doesn’t believe me. There are too many dangerous people after us. She still may not understand that yet, but the treasure that only she and I have all the clues to are infinitely valuable. And she doesn’t yet understand that I won’t let anyone hurt her, not until I have every secret she holds. She will only die at my hand.
“You’re taking me with you?” She raises an eyebrow.
I can’t do that either. I can’t let her anywhere near my kids.
“No.”
“Then what are you going to do with me?”
I pull a gun from my waistband and hold it out to her.
She recoils. She hates guns almost as much as she hates me.
“Take it.”
Reluctantly, she takes the gun in her hand. I try to push the last time she held a gun out of my head. Don’t think about Siren. She’s strong. She’ll survive.
But I can’t help the rage that forms seeing Liesel holding a gun again. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I can’t believe I’m letting her live.
Not for much longer.
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill anyone else,” Liesel says, trying to get me to explode and end this sooner than I planned.
“Don’t push me, Liesel.”
“Why? You won’t tie me up. You won’t kill me. You won’t hurt me. You’ve already taken everything from me. There is nothing left you can do to hurt me.”
I run my hand through my hair. “There is nothing left you can do to hurt me either.”
“Not Phoenix? Not your kids?”
“I care about Phoenix, but she knows what she signed up for. She knows her role and that it’s a dangerous one. Losing Phoenix wouldn’t hurt, but then you already deduced that.”
“But hurting your kids would hurt you.”
I growl, losing my control. I run at her and tackle her to the ground beneath me. “My kids are untouchable, even to you. They can’t be hurt. They are more protected than anyone on this planet. You may be a monster, but you won’t hurt them.”
“How do you know I won’t?” She wheezes as I crush her beneath the weight of my body.
“I see through you. You’re not the devil you claim to be.”
Then I stand up and walk back to the car.
“What am I supposed to do?” Liesel shouts at me as she sits up on her elbows and watches me get in the driver’s seat.
“Stay alive until I get back.”
“What if I want to run?”
“You don’t. But run if you must, I’ll enjoy the chase.”
Then I slam the door and drive away, knowing that Liesel won’t run. She’ll be here when I get back. She’s tired of running, just like I’m tired of begging for a different, less painful life.
“Daddy!” Rose says as I enter her hospital room.
Everything else in my life fades away with one word. My little girl is sitting in a hospital bed that makes her look tiny and small, smiling up at me like she’s meeting her favorite Disney character, instead of just her father coming to tuck her in.
I walk into the room where Phoenix is sitting next to her. She looks over at me with a worried expression on her face. She stands up and touches my shoulder, telling me everything with that touch. Then she walks out of the room, giving us some privacy.
I sit down on the edge of Rose’s bed, and then I tuck her blonde curls that match my own behind her ear. I eye the cast covering her arm.
“Fell out of a tree?” I ask with a wicked smile. I should be angry that I had to risk my entire plan to come here and be in the hospital with Rose, all because she has a far too adventurous spirit for a normal seven-year-old.
She blushes. “Mom told me not to, but there was a robin that fell out of the nest. I had to help it back.”
I smile, completely in love with my little girl. She’s fearless, compassionate, and kind—everything I’m not.
“You know you should listen to your mom when I’m not around.”
“I know, but you would want me to save the robin. I knew you would be proud of me, so I had to climb the tree. I had to be brave, just like you always tell me.”
I laugh as I pull her into my chest. She’s going to continue to be a handful as she grows up. Boys are going to line up for a chance with her, but she’s too strong-willed to let any boy into her life.
And I have no