Free Alec (BBW Secret Baby Bear Shifter Romance) (Secret Baby Bears Book 1) by Becca Fanning

standing. The captain walked to the door and pressed the door to open it, then held and arm out to her. She crossed over to him, kicking her dress aside as she passed it, and put her arm in his.

    He cleared his throat as he led her out into the hallway.

    “You know, if you need to talk to someone about today,” he said a bit awkwardly, “Rick’s good with that sort of thing. I mean, I’ll listen if you want, but I’ve been reliably informed I’m not the best person to talk to about trauma.”

    Annie shrugged. “It’d be pretty hypocritical of me to start screaming and crying because you killed those guards, seeing as I spaced seven of them on my way out.”

    Leo started. “Hold up, you said you drugged the guards.”

    “I drugged my personal guards,” Annie explained. “I set the countdown on the bay door opening low when I stole the Needle and the guards who came to stop me from escaping left the ship the same time I did, only no ship.”

    “Huh,” the captain said after a moment. “I mean, if you want to talk about that —”

    “I don’t,” Annie cut him off. “I feel terrible about killing them, and I wish I hadn’t been in a position where   I had to. But these were people who woke up every day and loyally served a monster, and worse, they were content to let me be a sacrifice to him. I am not a cruel person by nature, Captain Ingram, but I will not let people take advantage of me without my consent.”

    “Without your consent?” Leo asked.

    “My father is an alcoholic, which is how I ended up in this mess in the first place,” Annie said. “He lied to me, he took the money I gave him for food and bought more alcohol, and he stole from me. I knew about it, and I kept letting him do it because once upon a time he was the best father in the world. Unfortunately, it appears that letting his behavior continue is only ever going to hurt me.”

    Her voice was cold, as was she. She felt her muscles tighten the way they did when the temperature dropped, but instead of shivering she was perfectly still. Her mind felt far away as she locked down on the white-hot blaze of betrayal and rage she’d felt for her father ever since he’d told her what he’d done. Being out of danger for five minutes didn’t mean she wanted to start having emotional breakdowns right and left.

    Leo stopped walking.  

    “Hey, now,” he said. “It’s not a mistake to be kind, and it’s not naïve to think that parents shouldn’t hurt us and take advantage of us. That’s normal. Well, maybe not so much in this line of work, but you know what I mean.”

    He dropped his arm and grabbed her hands, smiling at her. Annie was suddenly aware that the man in front of her had kind eyes, a warm smile, and broad shoulders and her heart leapt even as her mind scoffed at the irony.

    “Thanks,” she said, forcing a small smile. “Now, you said something about food?”

    He put an arm around her shoulder and started walking down the hallway. She leaned into him and let his warmth soak into her. Her anger at her father was a thing decades in the making and wouldn’t be undone just because someone, even someone as gorgeous as Leo, smiled at her and told her it would be okay, but knowing that someone was on her side was comforting.

    The kitchen was surprisingly spacious, with counters along the walls and a large table with five chairs scattered around it in the middle. Leo walked over to one cabinet and took out two packets and two bowls. He put a glass pot under one machine and pressed a button. The machine whirred to life and soon steaming water was filling the pot.

    “Noodles okay with you?” Leo asked as he ripped the packets open.

    “Sounds perfect,” she answered.

    She looked around as Leo prepared the food. Again, the space was clean and, other than the chairs, orderly. She would have expected something messier from five men living together and working as smugglers. With that said, smuggling required a