“Take off your clothes,” I said, handing him one. “We can dry ourselves with this.”
Lucas took the blanket wordlessly and I turned my back, attempting to peel my wet clothing from my body. The gun pressed into my back and I pulled it out of my waistband.
“Give that to me.”
Half turning, I found Lucas shirtless. Angry red marks were on his body – places where Adrian had cut him earlier. Some of the wounds had opened and were bleeding again.
His trousers were unbuttoned, hanging indecently by his hips. One tug of his zipper and I knew that I would see more than I should be thinking about right now, but my mouth went dry regardless.
“Leda.” He extended his hand. “Give me the gun.”
“It probably won’t work now,” I told him as I handed it over. “It went swimming with the rest of me.”
Lucas didn’t respond and I turned back to face the barn, sliding my clothing off before wrapping the scratchy blanket around my skin.
That was stupid.I should have kept the gun. Especially after everything that had happened between us in the last few hours. He may have rescued me for now, but could I really still trust him? I mean, I said I loved him, and he sold me. I told him I loved him and wanted to fight alongside him, and he locked me in the bottom of his ship.
He had put his Mafia before me. And while I understood men like him who did such things, nothing could have prepared me for the hurt.
And I had no idea what other plans he had in store for me. He had said he would protect me, but he was having trouble even protecting himself.
When I turned again, Lucas was seated on one of the bales of hay, his clothing laid out and his bare legs sticking out from under the blanket. “We can’t stay here,” he answered. “A few hours at most, and we need to go.”
I wrung out my clothing and draped it over another bale, deciding not to join him right now.
Whenever I was close to him, I forgot who I was and who he was as well. Tonight he had shown me a side of him that I either couldn’t imagine or was just too blind to see.
It had hurt seeing it. He had hurt me.
There was no measure of apology that he could give me right now to erase the fear and cold that settled within me when I found myself back on that auction block.
“Leda.”
His voice was deadly soft, and I forced myself to look at him. “What?”
Lucas’s eyes roved over my face. “Get some rest. We will have to go on foot from here.”
“Where?” I hated how weak and pathetic I sounded. I couldn’t very well leave him, not after I just willingly handed the gun back to him. I didn’t even know where I was currently, and my entire life became dependent on him.
I hated it.
“My home,” he finally said after a moment. “We’re probably a few hours away on foot. Long fucking walk, but we’ll make it. And once we’re there, we can figure out where we go next.”
I wanted to ask more questions, starting with why he did what he did. Instead I just lied down on the hay, turning my back to him so he wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes.
Warmth and hope started to fade from me. In their place a bitterness I never expected to have toward him again.
I thought things had changed. But I was wrong.
Well, it didn’t matter. Lucas had his own agenda, and I needed to find mine if I was going to survive this going forward.
I placed my trust in him, I gave my heart to him, and now I was paying the price.
Did I really fool myself into thinking he’d be any different?
Chapter 3
Lucas