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Chapter 16
Lucas
I woke to a dark bedroom, spending a few moments separating my dreams from reality. In my dream, Leda and I were back on the yacht with fireworks going off around us, and she was wearing a dress that looked suspiciously like a wedding gown.
More importantly, she had been happy, and hell, I had felt some weight lifted off my shoulders as well. Everything felt right in my world for once.
I was happy.
Of course, dreams were nothing more than small snippets of happiness to keep from reality crashing in like it was now. I was happy to have Leda back, but the rest of it was still shit. I had no means to protect her.
I had no power, no title, nothing to ensure a future with her.
I wasn’t even sure I could get out of this alive.
Rubbing a hand over my face, I looked over and found her spot empty. I hadn’t meant to go to sleep on her, knowing that at any moment someone could find us, and I would be vulnerable to whatever violence if I was asleep. But between the food over the last few days and Leda draining me dry, my body had given up the fight.
I pushed myself to a sitting position and then threw back the covers, climbing out of bed. Maybe she was with Ruhua and Baoshan in the living room. It was well past nine, and they should be back from their shopping excursion. There were times when I had stayed with them for more than a few days, learning their routines and feeling like I was their long-lost son. They were the only ones that I even gave a shit about for the longest time, and now Leda was in that mix.
They were my family, and I would do whatever it was to keep them safe. I didn’t think that Leda understood what that meant for me. After years of being passed around, of not knowing where the next hit was going to come from, I felt fucking safe with her and with the Wongs. Though the Wongs didn’t know the extent of my past like Leda did, I knew they wouldn’t give a shit if I did tell them.
More likely they would force me to eat another meal to soak up my bitterness. Ruhua believed that anything could be solved with a good meal.
But Leda knew everything about me, and it hadn’t turned her away. I was still baffled by that. She was a Mafia princess, who could have whatever she wanted in this world. And what she wanted was a broken, scarred monster like me.
She humbled me. Leda would be the only fucking person I would ever kneel in front of, the only one that I would be willing to give up everything to keep.
Even my fucking title.
Finding my pants, I shrugged them on. I had given this war, my title, the Mafia, a lot of thought. If this plan didn’t work, would I be willing to walk away from it all for her? I wanted both. I was a selfish bastard. I had tried to push her away, tried to break her repeatedly so she would finally give up on me and walk away, but Leda refused to do so.
I was meant to have her in my life. My Mafia princess. The woman I wanted to make the queen of my life. The shattered diamond was still in my bag, a promise of a future with someone who could make me happy.
Yet I still hadn’t taken the step. After all, what good would it do to ask her to marry a dead man?
That was what I was looking at if I couldn’t get my shit back together and find a way to save my title, my Mafia. I had to defeat Adrian, or it wouldn’t matter how much I cared about her or the Wongs.
They would be caught in the crossfire.
After shrugging on my shirt, I walked out into the main room, finding it empty. Huh. I would have anticipated that they would be back by now.
Tension crept up my spine as I jogged downstairs, finding the restaurant empty as well. No sign of the couple or Leda.
Fuck.
Quickly, I checked for any sign of a break-in or struggle, finding it hard to take a breath as I came to the realization that no one was here.
Leda was gone.
