AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Alexi…” From the corner of my weeping eyes, Finley turned on Alexi. “I told you not to do this.”
They were going to kill each other. The idea of that made me suck in great gulps of air as I wept and howled, until the blurred room stopped spinning…and faded to black.
26
Kat
I waited for Anna all afternoon, pacing the floor of the apartment as the wind howled and the storm lashed outside. But she didn't come, leaving me hollow and empty, and feeling very much alone. My stomach gave a twinge and for the first time, I realized it was more than hunger and more than fear.
It was real…
Inside me.
Growing.
Panic set in as that twinge turned into something a little more, something withteeth.I clutched my belly, braced my hand against the window, and moaned. But the cramping didn’t stop, making me stumble for the bedroom and hurry to the toilet. I tried not to think about the baby, tried to keep my focus firmly fixed on the future.
A future where I was far away from my father…and Hale. I shoved my jeans and panties down and looked at my panties. There was nothing, no blood, no smear. I pressed my hand against my belly. “It’s okay. Come on now…it’s all going to be okay.”
I was going tomakeit okay, no matter what I had to do. Whether Hale’s baby inside me lived or it didn’t, I’d do my damn best to make sure I gave him or her all the chances of a better life I could. Which meant making plans to get off the island.
The cramping eased as I sat there, knees pressed together, my hand against my abdomen, and Lazarus’s face came roaring back to me.Sorry I wasn’t there. But I’m here now…
My mind was caught on his words.
I’m here now.My pulse fluttered as I folded the toilet paper and wiped, checking once more for blood, then rose to flush. He was here now…there was too much hope inside me with those words, too many thoughts that raced just like my damn heartbeat. I pulled my jeans up and buttoned them, making my way out into the bedroom as my phone started to ring.
Anna?
I hurried, snatched it off the end of the sofa, and froze. But it wasn’t Anna…
I closed my eyes and breathed deep before plunging back to my reality and answered the phone. “Dad.”
“Katerina.” My breath caught with the sound of my name like that. The cold, heartless tone. “I wanted to call and discuss some concerning reports.”
“What reports?” My voice was cold, empty, devoid of the life I’d felt seconds ago.
I could hear him shift against leather and tried to picture where he was and what he was doing. I tried to plan his thoughts in my head, if only to steel my body and my mind for the onslaught. It was always a battle of wills where he was concerned, always hardening my armor and trying my best not to let him rattle my cage.
“Reports of you with some Mafiathug,”he said coldly. “I can only assume the reports are incorrect?”
I closed my eyes, feeling the room spin. “I’m literally on an island full of them. I can hardly avoid one, now can I?”
“But are you avoiding them, Katerina? That’s what I want to know. Are youfulfillingyour obligations?”
My stomach tightened again and for a terrified second, I wondered if the baby was safe as I forced a response through clenched teeth. “If you mean, am I attending my classes, then yes, I’m attending and I’m learning a great deal.”
The only thing I wasn’t learning was how to cut the head off a damn snake.
“That isn’t the obligation I sent you for,” he growled.
Anger bled into his tone. It was subtle, cold, something others wouldn’t detect. But I did…like I detected everything else about him.
“As I recall, you didn’t send me.”
“BUT I ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN!”
My heart lunged, slamming against my ribs as his roar rang in my ears. A tremor coursed through me, sending shudders deep inside my belly. My voice shook and I hated that. “Then why am I here?”
