Page 130 of Broken Daddy

“Strongest person I know. Even if she doesn’t know it. It’s not that Devi doesn’t care about her own safety, but she doesn’t put herself first. You haven’t left her side since she ended up in here . . . why is that? Is it just a sense of . . . chivalrous protection?”

Chivalrous protection?

No. That wasn’t what he felt.

“Would you do this for anyone in Devi’s situation?” Mac asked. “Sit by their side and watch over them?”

“Of course not.” He didn’t let people close. Not since May died. Hell, not even before that really. No more than he had to. He’d never been a people person. Sure, he had his buddies in the Navy Seals and when May was alive, they’d had friends in the BDSM community. But he’d pushed most of them away after her death.

“Then why Devi?”

“Because I care about her.”

“As a friend?”

“Exactly,” he said. “We’re friends. I want to help her. I don’t want her to have to worry about paying the hospital bill or her rehabilitation. I’m going to cover all of that.”

Something in Mac’s face changed and Hayes could swear he saw a flash of disappointment.

“You’re a good friend,” Mac said. “But it’s not going to feel like a fair exchange. Taking that much from someone she just met? Not going to happen.”

“She needs to let me help her.”

Mac smiled sadly. “Listen, you don’t need to worry about Devi. She has friends here and we’ll take care of her.”

“You can’t take care of her. It’s too dangerous. She’s going to have to come home with me.”

As soon as he said the words they felt right.

She’d come home with him.

“I’d love for Devi to go home with you, get out of this town. But she’s in an emotionally fragile state. And we both know she has feelings for you. It’s not happening.”

Anger surged inside him and he had to work hard to tamp it down. That wasn’t going to help the situation. “And you think that you get to make that decision?”

“I’m the closest thing that girl has to a father. To a family member who isn’t in jail or likely dead. I care about her. So do Silla and Michelle. So you don’t need to worry, we will take care of her.”

“Look, I don’t want to offend you, but none of you have the skills needed to take care of her. If these gang members come after her, you’re all going to die.”

“We have more skills than you think.”

Fuck. They were all going to get fucking killed. And just because they were worried that . . . what? He’d hurt Devi? Emotionally?

Would he do that? The last thing he wanted was to harm her. But the state she was in at the moment . . . Christ.

Mac was right to be concerned. He cared about her. And Hayes couldn’t get upset about that. Devi deserved to have people care about her. He was certain that she didn’t realize just how much her friends loved her.

“I know what it’s like to lose the woman you love. It takes a toll on you. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss my Minnie.”

“Right, so you get it. The fear . . . the fear of loving and losing someone again. Don’t know that I’d survive it again.” He swallowed heavily. “Guess you now know that I’m not as tough as I pretend to be.”

“To me that’s one of the toughest things you can go through. Losing someone you love. . . it leaves a mark on you. It changes you. And yeah, I get the need to protect yourself from hurt again. Nobody thinks worse of you for not being able to open up your heart again, least of all Devi. She knows loss.”

And yet she welcomed everyone she met with open arms and a smile.

“How does she do it? How is she so happy?”

Mac shrugged. “I don’t know. The stuff she’s been through . . . could have made her bitter and angry. Devi went a different path.”