AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 50
Lucas
For a moment I just stared at Leda, her words echoing in my mind.
“It’s the only way,” she rushed on, throwing her hands in the air. “He’s not going to stop, Lucas. You saw his words. He wants me to come and negotiate for my brother’s life. I know that Nico would do the same for me. I can’t just leave him at our father’s mercy. It’s not right.”
“Your brother,” I growled. “Isn’t the mother of my child!”
She was fucking crazy even thinking I was going to let her walk right up to her father and allow him to take everything that mattered to me. I wasn’t fighting a war with him just so that Leda could be the sacrificial lamb.
“Lucas,” Leda said in a softer tone. “We have to. It’s the only way we can get to my father. We can end the war in one stroke!”
“And how do you plan to do that?” I asked. “Are you going to kill him once you’re close?”
“Something like that.”
“Then what?” I asked. “He will have guards, and they will have no problem killing you.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“No,” I bit out. I refused to think that what she was saying was true. It wasn’t. “No, it fucking isn’t. I won’t let you.”
She wasn’t thinking clearly. Her brother’s current situation was clouding her judgment at what was the right thing to do.
“We haven’t lost this war yet,” I continued, hearing my voice rise just a bit. I didn’t want to fight with her, but hell, I wasn’t about to stand aside and watch her give herself over for the greater good.
There was no greater good right now.
“Do you want to wait until we’re certain that we’re losing?” She shot back. “When our support starts slipping away? The truth is, I have no idea if they believe a single word I said. I know I’m right, but they’ve doubted me since the moment I recruited them. They have no allegiance to us, and we can’t count on them. So why not do the unexpected and send me to my father? Catch him off balance, and strike when we can.”
“Because,” I said angrily as I approached her. “You aren’t an option.” I pinned her between my body and the back of the sofa, her belly bump brushing across my midsection, reminding me what I was fighting for. This child in her belly deserved a chance at life, a chance that wouldn’t materialize if Leda handed herself to her father.
“You aren’t thinking clearly,” I said, looking into her eyes. “The pregnancy.”
“You think I’m not in my right mind?” she snapped, her eyes flashing. “You think that even if I wasn’t carrying our child, I wouldn’t want to sacrifice myself for my brother, for my own flesh and blood? You’ve said a lot of dumb things to me, Lucas Valentino, but this may be the dumbest one yet!”
“Leda,” I started, but she cut me off, pushing at my chest.
“You are just like the rest of them,” she threw at me. “You don’t think I can make my own decisions. Of all people, I thought—no, I hoped—that you would understand.”
“What I understand,” I fired back, feeling my own anger rising as my body kept her trapped against the couch. “Is that your brother’s life means no more to your father than yours does, Leda. If everything you said is true, letting you walk in there is letting you walk into a trap! I won’t have your fucking father take everything that belongs to me.”
Leda arched a brow, and I knew I had said it completely wrong.
“Belong?” she hissed. “I don’t belong to you or to my father! Get the fuck off your high horse!”
“I won’t fucking lose you!” I shouted, the truth finally breaking free. I couldn’t live without her. Not now, not ever. “Do you know what it would do to me to not have you here? Do you even care?”
My fucking life would be meaningless. I would take out my grief on anyone that crossed my path if I lost her.
Hell, I would go to the ends of the earth to get her back.
“Because I’m fucking terrified,” I continued, feeling as if she needed to know what it would do to me. “I’ve lost you more times than I cared to, Leda. I can’t go through that again. I won’t!”
She pushed on my chest hard, and I stepped aside, letting her pass but falling in step behind her. I had just shredded my fucking heart for her, letting her know that she was my only weakness, the only thing that could bring me to my knees, yet she was trying to walk away from it all.
She took my confession and threw it aside like it didn’t matter.
