by Nora Ash
I bit down on a cry when blood came rushing to my fingers, aggravating the place on both my wrists where the tie had dug in deep.
Michael repeated the process with first one, and then the other of my ankles and then proceeded to get me out of the chair with a hard shove against my spine.
I stumbled forward, unable to keep my balance while my feet were still numb from the lack of circulation, but before I smacked face-first into the concrete, strong arms closed around me, breaking my fall.
Blaine lifted me up on my reluctant feet, supporting my body against his own. The heat from him enveloped me like a cocoon, but it was the unwavering strength of his arms as he held me that made a wave of overpowering relief wash over me, premature as it may be.
We might still be unarmed and at the mercy of my family, but I wasn’t alone anymore—Blaine was here. Somehow, someway, he would see us safely out of this.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice gruff, but the tone was completely contradicted by how gently he placed a hand on my rounded belly. “Both of you?”
“I think so,” I croaked. “Blaine, I—”
Blaine lifted the hand from my stomach to brush his finger against my lips, silencing me. “Shh, love. We’ll talk when we’re home.”
Right, okay. Talking through all our intimate baggage would have to wait until we were not surrounded by enemies. I guess I could wait—not in the least because the longer we waited, the longer it would be until I would have to drag myself out of the fairytale where the man who loved me had come to save me and everything would turn out alright. The harsh reality where I had run away from him because I had seen him torture another man could wait.
I pressed my hand tightly against my stomach and leaned in against Blaine. He had come for me, and he would see me safely out of the danger. For now, that was all that mattered.
Blaine held me tightly against his side while we both watched my father and Devlen go through all the papers in the briefcase in silence. It wasn’t until Michael looked away from us to play with his knife, clearly bored by waiting around without getting to threaten anyone, that I realized Blaine was doing much more than waiting.
The hand he hadn’t wrapped around my shoulders dug into the pocket of his leather jacket for a moment. I could see the rectangular outline of a phone against the leather and bit down on a small gasp.
He hadn’t simply surrendered to my family, and whatever plan was about to unfold, he’d just set it in motion.
My heart thumped unevenly in my chest. What if he didn’t know my family had a good dozen or so of their men circling the perimeter? If his men tried to storm the warehouse, they would get taken down before they could ever get to us. And we would both be executed.
My fear must have shown on my face, because Blaine lifted his hand back up to my face and cupped my cheek.
“It’ll be alright, I promise,” he mumbled.
I stared into his eyes, searching for the confirmation that he knew exactly what he was doing. I found it when his mouth hitched up in a smirk.
Even in as fucked up a situation as this, Blaine Steel was still the self-assured man I’d met so many months ago.
“Boss, there’s trouble coming. A fuck-ton of police is driving up. Do we shoot?”
The unexpected sound from my father’s walkie made everyone inside the warehouse freeze mid-movement.
I stared at Blaine, mouth open. The police? The one rule everyone in the underworld never, ever broke was to never involve the police. You did that and your reputation was done for. For good.
There would not be a criminal in the country who didn’t view him as a traitor. Him, and his entire family.
“You didn’t!” my father hissed. He spun around from the briefcase to face Blaine. “You fucking snitch!”
“Yeah. I did.” Blaine released his hold on me to fold both arms across his chest as he took a step forward. “Or rather, one of my brothers did. I believe he might have mentioned a big drug deal gone wrong and a pregnant hostage being caught in the middle—something like that. You know how nostalgic those coppers get as soon as you aim a gun at a pregnant woman. So go ahead, tell your men to start shooting at the police. I’m sure that’ll end well for you.”
“Boss?” The frantic-sounding man on the other end of the walkie said. “I need orders. They’re almost on us.”
“For fuck’s sake, stand down, you idiot!” my father hissed into the walkie before he tossed it aside. “Fuck!”
“You should never have crossed my Family,” Blaine said, his tone as cold as the ice in his eyes.
