Chapter 51
Lucas
I let the little woman lead me past the kitchen, where her husband Wong Baoshan waved at me with his wooden spoon. “Xiao Lu!” he called out, his face wreathed with a smile. “What are you doing here?”
“Later,” Ruhua shot back, pushing me up the stairs and through a beaded curtain. Soon I was in their tiny apartment, and she was ushering me to the floral sofa. “Sit.”
I sat, only because I was afraid my legs wouldn’t hold me up any longer, and she scurried around the apartment, opening cabinets.
“I’m sorry,” I said gruffly, leaning back against the sofa. “Didn’t know where else to go.” It was hard for me to admit that to her.
She paused, meeting my eyes. “Always welcome here. You know that. Where is your girlfriend? She do this to you?”
I laughed, wincing as my entire body hurt from the motion. “No, she didn’t do this to me.”
“Take off your jacket,” she urged. “Let me see.”
I did as she asked, pulling the shirt over my head. There was a large bruise blooming on my left pec, reddened from what looked like the impact of a bullet striking something.
Ruhua hissed and pressed a cold compress to the area. “Bullet?”
“No idea,” I answered, frowning. I should be dead if that was the case.
Then I remembered. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the ring I had placed in there earlier, the diamond now shattered from the impact of the bullet. Well, hell. The ring had saved my life.
Leda saved my life.
“Destroyed,” Ruhua pressed another compress to a large gash in my side. “Did you ask? Or did she throw it back in your face?”
I ran a thumb over the diamond, a grin stealing from my lips. “I didn’t ask. But she should.”
Now, she might be gone forever
“You don’t deserve her,” Ruhua finished, pulling away the compresses. “Too good for you.”
That I could agree on. I had failed her, let her be injured then possibly taken back to her father.
I had done the unthinkable to Leda, and she had trusted me to save her.
“Lie down, Xiao Lu,” Ruhua finally said as she bandaged the wound on my side. “Eat first. Then sleep.”
I didn’t even nod as she left the room, leaning back on the sofa with the ring clenched in my hand. Leda had saved my life. My love for Leda had saved my life, and I wasn’t so sure I was going to get the chance to tell her. Hell, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had no Mafia, no means of support here in the city. I had the biggest target on my fucking back here, and at any moment, Adrian was going to learn where I was, which would put the Wongs in danger.
Wincing, I forced myself to get off the sofa, picking up the cell phone that had gotten me here before walking over to the kitchen and finding a kitchen mallet in one of the drawers. Biting my lip, I hit the phone several times with it, effectively destroying it to keep from being traced. I should have done it earlier.
Sweeping the pieces into the trash, I leaned against the counter, exhausted. This was going to come to a head soon; I could feel it in my bones.
I had to protect those that looked out for me, but more importantly I had to find Leda. She was now my first and only priority.
If I couldn’t find her, none of this meant anything.
Chapter 52
Lucas
Somehow I got myself into the Wongs’ tiny shower and washed the blood off my body, careful to tend to the wounds that would end up as scars. More scars to add to my collection.
Not that I cared. Every scar had a past.