20. Cage

20

CAGE

S hit. Why the fuck is she crying? Did I get her the wrong doll? Fuck, did I hurt her bee sting when I was feasting on her perfect pussy? I should have been more careful. I couldn’t stop myself, though.

I pick her up and plop onto where she was just sitting. As soon as she’s on my lap, I grab hold of her ankle to inspect it.

“Did I hurt you? Shit, I’m a horrible Daddy.”

Ember sniffles. “What? No. I’m fine.”

When she pushes my hands away from her leg, I look at her face and wince. I hate seeing her cry. It kills me inside. Ember has already had enough fucking sadness in her life. I shouldn’t be causing more.

“You don’t like the doll. I got the one that Rowie told me to get. Is it the wrong sort? I’ll take it back and get a different one.”

Two fresh tears roll down her cheeks as I try to take the doll from her. She tightens her grip on it and shakes her head. “I love the doll. It’s the exact same one that I had when I was young. I’m not upset. I’m crying because I’m so happy.”

What. The. Fuck?

I’ll never understand the “crying when happy” thing. Rowie’s done it a few times, and it baffles all of us. Then again, my heart died a long time ago, so I struggle to understand most emotions.

Suddenly, it strikes me. Maybe my heart didn’t die. Maybe it just stopped working until Ember showed up in my life. Since she’s been here, I’ve never felt more alive. I’ve also experienced emotions I never thought someone like me could feel. True love.

“You’re happy?” I ask, still not fully convinced.

Ember huffs out a half-laugh. “Yes, Daddy. I’m happy. This is the sweetest, most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Talk about feeling like the king of the universe. While also feeling like I want to kill her father again.

“Baby, I want to make you happy. You’ve flipped my fucking world upside down. I don’t deserve you, but I don’t think I can ever let you go.”

I blink several times, trying to work up the courage to look her in the eye. If she rejects me, I’m not sure what I’ll do.

She reaches up and cups my face between her warm hands, searching my face. “Please don’t ever let me go,” she whispers.

We stare at each other, our gazes promising each other something. I’m just not sure what exactly. She asked me not to let her go. Does she mean it? Because now that she’s said it, I’m never letting her leave me. Not now, not ever. She just sealed her fate. All it took was that one request. Ember has my whole heart in her grasp for the rest of our lives. I’ll burn the entire universe just for her to give me a piece of hers.

“What are you going to name your baby?”

Ember stares at the doll, considering my question. “Piper Rowie Adams.”

Fucking adorable. Although once I marry this Little girl, it will be Piper Rowie Black. I’ll keep that little piece of information to myself for now, though. I still need to figure out what the fuck is going on with her dad and this threat.

“I think you and Piper need to lie down for naptime while I get some work done.”

Her shoulders drop, and she looks around the disastrous office. It really does look like a pastel bomb went off in here. I guess that means I need to get to work on a playroom for my Little girl. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but there’s no way I’m allowing her to return to DC. If it’s up to me, she’ll never even see her asshole father again.

“Naps suck.”

The corners of my lips twitch. “Don’t say suck. That’s a naughty word.”

She shrugs. “It’s better than saying ‘fuck naps.’”

Narrowing my gaze, I clench my jaw to keep from laughing. “Ember Elizabeth. Do we need to go into the bathroom and have you taste the soap?”

Her mouth drops open, and she stares at me like she can’t believe what I just said. “Daddy, that’s so mean. Do you really think you should let me taste soap? If you do that, I might toot bubbles, and then what? There will just be tootie bubbles all around the room. Nobody wants that.”

Jesus Christ. She’s been spending far too much time with Rowie. I’m going to have to put a cap on that. Otherwise, I’m going to have two Little girls running circles around me.

“Up,” I growl as I nudge her down from my lap. “Bed. Now. Before you really talk yourself into trouble.”

As we leave the office, I grab a pair of training panties and a nightgown. Time to start pushing her boundaries.

I follow Ember into her room, frowning as we step through the doorway. No. Not happening. This isn’t where she belongs. “You’re sleeping in my room from now on.”

She turns and looks up at me, rubbing her thumb over her chin. “But this is my room.”

“Not anymore, firefly. I’ll move your things into my room later. Let’s go.” I take her by the hand and lead her into my ensuite bathroom. “Time to go potty.”

Ember hesitates, glancing at the toilet and then back at me. “Can you go out?”

“No. We’ve already established that I will help you in the bathroom whenever we’re together.”

“So I don’t get any privacy?” She puts her hands on her hips, and it’s fucking cute. My sassy Little firefly.

“That is correct. No privacy, no space, no secrets.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Does that mean I get to be in the bathroom when you use the toilet?”

I smirk and wink at her. “Yeah, baby, if that’s what you want. I’ll even let you hold it for me.”

