The Heart of A Killer

Nineteen

Anna had sent Dante with Roman to work the drug-dealer angle, needing them both out of her hair long enough so that she could go see her dad. She found him walking up the street with Rusty as she pulled to the curb.

“Working up a sweat?” she asked as she walked up the steps to the front porch.

Her father let Rusty off his leash and into the house so he could get a drink. “The knee feels strong lately.”

“You look pretty good now that you took off some of that beer weight.”

“Hey, I still have my beers. Rusty just works them off me.”

She laughed. “High five for Rusty, then.”

“How’s the case coming along?”

“We have some leads. Nothing major breaking yet.”

She went inside and got them both something to drink, then came back, bringing Rusty with her. The dog curled up at her dad’s feet and went to sleep.

“So why are you really here?”

Her gaze shot to his. “Can’t a daughter visit her father?”

“Anytime. But why are you really here?”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “You’re very cynical.”

“And still a good cop.”

She laughed. “Yeah, you are.”

“So?”

She leaned back in the rocker and stared at the street, at the normalcy of the neighborhood she knew all too well, wishing life were as simple as it had been when she was a kid. “I don’t know. It’s a lot of things.”

“So, it’s Dante.”

“He’s part of it. The case is part of it. I just feel out of sorts.”

“You’re frustrated because this case isn’t easy to solve and it involves people you care about. And Dante isn’t making your life easier because you can’t fit him into one of your neat little organizational slots.”

She turned her head. “What does that mean?”

“You like order, and he’s chaos. He’s turned your world upside down and made you feel things, and you don’t like to feel things.”

She looked out at the street again. “Hmmph.”

“So I’m right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. You make me sound like a robot.”

“Not a robot. Just afraid to put yourself out there and risk being hurt. It’s not like you’ve paraded a bunch of boyfriends in front of me over the years, Anna. You’ve never brought a guy over to meet me.”

He was right. She hadn’t. Mainly because she’d never had a serious relationship with anyone. “No one was worthy.”

“You haven’t brought Dante by since he came back, either.”

She shrugged. “He won’t be staying long.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“Not exactly. I just know.”

“So you’re already ending things between the two of you before you know how he feels about it.”

She shifted in the chair to face him. “I just know, Dad. We’re not going to end up together. He has his life and it’s somewhere else. I have mine and it-”

She didn’t even know how to finish that thought. She couldn’t see that far into the future, but she did know her life wouldn’t include Dante. Why get her father’s hopes up by dragging Dante into his life?

“It what?”

“I don’t know. We just won’t end up together.”

“Or maybe you’re afraid you won’t end up together. That he’ll leave you like last time.”

She frowned. Her dad was just as bad as Dante at reading her thoughts and emotions. Damn men. “When did you get so good at this relationship stuff?”

He laughed. “Honey, I’m the last person you should be talking to about love. I wish to God your mother was still alive. She’d have been great to talk to about this. But she isn’t, and all you got is me.”

Her lips lifted. “I’m okay with having you. You’ve done a great job giving me advice, Dad.”

He reached out to grasp her hand. “Thank you, baby girl. But I know you. I know your heart. I know you loved Dante once, and I have a feeling you still do.”

She inhaled, let it out and kicked the rocker back with her foot. The rocking relaxed her.

“I sent him away, Anna.”

She sat up. “What? Sent who away?”

“Dante. After that night. It was me who sent him away.”

She pulled her hand away from her father. “I don’t understand. Dante said he wanted to get away, that he got George to sign the emancipation papers for him.”

Her father shook his head. “He said that to protect you, because I asked him not to tell you it was me. I went to Dante, told him it would be best if he left town and put some distance between you and him.”

“No. He said it was his idea to go.”

He gave her a small smile. “Again, he told you that to protect me. He never wanted to go.”

Her stomach hurt. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I was afraid after what happened to you. I was afraid for you. And God, I was so grateful to him for saving your life, but I was afraid for him, too.”

“So you sent him away, in what? In gratitude? To protect him? From what? That doesn’t make sense.”

He rubbed his right brow, something he always did when he was troubled. “I’m not explaining this right.”

“No shit, Dad. I don’t understand this. Why did you send him away?”

