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Once all our vehicles are loaded, I wait for them to pull out. I don’t leave until the last one signals that we’re all good to go.
I left the explosives switch with Mako. I could tell he has some buried rage that could use a little catharsis.
And I must admit—when he hits the button, the giant fireball that plumes up behind us as that factory of nightmares turns to ashes is about as cathartic as it gets.
30
DEMYEN
Son of a bitch.
I got grazed. Again.
I’ve been so pumped full of adrenaline since blowing Raizo’s fucked-up slave factory to smoking bits that I didn’t notice the pain or the blood coming from my ribs until we parked in the garage at home.
“Motherfucker,” I snarl as I press a palm to my torso and it comes away smeared with crimson.
“Daddy!”
Clara and Willow peek through the garage door leading into the side room of the main house, then gasp when they see me. The door slams against the wall as my two ladies burst into the garage and rush to my side, covering me with kisses and fussing over the way I’m clutching my side.
The pain is suddenly not important at all.
“Look at you!” Clara clasps my face in her hands and turns me every which way. “You’re a mess!”
Willow pulls at my bloodied fingers, her breath catching. “Daddy? Daddy! You’re bleeding! You’re hurt!”
I’m about to tell her it’s nothing to worry about, when she bursts into tears.
Immediately, I crouch down beside her, ignoring the pang of fresh pain, and pull her into a hug. “I’m okay. See? It’s just a graze.”
“B-b-but you’re c-c-coveredin blood!”
“It’s not my blood, sweetheart. See?” I turn my face side to side so she can do her own inspection.
Willow, just like her mother, is very thorough. Even my ears do not escape her careful scrutiny, and I’m only allowed a clean bill of health after she makes me stick out my tongue to check me for a sore throat.
“Where did it all come from?” she asks at last.
I glance up at Clara, who seems to have the exact same question on her mind. So I sigh and stroke Willow’s cheek with a clean thumb. “You know those bad guys who came to your school?”
She takes a step back, new fear filling her eyes. “Uh-huh…?”
“Well…” How do I translate“I killed them all”into kid speech? “They were monsters living in a cave. Mako and I went to go find them. We did, and now, there are no more monsters.”
Willow thinks this over. She looks at me again, at the blood splattered all over my shirt and face—good God, I must look terrifying in her eyes—and then just nods. Plain and simple.
“Good.”
Damn, kid. I’ll make you Bratva yet.
I pull her in for another hug and kiss her cheek. “I love you, princess. I’m never going to let the monsters get you. They all have to come through me first. Okay?”
She turns and kisses my cheek. “Okay! I love you, Daddy.”
And then she’s off, playing her games or coloring or doing whatever precocious little five-year-olds do. Just leaving me here to grapple with the even more precious reality that she loves me.
I’m her daddy, and she loves me.
