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I’d had no choice.
The only option had been to extract her.
It was just regrettable with the way I’d had to go about it.
I’d had very little time to formulate a nicer or gentler workable approach, though. The intel regarding both the Infidels’ and the Heretics’ conflicting intentions had reached me with hardly any time to spare.
The main thing—and the only thing that really mattered—was that I’d managed it.
I’d gotten her out just in the nick of time.
I’d been in the area, right near the gala, my intent to assist with the takedown of the final piece of the dollhouse network, then to take out Carson, Samuel, Reed, and every single Infidel in the building. But then I’d received intel from my extensive network alerting me to an attempt on Asher’s life in the making. I’d confirmed that they’d rigged his BMW.
From that moment on, it had become all about extracting my daughter from the extremely hazardous situation.
I’d had to serve Asher up to accomplish it, to take the focus off Aurora, using him as a distraction. I’d watched as Carson had caught up to him and taken him.
Hell.
I went to type in the code to the keypad when a crashing sound pulled me up short.
What the—
“Lan!” I heard Liv scream a moment later.
I bolted through the house, following another crash.
I sprinted out through the back door through the kitchen and rounded the house.
The sight actually had the shocking ability to pull me up short a few feet out.
There my little girl was smashing her way out of the basement window having somehow ripped out two of the sturdy metal bars I’d put in for extra security—so this didn’t happen.
She managed it, then pulled herself up out of the window well and rolled onto the grass.
I was there in the next second as she pushed to her feet, catching her across the waist and wrenching her back against the side of the house, trying the hardest I’d ever done not to put too much force into it.
I winced as her back still hit with a nasty jar.
She recovered impressively quickly and went to strike me, but I snatched her wrists and pinned them beside her head, my knees pushing into her legs to prevent any kicking from occurring.
And then she stilled and realized who she was actually fighting.
“Dad,” she breathed. “All the pink… the amenities… I suspected it was you… but I didn’t… keeping me locked up… I figured it couldn’t be.”
Emotion swam in her eyes and it cut at me in a way I hadn’t felt for so long.
“I had to keep you safe. My methods, while extreme, achieved that.”
“I can’t… I can’t believe you’re here.” She shook her head. “This isn’t how I wanted our reunion to go. Locking me up? Not even coming to see me? Not once?” She went slack in my hold, dejection and pain all over her.
“I missed you. So much, angel.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “This is wrong, all wrong.”
Before I could utter a response, her gaze suddenly snapped to mine, fear sparking. “Asher? He was with me that night… what happened? And Killian? Jonah?”
“Killian and Jonah are off-the-grid. Safe.” Well, for the time being. It was only a matter of time before Carson’s people located them, then wiped them off the board too.