And why did he go? Did her father threaten Dante in some way? Dante had seemed like a grown man to her. But he hadn’t been quite yet eighteen. Close, but not quite. And her father had been a cop. He could have leveled all manner of threats against Dante to get him to leave town.

“I told him it was in his best interest to lie low for a while, just in case Tony Maclin’s murder was somehow tracked back to him. I was trying to protect him, Anna. You gotta believe that.”

She stayed silent, but a part of her was furious at her father for orchestrating all this, for separating her and Dante all those years ago.

“I wanted you to be safe, and figured if I could get Dante out of here, and get you through this mess with Maclin-keep you and Dante apart, there’d be no way to tie you two to the crime.”

“That doesn’t even make sense. What about all the other guys?”

Her father didn’t answer. Of course. She hadn’t been dating them, hadn’t been as close to them as she’d been to Dante. This had been his way to separate her and Dante. She’d have naturally stayed away from Gabe and Roman and Jeff at the slightest urging, because as fond as she’d been of them, she hadn’t loved them like she loved Dante.

“You did it to break us up.”

He had the decency to look away. “Not entirely.”

“How could you do that to me? To Dante?”

“I was panicked, not thinking straight. When I saw you that night, covered in blood and in shock, and you told me what happened, all I could think about was you. I didn’t care about anyone else but you, Anna. I made the best decision I could for both you and Dante at the time. I separated the two of you to protect you both. You can hate me for that if you want, but don’t blame him for leaving. He honored my wishes, believed me when I told him it was to protect you.

“He’d have done anything to protect you-even if that meant leaving you without saying a word.”

All these years she thought Dante’s leaving had been his idea, only to find out it had all been orchestrated by her father.

Good intentions or not, it hurt.

She stood and went to the railing, and leaned against it, facing the street. “Things might have been different if he hadn’t left.”

“Yeah, they might have. And they might have been worse. I’m sorry I lied to you, Anna. But I still believe I made the right choice.”

She turned around and faced her father. “I can’t deny this hurts me, Dad. All these years I assumed it had been Dante’s choice to leave.”

To leave me. She couldn’t bring herself to admit that, not even to her father.

Her dad looked down at his feet. “I’m sorry.”

“You saying you’re sorry doesn’t make up for you tearing us apart.”

He lifted his head. “I won’t apologize for doing what I thought was right at the time. You were sixteen and you’d just been through a horrible trauma. You didn’t need Dante in your life right then.”

The sting of tears burned her eyes, and suddenly she was sixteen again. And Dante was the one person she had needed, more than anyone.

“You had no right to make that decision for me.”

“I had every right to make that decision for you. I’m your father.”

“Goddammit.” She swiped the tears from her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around her middle, hoping it would help the ache go away.

“I hope someday you’ll be able to forgive me,” he said. “I did what I thought was right.”

She didn’t say anything, couldn’t, afraid if she tried, she’d fall apart right there on her father’s front porch.

“Please don’t hate me, Anna.”

She pushed back the misery and fought back the tears. “You’re my dad. I can’t hate you. But dammit, I’m mad at you right now.”

“You have a right to be.”

She grabbed her phone to check the time. “I need to go.”

He stood. “Okay.”

He looked so damn miserable she couldn’t help herself. She threw her arms around him and hugged him. He squeezed her tight and she wanted to hang on to him like this forever.

But she wasn’t his little girl anymore, and hadn’t been for a long time. She let go and took a step back, saw the tears in his eyes and hated that they’d had this fight.

“I love you, Anna.”

She kissed his cheek. “I love you, too, Dad.”

“Bring Dante over soon, okay? I’d like to see how he turned out.”

She nodded. “I will.”

As she climbed into her car and headed back to the station, she realized this changed everything.

Dante hadn’t left her. He’d been forced to leave.

How was she going to maintain her distance knowing that?

This was why she didn’t have relationships. She flat out didn’t have time to sort through the emotional aspect of it all.

Especially not now when a killer was on their heels.

Dante would understand that. His primary motivation was finding the killer, too. They’d concentrate on that and push their relationship to the background.

It was the best thing to do for everyone involved.

Coward.

She ignored that inner voice and headed back to the station. Dante and Roman were back.