Her eyes practically pop out of her head. I don’t know why she’s so surprised. I’m pretty sure she already knows that boundaries don’t exist for me. If my girl wants to follow me into the bathroom, I’m certainly not going to tell her no.

Ember lets out a huff and shakes her head, muttering under her breath about me being a stubborn donkey. Then she pulls down her panties and sits on the toilet while I lean against the counter and wait. When she doesn’t immediately pee, I turn on the faucet, letting the water run.

“Kick your panties off,” I instruct as I finish cleaning her up.

“Why?”

As I wash my hands, I look at her in the mirror. “Because I’m going to change you for naptime.”

When I kneel in front of her and hold the training panties to her feet, she sucks in a breath. I tilt my head back to look at her.

“You don’t have to use them, firefly. It’s just in case you have an accident. Little girls sometimes do.”

With her hands on my shoulders, she steps into them. When I pull them up and settle them over her hips, she shifts. “They’re kind of comfy.”

I nod. “Yeah, and I bet they make you feel super Little, too.”

“Yes,” she answers in a tiny voice.

Yeah, my girl is getting deeper into her headspace by the second, which is exactly what I’d hoped would happen.

“That’s because you are Little. And so fucking precious too.”

Her cheeks turn rosy. I lift her T-shirt up and over her head, and she moves her arms to cover herself.

“Uh-uh, arms at your sides, baby. Don’t hide from Daddy. I want to see you.”

She quickly obeys, and I finish getting her ready for her nap. The nightgown I chose has a dragon on the front, which thrills her.

“I need Spike.”

“I’ll get him. Crawl into bed and get under the covers.”

By the time I return with her stuffie, she’s tucked in. It’s hard not to climb in next to her. I want to be with her every single second I can. Maybe that’s wrong, but I don’t care.

“I’m going to be in my office. You stay in bed. You’re not allowed to get up unless I’m here. If you wake up, call out for me. I have a baby monitor plugged in by the bed.”

Her eyes are already closing when she nods and brings her thumb to her chin. Before she has a chance to slide it between her lips, I grab one of the brand-new pacifiers I bought and push it into her mouth. I’m pretty sure she’s sound asleep before I even leave the room. I guess an orgasm or two really tires her out.

“ T here’s got to be something.”

Cassian steeples his fingers under his chin as he stares at his laptop screen. “I’m looking for whatever I can. So far, the only thing I found that was remotely off was her mom’s helicopter crash.”

I sit up straighter. “What do you mean?”

“There was speculation that it wasn’t an accident even though the final reports ruled it as one,” Cassian replies.

“Did you look into it more?” I stand and round my desk to look at the computer as if there will be some useful information on it.

Cass shakes his head. “It was ruled an accident nearly twenty years ago.”

Something prickles at the back of my neck. It happens every time my intuition kicks in. I learned to trust it a long time ago.

“Pull up the reports. I want to see them.” I grab a chair and move it to sit beside my brother. “I can’t fucking believe you didn’t tell me this already.”

He gives me a sideways glance and then looks around the room at all the bags. “You’ve been a bit busy. I’m glad I bet on you keeping her.”

I glare at Cass, who, from the neck up, looks like a total fucking square with his black-rimmed glasses. From the chin down, though, his tattoos and the way he carries himself intimidates the hell out of people. Not me, though. I’m two months older than him, and I never let the asshole forget it. “Listen, asshole. First of all, I’m not letting her go. And second of all, fuck you for betting against me.”

Raising his eyebrows, he shrugs. “Was I betting against you, or was I betting for you? Seems to me that I was on your side since I bet on you ending up happy and all.”

I might be older and wiser than Cassian, but that dickhead has always been able to talk circles around me. I think Rowie gives him lessons. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, fuck him.

“In all realness, Cage.” Cassian pats my shoulder. “I’m so fucking happy for you.”

Swallowing the lump forming in my throat, I stare at my brother, unsure if I want to have a heart-to-heart right now. Out of everyone in the family, Cass is one of the best to talk to, though. He always seems to have the right advice.

“If she doesn’t want to stay, I have to let her go,” I tell him roughly.

He sits back in his chair and sighs. “She looks at you like you hung the fucking moon, Cage. And she is attached to Rowie at the hip already. Plus, she seems to adore the fuck out of Rylan.”

I let out a low growl that makes Cassian smirk. “I’m fucking with you. Obviously, she likes me the most. That’s beside the point, though. She’s in love with you. And you’re in love with her. I think you’re the only two on The Ranch that aren’t aware of it yet.”

Does she love me? Is it possible for that to happen so quickly? She’s barely been here a week. Then again, I’m obsessed with her in a way that is probably considered unhealthy.

“She’s not going to leave. From what I’ve seen and heard, she has nothing worth going back to in DC. Hell, I’m pretty sure her father won’t be alive after you confront him about all the bullshit he’s put her through.” Cassian shrugs.

