Chapter 48
Leda
I woke to an empty bed.
For a moment, I lied there, staring up at the exposed beams over my head. My sleep had been dreamless, but my heart was still weary. My brother was missing, and I had no idea what my father was going to do with him.
No. That wasn’t true. I knew exactly what my father was going to do to my brother. He was going to exact his revenge on Nico for turning him over to the Feds. There would only be one way it was all going to end for Nico.
But the worst part wasn’t that my father had Nico, but the fact that he also had Rory and the kids.
Nausea climbed in my throat, but I forced it down, my hand drifting to my swollen stomach. I couldn’t even imagine what Nico was going through, knowing that our sadistic father had his hands on his family and he was helpless to stop him.
I didn’t think that our father would kill them outright. No, he would make us all suffer before he carried out his plans, and until I was in his grasp, I doubted his plans were complete.
He wanted his entire family together, and I wasn’t sure what that meant for the child in my stomach.
I sat up on the bed, giving myself a few moments to blink back the sudden unwanted tears that crowded my eyes. I would do anything for my brother. Nico deserved to be happy. He deserved to be with his family.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think that Lucas was going to let me go to my father.
After tending to my needs and pulling my hair up into a messy bun on top of my head, I moved to the living room. Lucas was seated at the island and for a moment, I allowed myself to stare at him. He was still shirtless, his torso dotted with old and new scars, but to me, he still was gorgeous. Every scar told a story of how he had survived.
His tattoos also told a story of who he was, but to me, he was simply my Lucas. The man who stole my heart before I realized it, who gave me this precious life inside that I hoped we would watch grow up together.
He gave me hope when there hadn’t been any, though his methods might have been convoluted at times.
Most of all, I felt like he had given me everything he could. He had given me his shriveled heart for safekeeping, to help him see that there was more to his life than what he had been told. I wanted to give him the very happiness that he deserved. I didn’t care who he was before. What I cared about was who he would become in the future.
Of course, that was assuming if we could even have a future where there weren’t any bullets aimed at us—a future without my maniacal father trying to ruin our lives.
In the future I wanted, Lucas cuddled our child with an endless a grin on his face as he held our child’s tiny fingers, as he watched the first steps. I saw him napping with a baby in his arms, holding him or her so carefully—as if he was afraid that somebody might take them away.
I knew that he had everything riding on the baby that I carried, not because he wanted it to be his heir, but because it represented a future that neither of us had. We wanted to change the dynamic, to show that there was more to this life than the blood and violence we had grown accustomed to.
It had been the same mindset as my brother, and now he was on the cusp of losing it all. A lump rose in my throat as I thought about never seeing my nephews happy again or Rory’s smile as she watched her husband do something stupid.
There was also the matter of the unborn child that Rory still carried, a baby who might not see the light of day if we couldn’t save her. Rory was probably scared wherever she was, scared that she might be looking at the end of her life and the happiness she had found with my brother.
It was the same feeling I had, and I wasn’t even a prisoner to anyone.
Yet I would fight to the end to protect what was mine, including the man that I was currently ogling. To not have Lucas in my life wasn’t an option any longer. I had given him everything—my heart, my innocence, my future—and I wouldn’t rest until we were both able to breathe again.
Lucas was mine, and I wasn’t going to give him up so easily.
I also knew he was worried about me. I could see it in his eyes, how he watched me like a hawk even when he was immersed in something else. It was nice to have someone worried about me like Lucas was, but I wasn’t any shrinking flower either. Gone was any sort of innocence that I would have had left, and in its place was this determination to just survive.
Heck, I was just as worried about him. I was worried that he would start to take chances because of this child I carried, that he would forget that without him, my life was meaningless. I needed for him to think about his steps, not immediately think that he was invincible.
Maybe it was the same conversation I needed to have with myself. I hadn’t been cautious up until now, but being pregnant really should change my mindset.
I didn’t want my son or daughter to grow up without parents, or worse, not even get the chance to meet them.
Lucas turned, and for a moment, we just stared at each other. I took in his ruffled hair, not slicked back like he usually wore it, and the circles under his eyes that probably were a match to mine. He was as exhausted as I felt, and I wasn’t so sure it was all to do with the pregnancy. I hadn’t been sleeping well, feeling like there was something I was missing constantly in this fight with my father.
That, and I was worried that I was going to lose it all: my family, my baby, Lucas. If I lost any part of that list, I would be destroyed.
“Good morning,” he said, rising from the chair.