Chapter 2 - THE MAN WITH THE GUN WAS THEIR FATHER
“What about you?”
Lily’s tiny hand clung to my sleeve beneath the diner table.
I could hear car doors slamming outside.
Heavy boots hit the sidewalk.
More than one man.
Maybe six.
Maybe eight.
Too many.
“I’m going to make sure nobody finds you,” I whispered.
Grace began crying silently.
I touched her cheek.
Still cold.
Too cold.
“Remember what I said. Stay together. Stay quiet.”
“But the wolf—”
“I know.”
I didn’t.
Not really.
But there wasn’t time.
I pulled the vinyl booth back into place, grabbed the diner’s ancient baseball bat from beneath the register and turned off the final kitchen light.
The front door shook.
Locked.
Then someone hit it once.
Hard.
“OPEN THE DOOR!”
My heartbeat became painful.
I recognized nothing about the voice except authority.
“Diner’s closed!”
“OPEN IT!”
I gripped the bat.
“I already called the police!”
That was a lie.
I had not called anyone because Lily had panicked at the sight of my phone.
The glass door shattered.
I jumped backward.
Three men entered first.
Black coats.
Weapons.
Not neighborhood thieves.
Professionals.
A fourth followed.
Tall.
Broad shoulders.
Dark hair.
Black wool coat over a suit that probably cost more than everything I owned.
Dominic Vale.
The photograph had not prepared me for him.
Pictures made him look cold.
In person, he looked dangerous.
His eyes moved over the room.
Two bowls of unfinished soup.
Children’s wet clothing near the radiator.
Small boots drying beside the kitchen.
Then me.
His gun came up.
“Where are they?”
I tightened my grip around the bat.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Wrong answer.
Two of his men spread toward the back.
Dominic walked closer.
“Two little girls.”
“I haven’t seen—”
His gun pointed directly at my face.
My knees almost failed.
Blood drained from my hands.
I had never had a weapon pointed at me.
Every ridiculous thing people say happens in moments like that happened.
I noticed the clock.
11:47.
I noticed a crack in the floor tile.
I thought about my mother.
Then I thought about the children beneath the booth.
And somehow fear became useful.
“If you’re here for them,” I whispered, “you’re going to have to tell me who you are.”
His expression changed.
Barely.
“You know who I am.”
“Yes.”
“Then answer.”
“No.”
One of the armed men looked surprised.
So was I.
Dominic stepped within three feet.
“Someone took my daughters thirty-one hours ago.”
His voice cracked around the final word.
Not much.
Enough.
“They killed one of my drivers. Injured another. I’ve searched half of Chicago.”
My grip loosened.
Then one of his men shouted from the kitchen.
“Boss. Girls’ coats.”
Dominic’s face went terrifyingly blank.
He looked at me.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“You have their clothes.”
“They were freezing.”
“You expect me to believe—”
A tiny scream cut through the diner.
“DADDY!”
Everything stopped.
Grace crawled from beneath the booth first.
Her blanket dragged behind her.
“Daddy, don’t hurt her!”
Dominic’s gun dropped instantly.
The change in him was almost violent.
Not anger.
Not relief.
Something bigger.
He was across the room before I could move.
Grace ran three steps and collapsed.
Dominic caught her.
“My baby.”
His voice broke completely.
Lily crawled out after her.
“Daddy!”
One of the most feared men in Chicago fell to his knees.
He pulled both girls against him.
His gun landed forgotten on the floor.
Lily began sobbing.
“You found us.”
“I found you.”
“You took too long.”
“I know.”
Grace pressed her face against his chest.
“Cold.”
Dominic looked at me.
I saw the moment he noticed how blue her lips still were.
“How long?”
“Outside?”
“Yes.”
“They said since yesterday.”
His face emptied.
I moved closer.
“Grace needs a hospital.”
One of his men stepped between us.
Dominic snapped, “Move.”
The man moved.
I crouched.
“She lost consciousness earlier. She’s responsive now, but her temperature is still dangerously low.”
“You’re a doctor?”
“No.”
“Nurse?”
“Not exactly.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I did two years of nursing school.”
“That’s enough.”
“No, it isn’t.”
I touched Grace’s wrist.
Her pulse remained slow.
“She needs proper warming, labs, cardiac monitoring.”
Dominic stood with her in his arms.
“Cars.”
His men moved instantly.
Lily grabbed my hand.
I looked down.
“Come on, honey. Go with your dad.”
She tightened her grip.
“No.”
Dominic stopped.
“Lily.”
“She comes.”
I blinked.
“What?”
Lily moved closer to me.
“Emily comes.”
Dominic looked at me.
I shook my head.
“You have them now.”
Grace lifted her head weakly from his shoulder.
“Emmy.”
