Papi's Protection (Crime Boss Daddies Book 2), page 1
PAPI’S PROTECTION
LAYLAH ROBERTS
Laylah Roberts
Papi’s Protection
© 2023, Laylah Roberts
Laylah.roberts@gmail.com
https://laylahroberts.com
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.
Editing: Celeste Jones; Woncas Creative.
Cover Design by: Allycat’s Creations.
Photographer: RplusMphoto.
Model: Katana.
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
Let’s keep in touch!
Books by Laylah Roberts
Trigger Warnings
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Epilogue
Author Afterword
Diaz Family Tree
Papi’s Savior
LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH!
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BOOKS BY LAYLAH ROBERTS
Doms of Decadence
Just for You, Sir
Forever Yours, Sir
For the Love of Sir
Sinfully Yours, Sir
Make me, Sir
A Taste of Sir
To Save Sir
Sir’s Redemption
Reveal Me, Sir
Crime Boss Daddies
Daddy’s Obsession
Papi’s Protection
Papi’s Savior (coming soon)
Montana Daddies
Daddy Bear
Daddy’s Little Darling
Daddy’s Naughty Darling Novella
Daddy’s Sweet Girl
Daddy’s Lost Love
A Montana Daddies Christmas
Daring Daddy
Warrior Daddy
Daddy’s Angel
Heal Me, Daddy
Daddy in Cowboy Boots
A Little Christmas Cheer (crossover with MC Daddies)
Sheriff Daddy
Her Daddies’ Saving Grace
Rogue Daddy
A Little Winter Wonderland
Daddy’s Sassy Sweetheart
Daddy Dominic
MC Daddies
Motorcycle Daddy
Hero Daddy
Protector Daddy
Untamed Daddy
Her Daddy’s Jewel
Fierce Daddy
Savage Daddy
Boss Daddy
Daddy Fox
A Snowy Little Christmas
Saving Daddy
Harem of Daddies
Ruled by her Daddies
Claimed by her Daddies
Stolen by her Daddies
Captured by her Daddies
Haven, Texas Series
Lila’s Loves
Laken’s Surrender
Saving Savannah
Molly’s Man
Saxon’s Soul
Mastered by Malone
How West was Won
Cole’s Mistake
Jardin’s Gamble
Romanced by the Malones
Twice the Malone
Mending a Malone
Malone’s Heart
Men of Orion
Worlds Apart
Cavan Gang
Rectify
Redemption
Redemption Valley
Audra’s Awakening
Old-Fashioned Series
An Old-Fashioned Man
Two Old-Fashioned Men
Her Old-Fashioned Husband
Her Old-Fashioned Boss
His Old-Fashioned Love
An Old-Fashioned Christmas
Bad Boys of Wildeside
Wilde
Sinclair
Luke
Rawhide Ranch Holiday
A Cozy Little Christmas
A Little Easter Escapade
Standalones
Their Christmas Baby
Haley Chronicles
Ally and Jake
TRIGGER WARNINGS
Please be aware that this book has triggers for sexual assault (brief but on page), the disappearance of a parent, cheating (in the past ad not between the present hero and heroine), there is mention of violence, drugs and crimes, as well as a cult.
There is swearing, sexual scenes, bondage, spanking and DDlg.
PROLOGUE
Four years ago
“I’m not leaving.”
Cat folded her arms and gave her friends a firm look. They could say what they wanted. But no argument was going to sway her. She was staying here—with them.
Her family.
“What? You’re going to stay here and let the Deity take you as his next wife? Is that what you want?” Sampson demanded.
She shivered as she remembered the Deity calling her to his office the day after her birthday and his big announcement. The way he’d looked at her. With hunger. With ownership. She could still feel his hands grabbing her arms.
She glanced down at them. It felt like she should be bruised, but his touch hadn’t been punishing as he’d laid out her future in stark terms.
“Sampson!” Maeve scolded. She was sitting between him and Jenner on the wooden floor. They were all crowded into the tree house. It was their safe place in the Camp.
She’d never understood why Mama moved them here. But whenever Cat asked her, she’d just get this scared look on her face and tell Cat that this place was safe.
