Chapter 2
Leda
I was released from the hospital the next day. Rory fussed over me as I dressed in a pair of sweats and a T-shirt she had brought me, and my brother wheeled me out to the waiting SUV, helping me inside and even buckling my seat belt.
“You know I can do that myself,” I replied as he stepped back. “I’m not broken, Nico.”
“Never said you were,” he said evenly before shutting the door.
Biting back what I wanted to say to him, I leaned my head against the seat, staring out the tinted window. I slept like crap, my dreams filled with finding Lucas’s dead body and his son—our son—growing up without a father.
I couldn’t let that happen. I had to find my way back to Lucas, but honestly, I didn’t know where to start.
That, and the fact my brother wasn’t about to let me out of his sight.
Rory slid in next to me. “Are you okay? Are you comfortable?”
“I’m fine,” I answered. In truth, I felt like a truck had run over me then used me as a speed bump repeatedly. My entire body ached. The doctor had once again been amazed that I had escaped without serious injury, telling me to take it easy the next few days and to see my OB as soon as I could.
I still couldn’t get used to the idea that I was pregnant. There was literally another human being inside me, a product of my furious sex sessions with Lucas. I wanted to say that the child had been conceived in one of the sessions where we were making love. But I couldn’t be certain that it wasn’t any of the other times.
That was the thought that hurt the most. The admission that our child was conceived when I was tied to the bed, when I begged Lucas to use me, when we struggled in each other’s grips—trying desperately to hurt each other.
Not necessarily the story that would go in the baby book.
My overprotective brother climbed in next to his wife and the SUV pulled away from the curb into traffic.
“I still don’t understand why I can’t go back to my penthouse,” I started the moment the hospital started to disappear in the rear-view mirror. “I don’t need supervision.”
Nico snorted. “You really believe that, Leda? I’m not even sure you can keep yourself out of trouble right now.”
Well, he did have a point. Trouble seemed to be my middle name lately. “But I’m a grown person,” I argued. “I want to go home.”
“You are,” he said tightly as Rory muttered under her breath. “With us.”
I let out a frustrated breath, refusing to look at him. Who cared that I was acting like a spoiled child right now? This was my life, and I needed to find Lucas.
“So, you are going to lock me up then?” I asked, clearing my throat.
Nico sighed. “Leda, you are my sister. Of course not. I’m not an asshole.”
“Could have fooled me,” I muttered this time, drawing a slight smirk from Rory. The conversation fell silent in the car as the city passed by, and I found myself looking for Lucas in the sea of faces on the sidewalk. I desperately wanted to see him.
The ride to the penthouse was short and as the SUV pulled up to the curb, I was surprised by the number of armed men milling about. “What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s the protection,” Nico explained as one of the men opened my door. “NYPD.”
Surprised, I stepped out onto the sidewalk, taking a moment to breathe in the city air. It didn’t matter where I was in the world; there was nothing like coming home. “Ms. D’Agostino,” the man to my left stated, motioning to the door. “Right this way.”
The officer stayed with me until we were walking into the penthouse before he took the elevator back down. “That was very weird,” I remarked.
“You get used to it,” Rory replied, dropping her bag on the island. “You want to see the kids?”
Kids meaning my nephew Anthony and their adopted child, Lorenzo. Lorenzo had been a product of my father’s evilness, the son of Carmine D’Agostino’s former right-hand corrupt cop and an innocent young woman who had been killed a few months ago. I knew it had been part guilt that had driven Nico to take Lorenzo in, but the young boy had flourished in the loving household. “Absolutely.”
Rory rubbed her lower back as we made our way to their bedroom. “I swear I don’t think I can do this again, Leda.”
I arched a brow, staring at her protruding stomach. “I think it’s far too late to be reconsidering.”