The man stood first and offered his hand. Kaiden took it without hesitation. The grip was firm, grateful, and just a little unsteady.
"Thank you for protecting our daughter... I am ashamed as a father."
"Ashamed?" Kaiden repeated as he looked at the man.
The man hurriedly shook his head at once, the words clearly sitting wrong with him now that they were out. "No! That's not what I meant. I'm proud of my strong daughter. What I'm ashamed of is myself, my inability to protect her when she needed it. That failure is mine, not hers."
"My name is Marcus," he added after a moment. "Alexandra's father."
The woman beside him placed a hand on his arm and then looked at Kaiden. "Elena," she said. Her voice was calm but tight around the edges. Her eyes shifted past Kaiden toward the doorway he had come through. "Is she here?"