My father grabbed Devlen’s gun out of his hand. Wild with rage, he pointed it right at Blaine’s chest. “You should have kept your mouth shut, boy. I will not be disrespected. You think your name protects you? When it gets out what you’ve done here today, you’re through. Your entire family will be dead before summer, including her. And you won’t be there to stop it.”
“You’re not going to kill me,” Blaine said, not so much as flinching as he stared the barrel of the gun down. “If you shoot me now, you’ll go down for murder as well as everything else, and you don’t have enough time to make anyone take the fall for you before the police get here. Yeah, I know how you operate, Clery. You’re a coward, deep down. That’s why you need to abuse those who are too weak to defend themselves. You don’t have the fucking balls.”
My heart dropped and adrenaline and fear roared through my veins when I saw the rage in my father’s eyes snap.
Blaine was right—my father was a coward, who would only strike when he was sure to win. But he had made one fatal miscalculation—because the only thing my father truly cared about was receiving the respect he thought belonged to him.
I knew he was going to pull the trigger before Blaine had finished his insult.
“No!” I didn’t have time to think—only to react. I threw myself in front of Blaine just as my father’s finger pulled back, shoving him out of the way.
Pain lanced through me, emphasizing the sound of the gun being fired. I screamed and crumpled to the floor, clutching my side. It felt like my flesh had melted into pure, liquid pain. My visioned blackened and blurred. Then my head hit the concrete with a muffled thud.
“Mira! No!”
The last thing I heard was Blaine’s roar of anguish. Then everything went dark.
* * * *
Chapter 24
Mira
Slow, monotonous beeping pulled me from the depths of nothingness.
Groggily, I opened my eyes. Bright, fluorescent light and the smell of antiseptics made me grimace and shield my eyes, but when I lifted a hand to cover my face a pang of dull pain from my side made me gasp.
“Doc says it’s just a nasty flesh wound. You and the wee one will both be fine.”
I slowly lowered my hand from my face to peer in the direction of the speaker. He was sitting in a chair next to my bed, his flaming red hair brightening up the otherwise sterile hospital room.
“Liam?”
“Louis,” he corrected me, a wicked smile curving the corner of his mouth. “Liam went home with a nurse a few hours ago, left me to the incredibly boring job of waiting for you to wake up on my own. No offense.”
“Sure,” I said, frowning with confusion. “But why? Where’s Blaine?” My heart dropped as I remembered the gunshot. Had I not managed to push him out of the line of fire after all? Oh God, no. “Louis, where is he?”
“Calm down, he’s fine. Got held up at the police station after bashing Clery’s head in. Our dad’s working on getting him out. Until then, Liam and I have been tasked with keeping you safe and sound.” The redhead stretched lazily. “So far, it’s been a supremely tedious task. How long until you think you can manage a half-arsed escape attempt?”
“What do you mean, ‘bashing Clery’s head in’?” I asked, ignoring his playful dig. Waking up after getting shot and finding out the man who rescued you has been arrested doesn’t lend itself to playful banter. “Did he kill
someone?”
“Nah, the police got there in time. Your dad’s… well, he’s not fine, but I guess he’s gonna live. Sadly.” Louis gave me a somewhat apologetic look. “Sorry.”
As if I cared if my monster of a father lived or not. The only reason I felt a stab of relief was that I didn’t want Blaine to get charged with murder. I doubted even Steel connections could have gotten him out of that one.
“So what happens now?” I looked at Blaine’s brother with some hesitation. He didn’t seem upset that I’d run away and effectively damaged the Steel’s reputation, but I doubted I was in anyone’s good graces.
Louis shrugged. “Once you get discharged, you’re coming home with Liam and me until Blaine gets out. Marcus offered to look after you, but lucky for you, Blaine refused. And after that—well, I guess it’s up to whatever you and Blaine work out. I wouldn’t expect another vacation to the Mediterranean anytime soon, though. My brother was ever so upset after you gave him the slip, and that was before he knew about the baby.”
