Chapter 24
Lucas
In truth, I slept maybe two hours, still feeling like shit when I unwrapped myself from Leda and silently climbed out of bed.
For a moment, I looked down at her sleeping form, my heart lurching in my chest. Now that everything was out between us, I could allow myself to feel, to hope for something good in my future. Before Leda, I would have laughed at the thought. Nothing in my life was supposed to be good. Good meant that I was weak, and weakness was my death.
Leda was my weakness, and I didn’t give a shit about it. It was just like that. I didn’t care. I was fine with her being my weakness, fine with her and our unborn kid pushing me to find ways to keep them safe.
That was my new motivation. Fuck Adrian and his plans. I was going to blow them all up.
Naked, I walked into the kitchen area and grabbed a water before locating my cell phone on the counter, charging. I had barely unhooked it before it started buzzing in my hand. “Yeah?” I asked in a low voice.
“Don,” Emil replied. “I wasn’t sure you would pick up.”
“What is it?” I asked instead, ignoring the chuckle in his voice. He knew good and well why I had sent him out for supplies. I had wanted time alone with Leda.
“The meeting,” he said, now all business. “The capos and their associates will be arriving soon.”
Leda’s grand plan. No matter what had happened over the span of a few hours, there was still that dark cloud hanging over our heads, reality still very much a part of our lives. “I will be ready.”
“That’s the thing.” Emil cleared his throat. “They’re asking for her.”
Leda? They wanted Leda? But I was the Don, well, the former Don, but I was still the one who was going to be in charge.
Right?
Surely I hadn’t lost that card too. Have I?
“Don?”
I cleared my throat, glancing back at the occupied bed. “I heard. Are the guns still in the locker?”
“Yes, Don. I put some clothes by the stairs too.”
I ended the call and threw the phone on the counter, attempting to comprehend what was going on here. They wanted Leda to speak, to give them their orders.
I wasn’t used to being part of the backseat. Could I relinquish control for her?
My eyes drifted down to her stomach, obscured from my sight by the covers, and decided for that future, I could.
I had already retrieved the bags and dressed before I woke Leda, watching as she stretched her body before opening her eyes. “What time is it?” she asked sleepily.
“Four,” I told her, my hands itching to roam down her curves, to make her pant with need for me.
Only me.
She pushed her hair out of her eyes before realizing I was dressed in my customary black attire. “What’s going on, Lucas?”
“The capos you have rallied are coming,” I said flatly. “They want you to lead the meeting.” The words were bitter on my tongue, confused as to why they had already pushed me aside for my future wife.
Was it because I wasn’t worthy in their eyes? Did they not see me in a position of power?
Or did they not trust me?
Either way, I needed Leda more than ever.
Her eyes flashed, and suddenly she wasn’t the Leda that was cock-drunk for me, but Leda, daughter of Carmine. “Are you ready?”