He Called Every Child a Weakness... Until a Little Girl in Yellow Rain Boots Put His Name on Her Birth Certificate

The ride back to the Gold Coast was silent. Dominic sat in the rear of the SUV, his eyes fixed on the rain-streaked window, his jaw clenched so tightly the muscles in his temples were visible.

“Did he sign off?” Felix asked from the front seat, his eyes watching the rearview mirror.

“He signed,” Dominic said. “He’s a coward at heart, Felix. He only plays with fire when he thinks the other guy is afraid to burn his own fingers. Now he knows I’ll burn the whole city down if I have to.”

When they arrived at Reyes Tower, the night shift was already on duty. Hawk met them in the private garage, his face serious.

“We had an issue while you were gone, boss,” Hawk said as Dominic stepped out of the vehicle.

Dominic’s hand went to his holster instantly. “What?”

“The little miss,” Hawk said, clearing his throat with an expression of profound embarrassment. “She escaped the residential suite.”

Dominic didn't wait for the elevator. He took the stairs to the security control room on the lower level, his boots slamming against the concrete steps. When he burst into the monitoring station, he expected to see alarms flashing or guards looking at radar screens.

Instead, he saw three operators sitting in their swivel chairs, watching the main lobby feed with expressions of quiet amusement.

On the screen, Sophia was sitting behind the main black marble security desk, wearing a pair of Hawk’s extra-large tactical headphones over her dark curls. She had a box of colored markers spread out over the million-dollar communications console, and she was currently drawing a long, green dinosaur across the official sign-in log for the building.

Briggs was standing beside her, holding a plate of half-eaten cheese sticks.

“She said the penthouse was too quiet, boss,” the shift supervisor said, not looking up from his screen. “She told us that if we didn't let her down to monitor the perimeter, she was going to use the emergency fire axe to check the drywall for termites.”

Dominic walked out of the control room and took the private lift to the lobby. When the doors opened, Sophia looked up from her drawing, her green eyes bright beneath the massive plastic headphones.

“You’re late again,” she said, pulling the headphones down around her neck like a miniature collar. “The bad men must have been very loud.”

Dominic walked over to the desk, his long shadow falling over her green dinosaur. He didn't scold her. He didn't mention the security protocols or the fact that she had just invalidated a two-thousand-dollar marble logbook.

He reached down, lifted her off the high stool by her armpits, and tucked her under his right arm like a sack of expensive flour.

“Hey!” she yelled, her legs kicking against his ribs in her yellow rain boots. “Put me down! I’m the head of security now! Hawk said I have a good eye for anomalies!”

“The anomalies are going to bed,” Dominic said, walking toward the elevator with the child dangling from his side. He looked down at the purple suitcase that Felix had brought back from the office, still sitting near the door.

“Felix,” he called back over his shoulder.