I grab onto the man’s head, my thumbs pressing over his eyes. He quickly lets go of my throat and knocks my arms away. As he rubs his eyes, I hit him as hard as I can near his temple. His head snaps to the side, his body dropping on the sidewalk.
I rub my knuckles. My father didn’t believe in teaching self-defense, but he did teach me to hit, which is more helpful than I thought it would be.
The blond slowly pushes himself up onto his feet. He’s favoring his right leg. I don’t want to kill anybody, but even if I can get by him to get to Lily, my car is still a street away. He turns his head, his attention completely diverted. I follow his gaze and I can’t believe what I see.
A man walks toward me holding Lily’s hand.
They weren’t Maksim’s men—they were my father’s.
And he’s here.
As my father and Lily continue to approach, the blond man takes another step closer to me. I take a small step to the side. I can’t keep fighting him—I know what seeing violence can do to a child’s mind and I’m not going to do that to Lily.
When they’re less than ten feet away, Lily excitedly points to my father. “Cassie, this is my grandpa!”
A thousand accusations jump into my head—how dare he take her from her foster home, how dare my father introduce himself to her before I could explain everything to her, how dare he lure a child away by telling her that he’s her grandfather, how dare he call himself her grandfather after what he did?
But I see their hands clasped together and I know I can’t lash out. Not here. Not yet.
“How did you know I was coming here?” I ask my father. He smiles at me, but it’s the smile of a viper—it’s a cold happiness because there’s prey right in front of him.
“You don’t think I keep watch over you?” he asks. “After you visited Jenny, I knew that meant that you were planning on disappearing. And I knew you’d want to take this sweet child with you, so you’d come here.”
“I’m not going to stay here for you,” I say.
He raises an eyebrow. “I wasn’t going to ask you to,” he says. “But you should know—your child is staying here.”
“Her child?” Lily asks. She turns to me. “You have a kid? I’m going to have a sibling?”
“No,” my father cuts in before I can lie. “Cassandra is your mother. I’m her father.”
“What?” Lily’s face scrunches up in confusion. “How is that … I don’t understand.”
My father smiles at her with that snake-like treachery. “She gave you up for adoption.”
“No, I didn’t,” I say, pointing at him aggressively. “He gave you away. I wanted to keep you, Lily. He stole you from me and gave you away. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I tear my eyes away from her because I can’t stand it anymore. I glare at my father.
“Why would you even care whether she comes with me or not?” I demand.
“As I said, I’ve been watching you. And I’ve been watching Lily,” he says. “And I’ve seen a fair number of interesting interactions between Maksim and your daughter. He cares about the kid. He may own you now, but I own Lily, so it’s tit for tat. We both have something the other values.”
“We’re not pawns in your game,” I snarl. I lunge at him. The blond man grabs onto me, yanking me back. The brown-haired thug is on his feet again and grabs my other arm. I still don’t want to fight in front of Lily, but as they start dragging me away from her, I fight against them with every muscle in my body. They keep a tight grip.
I never learn.
I hear a clicking sound before the two of them pick me up, thrusting me into the trunk of a car. They snap it shut. I scream and bang my fist against the top of the trunk, but all I hear is the car starting and the sound of jazz music blaring through the speakers.
I keep yelling as we drive off. I keep hitting the top of the trunk. I check for an escape release, but it’s been removed.
Lily is in danger as long as she’s a pawn. My only hope is that her innocence will lead her to play along. She’s in the middle of a Mafia war and she has no idea. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have wanted to see her so badly. I should have let her live, blissfully unaware of her heritage.
I should have dealt with my father a long time ago.
After a couple of minutes, the car stops. The trunk pops open. I push it up slowly, prepared to hit one of the men. There’s nobody. I carefully slide my way out of the back of the trunk.
Before my right ankle is completely out of the trunk, the car speeds away. I’m about four or five streets over. By the time I get to my car, my father will be long gone with Lily.
21
Cassandra
I drive through the streets surrounding Lily’s foster home. I wait to see Lily, to see my father, to see the car his soldiers threw me into, but there’s nothing apart from some stay-at-home moms.
I can’t find her on my own. I need help.
Ever since I gave birth to Lily and left my father’s home, self-sufficiency has been a pillar of my identity. If I’m honest with myself, if I’d been willing to accept more help, I could have found Lily before. But I didn’t want to rely on anybody. I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t take on the world on my own. I wanted to be worthy of Lily and to do that, I thought I needed to face the world without asking for any assistance.
But now I know
