My voice comes out low. Deadly calm.
“She belongs to me.”
Smoke drifts through the street around me.
Sirens scream in the distance.
“I think you misunderstand,” I continue. “She isn’t related to you. Nothing of yours is in her blood.”
I pause.
“Mine is.”
Silence stretches across the line.
For a moment I wonder if she finally realized she lost.
Then she laughs again.
Slow.
Amused.
“We’ll see.”
The line goes dead.
I stand there in the middle of the street, smoke hanging in the air, sirens echoing off the buildings, the smell of burned wood and gasoline thick in my lungs.
And one truth burns through me like fire.
This isn’t about Laney anymore.
This isn’t about Marco.
This is about my daughter.
And I will kill anyone who comes for her.
20
Saint
Ifinally get the call.
The radio crackles once in my ear before Wolf’s voice cuts through the chaos.
“They’re secure. Laney and the baby are at the fallback.”
For a second my knees almost give out.
All the tension I’ve been carrying since the first explosion loosens just enough for me to breathe again.
“Good,” I say, my voice rough from smoke and adrenaline. “Stay with them. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I lower the radio and look out across the town.
My town.
