She pulled her knees to her chest, not recalling if he had or not. “I don’t think so.”
“You were the fucking cutest, chubbiest baby. I thought there was no way you were my sister because I couldn’t believe he created you.”
Kat smiled, beginning to listen…
…Almost every night was the same for the eleven-year-old. Every night, he would sit down with his father at the kitchen table, and while Lucifer counted his money, Dominic cleaned the guns knowing each one almost inside and out. However, this night was different.
The banging on the door started when the final gun had been racked, and when his father didn’t make a move, Dominic got up to answer it. He almost missed it at first, seeing no one standing on the other side of the door, but then he saw something squirm at the bottom of his feet, and finally, he knew what lay on the porch. “Dad….”
“What is it?” Lucifer asked, getting up from the kitchen table. He only looked at the thing for a second before he headed back to his seat. “Get rid of it.”
Looking down at the snuggled-up contents, he picked up the pink blanket that was wrapped around a beautiful baby girl. The blond hair on her head had him wondering why in all the houses in Kansas City they had picked this one, but when his eyes met her black ones, there was no denying it. Taking her in the warm house, he glanced at his father. “Is she yo—”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
Dominic had to think for a minute…. “I think there’s some baby stuff still in the basement.”
“I said to get fucking rid of it,” Lucifer demanded with his hot tongue.
“But it’s dark and cold outside.”
The devilish man abruptly stood, going for the baby. “Fine, I will.”
“No.” The young boy did his best to match his father’s tone. “Let her stay for the night, then I can in the morning.”
His father stared at him with that crazed look in his eye before he threatened him, “I better not see or hear that thing, do you understand?”
Nodding his head, he quickly walked to the basement door to get her out of sight before the devil changed his mind.
The six-year-old twin brothers followed closely behind, wanting to follow their brother instead of being alone with their father.
“What is it?” Angel asked when they reached the bottom of the steps into the cold basement.
“Hold out your arms, strong arms, strong arms,” he coached him as he placed the chunky baby in his little arms. “It’s your baby sister.”
Matthias looked at the pink bundle in his twin’s arms. “Our sister?”
“Yes.” Dominic began pulling a wooden cage into the middle of the room, then dusting it off as best as he could before going back to his brothers. He bent over, meeting them eye to eye, getting their full attention. “And we have to protect her. Can you help me with that?”
Angel was the first to bravely nod his head, then Matthias followed.
Picking her up and placing her in the old crib all the Luciano brothers had used, Dominic figured she was about a year old or so by remembering how the twins had looked when they were younger.
He’d been trying to keep his brothers alive since he was five years old, and he hoped he could do it again, but something told him this time was going to be different considering this one was a girl. Lucifer wanted an army, grooming his boys since birth into men who would one day control the city. The only women in his life were the many he used to try and fulfill those dreams, throwing them away when they never got pregnant or if it wasn’t a boy in her belly.
There was no place in Lucifer’s world for a girl. Let alone a baby girl.
Angel looked up at him with almost the same dark eyes she carried. “What’s her name?”
Reaching down when she twisted the blanket open, he touched the chubby baby’s onesie that was light pink and covered in cute little cats. He heard a name before somewhere, unsure if it was on TV or in a book, but he had liked it, thinking from time to time of the beautiful name when he had been reminded of it.
“Katarina.”…
…There was no one on this earth she loved more than her oldest brother, Dominic. He had always been and still was her savior, but in her heart, she knew then he could no longer save her.
It was a beautiful story, but that wasn’t why he had come in here…. “He still wants me, doesn’t he?”
“I’m so sorry, Kat.” Dominic’s head fell in his hands. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Eleven
The Princess is out of Her Castle
“This sucks.” She slammed down a pile of her clothes in a box. She had been packing all her shit up for the last day. Basically, just her personal items she couldn’t live without, her makeup, and her clothes. She would leave some of her stuff here for when she visited. “Wait, I won’t be like Angel, will I?”