Page 64 of Midnight Salvation

Lucas had insisted he needed to survive to draw the others around him out into the light. All my worry was on the woman in the hospital whose condition hadn’t changed from the last text I received from Paul. He thought it was positive that she hadn’t deteriorated, but all I wanted was to see those massive brown eyes staring up into mine again.

Nothing else mattered anymore except that she survived.

Lucas got into my car beside me, and we sped down the driveway of Blackwood Manor. I didn’t care if it burnt down to cleanse the sins of the past. Too many secrets rested inside those walls, too many horrors that would never see the light of day.

Police cars with sirens blasting passed us on the road, summoned by an anonymous message that was sent as soon as we left. Lucas had already given Dad and Uncle Bart a story, if they were smart they would stick to it.

My life was slowly starting to unwind around me, yet the guiding force was one tiny woman who had made me do what I never thought I would. I faced Dad and my uncles and began to tear their empire down.

Today I may have signed my own death warrant. Only time would tell who would survive this storm.

***

Chapter Twenty

Lucrezia

There wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t hurt. Every muscle screamed in protest when I tried to move, and a drummer had set up home inside my skull and kept banging to leave a throbbing headache.

I refused to stay in the hospital a day longer than required, and lay on the sofa in the sunroom at the back of Papa’s London home. The doctor refused to let me travel or I would be in residence at my beach house in Tuscany.

A month had passed since I was sick, and a lot had changed, including my sister Sofia turning up broken hearted. Papa was furious but what did he expect when he sent her to a man who looked like the god of debauchery? He showed her lady bits a good time and when that Pandora’s box was opened there was no going back.

I closed my eyes and pretended that it didn’t hurt to breathe. Catarina was pottering about in the kitchen in the background, singing to a song on the radio and butchering it with what she thought the lyrics were.

“Hey, Lucy.” Jordan strode into the room and lifted my legs to sit down on the sofa beside me. He studied my face. “How are you feeling?”

“Horrible, but don’t tell Ash as he already has me wrapped in velvet.”

“He’s allowed to worry.” Jordan sat back and stared out the window.

“Is Sofia speaking to you yet?” I asked, diverting the conversation away from me.

“Ugh!” he groaned and closed his eyes for a moment. “Lucas told me to go and bring her home. How was I supposed to know that she was involved with him? Neither of them said a damned thing.”

“You should have known better after interfering with my relationship. The Black women know who they want and you can’t divert us from our path.”

He stared at me for several seconds. “You tend to have the worst taste in men. Personally, I would prefer that you picked some boring asshole who has no idea what a g-spot or clitoris is.”

I laughed at his grumpy expression. “I can assure you that Ash knows where both of those are.”

He held his hands over his ears and started to hum loudly.

“What have you done to Jordan?” Ash stood at the doorway with his hip propped up on the frame. “If you’ve broken him, Zee will be pissed.”

“Jordan is disturbed that Sofia and I have vaginas,” I explained.

Ash’s eyebrows shot up and a grin touched the edges of his full lips. “No comment.”

“Traitor,” I hissed, making his grin grow bigger.

“I need to borrow Jay to go over some intel for an upcoming meeting,” Ash said.

“Thank fuck,” Jordan snapped. “I swear my sisters are trying to fuck with my head.” He escaped from the sofa and almost ran from the room.

“You okay?” The way Ash’s head tilted to the side meant he was examining me and that terrified me because he saw more than anyone else. He hadn’t touched me since I’d been ill. All I got were hugs and deep, drugging kisses. That was fine for a day or two, but I desperately wanted my husband back.

“Can we not just go home where there is peace and quiet?” I held my hand out to him and watched as he moved across the room to thread his fingers through mine.

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