“I’ll be back,” I told her urgently. “I promise!”
“Lucas!” she cried, but I was already turning away from her. The AK roared in my hands as I fired back. If I could just eliminate the threat, I could get her out of the car and back to the house, where she should have been the entire time.
I needed to keep her safe. It was my job to keep her safe.
I couldn’t lose her.
Chapter 49
Leda
Minutes Before
I attempted to kick at the door, feeling the pain in my side start to grow stronger. There was a lot of blood seeping out onto the jacket, and I winced as I pressed my hand to it, wondering what could have caused it.
I mean, there was no telling, considering I had just survived a rollover car crash and bullets being shot at me.
A humorless laugh escaped me, and I threw my weight against the opposite door, finding it just as smashed in. The back window was small, meaning I couldn’t just shimmy through, and the windows weren’t the same size since the metal had been crushed in around them, giving me no option to get through.
I was a sitting duck.
Desperation welled up inside, and I forced it away. I was my father’s daughter, and I didn’t give up until all hope was lost. Right now, I was alive and just trapped. I could get out of this without anyone’s help.
A figure started to grow in the distance, and I tried to find something to defend myself with. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. They would have to kill me before I went back to my father, before I went back to being under his thumb.
But as the figure drew near, my heart leaped in my throat. “Lucas!” I cried, seeing his face dawn with relief that I was still alive. He had come. He hadn’t just let me walk away after all.
It meant he cared far more than he had let on, that maybe his words of love had been true after all. “I can’t get the door opened!”
“It’s okay,” he told me as he skidded to a stop. “I’m here. Hang on.”
I took one look at him and threatened to burst into tears. He had come. He was here, and he was going to get me out of this car. All I wanted to feel was his arms around me, telling me that we were okay. “Lucas, please hurry,” I begged as he attempted to yank on the door handle. He was trying everything I had already tried, but he was stronger than me and maybe he could force it open. “They are coming.”
“I got you, Leda,” he told me, his jaw clenched tightly. “I’m not going to let them hurt you. Just hang on for me, love, all right?”
I believed him. He would stop at nothing to keep me safe. In that moment, I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for him either, wanting him to be just as safe. He needed me. He needed me more than he was letting on, and I wasn’t going to give him up, not without a fight.
“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed, tears streaming down my face. I couldn’t help but cry over what had happened between us, how everything had gotten screwed up. If I was going to die in this car today, he needed to know that my feelings for him hadn’t changed. “I love you. Please, I love you.”
Lucas yanked on the door harder, blood shining against the metal as he pulled hard on it. He was hurting himself trying to get me out of this car, and as much as I wanted to tell him to stop, I wanted out.
“Hang on, Leda!” he yelled, his eyes wide with worry and concern for me. Before me wasn’t a don but a desperate man who wanted to save me. Right now, it was just me and him, taking on the world. “Just fucking hang on!”
I knew he was. I could see the desperation written on his face, how he was starting to realize that getting this door open was going to be difficult without some help. “Lucas,” I said softly, catching his attention. “Lucas, look at me.”
He did as I asked. I looked into his eyes and my heart shattered into a million pieces.
“No,” he bit out, already realizing what I was going to say. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but reality was starting to sink in for me that at any moment someone could come with a gun and take us both out or worse, take me to my father. I would rather them kill me. Lucas’s jaw clenched tightly, and he shook his head. “Don’t you fucking dare say goodbye. I’m going to get you out of here, Leda!”
Gunfire raked the car. I shrieked as I felt something hot pass by
“I’ll be back,” Lucas told me urgently. “I swear it.”
When I picked up my head, he was already on the move, leaving the car’s side and moving toward the enemy.
I watched helplessly as he moved away, an AK in his hand, and wished that I could help him. The door still wouldn’t open, no matter what he had tried to do.
I was trapped.