Mario swore fluently in Italian behind me, but the whole world was muted as I stared at my father bleeding out.
“What’s family anyway?” I ground out. “You were never a father to me.”
“I’ve created someone even more evil than myself.” He choked on a laugh and looked at the blood on his hands. “To empty your father of his own life. I never would have imagined it’d be you.”
“Who else then?”
“I brought on my own demise. And still I wonder if you realize that you’ll always be bound to them as their monster now. You’ll never be anything more. You’ll never know more. You’ve trapped yourself.”
“Or freed myself from you.”
“But boy, without me, you’d already have been dead.” His eyes slowly closed.
I dropped down beside him, but Mario’s hand went to my shoulder.
“You were more my son than his, no? I’m grateful tonight that you chose the family.” Mario was choking up. He put a fist over his mouth as he looked at his brother. He patted me so roughly, my body swayed from the force. “Remember, we’re always the right choice.”
* * *
“Go to Bastian,”Katie whispered and yanked her hand from my grip. She walked away from me before I could disagree with her.
The Stonewoods and Armanellis had already seated themselves around the large table but Katie circled us instead of sitting down in any of the empty chairs. I grabbed the one next to Bastian, unsure of what the fuck the woman was doing anyway.
We all followed her path like a group of lost boys. No one questioned her circling. We waited with some fucked up baited breath.
Finally, after three whole circles, she stopped at the middle of the table and lifted a tiny leg so she could step onto a chair and then onto the table. She crawled to the middle of it and then stood. Hands on her hips, she looked down at us all. “I’m the center of attention and the topic of conversation, I might as well put myself there literally.”
“Jesus Christ,” Jax grumbled and knocked on the table twice before he continued. “You have to be ridiculous about it, Katie?”
“Go to hell, Jax. You know how messed in the head Brey was when she was pregnant? She called me all the time with the most jacked up anxieties and I was there for every single one of them. You think I’m not going to have those if I’m really pregnant and decide to keep the baby? I will…I’ll have them and worse, I’ll deal with them while dealing with a bunch of fuckers that don’t trust a goddamn thing I’m doing.”
“I’m here to do whatever you want. I know the shit Brey went through. Hormones, pregnancy, giving birth.” He shuddered like they were the things of nightmares. “Brey did it with grace. She’s about the only person in the world I think can do it like that.”
“Exactly,” Katie agreed and pointed at herself. “You think I’ll handle it with grace?”
Jax looked her up and down so long, a sound escaped from deep within me.
“Don’t be stupid,” Jax tossed my way. Then he said to Katie, “I’ve known you a long time, Katie. You can’t do it with grace. But you’ll do it.”
“That’s not good enough.”
I cut off the conversation. “You’ll do it with fury and vengeance, Cleo. But most of all, you’ll do it with love.”
“Ivan won’t agree.” She spun to Bastian at the head of the table and crouched before him. “The bratva don’t want Italian blood flowing through their bloodline, Bast. We could end it easily.”
“Is that what you want?” he asked.
“I want to bring her into this world protected by all of you. If I can’t protect her, I don’t want her.”
“Protect her from me?” We all heard the hitch in his voice, loud and clear. Bastian cared for Katalina, loved her in a way I didn’t think we’d ever be able to rid him of. “You lived in my house, Katalina. I would have fought for you, would have married you. You think I would really be capable of hurting you?”
Everyone’s eyes ping-ponged between Bastian and me. I watched as Katie lowered herself onto the edge of the table and let one leg dangle on either side of Bastian.
She turned to me. “Monster, stay,” she whispered and I knew she was about to do something that would infuriate me. Then she turned back to Bastian and grabbed his hand.
She brought it to her stomach and said softly to the room, “Someone call the doctor. I want you all to hear her heartbeat.”
Cade got up immediately and dialed a number. I didn’t move. I stared at the two of them. They were connected like family and he looked at her like a lover.