Page 57 of Hush, Little Baby

“I’ll be with you the whole time.”

That is not a promise of freedom. It’s the opposite, actually. A very pretty, very gentle threat wearing a little bow.

But the thought of being alone with another stranger after the guards makes my stomach go cold, and the thought of Nikolaus being there makes that coldness shrink back. I don’t like that. I don’t like how quickly my brain has started dividing the world into Nikolaus and not Nikolaus, as if those are the only two categories that matter now.

Nikolaus is the reason I need protecting.

Nikolaus is also the only person who seems capable of protecting me.

My head hurts when I try to solve that puzzle.

Constantine is still watching me over his phone. “The other items you requested will also be there upon our arrival.”

“Good. I want everything to be perfect,” Nikolaus says, digging his thumb into the groove at the base of my skull until the tension there starts to release and my eyes flutter shut from the feel-good ache.

Constantine makes a faint sound that might be amusement, then goes quiet for a few seconds. I hear the small taps of his phone screen, then the soft creak of leather as he shifts. “Pilot says we’re on schedule. Flight attendant has been briefed to keep interaction minimal. She’ll stay out of the cabin unless called.”

Nikolaus’s other hand slides under the back of my hoodie, not under my shirt, just between the layers, palm warm at my upper back. I melt into it before I can stop myself.

“For the amount of money we’re paying her, she’d better.”

Constantine grunts in agreement. “Regardless of money, she’d be a fucking idiot to act up with you as a passenger.”

I listen to them bicker and let the sound blur around me. It’s easier when they talk like that. When they sound like adults handling adult things. Not because I trust them. I don’t. I don’t think I do. But their words make a roof over me, somehow. Not a safe roof, maybe. Maybe a locked roof. But still something over my head.

The car turns, and my stomach turns with it.

Nikolaus somehow notices this and cups the back of my head. “Motion sick?”

I don’t know.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

I shake my head once, then stop because that makes the floaty feeling tilt.

“Too much?” he asks.

That could mean anything. The car. The plane. The doctor. His hands. My whole life being picked up and moved while I sit in his lap, too quiet to stop it.

I nod.

His chest rises under my cheek. “I know, sweetheart.”

I frown because how the hell does he know absolutely everything?!

“You’re doing so well,” he murmurs. “I know it feels like a lot because it is a lot, but you’re doing so well for me.”

The praise slips through me, warm and syrupy. Embarrassing. It spreads from my chest down to my stomach, makes my fingers curl around my blankie and my cheek rub against his broad chest in a small, helpless movement I do not approve of at all.

Nikolaus lets out a pleased hum, its vibration rumbling in his chest.

Constantine sighs from across the car. “He’s going to hate you for this later, whenever he surfaces from this stress-induced littlespace.”

Nikolaus presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Maybe for a little while, but once I prove to him that I’m the Daddy he’s always needed, he’ll be grateful. With how we found him, it’s clear to me that he’s never had anyone to rely on. It wouldn’t surprise me if it takes him a bit to adjust.”

“Yes, I’m sure he’ll be oh so grateful that you kidnapped him,” Constantine muses, a smirk pulling at his lips.