Chapter 6 - TWO FATHERSDaniel Mercer looked nothing like the photograph Clara kept buried in a kitchen drawer.
That Daniel had been twenty-six, clean-shaven and smiling.
This man looked forty.
He was thirty-one.
Scars lined his jaw.
His eyes never stopped moving.
His hands shook after he lowered the gun.
Clara stood frozen.
“You’re alive.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the library.
Nobody moved.
Daniel accepted it.
Clara slapped him again.
“For three years?”
“I know.”
“You knew where we were?”
“Most of the time.”
“You watched us?”
“When I could.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“You let me think you were dead.”
“If Victor believed I contacted you, he would have killed both of you.”
“You don’t get to decide that alone!”
“No.”
Daniel looked toward Mia.
“No, I don’t.”
Mia clung to Lorenzo’s neck.
“Who is he?”
The question destroyed what remained of Daniel’s composure.
Clara struggled to answer.
“Mia…”
Daniel stepped backward.
“It’s okay.”
No.
Nothing about this was okay.
Outside, Lorenzo’s men reported the remaining attackers had retreated.
Two were dead.
Three captured.
The assault had been designed to retrieve the drives.
Daniel had entered the estate through the same breach.
“You led them here?” Lorenzo asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“I followed them.”
“Convenient.”
“I’ve spent three years following Salerno’s people.”
Lorenzo handed Mia to Clara.
Then he punched Daniel hard enough to knock him into a bookshelf.
“Lorenzo!”
Daniel wiped blood from his mouth.
“I deserved that.”
“No,” Lorenzo said quietly. “That was for entering my house armed.”
He stepped closer.
“The rest is Clara’s decision.”
Daniel nodded.
Smart again.
Later, in Lorenzo’s secure office, Daniel explained everything.
After stealing Salerno’s records, he had gone underground.
Harold Pierce agreed to hide the second key.
When Pierce was killed, Daniel assumed Victor had found it.
Only months earlier did Daniel discover Salerno still believed Clara possessed the key.
“I returned to Chicago to stop him.”
“The photograph?” Lorenzo asked.
“I left no photograph.”
“Then Salerno wanted Clara to think you had.”
Daniel nodded.
“He uses confusion before violence.”
Clara sat across from him.
“Why not contact me?”
“I tried twice.”
“When?”
“Once outside Mia’s preschool.”
Clara remembered the grainy security photograph.
“And the other?”
Daniel looked toward Lorenzo.
“Yesterday.”
Lorenzo understood.
“The storage locker.”
Daniel nodded.
“I wanted you to find it.”
Clara stared at him.
“You knew I was staying here?”
“I knew Duca’s people moved you.”
Daniel looked at Lorenzo.
“I figured this was the safest place in Chicago.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“Salerno doesn’t fear police. He fears Lorenzo.”
“Everyone should have one redeeming quality,” Vincent muttered.
The next morning, Mia sat at the breakfast table with pancakes cut into stars.
Daniel entered cautiously.
Mia stopped chewing.
Clara sat beside her.
“Mia, remember the man from last night?”
She nodded.
“This is Daniel.”
Mia looked at him.
“He’s your daddy.”
The child remained perfectly still.
Daniel’s face crumpled.
He crouched several feet away.
“Hi.”
Mia looked at Clara.
“Where was he?”
Clara’s heart broke.
Daniel answered himself.
“I was away.”
“Why?”
“Because I made some bad choices.”
Mia studied him.
“Were you in timeout?”
Vincent choked on coffee.
Daniel almost laughed.
“A very long one.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
Mia frowned.
“That’s too long.”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“It was.”
Mia slid from her chair.
She approached him carefully.
Daniel did not move.
She touched the scar on his jaw.
“Did bad people hurt you?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mommy?”
He glanced toward Clara.
“A little.”
Mia nodded seriously.
“She says hitting is wrong.”
Vincent left the room before he embarrassed himself laughing.
Then Mia asked, “Do you know how to hug?”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Clara covered her mouth.
Mia opened her arms.
Daniel looked at her as though someone had handed him the entire world.
Then he knelt.
Mia hugged him.
Daniel broke.
His shoulders shook.
He buried his face against his daughter’s little red sweater and cried.
Lorenzo watched from the doorway.
Something ugly moved through his chest.
Jealousy.
He hated himself for it.
Mia had a father.
That was good.
That was what she wanted.
So why did Lorenzo feel as if someone had removed a piece of furniture from a room he had only just discovered he loved?
Clara noticed him leave.
She found him later in the garage.
“You disappeared.”
“I had work.”
“You were watching.”
He closed the SUV door harder than necessary.
“She deserves her father.”
“That doesn’t mean she stops caring about you.”
“I’m not her father.”
“No.”
Clara stepped closer.
“But you’re important to her.”
“That is temporary.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know children grow up.”
“So do adults, supposedly.”
He gave her a warning look.
She ignored it.
“You’re jealous.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
“Careful.”
Clara smiled.
“Oh my God. You are.”
“I am not jealous of Daniel Mercer.”
“You absolutely are.”
“Clara.”
“She asked him for a hug.”
He said nothing.
Clara’s expression softened.
“She asked you first.”
That stopped him.
Then Clara kissed his cheek.
It happened quickly.
Too quickly for either of them to prepare.
She stepped back.
“Thank you for keeping her safe.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
Clara walked away before he could respond.
For once, Chicago’s most feared man had absolutely nothing useful to say.
That fragile peace lasted six hours.
At four in the afternoon, Rebecca Hall called.
Federal warrants were ready.
Operations against Salerno would begin at dawn.
At 4:17, Daniel disappeared.
At 4:26, Vincent found a note in his room.
Clara—
Victor contacted me.
He has someone I owe my life to.
I can end this without putting Mia in danger.
I’m sorry.
Again.
Lorenzo read the note once.
Then crushed it in his hand.
Clara whispered, “He’s going to get himself killed.”
Lorenzo reached for his coat.
“Probably.”
“Where are you going?”
“To stop him.”
“Why?”
Lorenzo looked toward the breakfast room.
Mia was drawing two men beside herself.
One labeled DADDY.
The other labeled MR. FIVE MINUTES.
May you like
Lorenzo’s expression softened.
“Because she shouldn’t lose either one.”
Related Stories
