AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I don’t even know how much time has passed before Liam finally raises his hands in surrender. I’m almost moving too quickly to stop in time to pull my last punch. With the shitty things thathe’s said to me, I shouldn’t even accept his surrender in the first place.
Liam’s otherwise handsome face is bruised, bleeding from both the cut on his busted lip and his swollen eye. “Okay, okay! I give!”
Given that he’s on the ground and I’m standing just above him, he was going to lose anyway.
Both of us are breathing heavily, I release him suddenly, and his body thumps to the ground, causing a small cloud of dust and grime to float into the air around us.
I shouldn’t give him a second chance. Does he truly deserve it?
“You may not like it, but I just had to be sure.” Liam pants, pushing himself up onto his knees. His body sways. I might have hit him in the head one too many times. He braces his knuckles against the ground to keep himself from falling right back over again. “With everything that’s happening…” Liam tried to shrug, but the motion seems to make him dizzy so he thinks better of it.
With great reluctance, I offer him my hand.
He takes it without hesitation. I pull him back onto his feet and he sags heavily into the crates that he had been using as a chair earlier.
“With everything that’s happening, I just had to be sure. Stuff at home is… well, I don’t even know where to begin. My father thinks that I am completely and utterly loyal to him. For now. He’s pissed that I didn’t bring him your head, of course. He wanted to serve it on a pike to the Dominio's to cement things. Now he’s scrambling. I can’t say how much time we have left, so we have to move quickly. I needed to be sure that you were dedicated enough.”
“So youwantedto get your ass kicked?” I scoff, incredulously.
Liam smirks. “Gotta be a little bit of a masochist in our line of work, don’t you think?”
I roll my eyes. Having him by my side as an ally is going to be crucial so for now a truce, if nothing else, is necessary. I hope he’s genuine. “So, do you have an idea here or are you just going to ride my coat tails?”
Liam chuckles. “Hardly. I suggest that we feed my father incorrect information. I don’t know how long I can get away with such a thing, but for now he thinks that I’m finally taking my role seriously. It would be best to capitalize on that.”
“Well, it will make my job a hell of a lot easier if I’m not having to keep looking over my shoulder for Patrick’s goons every few minutes.” I agree.
“So, you’re in?” Liam asks, hopeful.
“And what do you get out of this?”
“Out from under my father. I should have thought that was obvious?” Liam says, putting on an affected accent at the end of his words to try and lighten the mood.
It shouldn’t work, but it does.
I hold out my hand, and we shake on it.
“Good, I’ll be in touch soon. Keep me updated on where you plan on actually being, so I can send them the other direction,” Liam says, and I nod.
After we part ways, I have doubts the whole ride home. My mind is racing with all of the possibilities of how this is all about to go down. It could be another trap, but I have to go with my gut. I have to take my chances at success. I owe it to both Ada and myself. I can take on one boss at a time, but both at once would be a hell of a hassle.
When I arrive back at the hideout, Ada is sitting in the living room area with her bare feet up on the small oblong coffee table. She’s wearing my clothes again, even though she certainly doesn't have to anymore. Her hair is wet, braided and draped over one shoulder. She looks up at me with question filled eyes and I am struck by how stunning she is. She doesn’t attempt to run past me, there’s no longer any vitriol in her glare. She merely wants to know why I look the way that I do - beat to shit for the second outing in a row. She’s probably going to have to help clean me up again.
And yet, standing here looking at her? Whatever risk Liam poses, it’s more than worth it.
I stride over to her, unable to so much as blink before I fall heavily onto my knees in front of her. I pull the ring from my pocket, and snap open the box. Ada gasps. I don’t ask the question on the tip of my tongue, nor does she exclaim any sort of answer. But she certainly doesn’t fight me as I pull the ring out of the box and slide it onto her ring finger with a firm, almost mechanical motion.
There’s no grand proposal, no ritual question. It’s a statement, plain and simple.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ADA
It really is a stunning ring. I don’t think that I could have picked out something more perfect for me if I had tried. How long has he had this ring? I admit that when he first said he was going to make me marry him, I had thought that he was joking. There’s no joke now.
I turn my hand over and back in the light, watching the way the diamond sparkles and refracts the light. It’s something that I would have been only too happy to revel in if it weren’t for the fact that I might possibly be pregnant. That little fact hovers over me like a storm cloud. It’s gnawing at me. It’s hard to keep from blurting it out each and every time Kieran walks into the room. It’s not even just the physical implications that truly get to me, it’s everything else. What would it mean for my future? What sort of mother would I be? It’s not even something I’ve ever considered before. Not even a blip on my radar. The onlything that I ever wanted for my future was modeling. And now? It’s an irreversible change. I’ll be tied to Kieran forever. Far more permanent of a bond than the pretty ring on my finger.
There’s a very protective side to him, there’s no denying that. I know that he’s possessive and would clearly have no problem killing anybody that looked at me the wrong way. But isn’t that part of the problem too? He’s volatile. All of that passion makes for great sex, but would he be able to be soft for a child? I was blessed with the fact that I have had an incredibly loving, supportive family my whole life. Something Kieran clearly has not. I don’t think that I would be able to settle for anything less for any child of mine.
