Phoenix Rising

I stared the man down that stood in front of me with his daughter, obviously feeling just a little too comfortable with my woman. “Excuse me for not fucking trusting you, but you worked for her sick fuck of a father. What the hell do you want?”

He glanced at his daughter and I immediately felt a little bad that I had been so harsh in front of her. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen.

“I need help. Victor is relentless and…look, I didn’t want to come to you for help, but I don’t have any options left.”

“What kind of help?” Cap asked. I couldn’t believe he was even entertaining the idea of listening to this asshole. Whether he helped save Vanessa or not, he worked for a man that was going to sell off his daughter to the cartels.

“I need someplace to keep my daughter safe until I can take Victor down.”

“Why do you need to take him down?” Vanessa’s voice was laced in concern and I sure as fuck hoped it wasn’t for her father.

Cooper sighed and looked hard at his daughter. I saw her nod sadly and he turned back to us, swallowing hard. “After I got you out, I knew it would only be a matter of time before they caught on that it was me that helped you. This is Kayla,” he motioned to his daughter. “She was staying with her mother, and I insisted that we leave right away. Her mother didn’t want to leave, and didn’t really believe there was any danger. She thought we’d be back in a few days. I guess she had more important things to worry about at the time.”

“More important than her daughter’s safety?” I asked incredulously.

“She wasn’t exactly the motherly type,” Kayla sniped.

“Anyway, I took Kayla and we left. I kept in contact with her mother, let her know what was going on as I tracked Victor’s movements, but she still didn’t think there was any danger. When Victor couldn’t find me, he went after her mother. When I couldn’t contact her for a few days, I stashed Kayla with an old friend and went back to get her mom.” He swallowed hard and looked away guiltily. “She was already dead. It was…brutal.”

I didn’t even have a chance to stop Vanessa before she practically ran to Kayla, wrapping her arms around her. I knew she was trying to be comforting and empathetic, but I still didn’t trust this guy and I hated that she obviously did.

I could tell that he had seen battle of some kind. He had burns covering half his face, and from his build and the way he moved, I could tell he had been military. The problem was, not everyone got out and stayed on the right side of the law. Just because he said he was against Victor didn’t make it true. He could be trying to win us over with sympathy. And my wife was the perfect target.

“So, what’s your plan?” Cap asked. “You can’t be on the run forever.”

“I need to stash Kayla somewhere safe. I’ve avoided coming to you for as long as I could, but I’ve run out of time. Victor hasn’t let up after all these years. In his eyes, I ruined the deal he had with the cartels.”

“Even after all this time,” Vanessa said quietly. “I prayed that he would let this go, that he would be my father someday.”

“Vanessa,” I said gruffly. “You knew that would never happen. When we saw him in New York, there was no remorse when he saw you.”

“I know, but to go after Daniel and his family…it’s hard to believe that my family could do something like that. How can I be related to such an evil man?”

“You can’t choose the family you’re born into,” Kayla said quietly. Then she looked up hesitantly at Daniel. “I didn’t mean you.”

“I know, kid.”

“How are you planning on ending things?” Cap asked.

“I don’t have anything to hold over his head right now. I had a buddy that was helping me with my ex’s murder investigation, but when things got hot, he ended up missing. The police found him a few days later, tossed in a dumpster like garbage.”

I looked to Cap, but he was thinking the same thing I was. We weren’t prepared for this fight. And if he was coming to us, and we chose to believe his story, he was desperate. We couldn’t fight, but we couldn’t walk away either. We’d been involved with Victor Adams years ago and he hadn’t darkened our door since we blackmailed him. Whether Victor was after us again or not, we were involved still.

“We can definitely keep Kayla here with us, and you also if you need a place to go, but as you can see, we’re in a bit of a predicament of our own.”

Daniel nodded as he looked at the burnt building. “I can see that. What happened?”

“We had a battle of our own. We’ve been on the run for a year now. We’re low on funds, workspace, pretty much anything we would need at this point.”

