The rag doll stared up at me from the gutter with one button eye.

The interior of the cold room was dim, illuminated only by the harsh beam of my flashlight. In the far corner, huddled together beneath a thin, dirty tarp, sat Elena and Lily.

Elena looked up, her face bruised, her eyes red and swollen from crying, shielding her daughter with her own body. When she saw my face cutting through the fog of the doorway, she gasped, a sound half-choked with disbelief and overwhelming relief.

“Dominic...?” she whispered, her voice cracking.

And then, a small, sleepy voice piped up from beneath the tarp.

“Mr. Dominic?”

Lily poked her head out, her eyes blinking against the bright light of our tactical flashlights. She was still wearing her little dress, though it was stained with dirt and tear tracks. But the moment she saw me standing there in the doorway, she didn't look at the guns, the tactical gear, or the grim faces of my men.

She just saw me.

“You found us!” she cried out, scrambling out from under the tarp and running across the freezing concrete on her tiny legs.

Before I could even process the movement, she threw herself directly into my arms, wrapping her small, trembling arms tightly around my neck and burying her face into my shoulder.

For twenty years, men had knelt before me out of fear. Powerful bosses had trembled at the sound of my footsteps. But in that single instant, holding a three-year-old girl whose entire world had just been saved, I felt the thick, impenetrable armor around my heart shatter completely.

I dropped my weapon, wrapped my arms around her tiny, shaking frame, and pulled her so close against my chest that I could feel the rapid, frantic beating of her little heart.

“I’ve got you,” I choked out, my voice thick with an emotion I hadn't allowed myself to feel in decades. “I’ve got you, Lily. You’re safe now. No one is ever going to touch you again.”

Elena stood up slowly, leaning against the cold wall for support, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. I reached out with one arm, pulling her into our embrace as well, holding both of them as if my life depended on it.

“Is Miss Rose okay?” Lily asked suddenly, pulling back slightly to look up at me with big, earnest eyes, her lip trembling.

I reached slowly inside my heavy coat, pulling out the damp, button-eyed rag doll and handing it back to her.

“She’s right here,” I whispered, kissing the top of Lily’s head. “And she missed you just as much as I did.”

Lily clutched the doll tightly to her chest, beaming through her tears, and pressed a tiny, sticky kiss to my cheek. “I knew you’d come, Mr. Dominic. Because you’re our giant.”