Mine to Keep (NOLA Knights #3) - Rhenna Morgan Page 0,102

to do. Finally.” His eyes opened and he stared up at his daughter, the color of them the same as Bonnie’s. “’Bout time I did right by her.”

He lifted one hand and touched her cheek. “So pretty. Just like your momma.” His hand fell back to his side and his head lolled toward Roman. “She told me she got her a good man.” Another few breaths, each one growing shorter and shorter. “Be better to her than I was.”

He closed his eyes.

Bonnie gripped him tighter and leaned closer. “Daddy!”

But he was gone. Roman knew the sound all too well. That final exhalation and the silence and stillness that followed. He rested one hand on hers where she gripped her father’s shoulder. “Bonnie.”

Kevin crumbled to his knees beside them, his eyes wide with disbelief.

“No!” Bonnie shook her father. “No, you gotta wake up. Daddy!”

Such pain. Raw and slicing deep.

And he could do nothing to stop it. Nothing save hold her while reality ripped through her very being and rearranged her world.

Seconds slipped into minutes, the coppery bite of blood and the now hushed voices behind them filling the long painful void. Footsteps clipped across the concrete, followed by the door at the opposite end of the warehouse opening and closing.

Kir moved into sight on his right and urged Kevin to his feet.

A hand pressed against Roman’s shoulder.

Sergei.

“We must move them,” he said in Russian.

No more words were necessary. Guns had been fired and the warehouse was an operational space. One that would have workers arriving in only a matter of hours when there was still considerable cleanup to handle.

But it was over.

Bonnie was safe.

Alive. Even if it had come at the cost of her father.

“And the kozel?” he asked without looking away from Bonnie.

“Contained,” Sergei said. “Rossi is yours to do with as you please.”

Roman studied Bonnie’s face. Noted every tear. The blood on her hands and clothes and the grief in her features as she wept. Rossi would pay for all of it. Would echo the same wails and pleas his koroleva had suffered this night before he was done.

But first, he had to get her home. He guided her hands away from her father’s still body and held them tight. “Let them take him, vozlyublennaya. Our men will take care of him.”

She sniffled, but nodded.

As soon as she did, two of the soldiers they’d had on standby moved in to lift her father’s body away.

Roman guided her to her feet, giving her time to adjust and get her bearings.

She looked up at him, the green in her eyes vivid and bright with the sheen of her tears and her cheeks splotched with red. “He told me he was sorry. When we were waiting for Rossi to set up the exchange with you—Dad told me he was sorry. That he was proud of me.”

Odd, how life worked. How even the most untenable circumstance could generate even the tiniest positive outcome. Or, in this case, something deeply felt.

Roman tucked her hair behind one ear and wiped one tear free from her cheek. “Of course he was proud of you. How could he not be? I told you. You are a queen.”

She laughed at that. A bittersweet one to be sure, but at least a sliver of her brightness shone through.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her forehead against his chest. “What the hell am I going to do now?”

Roman held her tight and kissed the top of her head. “You will do what he would have wanted for you to do. You will move on. Build your new family and live the way you want to.”

Slowly, she lifted her head and met his gaze. “With you.”

“Yes, moya koroleva. With me. Always.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

One last visit. One last reason to look upon the home she’d grown up in. Bonnie parked the new cherry red Camaro she’d bought about six months ago across the street from the dreary looking house, got out and took a moment to soak it all in. Per usual, the trash bins out front were overflowing. Though, this time they weren’t full of empty beer bottles or other party remnants, but the results of a thorough house cleaning. Two older model pickup trucks were centered right out front, one of them with a medium-sized U-Haul trailer hooked to the back of it.

Funny. She’d always thought if she made it to this point in her life, she’d look on the place and think nothing except good riddance. Instead,