“I don’t want to add to the stress you’ve already got going on,” Daniel said, disappointment obvious. Vanessa was looking to me for help. She didn’t want me to let them walk away, and I could understand why. He had saved her life when his daughter was at risk. There was no way I could let him walk away with his little girl, no matter how much I still had reservations. Not if it meant risking Vanessa’s hatred.

“We have the panic room,” Chance suggested. “We’ll be staying there until we can rebuild.”

“Are you sure there’s room for us?”

Daniel’s voice was laced with disbelief and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Trust me, this isn’t your average panic room. I think we even have a few of Chance’s beds down there.”

“Hey, fucker, try sleeping on one of those and then try going back to the crap you sleep on.”

Morgan placed a hand on Chance’s arm and he immediately turned to her in concern. The man was more than a little protective of her after everything they’d been through. “Maybe we should watch the expletives since there are children present.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Kayla snorted. “Dad’s not exactly a saint.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and grab your gear,” Cap suggested. “You can head in with Chance, but you won’t be allowed any weapons inside.”

“I understand, but don’t mistake my lack of weapons as submission. If I even think anyone’s trying to hurt me or my daughter, my hands will do the killing for me.”

“Only if you can get past Knight,” I jabbed. I couldn’t wait for him to meet Knight. That would be an enlightening experience for him.

“Who’s Knight?”

“I think that’s a meeting for another time,” Cap suggested. “Vanessa, maybe you could take Kayla inside and help her with anything she might need. Maybe introduce her to some of the other kids and the instructors.”

“Sure.” She grabbed Kayla’s hand and started pulling her to the building. “Ever been trained in hand to hand combat?”

Daniel watched warily as they walked toward the training center and then looked at us in confusion. “What the hell are you teaching your kids here?”

“Survival,” Cap said without a moment’s hesitation.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

I took Daniel inside and found a room for him and Kayla. Now that I had him away from Vanessa, I was going to lay a few ground rules.

“So, this is your suite. You’ll each have your own room and you’ll share a bathroom. We have a fully stocked kitchen and I think Raegan’s parents are going to be staying here, so Susan will probably cook.”

“Sorry, who’s Raegan?”

“She’s Jackson’s girlfriend. There’s a lot of people to meet. It’s better if you just wait until you meet them to try and remember everyone.”

He nodded and tossed his bag on the floor in the living room. “This is a nice place. I’m surprised you were able to get all this built.”

“We have a lot to fight for. Speaking of, I don’t want any of this touching Vanessa. It’s taken a long time for her to move past what happened with her father. I don’t want her dragged back into this.”

“That’s why I stayed away so long. We’ve been all over the country the last few years, but I can’t do that to Kayla anymore. It’s no life for her.”

“Better alive than dead,” I retorted.

“Would you want that for your daughter? To be dragged from one safe house to another as you tried to outrun and take down a man that was rich and trying to kill you?”

“No, I guess not. Vanessa seems to think highly of you, so I’m going to trust her, but don’t let me down. You’ll have everyone at Reed Security coming after you if you fuck with one of us.”

“I understand. I’m not asking for help, just a safe place to lay low while I figure shit out.”

I nodded, glad that we were on the same page. “I’m sure Cap would be fine with you talking with our IT department. Becky and Rob are really good at their jobs. I’m sure they’ll be able to help you out. Monday, I’ll introduce you to them and hopefully they’ll be able to find some way to help.”

“I appreciate it.”

I turned to leave. I had a wife and kids to get back to and I just wanted to sleep in my own bed for once.

“I thought he loved her,” Daniel said from behind me. I turned back to him, wondering what the hell he was trying to say. “If I had known what kind of man he was, I never would have worked for him. I would have gotten her out sooner if I had realized how twisted he was.”

I nodded and walked away. I didn’t have any right to judge. I had made plenty of mistakes where Vanessa was concerned, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t protect her from any threat I thought was around. That included a man that was trying to protect his own family. Any man that was trying to protect his daughter couldn’t be trusted. Fear made a man do crazy things, things that could get others killed. And that was exactly what I was afraid of right now.