Page 2 of Blissful Devotion

All of us.

“Let me take her,” Nathan says, holding his arms out for Addy, but I shake my head and wave him off.

“I’m fine. I don’t want to risk waking her.” Worry fills Nathan’s eyes as he looks down at his little girl, and I get it.

I never wanted kids, but these three little shits are as close as I ever thought I would get.

Knowing Kat’s pregnant changes things, though. Even though I know the baby can’t be mine, that doesn’t change my worry or the fierce protectiveness I feel for them both.

Shaking the thought off, I look up at Nathan and see he’s waiting for a more complete explanation.

Can’t say I blame him. I’m not one to coddle kids.

“She cried herself to sleep.” His face softens the way it only ever does for her and Kat, and I know he assumes it’s because of the experience and the scare. That would be perfectly reasonable, and while I’m sure some of that played a part, I wish that was all she was upset about. It’d be easy to let him think it was that—save him from the pit my next words will leave in his stomach—but something tells me she won’t be much better when she wakes up.

Not until we get Kat back.

“She wants Mommy,” I barely manage to choke the words out.

“Fuck,” Alex hisses, and I hear him fall into one of the chairs along the wall.

Fuck indeed.

“Tell us what happened,” Nathan says, already pacing the length of the little room before I even start talking.

“There isn’t a lot to tell. The car came out of nowhere, ran a red light, and plowed right into the side of our car. I was out for maybe five minutes, by my estimate, and didn’t see anyone or get plates. The glimpse I got of the vehicle before the accident let me know it was a black Escalade, but that’s about it.”

I’m sure it’s no accident that the car they used was one of the most common colors and models around.

“Why take Kat, though?” Alex asks the question that’s been driving me crazy since I realized she was gone.

“There’s only one explanation I can think of…” I look at Nathan, and understanding lights his eyes.

“They didn’t want Kat. They wanted Addison.” The second he says it aloud, I know it's true.

The Lawsons are powerful and rich. Taking Nathan’s daughter would be a wonderful bargaining chip to get almost anything you want.

But Kat would never allow that.

Addy stirs and groans, pulling back to rub her puffy, red-rimmed eyes.

“Daddy,” she says, sounding almost unsure as she looks up at him. He offers her a small, reassuring smile, and when he holds out his arms, she all but lunges from my lap.

“Daddy, they took Mommy!” she cries, throwing her arms around his neck as he holds her tight, and she begins crying all over again.

Nathan rubs her back, hushing her and telling her it’s going to be okay until she gets her breathing under control again.

“Princess, can you tell me who took Mommy?” Nathan asks, his voice calm and gentle as he keeps her close.

It’s tough to ask these kinds of questions when all you want to do is shield her from it, but we need any information we can get, and like it or not, Addison is the only one who saw them.

“A man with a star on his fa—face,” she hiccups through her tears, and I look to Alex and see the same confused look on his face.

‘A star?’ He mouths to me, and I shrug because, fuck if I know.

“Addy, honey, what do you mean by a star?” Alex asks, pushing to stand and moving over to her. He presses a kiss to her forehead, smoothing her tangled hair back off her face, where it sticks from the tears.

She reaches out and snags his hand, pushing his sleeve up enough that you can just make out the tattoos that are usually hidden.