He’s not wrong about that. I don’t want to upset her by killing her dad, but I also can’t allow the man to continue breathing for all the hurt he’s caused her. I just can’t fathom how a father can be so cruel to his only daughter. I’ll never understand it.

“Well, I can’t make anything permanent until I figure out what the fuck is going on with this threat. I want to see every single news report and document about the helicopter crash.”

Cassian nods and immediately starts printing off everything he can find. While he does that, I scan everything for any tidbit of information that might be useful. Newspaper reports, online forums, and a bunch of official reports. It was a huge headline when it happened. The wife of a congressman dying in a helicopter crash.

I’ve gone through nearly everything twice by the time the printer stops spitting out useless information. There’s nothing to be found anywhere. Fuck. I don’t know why I was so sure I’d find something.

“Holy shit,” Cassian mutters.

My attention snaps to him. “What? What did you find?”

He looks at me, his gaze dark. “She look familiar?”

When he turns his laptop toward me, I nearly drop the papers in my hand. “What the fuck?”

“Where and when was this?” I ask.

“This was a month after the crash at a press conference.”

I stare at the photo. What does this mean? What does she have to do with Ember? There has to be a connection between this and what’s happening now. But why did she lie to me? And what the fuck am I going to say to my girl?

“She know the location here?” Cassian asks.

“Yes. Of course she does. She’s been one of our handlers for over ten years.” I can’t fucking believe this. She’s played me. And that pisses me off more than anything because I don’t get played.

“There was a plane tailing us from DC, though,” I say mostly to myself as I try to fit the puzzle pieces together in my head. “Which is why I brought her here. And Ruth knew that’s exactly what I’d fucking do.”

“I think you need to talk to Ember to see if she knows anything about this new information,” Cass replies. “You scanned her for bugs before you put her on the plane?”

The memory of throwing Ember over my shoulder and hauling her onto the plane runs through my mind. My lips twitch as I fight a smile. From the second my firefly insulted my plane, I was entranced by her. And obviously fucking distracted because I did not scan her for bugs.

Shit .

Without saying anything, Cassian and I rise and move to one of my bookcases, where I lower my gaze to a stack of books. As soon as the device scans my retina, the entire shelf unlocks, and we step into one of the many secure rooms in my house.

As soon as I close us in, I turn to my brother. “Why would Ruth be spying on us?”

Both of us stare at each other. Ruth is only privy to certain information. She’s one of the agents we’ve worked closely with over the years. There’s stuff that we don’t speak about to anyone but each other, and only when we are here on The Ranch. Hell, there are some things we don’t even talk about out loud. Instead, we use special codes we learned when we were recruited by The Agency. Things that could be used for or against the country as well as certain politicians.

“What information do we have that would benefit her?” Cass asks.

“Better yet.” I start to pace around the small space. “What information do we have that will benefit Zeke ? Elections are coming up. Is he planning to run for office?”

Cassian types ferociously on his keyboard. “According to some news outlets, there has been talk in the past about him running one day.”

“And we have information that might be damning for another political leader who might want to run,” I add.

“Don’t kill me for asking this,” Cass says cautiously.

“Ember isn’t helping them,” I snap, already knowing what he was going to ask. “She’s a fucking victim in this. Once again, her father is doing what is best for him, even though it will hurt her.”

Cassian nods. “I just had to ask.”

I glare at my brother, barely refraining from punching him right in the nose. “You didn’t have to do fucking anything. You know Ember well enough to know she’s not part of whatever the fuck this is.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. That was my bad.” At least he looks like he’s actually sorry. “What do you want to do now?”

Kill Zeke. And Ruth. I’ve only killed a handful of women in my life. I have very few morals, but murdering women is typically one of them. Unless they deserve it. Rowie’s mom deserved it. Every painful second of it. And even though I don’t have the whole picture yet, I already know Ruth is going to deserve what’s coming to her.

Ruth knows I’m a Daddy. It’s possible she knows Ember is Little, which means she counted on me being distracted. This is exactly why I never planned on getting involved with a woman. Being distracted causes carelessness. Which can be catastrophic in our world. Too bad I’m already too far fucking gone for Ember. There’s no coming back from that.

“We do what we do best,” I mutter. “We play the game and show them that the house always wins.”

Cassian grins and tips his head. “After you, brother. Whatever you need.”

What I need is my Little girl in my arms. Right fucking now.

B efore I even approach my bedroom door, I know she’s not in there. It’s like I have a sixth sense for my girl. Obviously, she doesn’t share that because she has no idea how much trouble she’s in right now. Otherwise, she’d be where I told her to stay. She must have snuck out of bed while Cassian and I were in the secure room. I didn’t have my camera screens on in there. Rookie fucking mistake.