“There are several dealers working morphine in the area,” Roman said. “But only a handful have the mix in injectible form.”

“You get names?” she asked.

He nodded. “Dante and I followed up and went to talk to a couple of them. Obviously no one wanted to talk, so we didn’t get much. I’ll keep trying.”

Anna nodded. “I got a call from Gabe. He’s got some information for us on the drug-dealing angle, so we’re going to meet with him.”

“When?”

“About ten.”

“I’ll catch up with you,” Roman said. “There are a few of these dealers I can catch at night, so I want to see if I can talk to them. We need a damn break in this case and if we can get one of these dealers to ID whoever bought the morphine we’re looking for, we’ll have a solid lead.”

“Okay,” Anna said.

“I’m hungry,” Dante said after Roman left. “Let’s grab a bite to eat before we head to the house.”

“Sure.”

Dante grabbed his keys.

“Dante?”

He turned and smiled at her, and everything about him seemed different.

Was it because of what her father had told her about him?

“What is it?” he asked.

“Um, how about pizza?”

“You read my mind.”

They ate dinner, talked, even had a beer, and all the while Anna couldn’t help but see Dante differently.

She’d been so angry with him for so long, had thought he’d abandoned her and had only his own interests in mind when he’d left all those years ago.

Now she knew the truth, and it had changed everything.

Or almost everything. The past, at least.

But the present was the same, and the future…

That, she didn’t know. And she wasn’t about to guess.

She and Dante were going to meet Gabe at her place.

When she opened the door, her eyes widened.

“You have a hot date later?”

Gabe frowned. “No. Why?”

“Because you look amazing.”

Gabe wore a tight, black short-sleeved shirt, his dark hair free of his customary do-rag tonight. And with his full, muscular physique packed into his jeans, he was simply gorgeous.

And blushing under her scrutiny, which was adorable.

“Stop it,” he said and moved inside.

Dante was in the kitchen drinking a beer. He already had one out for Gabe.

“Aren’t you looking pretty,” Dante said. “Got a date?”

“What the fuck is it with you two? You trying to set me up?” Gabe asked as he pulled out a chair and flopped into it, then popped the top on the can.

“He’s embarrassed because I gushed over how hot he looked.”

Dante arched a brow. “I’m going to keep a close eye on both of you.”

“You want the info I brought with me or not?” Gabe said, clearly irritated, which Anna found oh so amusing.

“We’re all ears,” she said. “And eyes, handsome.”

Gabe swore. “Once more, Pallino, and I’m out of here.”

“Sorry. I’ll be good.” She held up her hand. “Promise.”

“I did a little scouting on our friend Tony Maclin’s past and who the dealers were in his area at the time. I found three heavy ones who fit the profile-Don Osher, Crey Robinson and Adam Marcovelli.”

Anna wrote down the names, opened her laptop and started typing.

“Osher is currently doing twenty-five to life for murder, so he’s out.” She typed in the other two names. “The other two are clean. Both have local driver’s licenses, so they’re a possibility.”

“Let me have your laptop,” Dante said, then opened up a database that looked like nothing Anna had ever seen.

“What is that?”

“Can’t tell you. It’s classified.”

“Dante.”

He gave her a quick look. “Not kidding.”

Gabe stood and came over, glanced down at the laptop. “Huh.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“Nothing. You’re like a superhero of information technology, aren’t you?”

“I can get around a few roadblocks.”

“More than someone in the FBI, I think,” Gabe said, grabbing his beer and sliding into his chair. “That’s no database I’ve ever seen.”

“Me neither,” Anna said.

Her gaze burned into Dante’s back, but he didn’t look up, just continued to jump from screen to screen so fast she got dizzy. Finally, she gave up and took her chair.

“You sure he’s FBI?” Gabe asked.

Anna just shrugged. “That’s what his credentials say.” She wouldn’t blow Dante’s cover. Not even to Gabe. If Dante wanted Gabe to know who he really was, he could tell him himself.

“Crey Robinson,” Dante finally said, pushing back from the chair.

“He’s the one?” Anna asked. She looked at the laptop screen. There was the entire history of one Creighton Robinson and a picture of him in a white coat, looking arrogant like a lot of doctors did.

