Bunny and the Beast(Divine Creek Ranch 22)(49)
“I’m from all over. My father was in the military.”
She nodded slowly and then took a barstool opposite of him. “Tell me about yourself, Joseph.”
He filled her in on the basics, omitting the part about the BDSM club, and the fact that he wanted to dominate her granddaughter, trying to ignore the sound of the water running in the shower down the hall. Imagining her Bunny naked and wet was not a good strategy for passing muster with her grandmother. He finished, by telling her he’d been in Texas for the last ten years.
“And do you plan to stay in Texas, in this area?” she inquired as she refilled his tea and offered him a plate of cookies.
“Yes, ma’am. Texas is home now.”
“Bunny tells me you’re well off,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “You live in a big mansion, she says.”
“I’m comfortable, and I like where I live. As to the size, it suits business purposes.”
“She mentioned that. So…no plans to move into the big city, to one of those fancy subdivisions in the hills?”
“No reason to, when I already have what I want, plus complete privacy. I don’t care for metropolitan living, if that’s one of your concerns.”
Grinnie nodded and took her time gathering her thoughts. “Her father lives in one of those sorts of developments. Money, prestige, and such are important to him.” The look in her eye and the arch of her gray eyebrow told him that family ranked farther down that scale.
“She hasn’t spoken very much of him and I haven’t pushed her to.” Yet.
Grinnie sighed and shook her head. “She’s very much like my daughter, her mother. She’s not materialistic. Sometimes those fancy houses and finery hide…ugly things.”
His heart skipped a beat and he wondered if a deeper explanation of his lifestyle might be precipitously forthcoming. “What do you mean, ma’am?”
She leveled cornflower blue eyes at him. “I saw her chin the day after she was working at your house. May I ask you what happened there?”
He looked down at his half-filled glass and she reached out to pat his hand.
“Joseph, I’m not trying to make you incriminate yourself. She explained that you host gatherings there. I’m not asking you to divulge privileged information. I just need to know she’s safe with you.”
“There was a misunderstanding. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was mistaken for someone else, but the person who caused her injury has made everything right with her. I think you might even say they are acquainted as friends now. By the way, your granddaughter has a remarkably poor sense of direction.”
Grinnie burst into laughter that had her patting her housecoat pocket looking for her hankie. “That she does!”
Their shared laughter dispelled the tension until Grinnie sighed and put the hankie away. “I won’t share any of Bunny’s past with you. That’s for her to do, but I want you to understand why I question your expansive lifestyle.”
Joseph had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“After he remarried, if I’d known how she and her brother were treated while they lived in that fancy house, I would’ve had Child Protective Services and law enforcement knocking on their door. She explained away bruises and joint tenderness, on their infrequent visits to see me, as sports injuries. If I’d known…” She took the hankie out again and made use of it. “On one visit to see me, I took her to a dentist when I discovered she had a painful tooth. The dentist told me it was cracked and he could fix it but that she should be careful about blunt trauma to the face.”
The thought sent a chill down his spine.
“She swore it happened while she was playing with her step-siblings. Playing.” She shook her head. “I discovered later that she’d bitten one of them to get free when they tried to put her in a chokehold. What kind of child does that, Mr. Hazelle?”
“A disturbed one.”
“Yes. They’d intimidated her into silence, telling her they’d kill Tristan and make it look like an accident if she spoke up. Bunny and Tristan had to learn how defend themselves in a place where they should’ve been safe and secure.”
Joseph stood and took both of Grinnie’s capable hands in his and squeezed them gently. “Mrs. Haugen, thank you for sharing what you could with me, and I’ll keep what you’ve told me between the two of us. When Bunny feels comfortable enough to share more of her past with me, I will keep her confidences as well. I promise you that I’ll do everything I can to ensure that Bunny is never ill-treated or disrespected in my home. What happened was a regrettable one-time occurrence. She got turned around in the mansion and found herself in a part of it that I’d specifically asked her to steer clear of.”