Page 27 of Daddy’s Oath (The Daddy Guard #2)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

At Auntie Athena’s Nursery, Lana sighed.

“You okay?” Iris asked.

The two Littles were in the backyard by themselves while everyone else was inside making a craft.

Sitting side by side on the swings, Lana explained, “I’m so worried about Ace. I know he’s fine and he’s probably done stuff like this a thousand times before. But what if this time is different? Something could go wrong. And with people like we’re dealing with…”

A shudder wracked her body. She didn’t want to think about the possibilities. Ace was tough. But the people after her were absolutely brutal. She’d seen the news stories. The FBI had told her about some of the stuff. There was a reason why they’d insisted on sticking her in Witness Protection.

The two swung in silence for a moment, though neither was putting much effort into it.

“Hey, I appreciate you being with me. But I’m not much fun. I’m sorry. You won’t hurt my feelings if you go in and play with the others,” Lana told Iris.

Iris looked over at her. “I know. But I’m not going anywhere. I want to be with you. That’s what friends are for.”

The two smiled warmly as they looked into one another’s eyes for just a moment.

Finally, Iris said, “You’re not going to relax until you see him, are you?”

“Nope.”

“And you’re going to go find him, aren’t you?”

Lana winced. “Yeah.”

“You know we’ll get in trouble.”

“I’ll get in trouble.”

Iris shook her head again. “No. I’m with you. All the way.”

Lana felt so much love for her new friend. But she didn’t want to put her in a bad situation. “It could be dangerous. Iris, if you got hurt, I’d never forgive?—”

“We won’t get hurt. Well, our bottoms will get hurt. But that’s all.”

Lana giggled. “Only if we get caught. I just want eyes on Daddy. For like a minute. To know he’s okay.”

While they were talking, a loud chattering filled the backyard and Lana looked to see a large group of Littles spilling out of the mansion.

“Oh, this is good,” Iris observed. “More Littles showed up. Auntie has a full house today! That means we can sneak away, and Athena might not notice.”

Lana quickly did the math in her head. If she wasn’t mistaken, there were eight Littles inside working on the craft. Three had broken off from that to play dress-up, meaning eleven were in the house.

There were now nine more in the backyard.

Auntie Athena had her hands full. Thankfully, Trevon was there, along with Auntie Caroline. But that was still a bunch of Littles to keep track of. Perhaps Iris was right. In all the mayhem, no one would probably notice if two were missing.

Of course, Lana was an adult. If she wanted to leave the nursery she most certainly could.

But Auntie would alert Daddy.

And Daddy would not be happy. He’d also most likely be distracted during the mission, and that could lead to dangerous—even deadly—consequences.

It was best if Lana snuck out.

“Iris, you don’t have to go with me. I don’t want to drag you into this. Seriously.”

Taking Lana by the hand, Iris said, “I told you, I’m in this with you. Until the end.”

Lana knew she didn’t mean the end as it sounded, but it was hard not to think of the finality of the word, given the serious nature of what was going on.

Don’t think like that. Daddy is in control. He and the Guard will take care of this!

“Thank you!” Lana said, hugging her friend. “Now, how do we get out of here without being seen?”

“Oh, that part’s easy. We just need to make it to the front yard without being spotted. We can open the gate and just walk out. It’s only coming in that you need the code. But what do we do about transportation? I don’t even know how to drive. Besides, we don’t have a car.”

Lana thought it over for a moment. She only saw one possibility. “We can call a rideshare. I don’t have my phone, though.”

“I have a phone.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“Nah. Don’t worry about it. Come on. Let’s go check on your Daddy and then get back here before Auntie Athena notices we’re gone!”

“Hey, maybe we should let her see us first,” Lana proposed. “You know, so it seems like we’re around?”

“Good thinking!” Iris said. “Come on!”

And with that, the girls skipped off to enact their plan.

Their dangerously naughty plan.