“He was doing his undergrad work for medical school while Tony Maclin was in high school. He’s finishing up his surgical residency at Washington University now.”

Finally. Finally, they had a lead.

Dante called the hospital. “He’s on duty tonight. Night shift.”

“We need to go talk to Dr. Robinson.” She went to Gabe, bent down and kissed him on the cheek. “You are awesome.”

Gabe grinned. “I know.”

“You also need to be doubly careful.”

He wrapped his fingers around her wrists. “So do you. We don’t know what his target is other than tracking us down and killing us.”

She nodded. “I know. But we’ll get him, Gabe. I won’t let anyone else die. I’ll catch him.”

He stood and pulled Anna into his arms for a hug. “I know you will.”

After Gabe left, Dante grabbed the car keys. “We can head over to the hospital now.”

Anna laid her hand on his arm. “Wait. I need to tell you something.”

He paused. “Okay.”

“I talked to my dad. He told me he was the one who made you leave twelve years ago.”

Dante laid his keys on the counter, then leaned against it. “He didn’t make me leave. Nothing would have made me leave if I hadn’t wanted to.”

He was being noble, giving her dad an out. “You were a kid, underage. He was a cop. I know how it works. You didn’t have a choice.”

He brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “I always had a choice. I made the decision to leave. I’m no hero, Anna.”

Yes, he was. “You left to protect me.”

“I left to protect myself.”

She laughed. “Why are you making this so difficult?”

“Because I don’t want you blaming your father for this. We both decided me leaving was the best thing to do. For you. For me. For the situation. He isn’t the bad guy here.”

“I didn’t say he was.”

“But you’re mad at him, aren’t you?”

There he went again, reading her body language or moods or whatever the hell he did that he was so adept at. She shrugged. “A little. He kept that information from me. He kept you from me. He took the choice away from both of us.”

Dante smiled. “That’s the teenage Anna digging in her heels. What does the adult Anna think about it?”

Oh, sure, he had to get all logical about it. Damn him. “The teenage Anna refuses to allow adult Anna out of the closet long enough to render an opinion. Teen Anna is still pouting about it.”

He laughed, pulled her into his arms and kissed her, long and hard until she melted against him. Her head spun and her body came alive. When he pulled away, he said. “That was definitely adult Anna kissing back.”

He kissed her again. “Forgive your dad. It’s in the past and that’s one thing that should stay there. The army made me stronger and gave me skills and opportunities I might never have had. I have no regrets. Your father’s a fine man and I’m grateful to him for what he did for me.”

“He said I needed to bring you over. He’s mad you’ve been back in town and haven’t stopped by to say hello.”

“Let’s do that before we head over to the hospital. We have some time.”

“Okay.”

Maybe that would help. She still felt bad about her dad, about how they left things, even though they’d hugged and said their I-love-yous. Getting him and Dante together again would be a step in the right direction. She was proud of everything Dante had accomplished in his life. She wanted her father to be proud of him, too.

The house was dark when they pulled up in front. It was still early, at least for her dad, who never went to bed before midnight.

Anna frowned.

“Your dad have plans for tonight?”

“Not that I’m aware of. He’s always home in the evenings. Maybe he’s out walking Rusty.”

Dante pulled out his phone. “It’s eleven-thirty.”

“He’s a night owl. Habit from years of working night shift. He wouldn’t go to bed before one or two.”

She went to the door, rang the bell, didn’t hear Rusty’s bark. She turned to Dante. “That must be it, since I don’t hear Rusty barking. They must be out for a walk.”

“How far do they go?”

“Just around the block usually. He wouldn’t go as far as the park. Not this late at night.”

“Maybe he went to bed early.”

She laughed. “My dad hasn’t gone to bed early one night in his entire life.”

“Okay. So let’s check the block.”

She started to walk down the path, then stopped. “He would have left the porch light on. And the house lights.”

She turned and headed to the front door, turned the knob. The door opened. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She lifted her gaze to Dante and lowered her voice. “Something’s wrong. If he went to the bar or out somewhere he’d have left lights on, and Rusty would be here. He’d bark. And Dad only leaves the door unlocked when he’s home.”