I took in a deep breath and let it seep out slowly, taking some of my leftover anxiety with it. If Blaine’s brother was this relaxed about the whole thing, then perhaps the rest of the family was too.
“And the Family? Blaine ratted my— the Clerys out to the police. I know how big of a deal that is.”
Louis winced, somewhat ruining my beginning sense of calm. “You really don’t need to worry about that, Mira.”
“It’s kind of hard not to,” I said, my voice more than a little dry. “Seeing as this all happened because of me.”
“Nah, sweets, it happened because of the Clerys. You didn’t ask to get kidnapped, did you?” He offered me an easy smile. “And no one gets to hurt a Steel and walk away. Whatever it takes, we protect our own. No matter if my idiot brother gets things ironed out with you or not, you’re a Steel now.”
* * *
I was discharged the next day. Though I was still sore, I was able to move around okay, as long as I took things slow.
The twins turned out to be decent hosts. They set me up in Liam’s bedroom with fresh linen and my bottles of medicine and vitamins laid out on the night stand. When I asked where Liam would sleep, feeling bad about putting him out of his bedroom, I got a cheeky wink and a “Don’t you worry about that, sweetheart,” as response. I figured it involved the pretty nurse he’d picked up while hanging around my hospital room and didn’t ask any more questions.
Marcus showed up a few hours after the twins took me home. He let himself into the flat and sat down in an armchair close by the door—and proceeded to not speak a word to me nor the twins.
When I got up the next morning, he was still there, staring straight ahead into the turned-off flat screen TV that decorated most of the near wall. The twins’ flat was a bachelor pad through and through.
“Just ignore him,” Louis—at least, I thought it was Louis—yawned as he came around the corner from the hallway and saw me looking at his brother. “If he doesn’t want to speak, it’s best to just leave him alone.”
I frowned in confusion and followed Louis—still wasn’t completely sure, the twins were impossible to tell apart as far as I could see—to the kitchen.
“Why is he here?”
“Dunno,” he shrugged. “Possibly thinks we can’t look after a pregnant lady, or he’s making sure you don’t escape. Or he’s just in the mood for company. He’s my brother and I’d die for him, but he’s nuts as fuck. To tell you the truth, back when he called Blaine and said you were at his place, we were all a bit concerned he’d done something to you. Eggs?”
I blinked at his nonchalant tone. “Er… sure. Thanks.” I sat down at the small cafe table in the corner by the window overlooking the river while the twin began to cook breakfast. “He was quite nice to me, actually.”
“Marcus? Huh. That’s a first.”
“That’s not very nice, Louis,” I chided, feeling a bit protective of the man who had shown me kindness when I’d needed it the most.
“Liam. And maybe not, but it’s true. There’s a reason Blaine noped right out of having you stay with him. Again, he’s my brother, but if I had a pregnant wife I wouldn’t let him within fifty yards of her, either. You think Blaine’s bad? He’s a fucking puppy dog in comparison.”
Huh. “What happened to the nurse?”
“Louis is with her—it’s his turn.” Liam poured two mugs of tea and brought one over to me, before he returned to the frying pan as if he hadn’t said anything out of the norm. A promising scent of bacon was beginning to spread in the kitchen.
“His turn? And she’s okay with that?” I regretted asking the second the words left my mouth, and flushed hotly.
The redhead flashed me a wicked grin. “Who says she knows? We’re identical, after all.”
“That’s…” Exactly the sort of shit I could imagine guys like the Steel brothers getting up to. I shook my head and cradled the hot mug. It wasn’t my concern—I had enough to deal with right now, without trying to school Blaine’s brothers on how to treat women. “Never mind.”
Liam winked at me, but thankfully didn’t comment further.
* * *
Blaine got out later that afternoon.
