32
Moreno
“Did you have fun at the children’s museum?” I ask Nova.
I’m not expecting much of an answer, but I know that she’s spoken to Paige, so I at least try to engage her in conversation.
It hasn’t gone as well as I’d like. But I’ve enjoyed spending the morning with my daughter.
Nova gives a brief nod and a slight shrug of her shoulders in response.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, stopping our stroll down Maple Street.
She presses her lips together but doesn’t speak. Maybe it’s the fact Sawyer is with us, just a few feet away, standing guard. I made sure not to bring Bruno who had scared her with the gun incident. He’s still under our employment, but he’s not coming anywhere near my daughter again.
I exhale a heavy sigh. Knowing that Nova used to be a chatterbox, giggling, and full of life, it’s hard.
I’m responsible for her silence.
My heart aches, and my stomach clenches, remembering the reason for her mutism.
Nova likely witnessed Laura’s death. She’d been with the nanny that morning when Vance and his team broke through the gate, murdered four of my men, and breached the entrance.
Nova had been playing outside in the yard.
We had found her hidden behind the shrubs after the massacre was over.
Since that day, we’ve doubled the number of guards on-site at all times and installed a panic room. Is it enough?
It must be. I won’t lose my daughter.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I grab the device and answer the caller.
“Moreno,” I answer my phone.
Based on caller ID, it’s Rhys, which is unusual. Dante usually calls one of the capos or me. Rhys is a soldier.
It’s not that he can’t contact me. It just isn’t protocol.
Already my stomach is in knots when I answer the phone.
“Boss, it’s Rhys,” he says. “Paige left the compound. She said that you gave her permission to leave on her own and didn’t need an escort this afternoon.” His voice is shaky, raspy, and filled with uncertainty.
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
Why couldn’t she listen to me?
“I wasn’t sure if I should call you. I apologize if I’m bothering you, Sir. I just wanted to let you know in case she wasn’t allowed to leave on her own. Your orders are usually that a guard be escorted with your daughter if she were out, but since Paige is by herself—”
I exhale a heavy sigh. “Did she take her car?”
Nova is skipping around, her floral dress flowing in the wind behind her.
“Yes, Sir.”
Another sigh. I only had one request, that she be escorted anywhere that she went.
Paige never listens.