Dante pulled his gun and stepped in front of Anna. She pulled her gun, too, moving next to Dante. “I know the layout of the house better, and Rusty knows me. If he’s in here and he comes running, I can calm him down.”

He nodded. “Stay close to me.”

She pushed the door open, leaving the lights off. If someone was inside, she didn’t want him to know they were there. Familiar with the layout of the house, she moved inside, stepping light and easy through the living room. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noted nothing seemed out of place. That was good. Dante pressed his shoulder against hers. She nodded and they moved into the kitchen.

That’s when she saw it, highlighted by the moonlight shining in through the back door onto the floor.

Blood.

Her heart slammed into double time and she broke into a sweat.

Dante saw it too and turned to the side, his gun pointed up as they followed the blood trail from the dining area to the back door. She reached out for the handle and Dante grabbed her wrist. She jerked her gaze to his.

“Prints,” he whispered.

Shit. She didn’t want to think like a detective right now. Her dad might be out there. Dante grabbed a towel from the counter and handed it to her. She nudged the partially open slider and walked outside.

More blood on the patio. Panic rose and she swallowed past the dryness in her throat.

Not now. She refused to let it consume her. She forced her breathing, in and out, with normal breaths. Shaky breaths.

“Anna,” Dante whispered. “Hold it together.”

She waved him off and stepped off the patio and into the yard.

That’s when she heard the whimper and hurried to follow the sound.

It was Rusty lying next to her father. He hadn’t barked, hadn’t moved, because he was protecting her dad.

No.

Her dad was at the back of the yard near the bushes. She dropped to her knees, saw the blood everywhere.

Tears pricked her eyes. “Dad.”

He was unconscious, blood all over his face and body. His shirt had been ripped open and half a heart had been carved into his chest. The killer hadn’t been able to finish. Something had stopped him. She laid two fingers on the side of her father’s neck, fervently praying.

She couldn’t find it, searched again. There! Faint, but it was a pulse.

“Dad. Daddy, it’s me, Anna. Can you hear me?”

He didn’t respond.

She heard Dante on the phone. She assumed he was calling for an ambulance and for police units, but it was all white noise to her.

“Anna, I’m going to check the area.”

She nodded and leaned over her father again.

He didn’t respond and she wanted to curl up next to him right there on the ground and offer him comfort. She swept her hand over his hair. “Stay with me, Daddy. Help is on the way.”

She picked up her father’s hand and held it-along with her breath-until she heard the wail of the ambulance and saw the lights out front. Dante came back, too.

“Front door wasn’t messed with, but back slider was. Uniforms are here, too, doing a canvass of the area. More black-and-whites are on the way, and I’ve called Roman.”

Anna wasn’t really listening, at this point didn’t give a shit about the suspect. All she cared about was her father making it out of this alive, and surviving the attack.

Dante dropped to the ground and checked her dad’s vitals, then shifted his gaze to hers. “He’s still here, Anna.”

“I know. He’s going to make it. He has to.”

The EMTs arrived a few minutes later and started working on her dad, and Anna got out of their way. She’d been to enough crime scenes during her tenure with the force to decipher their language. It wasn’t good. His blood pressure was dangerously low, he was in shock and he’d lost a lot of blood. They put him in the ambulance and headed off.

“Go,” Dante said. “I’ll wait for Roman to show up. You keep watch over your dad.”

She nodded.

“Anna.”

She stopped.

“I know he’s your father and you have every kind of emotion tied up in this. But keep your eyes open at the hospital. If your dad saw this guy, the killer knows it and he may be on the lookout to finish the job he started. I’ll make sure they send a uniform to watch over him, too.”

She nodded and hurried off to her car so she could follow the ambulance to the hospital.

She wasn’t leaving her father’s side. Not until he woke up.

And he would wake up.

He had to.

Dante paced the back porch, Rusty at his side. He curled his fingers in the dog’s fur. A perfect witness. He was sure the dog had seen everything.

“Wish you could tell us who did this, Rusty.” Because so far no one else could. Anna’s father had been found in the backyard, but the yard was surrounded by a fence and tall trees, obscuring the vision of his neighbors on either side. Dante had gone to talk to both. One had been inside watching television and hadn’t heard or seen anything. The ones on the other side weren’t home, and there was a park behind his house. Uniforms were canvassing the rest of the neighborhood, but so far had come up with nothing.