Louis—who’d come back sometime during the late morning—poked his head into Liam’s bedroom just past two to let me know he was on his way to get me.
I spent the next forty-five minutes quietly freaking out.
I had no way of knowing how this would go down—how he would react to seeing me, now that there was no immediate danger. I was positive what I’d seen in his eyes in that warehouse was love, and for him to risk his life and the entire Steel empire to get me, there had to be more than hurt pride in it. But I was under no illusion that Blaine Steel was happy with me. There had been pure fury in his eyes too, and I was pretty certain it wasn’t all reserved for my father.
I had left him, after we’d bared our souls to each other. I’d run away with his child.
Whatever he may feel for me, I wasn’t sure it would be a positive outcome for me.
And then there were my own messed up emotions.
I had wanted him from the very start. I’d thought it was pure, physical attraction, because I’d been too scared to even consider the alternative. And then, when he’d finally let me in… I had been so overwhelmed with everything, so wrapped up in the way he made me feel safe and protected. The way my entire being sang for him.
The next time I’d seen him, he had been brutally torturing a man.
Even now, the thought of seeing the man I’d let myself be vulnerable with be so savage made my heart flutter with fear. If he was capable of such violence, would I ever truly be safe with him? Would my child?
As if the baby knew I was thinking about its father, it moved restlessly inside. I put a hand against my stomach to soothe it.
I wanted to be with him more than I had ever wanted anything else. No one had ever made me feel like he had. But I couldn’t let my own feelings come ahead of my child’s safety. I couldn’t be that selfish.
Maybe if my mother had been strong enough to put her children ahead of herself, none of all the horrible things in my life would have happened. Maybe Michael and Devlen wouldn’t have been messed up beyond repair.
I couldn’t repeat my mother’s mistakes. Even if it meant ripping out my own heart instead.
The faint sound of a knock on the front door tore me out of my thoughts.
I swallowed thickly and climbed off the bed, wiping my sweaty palms against my thighs.
There was no more time for thinking. Blaine was here.
* * *
He stood just inside the front door, arms folded across his leather-clad chest when I came out from the bedroom. Both the twins were talking to him, and from the frown on his face they weren’t discussing the weather. Marcus was nowhere in sight.
Blaine looked up as I came around the corner, his frown only deepening as he locked eyes with me.
My heart
flip-flopped in my chest at the look in his eyes. It was dark. Yearning.
It made me forget every reservation and every fear I’d had for the past hour. Without thought, I launched myself across the room and into his arms.
The soft leather of his coat pressed against me as he closed his arms around me and lifted me up. I cradled my head against the side of his neck and closed my ankles behind his lower back. My bulging stomach pressed firmly into his, keeping me from getting as close as I needed to be fully secure, but Blaine put a hand underneath my backside and another around my back, supporting my weight perfectly.
He held me close, his head buried in my hair. His breath huffed against the shell of my ear in deep, shaky draws, and I knew he was fighting to stay in control of the onslaught of emotions that currently warred inside my chest, too. It took all I had not to start bawling like a baby.
Home. I was home.
“So… we’re gonna head out then,” one of the twins said. “Give you two some time to catch up.”
They both gave Blaine a pat on the shoulder before they left, leaving us alone in the apartment.
When they were gone, Blaine pulled his head back a little, and when I looked up, he brushed his mouth gently against mine.
My heart sped up at the tingling spreading in my lips from his featherlight caress. Mindlessly, I tightened my fingers around his shoulders and kissed him back with every ounce of need and every drop of desperation in my body and soul.
Blaine’s grip on me tightened as our tongues met, and I moaned with bliss.
Yes, yes! This was right—this was what I needed more than the air in my lungs.
When he finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard.
“Hey,” he whispered.
“Hey,” I answered, my lips pulling up in an involuntary smile.
Gently, he let me slide down to the floor again, and I winced when my wound made itself known through the haze of bliss. Right. No steamy make-out sessions right after getting shot.