Page 19 of Her Dream Mafia Daddy

“I can’t find Uncle Liam and Bozo out there won’t let me go to the barn unless you say I can. So tell him I’m allowed to go to the barn.”

“No,” he replied simply.

“No? What the fuck do you mean, no? Why the hell not?” She scrunched up her face.

“Exactly what I mean, Daphne. And you will curb your language in here or I will paddle your bottom raw. I’ve had enough of the sulking and attitude from you and it stops now. You may ask for things politely, but demanding, name calling, and cursing will never get you what you want.” He was standing, his hands on the table, and he pinned her with an icy gaze.

Her cheeks flushed, and she averted her gaze. Good. Maybe his words were sinking into her thick skull.

“I apologize. May I please go out to the barn with Connor?” she whispered.

“Tell you what, I’ll give you a choice. I can paddle your ass and you can go out to the barn or I can ground you for the day.”

“That’s ridiculous! You cannot ground me!” Her foot stomp would have been adorable if he wasn’t so pissed and his hands weren’t itching to connect with her gorgeous ass.

“Those are your options. And before you decide. Just know that Liam will find out about your behavior today when he gets back. Make your choice before I make it for you.” At his edict, she stomped out of his office and a few moments later, he heard the slamming of a door.

All the men found this especially humorous except for him.

“Connor, watch her close today.”

“Yes, boss.” With that, Connor left to take care of his charge.

“That girl is going to be the death of me, I swear.” He sounded weary.

“Why don’t you just paddle her ass?” Rory asked him.

“Because she told Damian that I haven’t earned her consent and that’s part of the reason she hates me so much right now. I whipped her ass with my belt and she didn’t agree to it. I respect her wishes to not be spanked for now, but she will eventually give consent.” He may firmly believe that he had consent through her brother and her uncle, but he would respect her wishes.

Sighing, he stood. Putting on his jacket, he strode from the room without a glance back. He changed into jeans and his favorite belt, slipped on his boots, and headed to ride Avalanche. He needed to clear his head, and a ride was just what he needed.

He took his time brushing Avalanche, relishing in the calmness that eased over him. Saddling him, he left for the ridge. His hair whipped in the breeze, the refreshing mountain air cooling his heated skin as they trotted through the mountains. The weather was getting cooler by the day. Soon it would be impossible to traverse this terrain on horseback, and they would have to resort to using snowmobiles. Those were thrilling on their own, of course, but he preferred to be on horseback.

He rode the fence line briefly, just to ensure everything was as it should be. He trusted his men, but having an extra set of eyes on things never hurt anything. He had a town to protect. He came across a section that was down. Cursing under his breath, he called Colton.

Colton answered after the first ring. “Hey boss, something wrong?”

“Yeah, we have some down fencing, and it looks like someone has tampered with it. Call in a team and let’s get this fixed. I want cameras up here, too. I’m on the south ridge.” He was glad he stopped, but this was the last thing he wanted to fucking deal with.

“On it, boss. We’ll be up there soon.” He hung up and knew that his team would be on the job soon. He tied up Avalanche so he couldn’t wander too far and got to work clearing some of the fencing out. Within a few minutes, he heard the 4-wheelers on their way out. When doing a job like this, 4-wheelers were easier to get all the equipment they needed.

“What the fuck is going on? I was just up here two days ago and everything was fine.” Colton, the oldest of the five Mason brothers, was in charge of the fences and keeping the property secure. He was damn good at his job, so he knew he had to take this personally.

“Not your fault, Colton. We have people trying to get on property all the time. And you can’t walk every inch of the property every day.” He tried to reassure him as they got to work. Within no time, the fence was repaired and the cameras were hung. “We’ll monitor this section now and see if we can find anything. It was likely a bear or something, but just in case someone is trying to get on the property, we’ll catch them.”

“This wasn’t a bear, boss. This was someone trying to get in.” Colton held up a piece of fencing which had clearly been cut.

“Fuck my life. Who the hell is dumb enough to do this?” He considered himself a reasonable man, but fuck with the safety of the people he cared about and he was deadly.

“These cameras will catch anyone who tries to get on property. We’ll get some more cameras up and I’ll get a few extra men to run fences over the next few days.” Colton slapped him on the back. “We’ll get ‘em, boss.”

“You’re right.” He sighed. “Ok, I’m going to keep riding. Keep everyone on property. Make sure all of your women know the seriousness of this. I will dole out spankings if I catch anyone breaking any rules on this. I’m serious. Something is not sitting right with me and anyone who is caught wandering without a guard can come see me and my paddle.” With that decree made, he rode off on Avalanche, determined to clear his head.

“What am I going to do, buddy?” He was miles away in his head. His thoughts kept wandering back to the feisty guest he had in his home. He needed to find a way to eliminate the threat against Daphne and make her his. She was skittish, and it pissed him off. No one should be that scared, ever. Especially his girl. And she was his, he just had to convince her of that. After riding the fence, making sure there were no more down areas, he returned to the barn.

Getting his horse taken care of, he finally made his way back to the house. As he got closer, he heard yelling. Picking up his pace, he rushed in to find Daphne on one side of the table and Liam on the other. They were in some sort of standoff.

“What is going on here?” A knowing smirk played on his face.