Something inside my chest hurt.
Dominic stared at his daughters.
Then at me.
“You’re coming.”
That sounded less like gratitude and more like an arrest.
“I have to close the diner.”
One of his men stared at me as though I had just told the president I needed to finish folding napkins during a national emergency.
Dominic said, “Someone will handle the diner.”
“I need my coat.”
“You’re wearing one.”
“It has a hole in the pocket.”
For some reason, his expression almost changed.
Then he looked toward the floor.
My old purse had fallen near the register.
One of his men picked it up.
Thirty-eight dollars in tips spilled out.
Everyone saw.
Wonderful.
I shoved the bills back inside.
Dominic’s eyes lingered on them.
I hated the sudden humiliation more than the gun.
“I don’t need money,” I said.
He looked at me.
“I didn’t offer.”
Good.
That irritated me enough to stop feeling embarrassed.
Outside, the SUVs idled beneath heavy snow.
Dominic carried Grace.
Lily refused to release my hand.
I climbed into the rear seat beside them.
One security man sat in front.
Another SUV moved ahead.
Two behind.
I had never been inside a car this expensive.
I didn’t care.
Grace started shaking harder.
That was good.
Shivering meant her body was trying.
I wrapped the blanket tighter.
Dominic watched every movement.
“What did you give her?”
“Warm milk. Small amount. Soup.”
“Any medicine?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t know what happened to her or what she could be allergic to.”
His eyes sharpened.
“She has no allergies.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Lily whispered, “The wolf gave Gracie sleepy juice.”
Every adult in the vehicle froze.
Dominic turned.
“What?”
Lily shrank.
I immediately put one hand around her.
“Don’t scare her.”
His eyes snapped toward me.
“I’m not—”
“Yes, you are.”
The security man in front looked as though he had stopped breathing.
Dominic stared at me.
I should have been terrified.
Instead, I was angry on Lily’s behalf.
I softened my voice.
“Lily, sweetheart. What sleepy juice?”
She swallowed.
“In the van.”
“Who gave it to Grace?”
“The wolf’s man.”
“Did you get any?”
She shook her head.
“I spit it.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“Good girl.”
“Then the van went boom.”
“Crashed?”
“Yes.”
Lily nodded.
“One bad man didn’t wake up. The other went outside. We ran.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
“How did you know where to go?”
“We followed lights.”
The diner.
Thirty-one hours missing.
The girls had escaped their kidnappers themselves.
Then survived more than a day in Chicago winter.
Dominic looked at me.
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“I tried to mention calling someone.”
Lily panicked.
“He hears phones.”
Dominic’s face darkened.
“Reed.”
Lily nodded.
“Mr. Reed said phones tell the wolf where people are.”
The security man in front turned.
Dominic’s voice became cold.
“Where is Nathan Reed?”
“We still can’t locate him.”
There it was.
The name Lily had mentioned earlier.
Dominic’s own security chief.
The man who apparently knew enough to make two terrified children afraid of phones.
At the hospital, an entire trauma team waited.
Dominic’s money did matter there.
Doors opened.
Doctors ran.
But when a nurse tried to separate Lily from me, she screamed.
“No!”
Dominic knelt.
“Lily.”
“She stays!”
He looked at me.
“You heard her.”
I spent the next forty minutes in a pediatric treatment room belonging to people I had never met while one of Chicago’s most feared men stood beside me looking more helpless than any person I had ever seen.
Grace’s temperature was eighty-nine degrees.
Her blood sugar was dangerously low.
Doctors suspected she had been sedated before the crash.
But she was alive.
Responsive.
Warming.
When the physician finally said, “I think she’s going to be okay,” Dominic lowered his head.
Lily climbed into his lap.
I looked away.
That moment belonged to them.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression became stone.
“What?”
A pause.
Then:
“Lock the estate.”
Another pause.
“Everyone.”
He ended the call.
I should have left.
Instead I asked, “What happened?”
He looked at me.
“The vehicle my daughters were kidnapped in belonged to Vale Security.”
My stomach dropped.
Dominic continued.
“And Nathan Reed’s access credentials opened the garage where it was stored.”
Lily grabbed my sleeve again.
Dominic looked at his daughter.
Then he said something that changed the rest of my life.
“You can’t go home, Emily.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Whoever took my daughters knows they escaped.”
“That has nothing to do with me.”
“They will find out who sheltered them.”
“I’m nobody.”
Dominic’s expression turned colder.
“No.”
He looked at Lily’s hand wrapped around mine.
“Tonight you became the only witness my daughters trust.”
And suddenly the reward everyone might have expected—cash, gratitude, some envelope thick with money—was not what Dominic Vale offered.
May you like
Instead he said:
“You’re coming home with us.”
