Page 1

CHAPTER 1

What had she been thinking? This was a complete disaster. Tildi blamed it on the fact she’d been at sea for three weeks on a freaking yacht with no land in sight. How was her brain supposed to work in these conditions?

“Come on, little girl. Unless you’re conceding defeat, it’s your turn.” Grif grinned from the helm of theMidnight’s Mistress. To enemies around the country, he might be Griffen Turner, super deadly commando dude, but to her, he was the super deadly steersman dude. He took the helm of theMidnight’s Mistressmore than anyone else.

Grif cleared his throat.

“Stop rushing me!” Frowning, she tried to concentrate. It was doubly hard since her table sat right next to the galley where Dutch was frying bacon. This was so unfair!

She could never think of things at the spur of the moment. Why had she challenged Grif in the first place? She blamed the early morning wakeup call her Daddy had given her that morning… well, every morning. Not that she was complaining. Especially since her princess parts still quivered at the thought of everything Boone had done to her.

“Oh! I’ve got one. Are you ready?”

“Go ahead, hit me with your best shot.” Grif crossed his arms and waited.

“Okay. How did the hamburger bun introduce his girlfriend to his family?”

Grif shook his head. “I give up.” Grif stared down at his seat, appearing to brace.

“Meet Patty,” Boone called as he came up from the hatch.

“Daddy! You’re stealing my punchlines.” Tildi tried to sound angry, but she must have done it wrong because he laughed as he sat down beside her at the table.

Grif and Dutch groaned. “That’s awful, Tildi-Lou. Even for a dad joke,” Dutch said, but she saw his lips twitch.

“Doesn’t matter. I still got a point. That puts me ahead seven to two.” She grinned at them.

“Only because you study them while I’m working. That’s cheating if you ask me.” Grif never lost his grin.

Tildi couldn’t hold back an affronted gasp. She was not a cheater. “Is not! You take that back.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be navigating or something?” Boone scowled at Grif. “We should be close to the coast. How long until we hit the waterway in Portland?”

Grif glanced at the control panel. “I’d say about two hours.”

Two hours gave her barely enough time to get packed and ready to go. She was meeting the mysterious Sevin Midnight. If the yacht he’d let them use was anything to go by, she needed time to dress and get decked out in the appropriate clothes.

What did you wear when meeting a bajillionaire? She tried to remember the way women dressed at the parties she’d once served hors d’oeuvres at before Nico Midnight had kidnapped her from one of them.

Come to think of it, since it was Sevin’s father who had kidnapped her, she didn’t care if he was impressed or not. She did, however, care if Boone was impressed. She wanted him tobe proud of her. He’d done so much for her. The least she could do was not embarrass him.

Hopping up, she headed for the master cabin. At least, she tried. Boone caught her by the wrist before she made it three steps.

“Where do you think you’re going, bluebell?”

“I need to pick out something to wear for when we meet Sevin. It has to be perfect, and that will take time since I’ve never met a decent mafia guy before.”

He had to be a decent mafia guy. Her Daddy wouldn’t have anything to do with Sevin if he was like his father, Nico.Please don’t let him be like his father.

With a tug on her wrist, Boone pulled her into his lap. “You’ve got plenty of time to do that. Right now, you need to eat your breakfast.”

She shook her head. Daddies didn’t know what it took for a girl to get ready for something as important as meeting a mafia guy. All they had to do was take a shower and remember not to show up naked. She’d witnessed more than one man at some of those parties who had forgotten that second part. She shuddered at the memory.

“But Daddy, I don’t have enough time. Not when it’s this important.”

He leveled her with one of those Daddy looks he was so good at. “What is important right now is you eating something for breakfast. Dutch pulled out all the stops this morning. Look at the spread. You need to eat to build back your strength. A year of eating the crap they fed you is bad for your health. Do we need to have a reminder talk about eating nutritious food at every meal?”

It hadn’t taken her long to realize that talk was one of those Daddy code words for something else. The last thing she neededtoday was to wind up over her Daddy’s knee getting her butt smacked.