Leda was mine, and I wasn’t going to give her up, no matter how much she wanted to now be distanced from me.
Maybe it was good that she hated me. Then I could screw up as many times as I wanted. Her feelings would harden over time. We would set terms, break our hearts, and go our separate ways. Never to see each other again.
I could be just a distant nightmare for her. Someone she’d forget as the sands of time scoured away distasteful bits of the past until only the pleasant parts were left.
She would want to know why I had put her on that block, why I had abandoned her after telling her that I loved her.
Repeatedly.I had told herrepeatedlythat I loved her before I betrayed her.
Reaching out, I traced her face with my finger lightly, stealing a moment that I knew I wouldn’t have again once she woke. Leda hated me, and for good reason. I hoped she held onto that hate, reminding herself of who I was.
Because if she hated me, then I could slowly start to get over her, to push her out of my life so that I could have it back. I could transition back to the cold Don she had met before now, forgetting the flare of light, of love that she had given me, only for me to fuck it up.
She would only be hurt once, and after that, I wouldn’t be able to hurt her ever again.
I wasn’t meant to be loved. I was meant for death and destruction, for ruining people’s days and taking over my enemies so that they wouldn’t resurface. I was built for blood, for violence, for terror.
I wasn’t built for love, for her soft touches and soft gasps when her body molded against mine. I wasn’t made for her longing looks, nor was I made for the words she whispered that stole my fucking heart.
I didn’t deserve any of it. I didn’t deserve her. And once she learned the truth about me, about my past, Leda would understand why I had pushed her away.
Rising, I decided to let her sleep just a little longer.
For a little longer, I could pretend she still loved me.
Chapter 4
Leda
I moved alongside Lucas on the road, my feet aching. Well, everywhere ached, from the soreness of my stomach where Adrian had hit me, to the bruises he left around my neck, and all the way down to the numerous cuts and bruises that started appearing on my body this morning.
A testament to the intensity of everything I just experienced.
Lucas didn’t look much better. While I knew he would never admit to it, he was suffering from where Adrian had cut him. The split over his eye would need stitches. He was also limping slightly, though he tried his best to hide it whenever he knew I was looking.
When I woke up this morning, he had been dressed and ready to leave, giving me very little precious time to do the same. The hard look on his face returned, and I knew that I was dealing with the Mafia Don from my first interactions with him and not the man who had softened just a bit to me over the course of the weeks.
Something about him changed, back to a man that I couldn’t like.
Adrian’s words came back to haunt me at that moment.A whore who thinks he was a Don. A man who needed control over everything he touched.
Including me.
Well, those days were over.
He would never control me again, not after he put me back up on the auction block. The truth was, I didn’t think I was his any longer. Not legally—or at least whatever the hell “legally” counted for in their world.
But neither would I be Adrian’s. No matter what deal he may have cut with my father. I’d never willingly go to him.
Still, Lucas wasn’t going to find the same Leda he expected. Once we arrived at our destination. I would be done with being used and abused for the amusement of men. I gave Lucas a piece of me that he threw back in my face.
It was time I started looking out for my own interest.
The sound of a car caught my attention at the same time that it did Lucas, and he grabbed my arm, steering me into the trees.
“Stay there,” he instructed as he pulled out the waterlogged gun. Whoever was coming wouldn’t know that the thing didn’t work. Not until they started firing.
And if it got to that, then Lucas would be a dead man.