“Baby girl… come over here.”
Lucy’s legs moved before her mind could catch up. She ran to her father, relief crashing over her like a tidal wave. *Dad. He came. After everything I hid from them, he still came.* Dust and smoke still curled through the hallway they’d just escaped, the sharp bite of gunpowder lingering in the air, but none of it mattered in that moment. Her chest ached with a confusing storm: gratitude so fierce it hurt, mixed with the sharp sting of guilt for dragging him into her mess.
“I knew you’d come for me,” she whispered, voice cracking as she threw herself into his arms. But what about Austin? He fought for me too… bled for me. How do I choose between the man who raised me and the one I just bound my life to?
Richard Bennett held her tight, his familiar cologne an