Or it had been until the Deity announced that Cat was to be his next wife. Wife number five.
Nausea bubbled in her tummy and she placed her hand over it. There were only two ways to get out of her marriage to the Deity.
Leave or die.
And she didn’t want to do either.
“It’s the truth, Maeve,” Sampson said with a frown. He was always so serious and protective of the rest of them. But more so now that Cat had just turned sixteen.
The age at which all girls who were part of the Children of the Divine were expected to marry.
Lucky her, she got to marry the leader of the cult. The biggest, creepiest asshole out of all of them.
Cat swallowed heavily.
“You have to go, Cat,” Immy said in her sweet voice. She was tucked in between Jenner and Abe, her slight frame dwarfed by them.
What would happen when Maeve turned sixteen? Then Immy? Who would he give them to? Sampson and Jenner’s dad? Isaiah’s dad?
It was sick.
It was wrong.
And she had to help them.
“You can’t marry him, Cat,” Isaiah said quietly, his eyes haunted. He was leaning against the wall, his foot tapping nervously. “He’ll hurt you.”
Cat swallowed heavily. She didn’t want to marry him. But she also didn’t want to leave the six of them.
“Fine, I’ll go. But I’m coming back for you guys,” she promised fiercely. That was the only reason she’d go.
Because it might be the only way she could save them all.
“Good,” Sampson said briskly. He reached into his pocket and drew out some cash. “Here, we all contributed.” He tried to hand the money over.
“What? No. I can’t take that.” Cash was scarce and hard to come by at the Camp. Everything they earned was given to the Deity, and in turn, he was supposed to use it to take care of them. His reasoning was that it freed them from financial burden and meant they had more time to worship the Divine.
Cat knew, though, that most of the people who lived at the Camp were working their butt off and barely had anything to their name. They were fed and clothed, but that was about it.
Although if you were higher up the hierarchy, you seemed to get better perks. Sampson and Jenner’s
Cat’s mama was older when she joined the cult, and because she was no longer considered good breeding stock, she hadn’t had to marry one of the men. Of course, that meant they were pretty low on the totem pole, though. The place they lived in should have been condemned a long time ago.
“You can and you will,” Sampson ordered. He was so bossy.
Cat glared at him. If she ever fell in love, it would be with an easygoing man. One that never tried to tell her what to do.
A man who’d let her do whatever she wanted when she wanted.
“You’ll need it, Cat,” Jenner told her seriously. He looked tired. Like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. This was so unfair. They were teenagers. Why should they have to worry about all this crap?
“You can use it to get far away from here. You said your mom has friends you guys can go stay with, right?” Maeve asked. She chewed on her thumbnail.
“Yeah. That’s what she said. How will we get away, though?” she asked.
The Camp was isolated. They could probably walk into town, but how long would they have until people started noticing that they were missing?
“Don’t worry,” Isaiah told her. “We’ve got a distraction planned for midnight. You guys just be ready to sneak away. Get to St Ives and then jump on a bus out of here.”
Cat nodded. “I’m still coming back. I’m getting you all out.”
They all stared at her with varying expressions of hope and sadness. She understood. They were fast losing hope in this place.
But what they needed to remember was that Cat could out-stubborn a goat. And that she’d never leave her family behind.
Family first.
Always.
Five months later
“We need to be there when they raid the Camp, Mama,” Cat argued, pacing back and forth in the small motel room.
They were only a twenty-minute drive from the Camp. She was so close, but she hadn’t been allowed to go with the FBI.
Jerks.
“You know what Agent Stubbs said, Mija,” her mother replied. “We have to stay here out of the way. It’s not safe for us to go.”
Cat snorted. “We’re the ones that gave them the information they needed to raid the place. If it wasn’t for us, they’d still be chasing their own asses.”
“Mija,” Mama warned.
“What? It’s true! And the guys might need me. They’ll be scared. It’s only a few weeks until Maeve’s birthday . . . what if . . . what if he decided to replace me with her?”
