5. Damian

Damian watched Carly’s face go pale when he said the words. While she had been settling, he started researching Caroline Sterling and found out who her jackass ex-husband was. The jackass of all jackasses, that’s who. The man had a reputation for being a scumball of an attorney and then had run for mayor until he’d been exposed for hiring hookers and cheating on his wife. The headlines read that his wife had been the one to expose him, so James had a motive.

“Come, sit down.”

Carly walked into his office slowly and sat down in one of the leather chairs across from him. She nervously began picking at her cuticles, and Damian wanted to go over to her, wrap her hands up in his, and reassure her that everything would be okay. He refrained from doing that because he still wasn’t sure if she would knee him in the balls or not if he got too close. They’d had a small moment of civility upstairs, but he didn’t think it meant they were suddenly best friends.

“Is he after you because you exposed him?”

She nodded but didn’t make eye contact. The mouthy little brat that he’d witnessed earlier had disappeared and was now seemingly replaced with a lost, scared little girl. He much preferred the mouthy brat.

“Has he sent you any threatening texts or letters?”

She shook her head, “No. He knows better. Every time he’s threatened me, it’s been in person or over the phone. The last time was when we were leaving our divorce hearing, and he told me I would pay for ruining him.”

Damian clenched his fists in irritation. He hated men like James Wheeler. They were cowards. Men who threatened and hurt other people because of their own shitty actions were the scum of the earth, and it made Damian want to squash the guy like a bug.

“Can you tell me about the events that have happened recently? Grey said that he messed with your business and vandalized your car?”

Carly gave him the details of the events and gave him the officers’ names that had come to the scene.

“What is the name of your salon?” he asked.

“Studio on Sixth.”

Damian froze as the realization hit him of where he had seen Carly before, and he took a sharp breath.

“You are in business with Lainey Abbott?”

She nodded, “You know Lainey?”

He raked his fingers through his hair. Fuck. This had just gotten more complicated. He needed to call Lainey and make sure she was okay too. Why the hell hadn’t she called him when the salon had been broken into? Her husband had given her instructions that she was to reach out to Damian or Keith if she needed anything while he was on his mission. He would give her a piece of his mind for not reaching out to him for help.

“You were in the dressing room with Maddie on her wedding day. That’s where I recognized you from.”

She nodded.

“When I came to the set the other day, I thought you recognized me. I remembered you,” she said.

He sensed that her feelings were hurt that he hadn’t remembered where he knew her from. Even though he didn’t need another reason for her to dislike him, he was glad that she cared just a little bit about what he thought about her.

“I did recognize you. I just couldn’t remember from where. Those big blue eyes are pretty hard to forget.”

A blush spread across her cheeks, and suddenly he felt warm all over. His cock was also reacting to her. Maybe she was as sweet as she’d seemed the first couple of times he’d seen her, and the attitude from earlier was a defense mechanism.

“I served in the marines with Lainey’s husband. We went to high school together and signed up for the marines on the same day. I keep in contact with Lainey to make sure she’s doing okay and see if she needs help with anything around the house while Evan is away.”

Carly smiled, “Lainey always talks about her husband’s military brothers being overprotective and kind. I never thought she would be talking about you.”

Damian grinned at the insult, “I am very overprotective. I don’t know that I would call myself kind, though.”

“More like arrogant and overbearing,” she said with a smile.

He raised his eyebrows.

“Brat.”

Carly grinned and stuck her tongue out at him.

Oh yeah, she is definitely a Little.

He grinned and wanted nothing more than to sweep the danger under the rug and spend countless hours getting to know Carly Sterling. But he had an important job to do first and that was to keep the sweet little brat safe. Damian straightened and turned back to the computer screen where he had been taking notes.

“Tell me about your ex-husband. Was James abusive during your marriage? You mentioned getting out of prison. What did you mean by that?”

He hated asking the question because he wasn’t sure that he wanted to hear the answer. If she said yes, Damian would want to kill him. He had only officially known Carly for a few hours but he already felt protective of her. He also wanted to make her his Little, which both shocked and scared the shit out of him. When was the last time he had ever felt so strongly about another person?

Never. You have never felt this way about someone so soon.

