Page 82 of Savage Little War

The car slows to a stop, and Mark looks over his shoulder at me. “We’re here, Cara.”

I arch an eyebrow at Dmitri. “No escort?”

“Your father told me he has it covered,” Dmitri replies, pointing out the window beside me.

I follow his finger and see two Irish guards standing outside on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant that we’re parked in front of. “I guess I should go inside.”

Dmitri leans forward and kisses me. “If there’s any trouble, call me.”

“You too,” I say with a pointed look before opening the car door and slipping out.

The Irish guards nod respectfully before leading me into the restaurant and past the hostess.

They take me toward the back of the steakhouse where my father is seated by himself at a white-clothed table.

“You’re looking a lot better,” I remark, relieved he’s healing after the shooting.

“Fit as a fiddle,” he replies.

I notice the two flutes already waiting on the table, both filled with what looks like champagne.

“You’ll have to drink mine for me,” I tell him as he stands and gives me a brief, careful hug.

“Sparkling cider,” Sean replies before sitting down across from me.

I smile and take a sip, enjoying the small bite of the bubbles. “What’s the occasion?”

“You’re getting married,” he says, his face softening a degree. “My only daughter.”

I set my glass down, my eyes meeting his. “That’s why you wanted to see me?”

“I have something for you too,” he says, reaching into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulling out a small jewelry box covered in dark green velvet. “I meant to give this to you a while ago, but…I lost my way as a father. I treated you like one of my men instead of my daughter.”

“You wanted a son,” I say quietly.

“That doesn’t matter to me anymore,” Dad replies firmly. “Look at all you’ve done, Cara. All you’ve endured and overcome. You’re stronger than I thought, and I’m ashamed that I saw you as someone weaker than that.”

“I didn’t have a chance to prove myself to you,” I point out. “Not until you sent me to spy on Dmitri.”

“I’m sorry I was so harsh, yeah?” Sean admits with a frown. “But you excelled. You did everything that you were tasked to do and more.”

“Well, it helped that Dmitri and I started falling for each other while I was spying on him,” I tell him.

Sean smirks and shakes his head a little. “I wasn’t happy about that, but the Ivanovs are no longer my enemies. Dmitri’s aided us more than even some other Irish families in the country.”

“He’s a good man. He fights for what’s right,” I say, my heart warming at the thought.

“It was hard seeing him as an enemy when he was also fighting for you,” my father replies as he turns the jewelry box over in his hand a few times. “The thought of losing you to the hands of some unknown enemy disturbed me. I couldn’t stop thinking about our last conversation and how we left things.”

“It wasn’t pretty,” I murmur as I lower my eyes.

He told me terrible things. He chipped away at my confidence and my strength. He wasn’t a father then.

He was a harsh mob boss.

But he’s different now. I can see the tenderness in his eyes. Hear the guilt in his voice.

All it took was almost losing me to snap him out of the cruel attitude that he had harbored for years.