I’d feel sorry for him if he hadn’t made the mistake of bringing Mia into it.
That, I can’t forgive.
When I bring the gun across his face and split the skin over his cheekbone, I feel no remorse.
His head snaps to one side, and he staggers backward, his body reacting to the force behind my backhanded blow.
I used enough force to send him through the glass doors to the balcony.
Enough force to make him trip backward over the metal doorframe, still screaming, arms pinwheeling wildly.
For one moment, the inexplicable impulse to stop him throws me forward, arms outstretched.
But it’s too late anyway.
He stops screaming on impact with the concrete outside the building’s entrance.
I run for the balcony and lean over the railing.
Mia lets out a broken sob behind me.
“Is he-?”
He landed on his stomach, but he’s looking up at me.
That’s all I need to see.
“He’s dead.”
I can’t muster up sympathy, even if I’m the one who set his life on its path.
More important is the weeping girl on the living room floor, hands covering her face.
I fall to my knees at her side and gather her in my arms.
She’s safe.
She’s alive.
“Did he hurt you?
Did he-?”
She shakes her head, but a fresh sob makes me think otherwise.
“He wanted to.
Tried.
I got away.”
Thank God.
I close my eyes, my cheek against the top of her head.
“I’m so sorry for everything.
For not telling the truth so you could decide on your own whether you wanted to cut yourself off from your father.
I shouldn’t have kept that secret for him.
You don’t know how much I-“
“It doesn’t matter now.”
Her arms lock around my neck.
“It doesn’t matter.”
* * *
“We’ll double-check,
but my contacts in the department tell me it’s an open-and-shut case.”
Bruno sits on the edge of his desk, with Mia in the chair beside mine.
She’s freshly showered and changed now that we’re back at the compound.
Her skin is pink from all the scrubbing.
I wanted more than anything to be there with her, to hold her and wash her and tell her it’ll be okay.
He continues.
“The story is, it’s a crush gone wrong.
He became obsessed when Mia rejected him-and he planned to blackmail her into dating him by using her Morelli ties against her, hence sending her all that shit earlier.”
His gaze lands on me.
In all these years, he’s never looked at me the way he looks at men he considers his equal.
Not until tonight.
“That little spat the two of you got into outside that restaurant works in our favor.
There are plenty of witnesses who can confirm he was out of control that day and looking to throw fists over Mia.”
“Anything I can do to help.”
I didn’t know it at the time that the fact we almost brawled in public would end up helping.
When I think back on how it chapped my ass to leave it alone, to listen to Mia and not take advantage of someone who couldn’t possibly beat me, I don’t know if it was the right choice to turn my back on the fight or not.
It might’ve meant exposing him as the bloodthirsty maniac he was before he could attack Mia.
It might’ve meant pissing him off worse than before and pushing him over the edge sooner.
There’s no going back anyway.
The boss takes me literally-it’s not like I normally let the sarcasm fly when I’m around him, so he can’t help it.
“You’ve already done everything there is to do when it comes to helping.
You brought Mia home, where she belongs.”
He lowers his brow.
“And don’t think I’ll forget the promise I made, just because it’s all over.
If I’m one thing, it’s a man of my word.
Anything you want.
It’s yours.”
For the past twenty minutes, Mia has sat silent and still while the boss and I talked over the events of the night.
The sanitized version of events, that is, leaving out the very correct assumption that we’ve been fucking for over a month.
She’s barely blinked, staring at the floor near her father’s feet.
I don’t know which part of tonight she’s processing.
What happened after she ran away, or the reason she ran.
The mention of repayment is enough to snap her out of it.
Her head lifts and turns until she’s staring at me.
“Anything you want?”
she murmurs.
Three words have never held so much accusation.
“Anything I want.
No limit.”
I check out the boss’s reaction to see whether this holds true.
It does.
“And I know exactly what it is.”
“A man who knows what he wants.”
He rubs his hands together, smiling wide.
And why not?
He has his daughter back.
His plans are on track.
All his planning will still pay off.
“What can I give you in exchange for returning my daughter to me?”
Mia’s glare cuts through my skull.
I want nothing more than to hold her.
To make sure she’s here, next to me.
It isn’t enough that I see her.
That I can smell her soap and shampoo, that I hear her voice.
I need her to fill all of my senses.
She, on the other hand, needs to cut my head off.
Or at least my balls.
She thinks this was all a matter of money.
That once again, I used her.
“Well?”
He nudges my leg with his.
“Out with it.
What can I give you?”
It’s very simple.
There’s only one thing I want.
The only thing I’ll ever want.
“Your daughter.”
Chapter 34: Mia
34
MIA
“Y
ou’re joking.”
Dad laughs-a loud, empty sound.
Like a bark from a big dog.
“Right?”
“I’m not.
I want Mia.”
Zeke turns to look at me before reaching out to touch my arm.
“I love her.
She’s the world to me.
Going after her tonight had nothing to do with you or my job.
I did it because I need her.
It’s that simple.”
Does he know what he’s saying?
Does he know he said he loves me?
To my father, of all people?
He’s never even said it to me before now.
And I love him, too.
I know I do.
I might’ve spent the rest of my life telling myself I don’t, that I never did, but that wouldn’t have changed the truth in my heart.
I’ve loved him for such a long time.
I can’t help what he’s done.
I only know how he is with me, how we are together.
How he’s the only man I’ll ever want.
It’s a shame my father could literally kill him for it.
He looks like he wants to, for sure.
“I’m going to pretend I’m not hearing this.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.