“He says he is,” Coco reported and heard cheering fill the background of the call.
Roman suspected she needed to see him to be reassured. He took a picture of himself and sent it to her phone. “I’m fine, Little girl. I’m on my way to get you.”
“I can meet you at home.”
“That’s not happening. Stay there. I’ll come get you,” Roman said firmly.
Roman stopped where the police still gathered and asked, “Is there anyone who could help me get out of here? My family saw the news.”
“And you need to get home to them,” Detective Parks guessed. “Go grab your car and go to the west entrance. I’ll help you navigate out.”
“Thank you. I’ll owe you one,” Roman told him, turning immediately to jog through the abandoned mall to the east entrance where he’d parked his car. In a few minutes, he waved to the detective as he drove through the cleared access point.Thank goodness.
When he pulled into the veterinary clinic’s parking lot, his Little girl dashed from those steps where he’d talked to her not so long ago. Roman stopped in the middle of the lane and caught her as she threw herself into his arms. He hugged her tight as she wrapped herself around him.
“Daddy!”
“Hi, Little girl. I’m so sorry I scared you.”
“They said he had a gun. Did he shoot you?” she asked, sweeping her hands over every inch of him she could reach while holding on to him.
“He did not shoot me. I’m fine, Coco. He was very upset by a situation that should never have happened. I’m so sorry that it did. We talked and he backed down.”
“It could have ended very differently,” she scolded him.
“Yes. But it didn’t. No one got hurt.”
“You should have called me,” she told him.
“Just to scare you? I’d never do that. I didn’t know what had happened until I got there. The police equipped me with a helmet and a bulletproof vest. I was as protected as possible.”
“But still at risk.”
“You could be at risk here, Little girl.”
That made her think for a minute. Roman kissed her softly before looking past Coco to the women on the sidewalk. “Thanks for keeping her company. I know you were a big help.”
“We didn’t do anything but keep her company. Take Coco home. If she needs tomorrow off, let us know. We’ll switch around some staffing,” Sofia told him.
“I’ll be here tomorrow,” Coco said, twisting in Roman’s arms to see her boss.
“Your Daddy will let us know if you need to be home,” Isabella told her firmly.
“Okay. But I’ll be here,” Coco assured her, trying to control her shivers. It was silly to still be shaky. Her Daddy was fine. He was safe.
CHAPTER 12
She wasn’t okay. Roman had kept her close for hours and still Coco couldn’t let him out of her sight. If she couldn’t see him, he might be in danger again. Sure, Roman had explained that something like that would never happen again. Coco understood that, but still…
She’d even sat on the floor in his office when he’d had a video call with his manager. Coco hadn’t seen him, but she’d hated him after hearing his voice alone. She’d picked up from Roman’s voice that he was disgusted by the way his employee deflected all Roman’s pointed questions. Eventually, the manager did admit to following the tenant rules without any grace due to the very tragic circumstances. Roman fired him when the jerk admitted to deleting Frank Wilson’s emails and voicemails as well as telling the tenants that Roman refused to meet with anyone.
“He was awful, Daddy.”
“I’ve never seen that side of him, Little girl. If I had….” Roman shook his head in disbelief.
“If you had, you would have fired him a long time ago,” Coco guessed.
“Yes, Coco. This won’t happen again.”
