Page 163 of Daddy’s Fortitude

“They are. I’m done holding back. You’re still breaking the rules, which means I’ve been failing at my job. Should have spanked you the first time you broke a rule. Now that you’ve agreed to be mine in every way, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. More rules and spankings.”

“I’m wondering if I should be doubting my life choices.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “No, you’re not. You are not allowed to doubt being with me.”

Aimee sighed and shook her head at him. “I’m not doubting being with you. I’m starting to doubt whether my butt can handle being yours.”

“Not telling me about this threat is a big, big problem, Aimee. You could have been seriously hurt last night. What if I hadn’t come back when I had? You would have died.”

Even he could hear the stark pain in his voice. He hadn’t really let himself think about it until right now. She could have died. She could have been taken from him, and he never would have held her again, touched her, seen her smile. Seen her face light up when she saw him.

“That’s completely unacceptable, and it’s never happening again. You hear me?”

Aimee had been prepared to argue back, to tell him how bossy and crazy he was being, but she saw the fear on his face as he talked about the fact that she could have died. He must have been terrified when he’d found the house on fire and her nowhere in sight. She knew she would have been if the tables had been turned.

If it was him being threatened, if he was the one who had nearly died, she’d be a mess.

While Aimee knew that her intentions had been good, she’d only been trying to protect him after all, she also realized that a man like Ammo wouldn’t accept someone else’s protection.

He was a protector, a warrior.

She couldn’t take that away from him. After all, she was the one that didn’t want him to change, wasn’t she? And if that meant that she had to deal with rules and consequences in a very real way, then that’s what she had to learn to live with in order to have him in her life.

Plus, she wouldn’t say she was completely opposed to being spanked. She found spanking scenes in the books she read really hot.

“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I did what I thought was best.”

“Well, it wasn’t what was best. What is best is keeping you safe. Understand? So if there is ever any threat again, you are to tell me immediately.”

“I will, I promise.”

“You need to rest and feel better, okay? You look exhausted.”

She felt exhausted, as though she could sleep for hours and hours. She closed her eyes as he softly massaged her scalp.

“I need Kevin.”

“We’ll get you Kevin tomorrow, okay?”

“Where will we stay?” she whispered.

“I will take care of that as well. You just concentrate on feeling better and let me do everything else.”

That actually sounded like heaven.

As soon as she was asleep, Ammo got to work. He headed into the attached bathroom so he didn’t disturb her but could still keep an eye on her as he called Zander.

He quickly explained what had happened last night, and Zander promised to get Miles onto researching ‘the boss’ and who Charlie might owe thirty thousand to. He was also going to look into Branson and make sure he was on the up and up. Gwen was already looking into the sheriff and his conduct.

Eli and Webb were going to come here to help keep an eye on Aimee and Kirsten.

Ammo didn’t know how much longer they’d stay in Greasy Knob, but until they moved to the compound, it was better that he had more eyes on the ground here.

Then he called Kirsten. He told her the rest about the threat that she’d received, and that Kirsten had been part of that threat.

Kirsten started swearing. “Fucking Charlie. No good fucking asshole. What the hell? Why did he need thirty thousand? What did he spend that on? He could have used that for any number of things around the house. And now he’s left Aimee in the crap. What are we going to do? She doesn’t have thirty thousand.”

He did, but if these guys went around torching houses with women in them, he wanted them caught. He definitely didn’t intend to give them money.