces. The way she pushed her breasts against my chest and moaned into my mouth pushed me dangerously close to testing out the sturdiness of the shelving.

When she opened her mouth for my tongue to explore deeper, I threw caution to the wind and found myself saying, “If I stripped your clothes away and bent you over for my cock, could you take me quietly?”

When she nodded slowly, I hid my surprise and wasted no time slipping down her tiny sleep shorts. I was lucky and elated to find that she was naked underneath. I didn’t want to risk her changing her mind because I wasn’t sure I could stop if she did. I turned her around and lifted her right knee to rest on a middle shelf.

“Keenan, hurry.”

I curled my hand around her neck and brought her ear close to my lips. “How bad do you want it?”

“I’m desperate enough to ignore common sense.”

I chuckled and witnessed the way the sound made her skin vibrate. My jeans came undone and my hard cock pushed through the opening seeking entrance to her pussy.

“Condom,” she gasped when I began to enter her. It was amazing how wet and ready she already was.

“No.”

“What?”

Her right hand held onto the shelf so I rested mine on top of hers and slammed into her hard. “I said no.”

“Oh, fuck.” After fucking into her a few times, her gasps slowly ascended to low screams.

“And fuck I will, now quiet down. Our daughter is in the next room.” I moved inside her, each invasion harder and deeper than the last. The cans rattled with the force of my thrusts as I picked up speed. I could feel her hand grip the shelf tighter under my hand. Eventually, I was forced to cover her moans with my hand and sunk my teeth into her shoulder to mask my grunts.