As soon as I finish sweeping my room, bathroom, and closet, I grab one of my bug detectors and start walking through the entire upstairs. I mostly focus on the room she’s been staying in since her belongings are there. Then I double back to my room and check Spike. By the time I’m done, I’ve come up empty. Shit. Maybe I’m wrong about this. That prickle at the back of my neck tells me I’m not, though.

I put the device away and head downstairs to find my naughty Little girl. Part of me hopes she’s doing this on purpose to see how I’ll react. To see if I’ll actually punish her. My girl is about to learn that her Daddy doesn’t make empty promises. She’s not used to people in her life keeping their word. That’s about to change.

“Little girl, Little girl, where are you?” I call out.

Just as I turn the corner to go into the kitchen, she yelps and jumps away from where she’s wiping down the counter.

“Daddy, you scared me!” She puts her hand over her heart.

I stalk toward her, eyebrows raised. “I scared you, huh? Don’t you think Daddy was scared when I checked on you and you weren’t where I told you to stay?”

She opens her mouth to speak and then closes it, shifting from foot to foot. “I, um, I woke up, and I remembered we didn’t clean the counter after, um, well, you know. And then I got hungry.”

My gaze moves to the tub of ice cream sitting to the side with a spoon in it. “You got hungry and decided eating ice cream out of the container was a good idea? When we’re going to have dinner in about an hour?”

“Um.” She takes a step back, but I don’t let her create any space between us, so I move right along with her.

“And cleaning up after us isn’t your job, Little girl. That’s my job. I take care of you. Not the other way around.”

Her eyes shift around nervously as I tower over her. When she lifts her hand to bring her thumb to her chin, I capture her wrist and hold it against my chest. “Look at me, firefly.”

As soon as she does, my cock stirs. She’s testing me. I see it in her gaze. Whether she’ll ever admit it or not, she did this because she wants to know if I’ll actually let her get away with things.

“What did I say just before I left the bedroom?”

She rolls her lips in, then squares her shoulders. “I’m not sure, Daddy. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep while you were still in there.”

I bite back the urge to laugh. Smart little mouth.

“Ember Elizabeth,” I mutter sternly. “This is not the right time to be sarcastic with Daddy. Your bottom is already in trouble, I don’t think you want to add other punishments to that either.”

Her cheeks turn pink, and she lifts her other hand like she’s going to rub her chin. I follow its path, my eyes locking in on her throat as something silver sparkles in the light.

Reaching out, I grab the charm of her necklace between my thumb and index finger. “Who gave you this?”

As I turn it over, that prickling feeling hits so hard it nearly startles me.

Ember peers down at it. “My dad. He gave it to me the day he sent me with you.”

Fuck. It’s been on her all this time.

Leaning in close, I put my mouth near her ear and work on breaking the clasp at the same time. “Don’t say a word. I’ll explain everything in a minute.”

When I pull the necklace away from her, she gasps and looks from it to me, confused. I hold up my finger, signaling for one moment before I disappear from the kitchen to put this fucking thing in a secure spot. Once I confirm with a sensor that there is some sort of bug inside the charm, I put it in one of my safes that blocks any and all signals. Then I go back out to find Ember.

She’s still in the same spot, her eyebrows drawn together like she doesn’t know what to do.

“Baby, we need to talk.”

“What’s wrong?” she asks frantically. “What happened? Why did you take my necklace?”

I reach out and pick her up, then set her on the counter, bracketing her thighs with my hands. “I think we might have found the threat, and it’s not what we were expecting. Has your father talked about running for office lately?”

Ember goes stiff and stares at me, her eyes sparkling with so much fear that I want to put my fist through a fucking brick wall. “He was talking to someone on the phone about it recently. He didn’t know I overheard him. I don’t know who he was talking to.”

“Do you know a woman by the name of Ruth Boyle?”

“What? Why are you asking me this stuff, Cage? What’s going on?” She tries to push me away and slide off the counter, but I don’t let her. I’m not letting her go anywhere. She stays right here with me.

“Is your dad in a relationship with Ruth?”

I stare at her, waiting for any answer she’ll give me. I don’t really need confirmation, but the fact that Ruth fucking played me is making me question myself.

“I don’t know. I mean, it’s never been something that’s been said outright. I know they work together. What does Ruth have to do with this? How do you know her?”

This time, I step back and run a hand through my hair. “Ruth is one of our handlers at the CIA. I’ve worked with her for years. She’s the one who asked me to take you on as a client as a favor to her.”

Ember nods. “That makes sense. My father probably asked her for help when he got the threat. She’s probably one of the few people he trusts.”

“Baby,” I say, almost pleading. Fuck. I’m about to break my Little girl’s heart. “I think your father and Ruth sent you here to spy on us to get information to sway the upcoming election in his favor. The necklace your father gave you is bugged.”