That worry had been keeping her awake at night. Maeve was so close to sixteen. If that jerkface took her as a wife . . .
“Take a deep breath, Mija. There’s nothing we can do. The FBI will get them all out. Agent Stubbs promised to watch out for them.”
“I don’t know if we can fully trust him,” Cat replied.
“He’s done nothing but help us, Mija. He’s a nice man.”
“He’s arrogant and rude.” And Mama, despite everything she’d been through, was way too trusting.
“Why? Because he doesn’t immediately give you what you want?” Mama teased.
“Yes. Exactly.” Cat liked to get her own way. Sure, she didn’t always get what she wanted.
But most of the time, she did. And that was the way it should be. However, Agent Lochlan Stubbs didn’t see things that way.
He’d learn. One day, Cat would be a force to be reckoned with.
“Catarina, siéntate.” Mama patted the sofa cushion beside her. “It will be over soon, and then you’ll be reunited with your friends.”
Cat walked over and sat next to her mama. She felt a pang of concern as she took in her fragile state. Cat had thought life would be better away from the Camp. And in many ways, it was. She was mostly free to do what she liked. Although Mama and her friends had rules for her.
Pfft. Catarina Pérez did not like rules. And she tried to find ways around them as often as she could. Not that she wasn’t grateful to Mama’s friends for helping them. Without Elsie and Jake, things would have been so much more difficult.
Jake had used all his contacts with the NYPD to help them build enough of a case against the Deity to go to the FBI. In the end, it turned out that the FBI had been gathering information already. Cat and Mama had given them enough to act.
After today, the Deity and his Sentinels would be going to jail for a long time.
And Cat would have her friends back. Where they belonged.
That was the shit part about life away from the Camp. She missed her friends. Desperately.
Worried about them all the time.
Elsie had insisted they enroll her in school, but everyone had been cagey about how to go about that. In the end, they’d registered her under Jake’s last name, Smithson.
She didn’t know how they’d managed that or why Mama didn’t want her information to be given to the school. That was a problem for another day. Cat had been so focused on getting her friends away from the Deity . . . but as she looked at how fragile and stressed her mama was . . . maybe it was time to focus on her.
“Mama?” she queried softly.
The older woman still startled.
“Sorry, Mija, what were you saying?”
“Are you all right? Is something the matter?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know we moved to the Camp for a reason. You weren’t fooled by the Deity. And the only reason you left is because he wanted to fuck me.”
“Mija, language.”
“Mama, it’s just the truth. He’s a dirty old man who uses his charisma and false promises to get people to follow him. He brainwashed them. But he didn’t do that to you, did he? There’s a reason why you chose to live with the Children of the Divine. What is it? You can tell me, Mama.”
Whatever the problem was, she’d fix it.
“My Mija, so strong, so fierce. You’re always trying to take care of me when it should be the other way around.”
Cat sighed. “I’m not a child, Mama. I can handle whatever it is. Tell me, and I’ll take care of it.”
Something stubborn filled her mama’s face, and that’s when Cat knew she wasn’t going to tell her anything more.
“It’s not for you to worry about, Catarina,” her mother said firmly.
“But—”
“No, I am the parent. I made a mistake joining the Children of the Divine. I thought it would be safe . . . but it wasn’t. You were nearly harmed because of my poor choice. It’s my job to take care of you, and I will, Mija. I promise you that.”
Cat’s phone started ringing and she snatched it up. “Stubby?”
“I’ve told you not to call me that,” Agent Lochlan Stubbs replied, his voice filled with exasperation.
“Sorry.”
She wasn’t. Not at all.
And Stubby knew it too as he sighed. “You’re a brat.”
“I don’t think that’s an appropriate thing to say to me,” Cat replied.
“I don’t think anyone would disagree with me,” he shot back. “Here I am, calling you as soon as I have some information, and all I get is disrespect and sass. Bye.”
“No, wait, I’m sorry. Are they all right? My friends?”
“Yeah, Cat. They’re all fine. A bit traumatized, but they’re all here, safe and sound. One of the girls isn’t talking much, but the big guy has them both close to him, watching over them.”
