Chapter 38
CHANTEL
“How’s our baby?”
The deep vibration of Cristian’s voice rumbles against my back as he settles his palm over my belly.
I’ve been drifting in and out of sleep throughout the night while he holds me, and part of me never wants this moment to end. I didn’t even realize just how much this secret had been crushing the air from my lungs. Now, I finally feel like I can breathe again.
I know there are still problems we need to deal with, but for now, I just want to exist right here.
“I think the baby’s better when we’re together,” I answer him.
“Good,” he murmurs. “I don’t want you to stress anymore, cara. Everything will be okay.”
I nod, taking solace in his quiet assurance.
It’s something I would have doubted before, because I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my life that I was sure everything would be okay. But if Cristian says it will, I believe him.
“I looked up what aeterna means,” I tell him.
“And what did you discover?” He brushes my hair back and grazes my temple with his lips.
“I want that.” I swallow. “I’m ready, Cristian.”
In response, he tips my head back and gives me a long, languid kiss, leaving me breathless when he pulls away.
“Then you’ll have it,” he promises.
I offer him a sleepy smile as exhaustion starts to pull me under again. But before I can sink too far into oblivion, Cristian’s voice drags me back.
“Baby?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m going to need a name.”
I nod, because I knew this moment would come as soon as I told him. He knows who my father and Damian are now, but there’s one more name he wants to add to his list, and I have no inclination to protect him.
“Theodore Langley.”
“The shipping magnate?” Cristian asks.
“Yes.” I force the words up my raw throat. “The one and only.”
“Have you had your fill?” Cristian steps between my thighs as I sit on the kitchen island with an empty plate beside me.
“Of the pancakes or the view?” My eyes wander over his bare chest. “Because I’ve had plenty of pancakes, but I’m in no hurry for you to put a shirt back on.”
Amusement flashes in his eyes as he leans in to kiss me.
I press my fingers into his muscular back and drag him closer, losing myself in the moment.
He’s so warm, and he smells so good, I want to keep him all to myself for the day. But the universe must have impeccable timing, because the sound of footsteps coming down the corridor alerts us to company.
“Cristian,” Angelo calls out.
“In here.” Cristian pulls back just as Angelo and Mariella round the corner.
The moment I see Angelo’s face, I can tell this isn’t going to be good.
“You want to tell me why the fuck there are two Greeks waiting at the gate, demanding to speak to someone named Katarina?”
Tension bleeds into both of us as we draw the obvious conclusion. It has to be Damian and my father. Elias said he told them where I was, so it was only a matter of time before they showed up.
I can see Angelo has already made his own conclusion, but I go ahead and state it anyway.
“I’m Katarina.”
He stares at me for a minute, then bites back a curse.
“I fucking knew it. All this time, we’ve had—”
“Don’t,” Cristian clips out. “You and I can discuss this in private, after I get things settled outside.”
“And how the fuck do you think you’re going to do that?” Angelo asks.
Before Cristian can even answer that, Angelo’s phone rings. The call only lasts a few seconds, but it’s long enough to deliver more news.
“Now Ares is here,” he grunts. “He’ll be pissing himself with glee when he realizes he’s got you over a fucking barrel.”
“Let him,” Cristian replies, completely unbothered. “I don’t care.”
Angelo studies his brother for a long moment before he seems to register that Cristian is dead serious.
“Where did you send Romeo in the middle of the night?” Angelo asks.
“I sent him to retrieve something for me,” Cristian answers vaguely.
I glance up at him, distantly recalling him speaking to Romeo on the phone after I gave him Theodore’s name.
He seems to be aware I’m piecing it together as he lifts me off the counter and onto my feet.
“Come with me,” he says. “We’ll handle one problem at a time.”
I follow him to the bedroom while Angelo and Mariella stay behind in the kitchen. Once we’re alone, Cristian tugs on a T-shirt and turns to face me.
“You don’t have to go out there if you don’t want to.”
I’m a little surprised he’s even giving me the option, but as I think about it, I realize that I want to. With any luck, this will be the last time I see Damian or my father, and I need to know what’s going to happen from here.
“I’ll come.”
He nods and glances at my black dress. It’s fitted in the bodice and loose around the hips, so the soft curve of my belly is visible if someone’s paying close attention.
“Should I change?” I ask nervously.
“No.” He shakes his head. “But I’ll need to tell Angelo.”
“Okay.”
The four of us converge outside our bedroom and walk down the corridor together. Just before we reach the end, Cristian drops the bombshell.
