16. Lucien
The world around me, already dark with shadow and spirits, went even darker. Moments ago I’d been aflame with desperate need for her, my body quivering with adrenaline and lust at how close she was. I’d felt the hum that had always existed between us and had known in my soul that the universe had led us back together for a reason.
I’d thought we might be that reason.
I never would have dreamed it was a bunch of friends in New York who needed help.
My heart, which had been growing by inches since I first took her in my arms, shrank so quickly that I felt like I might be having a heart attack, nearly sending me to my knees on that cold stone floor. Brooks hadn’t come down here for me. She hadn’t come running back into my arms with promises on her lips about never leaving again.
She hadn’t been gone for ten years agonizing over the boy she’d left behind and biding her time until she could come back for him.
Not that I’d ever thought she was doing that. Even then, she’d been headstrong and full of herself. A girl who knew exactly what she wanted and didn’t hesitate to tell everyone around her that she deserved it. She might be more confident and quicker with a gun these days and be sporting a mane full of red hair, but she’d always known, deep down, who she was. She wasn’t the sort of girl, even then, who questioned her decisions. I’d never believed she was in New York pining away for me.
But I had sort of hoped for it.
Now...
Now, I knew she hadn’t been thinking about me at all. She’d been making a life in New York with a bunch of people that I’d never met. She had friends she’d do anything for, including coming back to a city she’d run from years ago and facing enemies she hadn’t known existed.
“I went to my father first,” she said quickly. “I didn’t know what I’d find there but I had to.”
I pulled her close to me again, my voice little more than a whisper in the dark. “And let me guess. He told you it wasn’t his problem.”
“More or less.” Her voice was wry, but also raw, and I had a quick memory of her trying to speak to her father when she was younger and being shoved away for her trouble. Dominick Landry had never had much use for his daughter or her opinions.
Until he found a way to use her.
Trying to use her had led directly to him losing her, but I doubted he’d worried too much about that. He still had her brother, Beau, and her cousin to bargain with. And from what I’d been hearing, he was already close to a deal on Camille.
I wondered if the girl knew. I wondered if Brooks did.
“He didn’t even let me finish,” she continued, and now her voice was stronger, the disgust more clear in her tone. “Acted like I didn’t know what I was doing.”
I pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “He’s never known a good thing when he had it.”
She exhaled a soft laugh at that, and my heart soared. Brooks loved to laugh and did it often, but being the one to make it happen...
“Where were you going when my men kidnapped you?” I asked, suddenly needing to know. Her father had refused her but Brooks always had multiple plans, and I needed to know who else was on her list.
Who was her next choice after her father failed her?
When she looked up, I caught the glance of some random beam of light on the whites of her eyes. They were glassy with unshed tears and emotion. “I was coming to find you,” she whispered.
That was all I needed to know. She’d gone to the Landry mansion first, and that made sense. That was her home. Her family.
And when he failed her, she was coming to the man who should have been her family.
She was coming to me.
Brooks Landry was back in my grasp because she had come to New Orleans to find me. Maybe not first, but second, and she had to know that she’d end up in my arms when her father refused to help. She had to know we’d end up right here, with her whispering her request to me and me...
Well, what was I going to do, really? I’d prayed for years to get one more shot at her, one more kiss, one more request, and here she was. The gods had done me a favor bringing her back and giving me a way to gain her trust again.
“Then yes,” I said simply.
“Yes?” she gasped. “An army of men to help my friends?”
“An army of men to help your friends,” I agreed. “I promised to help you when you needed it and I don’t go back on my promises. But I’ll take a promise from you in return.”
Now there was a pause, the air around us suddenly thick with suspicion. “What sort of promise?” she finally asked.
I bit my lip... and then said what had been on my mind. “I’ll give you an army. You’ll help your friends. And then you’ll come home to me.”