Glancing across at Roman, a weight presses down over my chest, and before the words can even come out of my mouth, his eyes are narrowing. “Out with it,” he says, not one that likes to be kept waiting in the dark … the last week of literally waiting in the dark more than proof of that.
I give him a tight smile, not wanting to break his heart any more than it already is. “The baby was there,” I finally tell him, not sure how he feels about the baby right now. Hell, I doubt he’s even had a real chance to figure out his emotions after his father so kindly dropped the ‘he’s not your baby’ bomb on him. “I could hear him crying in the room directly beside mine. It was non-stop, like he’s not happy … or I don’t know. I don’t exactly have any experience with babies, but I’m sure they don’t cry that much … or that loud,” I add, glancing away, unable to take the weight of his stare. “I, umm … when I left, I went to his room. I wanted to bring him with us. I promised Felicity that I’d take care of him, you know, keep him safe and all that, but he wasn’t there. Giovanni took him somewhere, and I had no choice but to run without him.”
Roman’s lips press into a hard line and it’s more than clear he’s struggling with what he wants to do about this baby. On one hand, this is Felicity’s child, the one he so desperately wanted to bring into the world, the one he wanted to father and care for. He was so happy knowing he was going to be a father, and when that baby was finally born, this overwhelming protectiveness kicked in. Without even laying his eyes on that child, he would have given up his life just to know he would thrive. But now … knowing that baby was never his, that his father constantly raped the woman he loved with the goal to conceive another son … yeah, I don’t exactly feel great about it either. No matter what though, that baby is still their biological half-brother. The blood that runs through his veins also runs through theirs, and there’s no ignoring that.
The boys have a chance to give this baby the life they should have always had, and something tells me that they’re going to fight for this. No matter what, they won’t be able to push the baby away because it’s simply not in their DNA to do so. They’re kind and loyal, and if they have a chance to save this child from the same hell that they suffered … well shit, it’s a no-brainer.
“It’s okay,” Roman finally says, his hand falling away from my thigh as the heaviness of the topic begins to plague him. “You were already risking everything to get us out. It would have been impossible to do it with a baby hanging off your—”
Roman cuts himself off as he peers out into the thick bushland around us, his hand falling to the gun that’s been stashed in the cup holder between us. I glance out through his window and don’t see a damn thing, but any gut feeling that has Roman reaching for a weapon is a feeling that shouldn’t be ignored.
His hand pauses, squinting at something deeper through the thick trees that I’m clearly missing. “Is that …?”
My brows furrow and I try to peer through the trees but only allow myself a moment before having to look back at the dirt trail marked out through the bush. “What?” I rush out, needing to know if I have to adopt some epic drag racing skills in the next three seconds. “What do you see?”
A grin pulls at Roman’s lips and his hand relaxes over the gun. “No fucking way.”
Just as the words leave his mouth, a flash of black fur cuts through the trees, sprinting alongside the car and keeping up with us as though it was born to run, and hell, maybe it was. Levi laughs, his eyes lighting with joy as I hit the brakes and allow the car to come to a screeching halt just as the two big wolves break out onto the trail before us, narrowly avoiding becoming roadkill.
My door swings wide and I climb out of the driver’s seat, glaring at the big furry bastards staring back at me with their tongues lolling out of their mouths. “You big assholes,” I screech, holding my hands out, yet struggling to actually be mad at them. All I feel is pure relief knowing they’re okay. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you.”
They took off down in that playground and I’m not going to lie, it would have been nice of them to stick around, perhaps give me just a few seconds of warning that Giovanni was about to jam a needle into my throat. I have no idea how they escaped the playground without detection or where they even ran off too, but they’ve lived at the castle and in the surrounding woods for years. They would know this property better than anyone.
Staring back toward the small Corolla, I realize that we have no choice but to squish Dill onto Roman’s lap while Doe will have to lay across the floor space of the backseat, doing what she can not to wriggle around and bump Marcus in the process.
“Come on,” I tell them. “Get in.”
The big wolves saunter over to me, and I don’t miss the way their noses rise high into the air, no doubt smelling the fresh blood spilling through the car and knowing that this is so much more than just some bullshit broken nose or stab wound through the center of a hand. The wolves are intuitive, far more than any human could ever be, and they know this is serious.
“Could it have killed you assholes to stick around?” I question as I open my driver’s door for Dill to jump in. “I could have really used you guys after you abandoned me down in those cells. I don’t know, maybe a quick heads up that Giovanni was about to knock me out with a fucking syringe to my neck would have been nice.”
Dill bounds across my seat and awkwardly tries to push Roman out of his while acting as though he doesn’t understand a damn word that I’m saying. Doe looks up at me with those big wolfy eyes, demanding I forgive and forget, and damn it, when my family is whole like this, there’s not a damn thing I’m not willing to forgive and forget.
My heart swells, and I scratch her behind her ears before ducking down and pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head. Her tongue lolls out the side again, and I roll my eyes as I open Levi’s side door. Doe immediately climbs into the car, keeping her body low until there’s enough room for her to drop down onto her stomach and try to find a position that offers even the smallest bit of comfort.
After closing Levi’s door and getting back into the driver’s seat, I glance over my shoulder to find Doe’s big head resting on the seat, her stare locked onto Marcus’ while Dill is half sprawled across Roman’s lap, his big head against the center console, watching through to the backseat just as Doe does.
They really care about him, just as we do, even though they’re wild animals. They consider Marcus their family, and if we were to lose him, they’d feel that grief just as strongly as we would.
Swallowing over the lump in my throat, I turn my attention back to the road and floor it, not willing to waste another second between now and getting the boys the help they need.
“Are you sure about this?” I question, bringing the small Corolla to a stop around the back of the building, right where Roman had parked the last time we were here.
“I’m sure. It’s the only place we can go without question.”
I shake my head, my eyes wide with fear. “But Marcus … he needs a hospital, a surgeon … meds. How is he going to get that here?”
“There are sterile bunkers underground,” he tells me, gripping the handle and moving to get out of the car. “One call is all I need to get a doctor down here. Trust me, Empress, this is where we need to be.”
He’s fucking crazy. Perhaps he’s forgotten what this place is.
Roman glances over the massive building with unease, though he doesn’t voice his concerns, just demands that I trust him without question. Though, he’s never given me a reason to doubt him … you know, apart from the whole dragging me through the woods and torturing me when he thought I shot Marcus all those months ago. Hell, that seems like a lifetime ago now. Too much has gone down. I can’t wait to just spend my days watching Netflix and chilling with my guys, not even a hint of this bullshit drama floating in the air. Whatever happened to uneventful boring days anyway? I’d give anything to have that back.
Letting out a heavy breath, I push out of the car as Roman moves to the backseat, helping Levi to lift Marcus out of the car. My heart breaks watching them like this, seeing the care and fear in their dark eyes, the horror knowing that Marcus might not make it through this. He’s always been so strong, indestructible, but right now, he’s barely holding on.
Dill and Doe flank the boys, watching their surroundings and having our backs as we move toward the alley door of the massive warehouse … the big fucking warehouse that just so happens to be used as Giovanni’s main production center. “He’ll find us here,” I say, moving in closer to the boys, my spine stiffening with unease.
Levi shakes his head. “He’ll look here,” he confirms, “but he won’t find us. Mick is good at his job. He'll wipe the surveillance cameras and cover our tracks. We’ll be okay to lay low for a few days, let Marcus regain enough energy to move him again, but after that, we need to start putting a plan together.”