"Try to get some sleep. You're safe here. I promise you're safe."
She leaned into the touch, just for a heartbeat, her eyes closing. When they opened, they were swimming with unshed tears and something else, something that made me want to hold her close and never let go.
"Thank you, Jack. For all of it. For not..." She swallowed hard. "For not sending me away."
The thought of sending her away, of watching her walk out that door into danger, made my heart twist. "Never," I said, my words fierce and low. "Do you understand? Never."
I watched her slip into the room and close the door softly.
The resolve inside me hardened into somethingunbreakable. I would not lose anyone else. Not Daisy. Not Anna. Not to the ghost of my past, not to the monster from hers.
In my room, Daisy was a small, serene lump under my blankets, Mr. Bounces clutched in her arms. I changed into sleep clothes and slid in beside her, careful not to wake her. She stirred slightly, turning toward me, her small hand finding my arm in sleep.
The fear for her was a living thing, a serpent coiled in my gut, squeezing tighter with every breath.
My phone buzzed one last time on the nightstand.
The screen lit up the darkness like a malevolent eye.
Unknown Number
Sleep well, Jack... Too busy thinking about Anna. About what I'm going to take back.
The deranged possessiveness in his message.Take back, like she was property, like she'd ever belonged to him, he was trying to get inside my head.
Any lingering confusion about my feelings evaporated like morning mist under a brutal sun.
This wasn't just about protecting an employee or someone I felt responsible for. This was about protecting Anna. The woman who made my daughter laugh. Who brought light into my tomb of a home. Who had somehow, against all odds and reason, carved a place for herself in the wreckage of my heart.
The anger was still there, but it was no longer coldor aimless. It was focused. Protective. A blade honed to a single purpose.
I set the phone down, screen still glowing with Carter's words.
Let him try.
In the morning, I'd call my lawyers, my investigators, every resource at my disposal. I'd use every connection, every favor owed, every dollar in my considerable fortune to hunt him down.
But tonight, in the dark, with my daughter breathing softly beside me and Anna just down the hall behind a closed door I desperately wanted to open, I let myself admit the truth I'd been avoiding for weeks.
I had already fallen for Anna.
It was no longer something in progress.
And God help Carter Wilson, because he'd threatened the two people who'd taught me how to live again. The fortress was more than steel and cameras and armed guards. It was my will. My purpose.
And I would burn the world down before I let him breach it.
My phone screen dimmed, then went dark.
In the silence, I pulled Daisy closer and made a vow to the darkness: Carter Wilson had taken enough.
He would not take anything or anyone else.
15.Jack
Three days.
Seventy-two hours since Carter's last text, and the penthouse had become a beautiful prison. I couldn't tell anymore where the walls ended, and anxiety began. Both were constricting and oppressing.
