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“And Lyric?” I shrugged, and she made a pained noise in the back of her throat. “Did you hurt Lyric or not?”
“No,” I gritted out. “I didn’t touch him. But I would have if he’d continued to stand in my way. Your sister jumped out of bed to get to you, and then passed out. He had no choice but to catch her, which left the way clear for us to leave.”
“Mila…” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. “I bet she and Mav are losing their minds right now.”
“If it makes you feel better, you can call them both when we get home,” I assured her, wanting to appease her.
“How magnanimous of you, asshole,” she sassed. “I don’t need your fucking permission to call my brother and sister or anyone else, for that matter. You don’t own me, G.”
“I don’t want to own you,” I told her, trying to keep my tone calm, when inside, I was anything but. “I only want to be with you.”
A hard laugh escaped her. “Yeah, sure. You know what? I’m done with this conversation and your lies. Could you please leave?”
“And where do you expect me to go?” I snapped, my calm facade dropping. To hide my fear of losing her, I turned to anger instead. “We’re on a plane over the Midwest right now, Monroe.”
“I don’t care where you go. Return to the main cabin and sit with the ridiculously overpriced docto
r you hired. Go sit with the damn pilot. You could even jump out of the plane for all I care. Just leave me alone!” She shouted the last four words, and it took all the willpower I possessed to keep from reaching for her. Jerk her against me and kiss away the pain, beg her to forgive me. Plead with her not to send me away.
Tears spilled down her pale cheeks, and she glared at me from the other side of the bed. “You left me. And no matter how much I begged or cried or prayed, you didn’t come back for me. I get it. You don’t want me anymore. Why you came back now… I can’t even begin to imagine your reasons, but I’m well aware they have nothing to do with me or this baby. So just leave me alone.”
“I left to protect you,” I told her, my voice choked with emotions I’d never let myself express before. “I came back for you and our baby because I couldn’t take another day without you beside me.”
Her lips twisted skeptically. “I said that I am done with your lies, Gian.”
“I have never lied to you.” I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “And I never will. You and this baby are my entire world. All I want is to protect you both. It took me longer than I expected to deal with the business that pulled me away from you, but I swear to you, if it had been safe for you to be beside me while I handled it, you would have been. I’m sorry we had to spend so much time apart. I’m sorry you felt like I abandoned you. I swear on all that I hold holy, I didn’t. You are the most precious person in the world to me. I would give my life for you.”
“I don’t believe you,” she whispered, but I saw the flicker of her lashes and knew she was the one who was lying.
With a curse, I pulled my gun from the holster under my jacket. Chambering a bullet, I flipped off the safety and handed her the gun. “Here. Take it.”
“What the hell are you doing?” She swatted at the gun. “Stop it, Gian.”
I pressed it into her hand, wrapping her fingers around it. “Take it!”
Falling to my knees before her, I lifted her hand and the gun, forcing her to press it to my forehead. “If you really don’t believe me, if you think I’m not worthy of you, then pull the trigger. Do it, Monroe. Pull it, and put us both out of our misery.”
I felt her begin to tremble, and she jerked away, dropping the gun on the floor between us. “You’re insane,” she sobbed.
“I love you.” For the first time in my life, I said those three words, and she jerked like I’d physically struck her. “I love you so fucking much, I ache.” Still on my knees, I grabbed her and wrapped my arms around her waist, burying my face in her abdomen. “I love you, and I love this baby we created together. You are my everything. My entire world. My only happiness.”
“Stop,” she begged. “Stop lying to me. I know you don’t mean it.”
“Precious, please.” I was the one begging now. “Please. I will make it all up to you. The weeks away from each other. Thinking I abandoned you and our baby. Having to endure all of that evil yesterday. I will make you forget all the pain, all the fear, all the sadness I’ve caused you. But please, believe that I love you. No one else has ever touched my heart. Only you. Only ever you.”
“‘I love you’ are powerful words that you are playing with to try to win me over—not because you actually feel them. The only reason you’re even saying them now is to get what you want,” she said angrily, pushing me away and putting distance between us. “You want me hopelessly besotted and blindly in love with you. But I know the moment things get dicey or we have a stupid disagreement, you will leave just like last time. And maybe if there were only me to worry about, I would fall at your feet and beg you to beat my heart to death over and over again. But it’s not just me.” Her hands touched her still flat stomach lovingly. “I have something far greater to worry about.”
Chapter 15
Monroe
The pilot set the jet down on a private airstrip in the middle of beautiful countryside. Given how long we were in the air, and taking into account how much faster a lightweight jet flew compared to a commercial plane, I could only guess we were somewhere in Italy.
When I saw the miles of grapevines on the car ride up to a beautiful two-story villa, I realized we must be in Tuscany. There seemed to be a considerably smaller guest villa across from the main house, with a few other buildings spread out surrounding it.
Beautiful gardens were being worked right then by men in tan pants and white shirts, with large straw hats covering their heads as they kept the flowers and other plant life looking immaculate. Off to the side of the house, I saw a huge swimming pool, but I’d never been much of a swimmer, so that didn’t hold my attention for long.
This place was breathtakingly beautiful, and any other time, I would have been soaking it all in and giddy that I was going to be spending time with Gian. But I was there under duress, and all I could think about was calling my family and letting them know I was okay after making sure Maverick was really all right.
