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“You got five minutes before I come upstairs and get you myself.”

His laugh followed me as I opened my apartment door.

“I’ll be downstairs in a minute.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

I hung up and locked the door behind me. The hallway was quiet as I walked toward the elevator, and for some reason my eyes traveled farther down the corridor before I pressed the button. The man from last night crossed my mind. I still hadn’t figured out what that had been about. Nothing about the interaction itself had been threatening. The only thing that had struck me as strange was seeing him through my peephole a few minutes later, heading back toward the elevator. Maybe whoever he came to see wasn’t home. Maybe he had realized he was on the wrong floor. I shook the thought from my mind as I stepped into the elevator because I was already a paranoid person.

The doors opened to the lobby a few moments later, and I spotted Daddy before he saw me. He stood near the seating area talking to Marcus, one of the men who had worked security for him for years. Daddy was dressed the way he always dressed when he claimed he was off work: dark slacks, a fitted sweater beneath a long coat, an expensive watch on his wrist, and shoes that probably cost more than my first car payment. His bald head was freshly shaved, and his beard was trimmed neatly around the gray that had started creeping through it. There was nothing loud about my father. Naturally, he was respected without having to say much.

Even when I was little, people seemed to straighten up when he walked into a room. Money probably had something to do with it, but I had always thought it was more than that. Daddy carried himself like a man who expected things to be handled, and most of the time, they were. His face softened the second he noticed me.

“There goes my baby.”

I smiled and walked straight into the hug he opened for me.

“Hey, Daddy.”

He wrapped both arms around me and held me for a few seconds before kissing my forehead. I was grown enough to live alone in one of his buildings and argue with him about practically everything, but none of that mattered when he hadn’t seen me in a while. I was still getting hugged like a little girl.

When he finally released me, his eyes moved over my face.

“You look tired.”

I laughed.

“Can we go eat before you start diagnosing me with something?”

“I said you look tired, Penelope. That’s not a diagnosis.”

“I was up late.”

Daddy’s eyebrows lifted, and I immediately regretted saying it.

“Doing what?”

I started toward the entrance.

“I was decorating for Christmas.”

“At whose house? ’Cause I never saw a tree in your place since you moved in. Was it MJ’s house?”

“His family’s house,” I corrected.

“Mmm,” he grunted.

“Don’t do that,” I said as I looked over my shoulder at him.

“I didn’t do anything. I’m trying to figure out when I get to meet him.”

I laughed as Daddy caught up beside me. Marcus had walked ahead of us toward the front doors while Daddy and I talked. I barely paid attention to it because that was normal whenever I was with my father. Marcus had been around long enough that I didn’t really think of him as security unless something was happening. Most of the time, he was simply there. He was almost to the doors when one of the men behind the security desk called his name.

Daddy and I kept talking for another few steps and then stopped as we waited for Marcus to finish his conversation with whoever had called him over. He had turned toward the desk, where the overnight supervisor was saying something to him in a low voice. Marcus leaned closer to look at one of the monitors, and although I couldn’t hear the conversation, I saw the shift in his posture. Daddy saw it too.

“Hold on, baby.”

He held his arm out, and I stopped walking. I followed his gaze.