He needed to know exactly what he was dealing with. More than likely, the attacks that Wheeler had done to her car and salon were done by people he’d hired. The man had money, and being the piece of shit that he was, he was sure to have friends in low places.

Carly shrugged, “He never hit me.”

“Abuse isn’t always physical, Carly.”

Like a switch went off, her sad expression turned into anger, and her lips tightened into a thin line.

“What happened in our marriage isn’t relevant to what he’s doing now, and it’s also none of your business,” she snapped.

She was acting like an animal who was being cornered, and the only way to defend herself was to fight back. What she didn’t know yet was that she didn’t have to fight back with Damian because he would be her biggest, baddest, scariest protector.

Damian stood from his chair and walked around to the front of his desk to stand in front of her. Reaching down, he cupped her chin more roughly than he intended and tilted her head so she was looking up at him.

“It’s my business if it’s information that could help me keep you safe. I need to know how he thinks, the way that he is as a person in private, and anything else about him that will help me to protect you,” he ground out.

She blew out a breath of air and closed her eyes, her lips trembling slightly. Damian had to resist the urge to run his finger over them. She pulled her face back until he wasn’t touching her any longer.

“I was a possession to him. From the day we met, I was his arm candy. I was tits and ass with a pretty face. He had a degradation kink and enjoyed calling me names so he could see my reaction. He treated me like a prize in public and a piece of garbage in private, but he never hit me. He alienated me from all of the people I cared about and it felt like a prison in that house. He talked badly about Grey and didn’t let me go out with friends. I was so stupid and na?ve.”

Damian winced at her words and wanted to scold her for calling herself stupid, but he knew it was coming from a place of pain and rejection, so he didn’t say anything.

“Do you know who he might have in his circle that would have done the jobs?”

Carly shrugged, “I don’t know. He knows a lot of people. He defends some of the most dangerous criminals in the state, so it could be anybody. People owe him favors like crazy.”

He nodded, “When will the salon be back up and running? I want to get some security on Lainey, too, just to be safe. I’m also going to install a different security system in the salon as well.”

After Carly went back up to her room, Damian started making calls.

“What’s up?” Ian greeted when he answered the call.

“I’m on a job, and I need a security system in place as soon as possible. I also need you to do some hacking.”

Ian loved hacking. He could do it with his eyes closed, and he had become an invaluable asset to Damian. He was also a hell of a friend and a great Daddy to a sweet little brat of his own.

“What are we hacking?”

“James Wheeler.”

He heard a whoosh of breath on the other end of the phone, and he hoped Ian wouldn’t turn him down, being that Wheeler was somewhat of a high-profile person and had connections with some dangerous people.

“That dipshit that ran for mayor? What do you have on him? What are we looking for?”

“I need to find out who he hired to scare his ex-wife.”

He explained everything to Ian, and when he finished, he heard the man sigh.

“So, Carly is staying at your house for the time being? Until the guy is caught, or are you already setting up a Little room for her?” Ian asked.

Ian was also a smart ass who was too smart for his own good. Before he could respond to Ian’s question, Ian’s wife and Little, Maddie spoke up in the background.

“Carly’s at Damian’s? Can we go over there and see her? Pleeeease Daddy?”

Damian couldn’t help but chuckle. He loved Ian’s little girl. She was perfect for his friend. Damian had been the one to walk her down the aisle at their wedding, so he always felt as though he had a special connection with Maddie.

“We’ll see, baby girl. You are supposed to be eating your snack. Go sit back down and eat while I talk to Damian.”

Damian could hear Maddie sigh, long and loud, even through the phone. She could also be a total brat at times, but Damian suspected that was because she liked getting her bottom spanked.

“Would you prefer to stand with your nose in the corner while I finish my phone call, Madison Rose?” Ian asked her.

“I’m eating. See, look at me eat, Daddy. Mmmm, yummy!”

Damian laughed.

“You laugh now. Just wait until you have a Little,” Ian said.

His chest ached at the thought of having his own Little. He’d once had his own Little until she decided she wanted someone who was richer and more sophisticated than he was. It had been nearly three years since that had happened, and the last he’d heard, she was married to some CEO and having their second child.

