Ruhua wrapped her arm around my waist, hugging me awkwardly. “Then we’ll wait.”
I didn’t have the fucking heart to tell them no.
So, we waited. An hour turned to two. Ruhua made herself busy in the kitchen while I paced the floors, debating whether or not to call Nico for help. He was the only fucking person I knew in the city that wasn’t trying to kill me and would likely pull out all the stops to find his sister.
Though I imagined he would kill me as well, realizing I had lost her again. Not once, but now two times. With the way I felt, I would welcome the bullet.
Finally, shortly after midnight, Ruhua’s phone rang. “Answer it,” she told me, her hands deep in dough.
I raced to get it off the counter and held it up to my ear. “Emil.”
“Don,” Emil replied.
“Are you safe?” I asked tightly.
“Yes. I mean, we are,” he answered, hesitation in his voice. “I have Leda.”
Relief poured through me, and I sagged against the wall. “What the fuck is going on? Where is she? Let me speak to her.” I wanted to hear her voice.
“I, er, we will be there shortly,” he replied instead. “Please don’t kill me. I didn’t take her. She forced me to.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Both of them were safe. “She’s telling you not to put her on, isn’t she?”
“You should have seen her,” Emil said in a rush. “She was amazing, and without her, this war would have been hopeless. “
“I’m well aware of how amazing she is,” I said slowly, his words giving me pause. What had Leda done? “And you are certain she’s not hurt?”
“No, she says to tell you not to worry.”
Well that would have been nice to know three fucking hours ago. “I assume you are armed.”
“Of course, Don,” Emil replied, some of the eagerness leaving his voice. “We are two blocks away.”
“I’ll see you soon.” I ended the call. Leda was safe. Emil had her, but for what? Didn’t they both realize how much danger we were all in, that they were in by association with me?
“Was that Emil?” Ruhua asked.
I placed the phone on the table. “Yeah, it was Emil. He has Leda.” The words didn’t sound right coming out of my own mouth, but I knew that Emil wasn’t the type to harm her in any manner. Whatever had brought them together was likely because of something Leda did, not the other way around. Emil was loyal to a fault, and he would have known how I would react to Leda leaving here to begin with.
“Pull yourself together, Xiao Lu,” Ruhua said, wiping her hands on her apron.
I slid back into the person I knew the best, the Don that took no prisoners, and tamped down my own relief and worry back into the locked box that shouldn’t even exist in my world. Ruhua was right. I needed to let Leda know that she could have been hurt, that she could have gotten Emil hurt and this sort of behavior wasn’t going to be tolerated any longer.
She would have to start listening to me or I was going to lock her up somewhere until this shit was over.
When the door opened a few moments later, I straightened my shoulders, watching as Emil walked in first, clearly waiting for the bullet to strike him. “Don,” he said respectfully, dipping his head as he passed. I clenched my fist tightly but made no move to hit him as Leda entered next, closing the door behind her.
Her eyes met mine, and they widened a fraction. Clearly my anger was written all over my face. “Leda,” I said coolly. “Where have you been?”
She cleared her throat, and I took the moment to rake my eyes over her form, finding no outward sign of injury. In fact, her cheeks were pink, and her eyes were shimmering with some sort of disguised happiness, as if whatever she had been doing had been good for her.
Fuck, she was gorgeous, and if I wasn’t so fucking angry at her, I would be taking her upstairs right this moment.
“It wasn’t Emil’s fault,” she started, crossing her arms over her chest. “I duped him into thinking he was meeting you.”
I took a step forward. “You didn’t answer my question,” I seethed, letting my anger come through. There were a thousand things I wanted to do to her at once. I wanted to throttle her neck, yell at her for being so reckless with her life and that of my man.
I wanted to punch something hard.
I wanted to kiss the hell out of her, to hold her in my arms and know that she was safe.
“You’re right,” she said, pursing her lips and lifting her chin. “I didn’t.”
I gave her a hard smile. “Why don’t you start there, love?”
To my surprise, Leda didn’t flinch at my harsh tone, glaring at me some more. “I went to save your life, Lucas.”
“What did you do?”