Page 57 of Kneeling for Daddy
“What?” I blink, sitting straighter, the sheets pooling around my waist. “Camping? You don’t camp. None of you camp.”
“We’re heading upstate. We finally got a lead, and we’re going now before things change and he has a chance to move on us again.”
I grip the phone tighter, my nails pressing into my palm. The thought of Nik heading out of the city to hunt down the man putting our family in danger sends my heart racing.
Trying to hide my hesitation, I mumble, “You’re sure?”
“As sure as we ever get, little pet,” he declares confidently. “We’ll flush him out, finish this, and take back every inch of our city.”
I want to beg him not to go. Plead with him to come home and climb into bed beside me, but I can’t. I know this is who he is. It’s whoallof them are. They have the need for vengeance pumping through their veins, and as much as it scares me, I love him too much to try to change him.
“Okay,” I whisper. My throat is tight. “Just… come back to me.”
“You don’t even have to ask.” His voice softens. “You know I will. Nothing in this world could keep me from you. From the two of you.”
“I love you,” I exhale.
“I love you too, little pet.”
When the call ends, I sit, frozen, the darkness almost stifling. My hand drifts down, rests against my belly almost instinctively. I lie there, staring at the ceiling, the faint light from my phone still glowing at the edge of the bed. Sleep is gone, miles away. All the disastrous ways this night could end spin through my thoughts—any of them getting hurt, or worse, not coming home at all.
I can’t be alone with these thoughts.
Grabbing my phone again, I send a text.
You up?
The response is almost immediate.
EAVAN
Yup. I’ll unlock the door.
Sliding out of bed, I pull on pajama pants and one of Nik’s oversized hoodies. I pad barefoot through the apartment, bumping into Jagger when I open the front door. His gaze drops to me as I step beside him. “Ma’am, you know I can’t let you go anywhere tonight.”
“Don’t start. I’m literally going across the hall, ” I grumble, ignoring him and walking over the threshold, pointing at Eavan’s door when he tries to stop me. “Six steps, Jagger. You can take six steps”—I spin my finger in the air—“just turn around and face the other direction for a little while. You’ll live.”
He huffs, dropping his arm with all the drama of a sulking child, and follows me across the hallway.
Eavan’s door is cracked, the light spilling faintly into the corridor. As I step into the apartment, the stairwell door at the end of the foyer creaks open. Madison slips out, also barefoot, wrapped in a cardigan like she’s been awake for hours. Her eyes widen a little when she sees me.
“Couldn’t sleep either?” I ask with a tiny smile.
She shakes her head, lips pressed thin. “Same as you, I guess.”
We fall into step together, both of us drawn to the same refuge. We find Eavan waiting for us at the kitchen island. She’s dressed in Enzo’s sweats and sporting a messy bun, pouring water from a kettle into three cups of tea.
“You two look like hell,” she teases lightly, though her eyes flicker with the same worry I feel.
“Gee, thanks,” I mutter, grabbing one of the cups and sinking into the couch.
Madison drops down beside me, tugging her cardigan tighter. Eavan hands her the other mug before curling into the armchair across from us.
For a while, none of us speaks. The silence is heavy but different, gentler somehow, like we are all carrying the weight together instead of alone. Eavan breaks the silence, “They’ll be fine.”
Madison lets out a deep sigh. “You don’t know that.”
“No,” Eavan admits. “But I knowthem. And I know they’re not going down without taking the whole damn world with them. All of them are too damned stubborn not to come home.”