He hadn’t stopped wanting a Little in that time, but he had also been emotionally destroyed after that relationship had ended. Not that the relationship would have lasted anyway. They were too different. But it had been his first long-term DDlg relationship and being a Daddy had meant the world to him.

It took almost a year before he stepped into the club again to scene casually with other Littles. He had concluded that the right Little would appear in his life when she was meant to, so he hadn’t been searching. The Littles at The Playground and his friends’ Littles kept him entertained in the meantime.

For some reason, visions of Carly as his Little came to mind. She was beautiful, and despite being so stubborn at times, he sensed a sweet, frightened, needy side to her. Greyson had given Damian his blessing, but at the moment, Carly seemed to still halfway hate him. That was something to dissect at another time.

“I’ll talk to Carly and see if she’s up for a visitor and let you know. Let me know what you find out, and hug Maddie for me.”

Ian growled into the phone, “Get your own Little. Mine’s off-limits to your hugs.”

“Possessive bastard,” Damian said before ending the call.

Not that he really had any room to talk. He was just as possessive when he had a Little of his own. Damian scrolled through his contacts until he found Lainey’s name and tapped the call button.

“Hey, Lainey girl. I have Carly staying at my house.”

“What? Why? Damian, is she okay? How do you know Carly?” she asked worriedly.

He smiled to himself. He adored Lainey and knew how much she missed her Daddy and was looking forward to him retiring from the marines in a few months.

“Carly’s brother called me and asked me to be her bodyguard. I didn’t know that she was your partner in the salon. I also don’t know why I didn’t get a call from you when your salon was broken into.”

Lainey laughed softly, “Well, maybe you would have known if you came to me for your haircuts instead of a dumb barbershop. And I didn’t want to bother you. Carly called the police, and we got it handled.”

Damian scowled, rubbing his fingertips across his forehead to soothe the headache that these Littles were causing him. Didn’t they know that taking care of their needs was something that Daddies thrived on?

“You should have called me, Lainey. You’re never a bother.”

She sighed, “I’m sorry.”

“You’re forgiven, but you’re in trouble if it happens again. Listen, I’m putting a bodyguard on you for the time being until we get this all figured out.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard, Damian. Just take care of Carly. I’m worried about her. That ex-husband was a real asshole.”

“Language, Lainey. You know better. And you’re getting a bodyguard whether you like it or not. If you fight me on this, I will let Evan know that you disobeyed a safety order as soon as he comes home.”

He was being an asshole and pulling the “I’ll tell on you card,” but he also knew he would get his way because Lainey would not want to get that kind of spanking from her husband. Health and safety were something all the Daddies in their group of friends took very seriously.

“Has anyone ever told you how overbearing you are?” she said in exasperation.

Damian smiled to himself, “All the time. I think Carly even called me that earlier today, but it’s only for your own good. Now, what makes you think he was an asshole besides the obvious that’s going on right now?”

Lainey let out a hefty sigh through the phone, “Gut feeling, I guess. He was controlling. But like, in a bad way, you know? Like she couldn’t have friends outside of his social circle, and he thought her job as a makeup artist was a joke. I only met him a handful of times, but there were times that she would come into work, and it looked like she’d been up crying all night.”

Fuck. He hated the thought of that. His hatred for this guy was increasing with every new piece of information he learned about him.

“I’m sending Keith, so it will just be like hanging out with one of your Daddy’s overbearing friends instead of a bodyguard.”

Lainey laughed at that, and Damian couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh goody,” she answered sarcastically.

“You’re a brat.”

She laughed, “I know. So… are you going to convince Carly that she is a Little?”

“You think she’s a Little too, huh?”

“It’s totally obvious. Who else thinks she’s a Little?” Lainey asked curiously.

“Her brother.”

“Well, her brother sounds very smart. She needs a Daddy, and I happen to be speaking to a handsome single Daddy who would be perfect for her.”

Damian grunted, “Be good, Lainey-bug. Call me if you need anything.”

He rolled his eyes and ended the call. Lainey was a sweetheart, and it felt good that she thought he would be a good Daddy for Carly. Not that Carly would want that, but it was still a nice idea.

Damian sent Keith a text, filling him in on the situation, and asked if he could stay with Lainey for the time being. Keith sent an immediate thumbs up.