Page 65 of Uprising

I place the gun on the desk.

He physically jolts as he takes it in.

And then I pull out the photos. The all too explicit images of him and his secretary. They’ll ruin his marriage, ruin his career too. He gulps staring at them.

I don’t say the words but we both know what this is. That I’m blackmailing him.

“Get my daughter.” I say. “Have her brought here and if she doesn’t recognise me then we’ll leave. No further questions. No further hassle.”

He shakes his head. “I’m not endangering…”

I smirk leaning forward. “Get my daughter. Now.” I growl.

He shuts his eyes, clearly he still wants to refuse me but he’s also shitting himself right now and I can’t say that I blame him. I wouldn’t want to be faced off against me in this moment.

He leans forward, pushes a button on the intercom and mutters into it.

And then we sit there, me and him, while Holden and Ben stand behind us acting like guards. All of us silent. All of us waiting.

The door opens. I turn before I can stop myself and my eyes land on her. There’s a teacher stood behind her, clearly they escorted her here.

She’s got a bruise across her face. Her hair is scraped back into a tight plait. She’s in a little uniform, complete with a tie done up to her neck and a little plaid skirt that’s a size too big and comes down past her knees.

My eyes widen. She’s grown. Even in these few months, she’s changed so much.

She looks around the room with such a look of fear in her eyes before they settle on me.

And then she’s running, crying, throwing herself into my arms as I catch her.

“Daddy.” She sobs.

“It’s okay Sweetpea.”

“I knew you weren’t dead. I knew you weren’t.”

I hold her so tight I don’t think either of us can breathe. I’m no longer in the chair, I’m on my knees, on the cold tile floors, holding her like my very existence depends upon her.

The gun is still there, on the desk, all but forgotten about. Ben reaches across and takes it before the headmaster gets any funny ideas.

“Daddy.” Lara sobs again.

“It’s okay.” I say sweeping her hair back. “Daddy’s got you. No one is going to hurt you now.”

“They have mummy.” She replies. “They hurt mummy.”

My stomach twists. I feel a flash of fury not only that they’re doing that, but that Lara has witnessed it, that my child has obviously been traumatised by it.

I scoop her up, holding her the same way I did the first time I rescued her and she wraps her legs around my waist.

“Are we going home now?” She asks.

I kiss her forehead, glancing at the man who I know is no longer going to argue the merits about his precious school safety while he’s banging a subordinate.

“We’re going home Lara.” I say walking out. Leaving Holden and Ben to follow after me.

* * *

I sitin the back of the van. Lara is in my lap, refusing to even let me go for a minute.