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The little girl. She's there. I stifle a sob and cover my mouth with my hands.
The car doors open.
I stand in the doorway and watch as little feet hit the ground before Emmy runs straight for Ricco.
“Ricco,” she says, as she throws her arms around his legs. “I want Mama."
Ricco cannot take care of Nick and stop him in any way, shape, or form if he's holding Emmy. "Emmy! Come to Mama. Run, baby."
Emmy turns and stares at me, wide-eyed as Nick gets out of the car brandishing a gun. “Get your ass over here and give her to me, Dani. You don't get her back." The situation’s escalating, and if my daughter gets hurt—
"Ignore him,” Ricco snaps. “Dani!”
Ricco makes a swift move. He scoops Emmy up in his arms, and swings her to the left, to me, as I run to him. I pull her to me as Ricco brandishes a weapon in my peripheral vision. I kneel and hold my baby to me, stifling the need to cry. She needs to see her brave Mama right now. Later, I get to cry.
“I missed you,” I whisper as a second car pulls up. When Ricco doesn't look that way, I know that he expects this arrival. I need to distract her. “Are you hungry?”
“You have snacks?” Emmy says, her eyes furrowed in that adorable way. I turn away so she doesn’t see my eyes watering and swallow hard.
“There are machines in there that have snacks!” I say with as much enthusiasm as I can muster. I don’t know if she’s ever seen a vending machine before. Please God I can use it to keep her attention away from whatever’s about to go down.
The door to the second car opens. I stare and my heart swells while fear floods me.
Sarah and Jason. They’re here. Someone called them. I stare, shaking, terrified that all the people I love are in one place, where they could so easily get hurt.
Ricco gives Nick a look that dares him to move one damn muscle and stalks over to us.
“Emmy,” he says warmly, falling to one knee. “I heard Mama say you could get a snack.” Pulling out his wallet, he takes out a stack of bills. “Look who’s here! Auntie Sarah and Uncle Jason. You go and buy them whatever they want and you, too.”
Emmy gleefully grabs the money and runs over to Sarah and Jason. I tamp back the urge to reach for her and hold her to me.
I have to do this.
"We have to make sure that everything is safe for you to come home," I tell Emmy, which is the God’s honest truth. I give her a big kiss.
“Come with Auntie, baby,” Sarah says. “Mama will be right there.”
Emmy runs inside waving the bills, excitedly talking about what she’s going to buy everyone.
Leaving me and Ricco alone with Nick.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
RETRIBUTION
Dani
My relief at seeing Emmy safe quickly dissipates when I stare at the man I once loved, the man who faked his own death to save his own ass, who tried to take my daughter.
I expected I would hate him, and he’s definitely no friend of mine. Instead, though, I’m filled with a deep sadness.
It’s dark and dimly lit where we are, and Nick looks like a cornered animal. The effect is unnerving.
“Tell us everything,” Ricco says. “I’m not sure which of us deserves retribution more, me or Dani. First, you used me to fake your death and frame me. Then you lied to Dani and took Emmy from her.”
Nick’s eyes are wide and bloodshot, as he nervously fidgets.
“I had to,” he says, his voice reedy, like someone’s squeezing his neck. A crow squawks overhead and Nick is so tense, he nearly leaps a foot in the air. The tension in the air is palpable.
“Tell me why you think you had to,” Ricco says in that voice that makes people shiver in fear.
“The cartel!” Nick says on a choked whine. “They’re after me.”
Ricco shakes his head. “You fear the cartel more than you fear my family?”
Nick doesn’t respond. Ricco’s called his bluff.
“Tell the truth,” Ricco says. “You got more skin in this than you’re letting on.”
“I don’t!” he says.
I shake my head because I know that look when he’s lying.
“You lying piece of shit!” I say, my hands clenched into fists. “You made me believe you were dead. You made our daughter cry. She couldn’t sleep for nights on end and slept in my bed with me. Every morning she woke up and she asked for you.”
My voice breaks. Ricco’s eyes darken when Nick scowls.
“You didn’t love me,” he spits out. I look at his wide, frantic eyes, made larger behind wire-rimmed glasses. There was a time I thought he was handsome in a nerdy-professor sort of way. Now….
“This has nothing to do with us,” I say, my voice taut. “You’re changing the subject because you’re a coward.”
