Chapter 13
I sprint through the halls of the pyramid and into Archer’s room. I decide now is not the time to be screamed at for not knocking. Mia sounds like she’s hurt and my instincts are kicking in and telling me to find her.
Sure enough, she’s squirming away in Archer’s arms. He has a bottle in his hand and is trying to feed her. He looks so awarding holding her and I can tell her head isn’t supported properly. I reach out to take her and Archer gives easily. He sighs and runs his hand through his hair again. It’s clearly an anxious tick.
her
up
“I didn’t realize how many times babies wake up in the night,” he says. “I’ve got practice tomorrow and it’s two in the morning and she’s sobbing. If it fucks up my performance I’ll have her head.”
“She is a baby,” I spit, annunciating each word. “You can’t expect her to adapt to your schedule so easily. Babies are neither convenient nor are they obedient because you want them to be. She’s not one of your little minions.”
Archer threw his hands up and started walking away from me and Mia. With a few rocks, she was calm again, sipping from the bottle with ease. I bobbed her gently in my arms as I fed her.
“Babies need two or three night feedings,” I said. “Then maybe a diaper change. But always a burping after each feeding. They need more food than you or I because they’re growing so fast. They also won’t sleep a full eight hours but in spurts of three or four throughout the day. It won’t be until she’s a year or so old that she can sleep most of the night
I look up from my rant and see Archer staring at me. His face is set in a hardline and his eyes are not linking with mine. I look down and realize I had forgotten to change in my duress. My shorts are almost panties, the sear disappearing in the crease between my crotch and my thigh. My nightshirt is almost sheer and is bunched around my hips, revealing a sliver of skin. I attempt to pull it down with Mia in my hands but it sends my shorts higher up.
“What?” I snap at Archer. I feel heat creeping up my cheeks despite myself. “Never seen a girl in her night things before?”
Archer’s eyes continue up my body and to my face. He blinks twice and he’s back to normal, snarling and chomping at me like a rabid beast. “I’ve seen far more beautiful women in less,” He sneers
I roll my eyes. The door to Archer’s room slams open and the other Hayes brothers come bustling in their own sleep clothes. Beau doesn’t have a shirt on. My face heats up more when I notice it. I keep my head turns down at Mia.
“What happened?” Neil shouts.
“She woke up and wouldn’t stop crying. Archer shakes his head. “She only was okay when the idiot got her.”
“That’s nanny idiot to you,” I hiss. Archer looks at me with eyes glazed with anger.
“Maybe we should just let her sleep with Mia,” Steven says nervously.
“Weren’t you the one earlier saying she could have diseases?” Beau says. He shakes his head. “It’s too soon. We don’t know if we can trust her.”
“She’s the only one that knows what the kid needs,” Neil protests. “We can take measures to ensure Mia is safe. But when things like this happen, Chloe is the one who knows what to do
The four brothers all look at each other. They look back at me, holding a now sleeping Mia. Archer groans and runs a hand over his face.
“Fine,” he grunts. “But I’m looking into additional security.”
“Fair enough,” Neil says. He looks at me. “Come on. I’ll take you to her room.”
1241 PM
We leave Archer’s room and go to the one down the hall. It’s the only one Archer had deemed “on–limits” when he Took me on a tour. Neil pushes the door in and I’m welcomed to a beautiful baby pink room. There’s a crib in one corner and a rocking chair in the other.
“We’ll get your bed in here tomorrow,” Neil whispers as to not wake the sleeping Mia. “But for now, goodnight.”
He closes the door behind me and I’m left with a sleeping baby. I ruck her in before I pass out in the rocking chair, sitting up right
The next morning, my neck is stiff as I wander into the kitchen to get breakfast. I get an apple and delight in the crispness of it. It’s like nothing I’ve ever had before. I’m still munching on it as I walk back to the utility closet to see about moving my bed. I’d rather not ask the d–bag boys so I figured I could do it myself.
I pass through the gold room just as I hear voices. The door from the black stairs opens and Beau and Wyatt come marching in, in a fit of giggles. They stop as soon as they see me. Beau winks at me and I scowl back. Wyatt, however, has a sort of evil glint in his eye.
“Glad to see your aptitude for being a nanny payed off,” he says.
Beau launches into a fit of cackles. He slaps Wyatt on the shoulder. “Her whore mother taught her something, huh?”
“That’s all her mother ever did for her,” Wyatt sneers “Taught her how to raise kids and steal people’s lives. I’d watch out for her. She may combine the two one day.”
I know he’s talking abour Mia’s disappearance and making not–so subtle hints that I was the one who took her. I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him. I bite my tongue to avoid giving it back to him. Beau smirks and winks at me again.
“Don’t worry, Jones,” he says. “Archie’s looking into some new technologies as we speak. We need to keep the kid safe somehow.
I swallow thickly and try to not think of what that means. Without another word, the two men leave and I’m left holding my half eaten apple. I toss it at the garbage bin in the corner of the room. It plinks off the side then lands on the ground. I scowl at it and storm off to my room.
The rest of the day is uneventful and un–Hayes brother filled. I walk Mia up and down the service tunnel a few times before I tuck her into a nap. I start on my studies for my classes but mind everything utterly confusing and almost wake Mia by shredding the pages of one of the books. After bathing and getting Mia in bed, I try one more time to study and wind up with the same results.
I climb into the bed that I had dragged in that morning and huff as I get under the covers. Truthfully, the chair was comfier than this slab of metal. It takes me a good two hours of scrolling through my phone to finally get me tired enough to fall asleep.
However, I’m abruptly woken up in the middle of the night when I find I can’t breathe. My hands scramble to my neck and try and pull whatever is around my neck off. I find another set of hands and follow them up to Archer’s face. This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.
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