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“You were never meant to get hurt, for that I apologize.”
I gripped the cell until that cracked screen broke. “I was never meant to get hurt? What did you think was going to happen when you ripped my child from me?”
But he didn’t answer, leaving my daughter’s screams to tear through the speaker and slam into me.
60
Kat
“Give her back to me,” I demanded.“Give her back to me now.”
“Now, Katerina. You’re past the point of being able to give me demands. I gave you the opportunity to develop this relationship between us, but I see that is only false hope. I have a new opportunity now; one I fully intend to make right.”
Ice plunged through me…
Make right.
Make right.
I closed my eyes as the sun dimmed. I couldn’t feel the warmth anymore. “I’ll come for her,” I forced the words through clenched teeth. “Do you hear me? I’ll come for her.”
He gave a sigh, rumbling in my ear. “He can try to find her, but by the time you come anywhere close to us I’ll have her out of the city, and the country. You’ll spend your entire life searching and thinking about her, that I can promise.”
My legs gave way with the threat, sending me crashing toward the ground. I would’ve collided with a cold, packed earth if Lazarus hadn’t caught me. His hands were strong, his body warm, but still I shivered. “You can’t do this,” I whispered.
“Can and will.” My father’s voice grew husky as he murmured into the speaker of the phone. “I lost one child, so this is my opportunity to get it right, and Iwillget it right this time. That I can promise.”
Get it right.
I knew only too well what that looked like.
Card games with his friends where they didn’t play for houses or Bentley’s…they played for night spent with me. My stomach clenched with the memory. No…no.I turned and met Lazarus’s savage stare and whispered, “I’ll come back.”
My husband flinched as I gave my father the opportunity to have exactly what he wanted… Me.
“I’ll come back. Do you hear me. I’ll trade places.”
“No,” Lazarus hissed. His hands clenched tight around me. “No, Kat.”
But I was already gripped by this way out. Even as that chill moved deeper inside me, I forced myself to straighten, and stepped away from Lazarus’s arms. “This is what you want, right? Me…” There was silence on the other end of the line, and I knew this was the game all along. If he couldn’t worm his way back into my life, then he’d force his way by holding my daughter ransom. “I’ll come back to you. I’ll come back.”
“Without a fight?”
A tremor tore through me. I could almost hear the strained excitement in his tone. “Without a fight.”
Lazarus’ lips curled. “Over my dead body!” he screamed and lunged, snatching the phone from my hand. “You hear me? Over my dead fucking body!”
Tears sprang to my eyes as he jerked the phone away and stared at the cracked screen. I knew with one look that there was no one on the other end of the call. He was gone…of course he was. Because he got what he wanted.
I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling the flutter deep in my belly. That life grew inside me, demanding that I weigh up the risk of every step I took. Stress. Violence. Memories of what happened on that island resurfaced. I was back in that terror once more. Only this time it wasn’t at the hands of a deranged killer. It was at the hands of my own father.
“No, Kat…” Lazarus strode toward me. “I’ll put a bullet through his brain before I let him touch you again.”
And he would…I was betting on it.
The faint wail of sirens stopped at the entrance to the park. I stood there, staring at him.
There was a twitch at the corner of Laz’s mouth, his rage taking a backseat to the fact that the cops were about to swarm us. He strode forward, nodding at Logan, and set the protector into action before my husband grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.”
