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She didn’t care what Sev thought he needed to tell her Daddy. She had needs, too. And she’d be willing to bet hers were a lot more fun.

Ignoring her efforts at distracting him, he took the call while she tried to tug her hands from his hold. The least he could do was let her play while he talked boring business stuff.

“This better be good, Midnight,” he growled. Sev said something she couldn’t catch, and Boone stilled. “Why?”

Argh! This was going to take forever.

Boone’s already rock hard abdominals went rigid. “Hold on. You found what?” He paused for Sev’s reply then his eyes focused on her. His very angry eyes. “For how long?” he demanded, his glare unwavering. “Two and a half days? And how many texts?”

Uh oh.

Boone’s lips narrowed to a thin line. His jaw clenched so hard a vein pulsed up the center of his forehead. “Thanks for letting me know. We need to make a plan, but I’m gonna have to call you back. Right now, I need to have a chat with a naughty Little secret keeper.”

Glaring straight into Tildi’s soul, Boone ended the call.

CHAPTER 12

How could such a tiny woman cause so much trouble? She sat there, wringing her hands and nibbling that bottom lip. The one still swollen from his kisses. She was gorgeous from the top of her cotton candy hair to the tips of her delectable toes. The ones he happened to know now matched the color of her hair.

He loved everything about her. Her mind. Her heart. Her courage. Not to mention her perfect, apple-shaped ass, firm enough to smack and soft enough to jiggle when he did. Speaking of which, that ass was going to be doing a lot of jiggling in the near future.

What she’d done made no sense. She knew Nico was a threat. Why in the hell would she keep something like this from him? Did she not trust him to keep her safe? He’d be willing to bet his left nut when he got to the bottom of it the General would be the root cause. He really hated that guy.

The truth of the matter was it didn’t matter why. That wasn’t going to solve the problem. It wasn’t going to keep him from tanning her hide, either.

But something about this was off. He was missing something. Something important.

He’d have to figure that out later, though. Right now, he had to find out exactly what those texts said and deliver some consequences for her bad choices. Ninety-three of them apparently.

Ninety-three opportunities to be honest with him.

He’d deal with all of that, then give her lots of hugs so she wouldn’t forget how much more important she was to him than anything else in his world.

He crossed his arms over his chest and widened his stance, keeping his expression stern. His Little girl needed to know her Daddy was not pleased.

She stared up at him, nervous and vulnerable, and that pissed him off even more. He could also see the relief in her eyes. She was glad he’d found out.

Was that because she knew he’d keep her safe, or because she hated lying to him? Hopefully, both. Whatever her reason, it was unacceptable. How dare she not tell him she’d been getting those messages.

“Let me get this straight. You’ve been getting threatening texts from an unknown number since you first got your phone, and you didn’t tell me?” It took all he had to keep his voice down to a dull roar.

She looked up at him, a plea for understanding in her eyes. Well, he couldn’t give her what he didn’t have, and right now he didn’t understand anything.

Sniffling, she tried to explain. “I didn’t think the texts were sent to me, just to my phone.”

He was drowning in Little logic. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried again. “How could the texts be for your phone but not for you, Tildi. I’m not following you.”

She scrunched her face in frustration. “It’s like you said a minute ago, Daddy. I just got this phone when we got off theyacht. No one even knew my number. I didn’t get it, then I remembered my friend in New York.”

She was losing him. “You think a friend of yours is the one texting you?”

Frustration clouded her face. “No, no, no, Daddy. I had a friend in New York who got a new number on her phone. Only when she did, she kept getting calls from debt collectors asking for money she didn’t owe. She finally figured out she had a used number. The last person who had her phone number must have skipped out on paying their bills and the debt collectors thought it was her. See?”

He saw where she was going, but it wasn’t going to lead her anywhere but over his knee. “Tildi, are you honestly telling me you thought you were getting threats because you had a used number?”

“Exactly!” She beamed at him like he’d finally stopped trying to put the square peg in the round hole. “See, it didn't matter how many times she told them they had the wrong number, they still kept calling. I thought it was something like that and if I ignored it, they would get the message and stop texting.”

He held out his hand. “Give me your phone, Matilda Jayne.” She did as she was told. He scrolled through the multitude of messages that had been left.