How had this night gotten so fucked up? He dragged his fingers through his hair and wished he could be at the hospital right now with Anna. No matter how many times he lifted his phone out of his pocket, the display was empty of messages from her. Nevertheless, he pulled it out again.

And again, nothing. Did that mean she had nothing to tell him, or was she in a corner somewhere having a panic attack?

He had to get to her.

But he also wanted this crime scene to yield something. Not only had Roman showed up, so had Pohanski, once he’d heard it was Anna’s father who’d been the victim of the latest attack.

Pohanski supervised the crime scene himself, breathing down everyone’s neck to make sure not a single thing was missed. Then he pulled Dante and Roman aside as the CSU team made their sweep.

“What the living fuck is going on here?” he asked.

Dante filled him in on what they’d found at Frank Pallino’s house.

“So someone broke into his house, beat up Frank and started to cut him, but something stopped him.”

“Yeah, it looks that way,” Dante said. “Maybe a noise, or maybe it was Frank’s dog, or it could have been Anna and me showing up. There’s no way to tell what it was that sent him running out of here before he finished the job.”

“He also changed the venue. Not the alley this time,” Pohanski said.

“I don’t think he could have gotten Frank to the alley where the first two murders occurred, since we’ve had it under surveillance,” Roman said. “We’ve beefed up security there, with cameras, lights and patrol units putting in twenty-four-hour rotation.”

“Well, that worked, but it didn’t help Frank any.” Pohanski shook his head. “This is a nightmare.”

Dante couldn’t disagree.

“Why Anna’s father?” Pohanski asked.

Roman looked to Dante, who took point on this one. Good thing he was such a master at lying. “It has to be about Anna. The flowers, the notes, people she knows and is close to. Now her father.”

“She wasn’t close to or related to George Clemons.”

“No, but we all were,” Roman said. “And that got Anna involved with the case.” Pohanski nodded.

“And then the notes and flowers started. He was trying to get her attention. Now her father. My guess is he’s either targeting Anna, or by killing her father the suspect wants her distracted, her attention diverted from the case.”

“He’s going to get his wish,” Pohanski said. “With her father in the hospital there’s no way she’s going to be able to put a hundred-percent focus on working the case.”

That’s what Dante was afraid he’d do. “You pull her off this case it’ll kill her.”

Pohanski leveled his gaze on Dante. “Better than the suspect doing it. Tell her to spend time with her dad. She doesn’t like it she can come see me. Right now she’s on leave.”

Fuck. Dante didn’t want to be the one to deliver that news. “I’m heading to the hospital. You keep me informed if you find anything?”

Pohanski waved him off. Dante was torn between wanting to be on the crime scene every second and going over the area with a magnifying glass with the techs, and needing to be with Anna.

“I’ll let you know what we find,” Roman said. “You let me know about Anna’s dad.”

Dante nodded. “Thanks.”

He drove to the hospital, found out that Frank had been moved up to the ICU.

At least he was still alive.

But when he walked into the room and saw Frank lying there, Dante’s stomach sank.

His face was swollen and bruised and so were his arms. The parts of him that weren’t battered were as white as the sheet he lay on. He was hooked up to bags of blood, lines running out of his body, plus a ventilator that looked to be doing the breathing for him.

Shit.

Anna sat at his bedside rubbing his arm. She didn’t look in any better shape than her father, minus the bruises and wiring.

“Hey,” Dante said as he stepped into the room.

Anna lifted her gaze to his. “Hey. Where’s Rusty?”

“Your dad’s next-door neighbor-the one with the black Lab-is taking care of him for now.”

She nodded. “Good. Thank you.”

Dante stayed in the doorway. “How is he?”

She stood, and they walked outside the curtained room together and down the hall, pressing the button to leave the ICU.

Only then did Anna’s shoulders slump.

“Need some coffee?” he asked, wrapping his arm around her.

She shook her head. “I’m fine.”

He didn’t take it personally; he understood the trauma and anger. “How’s your dad?”

