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My father.
“Daddy?”
He turns to me, a single tear running down his cheek. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry for everything.”
Part of me wants to go to my father, wrap my arms around him, and thank him, but Falcon is my world, and he’s hurting. They’ve hurt him.
“Please,” I say to my father, “you’ve got to help him.”
But the others are stalking toward us, and Declan McAllister is not happy. His gun is trained on my father. “I’m going to make you suffer, Gallo.”
“No!” I shout. “Enough! Isn’t this enough?”
“You’ll do no such thing,” my grandfather says, his voice completely steady, as if a dead man isn’t lying ten feet away from him. “My son-in-law was avenging his daughter. Your son attempted to rape her before they were legally wed.”
“He wouldn’t,” Declan says.
“He did,” I yell. “He tried but I got away.”
“Besides,” my grandfather continues, “Miles and Savannah are no longer needed. My grandson Vincent has returned, and he will take his place as head of the family when I retire. He’ll marry your daughter Belinda.”
Declan’s face shows not a hint of emotion. His son—a horrible man, but his son nonetheless—is dead at his feet, and there’s no emotion. Even when he threatened my father, his voice was steady.
It’s business.
I can already hear the words in my head.
“Belinda is eleven,” Declan finally says.
“They’ll be married when she turns eighteen,” Grandpa says.
Nausea creeps into my mouth, sour and acidic. “No, Vinnie.” I shake my head. “You can’t.”
“I can,” my brother says, “and I will. This frees you, Sav. You and Falcon can have a life.”
“But I just got you back!”
Vinnie raises his hand to quiet me. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here in Austin now. We’ll be able to see each other whenever we want to.”
“Vinnie, the girl is too young for you.”
“It’s my duty,” he says, “and hers. Everything will be fine.” He slightly shakes his head at me.
And I know.
He has no intention of marrying Belinda McAllister. No intention of taking over the family. He’s saying what he must to free Falcon and me.
And God, I love him for it.
I nod back slightly at him, and I hope he knows what I mean—that Falcon and I will be there for him, that we’ll help him bring these criminals down.
Grandpa nods to the goons. “Release Bellamy,” he says. “And then, Savannah, you and he may go.”
My gun lies on the floor a few feet away. I want to grab it, try to save Vinnie.
But my father also has a gun, and though I can’t see them, I’m sure Grandpa and Declan are armed as well. And I know the two goons are.
I’d be risking my life and Falcon’s, and I won’t risk Falcon’s. He needs a hospital, and I need to get him there as soon as possible.
