AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I mean that Bennet is always thinking multiple steps ahead. If I had to guess, he probably had paperwork in place in the event something happened to him.”
“Why me, though?”
Micah shrugs. “You're a level-headed dude, you're even surlier than he is, and…you're his brother, right?”
I pause, thinking about that. A surge of something, like woeful pride, takes up space in my chest.
That bastard better be okay.
The sound of soft cries comes from the bathroom, breaking the silence. I smirk, knowingly and suggestively this time. Micah looks relieved. He's so worried about Lukas.
“You really love him,” I say. It's a statement, not a question.
I knew he did, but I don't think that I ever considered just how deep their relationship was before all of us got together.
He nods, his eyes filling with tears.
“I always have, but lately…She's made us so much stronger.”
I know what he means, even if in a different way. I've never known anything like this, never felt anything this strongly before. I'm not exactly a mushy guy, but for her, I feel…everything.
Jackson's voice, weak and hoarse, startles us. “If you love him so much, why don't you marry him?”
Six
The moment I am alone in the bathroom with the water running, I break down in tears. All of this—Bennet being kidnapped and tortured; Jackson getting shot; Lukas' trauma over having to take lives—none of it would have happened if not for me.
I know I didn't ask for any of this, and I even know that I never deserved the life I lived before I escaped the lab. But in the wake of so much death and fear, I can't help but internalize it. Would I have stayed in that lab if I'd realized that coming to warn them would ultimately put them in danger?
Maybe instead of escaping, I should have done something to take Adley out or take down the lab before any of this had ever happened. Adley's death might have actually been satisfying if it hadn't been in the wake of so much evil and trauma.
It hurts to think of never having met them. They feel so integral to my life, as crucial as internal organs. But if I'd never laid eyes on them, never touched or kissed or knew how it felt to love them, would it hurt less? If they'd never met me, could they have lived happy, fulfilling lives without all of this danger and death?
Wrapping my arms around my middle, I feel like my body could collapse in on itself. The guilt bores an invisible hole in the middle of my chest and I'm bleeding out without losing a drop of blood. Like Bennet, I have internal bleeding. Only mine won't kill me. Meanwhile, Bennet is still fighting for his life.
“Hey, hey. It's okay.” Lukas wraps his arms around me, pulling me against his chest. I didn't even hear him come in.
He holds me while I exhaust myself with tears.
“I'm sorry,” I tell him. “I know you're going to argue and say that it's not my fault, and I know logically you are right. But none of this would have happened if you hadn’t found me in that park. Bennet wouldn't be on a surgical table after being tortured near to death because he wouldn't give me up. Jackson wouldn't be full of bullet holes. You wouldn't have had to kill those men.”
“You're probably right.”
That stops me. Feeling it, thinking it, saying it to another person is hard enough to come to terms with. But hearing it drives it home. Twists the knife.
Lukas continues, clarifying his point. “But if we hadn't met you, we would never have found this happiness. You realize that each one of us was without a family, right? None of us had anyone. Now we have each other, and we have you. And even now, when we don't know what the other side of this is going to look like-it's all worth it.”
“You looked so broken.”
“I feel broken. What happened back there will live with me forever. But our family is back together now. We're all in the same building. And when Bennet wakes up, we'll be right there beside him. I think the part that scares me the most is that I'd do it again. I didn't enjoy it, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant that my family was safe.”
More tears spill over my eyelashes. Lukas kisses them away, spreading the salty wetness to my lips. Deepening the kiss, I pull him closer to me, pressing my body against his. I want him. I need him.
Lukas understands, or he needs the connection just as much as I do. There on the bathroom floor, we peel off our clothing until nothing is between us. The heat of our skin touching burns through me.
Slowly, gently, Lukas lays me down over the plush matt on the bathroom floor and trails his kisses down my body. His tongue trails over my hip bone and over my inner thigh, my legs opening to his will. My whole body cries in ecstasy and relief when his mouth dives into my core.
I'm briefly reminded of our first kiss, and how afterward Micah had made a joke about seeing what Lukas' tongue could really do. He wasn't kidding.
