For the first time in weeks, I was truly alone. No Dante, no bodyguards, no one watching my every move.
I leaned back against the seat, rehearsing what I’d say to my father when I saw him. The questions that had been burning in my mind since the night I was taken.
What were you doing, making deals with those men?
Are you in trouble?
Have you been looking for me?
I wasn’t naive. I knew my father walked in dangerous circles as a federal prosecutor. He’d made enemies and powerful ones at that, too. Those men I’d overheard him talking to that night—they must have been threatening him.
That was the only explanation that made sense because my strong, hardworking father was anything but corrupt. All these years, I’d seen him work harder than any man around in the public office. That had to mean something.
Only a man of character would have dedicated his entire life to his office. I think back to all those nights as a kid that I spent up, waiting for Papa to return from work. Many nights, he never did.
I knew, in my heart, a man that dedicated to his service won’t choose to take a bribe unless something was seriously wrong.
The closer we drew to the building where his office was, the more excited I got. Papa and I had so much to catch up on. If he had noticed me gone, I knew he must have been worried sick.
I didn’t know what I would say when I saw him. The truth, I felt, would get Dante in trouble. Besides, was there any reason to bring him up when I’d found nothing concrete to report to my father? Maybe, if he didn’t know about the auction, about Dante marrying me, I could get away with just listening to his side of things.
And if I knew what the problem was, I could go back to Dante’s and hunt for targeted information to help Papa out of this bind.
As the courthouse came into view, my stomach knotted with anxiety. What if he wasn’t there? What if those men were watching him?
“Here we are,” the driver announced, pulling up to the curb.
I paid him and stepped out. Inside, I showed my ID to the security guard, who barely glanced at it before waving me through the metal detector.
The elevator was packed with lawyers and clerks. I squeezed myself into the corner, trying to be invisible. When the doors opened on the fifth floor, I slipped out and headed down the corridor to his office.
My father’s office was at the end of the hall, a corner space with his name on a brass plate beside the door: MARC MONTES, FEDERAL PROSECUTOR.
As I approached, I heard raised voices from inside. I slowed, suddenly cautious, remembering what happened the last time around.
Were those men back?
My heart raced.
My father rarely lost his temper, and never at work. The door was slightly ajar, and I moved closer.
Then I heard my name.
“—Alisa was the perfect leverage!” my father bellowed with anger. “And now she’s married to Dante fucking Lebedev? How the hell did you let that happen?”
I froze, the blood gushing to my ears.
“We didn’t expect things to turn out the way they did,” a man spoke, his voice eerily familiar. “Some of our guys made a mistake by putting her on stage.”
“Well, your people fucked up,” my father snapped. “And now the family I promised her to is breathing down my neck. They wanted her as payment.”
I flung my hands to my mouth to stop myself from screaming out loud. My vision tunneled, my mouth went dry, and every breath I took was a struggle.
My fatherhad bartered me in a deal.
“We can still fix this,” another man said. “We can take her back.”
“From the Lebedevs? Are you insane?” My father hissed. “Do you have any idea what Caspian Lebedev would do if we touched his brother’s wife? We’d be lucky if he just killed us.”
