Sweet Seduction Shield
purposefully. "Do you also know
what they do?"
    She scrunched
up her little face and thought hard about that for a moment.
    "They fix
things," she said eventually. "They find things people took and
bring them back."
    Pierce nodded
solemnly at my daughter.
    "And do you
know what else they do, Princess Daisy?" He didn't wait for her
answer. "They help people who need it. They look out for them, keep
them safe, take care of them when things get a little bumpy."
    "Bumpy?" she
said, eyes slowly coming back to mine.
    "Yeah bumpy,
baby," I said, reaching out and taking her hand into mine.
"Yesterday was a bit bumpy, eh?"
    She nodded
vigorously, making another crack appear in my heart.
    I was doing the right thing. I
was getting help. I just prayed Ryan Pierce was going to be able to
provide it.
    "Guess what I
am, Daisy?" he said, still giving my girl his undivided
attention.
    Her eyes
widened in realisation, then she whispered in an awestruck voice,
"You're a deetetiv?"
    He smiled and
chuckled softly. "Not just any detective," he replied. "I'm your
very own personal detective."
    She stared at
him for a long moment and then said in her innocent child's voice,
"Can I call you Kelly too?"

Chapter
6
Then I Lost
The Ability To Think Completely
    "No, Daisy," I
said trying not to laugh. "Detective Pierce's name is Ryan."
    She blinked,
then said simply, "Wokay." Returning her attention to the last of
her drawing, as though the subject was officially closed.
    And I guess it
was. My daughter approved of our 'very own personal detective'. I
stared at him, as he smiled across the table at Daisy's head. He
seemed totally besotted with her, in that isn't-she-just-so-cute
kind of way adults can get around kids. As though he was thinking
about his own children, or maybe if he didn't already have them,
about those he could have in the future. Comparing them to my
Daisy.
    He could do
worse. She was a great kid, the best child, a beautiful little
soul. She was a little piece of me and a little piece of a man I
once loved with all my heart. I may have a hell of a lot of pent up
anger at where Rick eventually took us, which has crushed that
young-person love I once had. But I am not so unforgiving that I
don't remember what it was like before our world crashed down
around our ears.
    Rick did love
me, he just loved the money and lifestyle McLaren offered more. And
he paid dearly for that love in the end.
    Pierce cleared
his throat and my eyes came back up to his. I hadn't realised he'd
stopped adoring my daughter and was studying me instead.
    "Where did you
just go?" he asked softly. An almost intimate question in
itself.
    "To a place I
have no right to visit anymore." The reply was out before I could
stop it. I almost cringed. I think I might have looked a little
shocked, because Pierce stilled for a moment, and then slowly let
the air out of his lungs.
    "OK," he said,
either dismissing that little second of overindulgence, or deciding
it was best to move things along. "I have a place set up for you
both to stay. A colleague who has an extremely safe house
and..."
    "We're not
staying somewhere with you?" I blurted, and did cringe on that
one.
    He smiled back
at me. "Oh, I'll be there, whenever I can. But I've also got a
worker bee to catch and a case to prepare for court."
    I almost said,
"But it's you I trust." Managing to stop myself before I became a
cliché.
    Pierce, being
the perceptive policeman that he is, picked up on my thoughts
anyway.
    "I trust this
man and his woman completely. And you can too. They understand
where you're coming from. More than you'll probably ever know."
    I tilted my
head slightly to the side and tried to interpret what he'd just
said.
    "I don't
know," I said eventually. "It was hard enough coming here," I
admitted.
    "I know," he
whispered, moving closer to me in his chair. "Trust me then."
    I held his
intense gaze, the browns in his eyes so deep and reassuring,
mesmerising enough to make me feel like I was falling into

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