Page 71 of Judas
The look of absolute devastation resting on her beautiful face is going to fucking unman me—and we don’t have time for that. I need to get the information out of Lucien, doing this at night is the best option as it doesn’t raise as many suspicions. But if I know anything about my woman, she’s not going to walk away from this. Not now, anyway. She might later when she learns I’m not the same man I was. Knowing that, how she may choose to leave at the end, feeds the guilt inside of me. It’s a shame I refuse to acknowledge right now because if I do, then Lucien will latch on to it like some sort of leech and use it to his advantage. We will lose.
What the fuck do I do? Don’t be a coward, that’s what.
“Woof woof, babygirl.”
“W— woof, woof?” she repeats, her voice cracking.
Here we go.
“Woof.. WOOF!” Nadia says again.
There it is.
“Seventeen years and you fucking say ‘woof woof’?! Seventeen years of thinking you were dead and here you are, standing in a borrowed living room in a random fucking town beating the shit out of my brother?! Not, ‘Hi baby, I’m sorry. I have a reason for everything.’ No telling me who you were when the damn forest was burning down around us and you were driving just a few feet away from me. No… not anything logical. Just ‘woof woof’.”
Babygirl is pissed—pissed.
She’s got a point—well, a lot of them. I just don’t have the fucking time. I’d break the sound barrier to scoop her up and crush my mouth to her, inhaling each of her breaths like I haven’t gasped for oxygen in days. Taste her trembling lips as if they were covered in the sweetest, most decadent fruit. I just can’t. I need to focus, I need her safe, I—Goddamnit, it’s not about me.
Lucien starts to chuckle, which brings me back to him. I twist, looking down at the piece of shit. It takes a fraction of a second for me to draw my arm back and slam my fist into his mouth.
“Hey!” Nadia shouts and clears the distance between us.
Her hand meets the crook of my opposite arm and wrenches me back around to look at her. She’s filthy, covered in soot, dirt, some blood. A bruise has gathered on her forehead then there’s her neck. Marks of strangulation are wrapped all the way around her, so deep they almost look permanent. The psychological damage will remain, even when the rest of it heals, but he did this. I don’t need to ask who hurt her: Lucien did. Life did.Idid.
Spinning on her, I grab her face and pull her to me, pressing my forehead to hers and breathe her in. The crack in my armoris widening and my soul is bleeding onto her. It’s all I can do right now, the only bit of comfort I can provide until we are out of harm's way.
Holding her close, I confess, “I’m sorry, so… fucking… sorry.”
She’s quivering in my hands and I can’t take this shit. Releasing her, I drag her to me and hold her in a grip that may just break the bones in my arms because I will be damned if I hurt her ever again. Cocooning her in a hug I’ve longed to have, her soft curves and the changes of her body fitting just as perfectly against me as they did long ago.
“K… Kace, I need you to explain.” Nadia whimpers. She still hasn’t embraced me back, understandably, but that fact is bothersome.
“I haven’t gone by that name since I died.”
“Which you haven’t! So spill it, Kace. Why are you standing here and not in a pine box? I think I deserve to know!”
“You do; promise I will tell you everything. Even the shit that may be too much to hear, but not right this second. I have a job to do and that entails questioning Lucien which cannot be done during the day. So, please… for fuck’s sake… go into the bedroom with our daughter and recuperate. You’ve been whole this entire time, don’t let this break you now.”
Nadia shoves me away from her at that. Anger and pain replace the devastation from before.
“I haven’t been whole since the day you disappeared!” she shouts.
She takes a step back, and fucking hell it hurts watching her leave. It’s necessary though. I can answer everything for her later, once the dust has settled. When I screw my head back on the right way and stop thinking with my ass. My gaze follows her when she turns and walks away, Babel leading her into the bedroom where she should have gone in the first place instead ofcoming out here to confront me. The door closes and I instantly sink back into the side of me that has done a lot of shady shit.
“Trouble in paradise?” Lucien smarts, shifting slightly in the chair I have him strapped to. Almost the exact way he had me restrained in the pit. Paying him no mind, I reach for a crowbar and lug it off the table I set up to try and minimize the mess I knew we were going to make.
“That was stupid of you. Went and tore her up, now the memory she has of you is sullied. Leave it to good ol’ Kace to screw things up all over again.”
“Go to hell,” I pop off.
“You first,” Lucien teases.
Stepping to his ten o’clock, with more than enough space between us, I look at him disgusted. This fucker tried to kill me and almost succeeded, facilitated a riot, watched my woman get gang raped, spent many more years in prison killing people, kidnapped my daughter, tortured her, made her kill, hung her up like a tree ornament with the intentions on sacrificing her, started to strip her bare, nearly strangled Nadia to death, and now has the audacity to sit here and tease.
He will pay for everything, one broken bone and laceration at a time.
“You know, I’ve been there already. It was lovely but not quite a five star experience. Do you know what would have made it so much better, Lucien?”
