Page 75 of Merciless Daddy

“Kiryusha,” I said. “You pulled the alarm?”

“I panicked.”

“You did perfectly.”

“I think I damaged his knees. With the extinguisher.”

“Good.”

“I hope he’ll walk again.”

“I’m sure he will,” I reassured.

Tonio laughed loudly in the background.

Freedom did not feel like flying.

It felt like my legs failing under a dining table at three in the morning.

Pietro followed the catering van to a private airfield outside the city. He stayed on the line as Tonio drove through the gate. He confirmed the aircraft. The Caruso men. The false documents waiting for Kiryl.

Then he said the words I had not permitted myself to imagine.

“He’s aboard. Door secured. They’re moving him beyond Lev’s reach.”

Beyond my father’s reach.

The leash broke. I laughed. A terrible sound. Too high, too sharp. It caught in my throat and turned into a sob before I could stop it.

I pressed both hands over my face.

My father could not use Kiryl to bring me home.

Gianni could not threaten him to make me sign.

Arkady could not explain duty while my brother sat under guard in the next room. Daniil could not arrive angry and frightened and make everything worse.

For the first time in my life, loving Kiryl was not a weapon somebody else held.

My body did not know how to contain that fact.

I cried into my hands. Shoulders shaking. Breath breaking. Years of control came apart without elegance.

Sal knelt beside my chair. I saw him through my fingers, waiting at eye level, one knee on the carpet, his injured cheek turned toward the lamp.

I reached for him.

That was all it took.

His arms closed around me. One beneath my knees, one around my back, drawing me off the chair and against his chest as if I weighed nothing. I folded into him without dignity. My face went into his neck. His shirt smelled of clean cotton, coffee, and the faint dark trace of his cologne.

He held me.

No roaming hands. No mouth at my throat. No hard body used to remind me what else existed between us.

Only warmth. Weight. Safety.

“You did it,” he said into my hair.