“It’s not good. Massive internal bleeding, broken ribs, damage to his lungs, broken legs. The suspect kicked him in the head, so there’s a brain injury, too.”

Dante sucked in a breath and tried to tamp down the fury that welled up inside him.

“He never woke up. I never got to say anything to him.” Her voice wavered as she lifted tear-filled eyes to him. “The doctors told me there’s no brain-wave activity. He’s not going to wake up, Dante.”

His fury turned to pain that wrapped itself around his heart and squeezed tight. “I’m so sorry, Anna.”

Despite the wall of brick her body presented, he pulled her into his arms anyway and held her. “We’ll make him pay, baby.”

She lay against him, unmoving. “I have to disconnect him. His organs are so damaged most of them aren’t usable for donation, but they can use bone and tissue. Dad would have wanted that.”

He smoothed his hand down her back. “You ready for that?”

She pushed away, her expression so cold it worried him. “It’s not like letting him linger is going to bring him back. He’d be mad at me if I did that, and I’d only be doing it for me, not for him. He’s gone.”

“God, Anna. I’m sorry.”

There was a fire in her eyes as she looked up at him. “So am I. He didn’t deserve this. It’s my fault.”

“What? How can this be your fault? It’s the killer’s fault. Not yours.”

“If I’d caught him, my dad would still be alive and wouldn’t have had to endure the beating he got. No one deserves that. George didn’t, Jeff didn’t, and sure as hell my father didn’t.”

She wasn’t thinking rationally. Dante knew it, and yet he wanted to shake some sense into her. “This isn’t your responsibility to bear.”

She waved her hand. “Whatever. I need to go sit with him.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No. I need to be alone with him if you don’t mind.”

“You shouldn’t be alone, Anna. Not right now.”

She pinned him with a hard stare. “Look, Dante, I appreciate you being here for me. But I can handle this. I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine.”

“Don’t think you know what’s best for me. You don’t.”

She jammed the button and told the desk nurse her name. The door buzzed and she opened it. “Leave me alone for a while, okay? I need this.”

She closed the door behind her and left Dante standing in the hallway by himself.

He’d never felt more useless.

Anna held her father’s hand, letting her fingers linger on his pulse, his life force.

Even though he wasn’t really in the shell of his body anymore. Not his brain anyway. Some monster had destroyed him, had taken the laughing, sweet, wonderful man she knew and killed him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t find the killer in time to save you, Daddy,” she said, squeezing his hand. “I’m sorry I failed.”

She hated the tears that seemed to be falling endlessly. She grabbed another tissue and wiped them away.

“I know you wouldn’t want me to cry. You’d tell me to stay strong, not to grieve and to get my ass back to work.” She rubbed her fingers over his hand. “It’ll be hard for me to do that, but I will. I’ll make him pay for it, Dad.”

No response. Logically she knew there wouldn’t be one, but she couldn’t help but hope for a miracle. A tiny movement of his fingers, a smile, anything that would give her hope that he was still in there, even though the sensible, adult part of her knew all hope was lost.

She shuddered in a breath, pushing away the child within her that just wanted her daddy to wake up.

“I’m going to take care of Rusty for you, so you won’t have to worry about that. He’s going to be my dog. I promise I’ll look after him.”

Her only link to her father would be that dog. She’d cherish Rusty as if he was her baby.

She rose and climbed onto the bed to lie next to her father. What would it hurt? She couldn’t damage him. He was already gone, had a peaceful look on his face despite all the bruising from the beating.

She reached up to touch his face, willing him to open his eyes, to smile at her, to say it was all a joke.

But he didn’t move, didn’t open his eyes.

“What am I going to do without you, Daddy? I already miss you so much. Who am I going to go to for advice when I need it?”

The whir and beep of the machines that did his breathing for him reminded her that her father was, in essence, a machine now, kept alive by technology.

Still, he felt warm to her. His body against hers was her last few minutes of comfort, just as he’d always comforted her with a hug or by sitting next to her whenever she was hurting.

And when the surgical team came in to prepare him for donation, she slid out of bed, kissed her dad’s forehead and let them take him away. She sat in the chair in the empty room that felt so much emptier now without his presence.

“I love you, Dad. Say hi to Mom for me.”

She bent her chin to her chest and sobbed.