“By the way, congratulations.” He opens the door, and we all filter through. “You’re going to be an uncle.”
Angelo’s gaze whips toward us, and Mariella lets out a huff of amusement. Whatever Angelo’s thoughts are, he doesn’t say them aloud, and we continue in silence.
Outside the courtyard, we find Rafe and Michele already waiting for us with two SUVs. We all pile inside the vehicles, and they take us down the long driveway to the front gate.
My stomach is already in knots, but when I catch a glimpse of Damian, I feel like I want to throw up.
“You don’t have to do this,” Cristian murmurs in my ear.
“I know, but I want to.”
He nods and helps me from the car, threading his hand through mine as we approach the gates. As we get closer, the guards in the tower open them for us. We step outside, coming face-to-face with my father, Damian, Ares, and his brothers.
“So it’s true?” Damian snarls as soon as he sees me. “You’ve been here the whole time?”
I used to cower in his presence, but I want him to know I’m not that woman anymore.
“Yes,” I answer calmly. “I could have gone an entire lifetime without ever seeing your face again, but here we are.”
His gaze drifts from my hand clasped in Cristian’s to the one resting against my belly. I hadn’t even realized I was doing it, but it’s a natural instinct to protect my baby in the company of monsters.
“You traitorous fucking bitch.” Damian steps forward, and the guards above take aim at him with their weapons.
“Say one more word to her, and your brains will be splattered all over this pavement,” Cristian threatens.
“You’re coming home with us, Katarina,” my father decrees, as if there could be no other alternative to how this plays out.
“No, actually, I’m not.”
“Now, you listen—”
“No, you listen for once in your miserable life,” I cut him off. “You’ve been dead to me since the day you killed my mother. So you can save your breath—or choke on it. Either way, I don’t care.”
He narrows his gaze, subtly keeping an eye on Ares in his periphery. Considering my mother was Ares’s aunt, my father should be worried.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snaps. “You weren’t old enough to understand that your mother was a sloppy drunk.”
“I saw you.”
“You saw nothing,” he growls.
“You pushed her down the fucking stairs.” My voice pitches higher. “I watched you, and I heard her skull split open when it hit the floor. You knew she wanted to leave you, and you wouldn’t let her go. Now you can’t even be man enough to admit it.”
The vein in his forehead throbs as he glances at Ares. “I suggest you end this now. I have every right to go to war with you for what you did, and I have my men on standby.”
“Yes, well, I have to give you my condolences,” Ares answers in a bored tone. “As of thirty minutes ago, your men took a permanent underwater tour of Puget Sound.”
“You’re lying,” my father accuses.
“Afraid not.” Ares shrugs. “But don’t worry, I saved a spot for you.”
Without warning, Ares raises a gun I didn’t even see he was holding and fires a shot straight between my father’s eyes. He crumples to the ground, his bloody head lolling to the side, and everyone seems to be stunned into silence.
“So sorry you had to see that, Kat,” Ares offers. “But thank you for confirming what I always suspected.”
I’m too numb to respond, and it’s at this point that Damian seems to realize he might be next.
“I had nothing to do with that.” He takes a step back and holds up his hands. “All that shit happened way before I came along.”
“True,” Ares agrees. “But you did beat my cousin and try to kill her, which really doesn’t seem like a fair match.”
Damian opens his mouth to speak, but Cristian cuts him off.
“He doesn’t get a quick death, and I’ll be the one who gives it to him.”
“Fair enough.” Ares’s mouth twitches.
Tension ripples through the Vitales, and I can tell they thought that was too easy. Ares negotiates everything. So for him to hand Damian over without a discussion, he must have a bigger plan.
Cristian nods at his brothers, and Romeo and Rafe stalk toward Damian.
Damian reaches for his weapon, but before he can draw it, Ares pistol-whips him in the back of the head and knocks him to the ground.
Rafe and Michele secure his hands behind his back and pull him to his feet a minute later. But I stop them as they’re hauling him away.
“Wait a second.”
Cristian tracks me with his gaze as I step forward and peer into Damian’s soulless eyes.
“Ask me to save you.”
His jaw tics as he glances at the men around me, probably wondering if this might actually work. When they give him nothing, self-preservation seems to outweigh his pride.
“Tell them to let me go, Katarina. I know you don’t want this on your conscience.”
I almost laugh at the irony of him talking about a conscience when he doesn’t even know what that is.
“Do you remember when I asked you to save me?”
Indignation sparks in his eyes, and I know if he could, he’d hurt me right now.