Even though I’d always dreamed of a family, I never bothered fantasizing about a wedding. Maybe that was another factor of how much of a careerwoman I was, focused on work and the passion that pushed me to devote all I was to it. Now, things were different. I could work to a limited degree while building my family.
Why not do it all?
Why not do it “right” and marry him too?
I certainly wouldn’t reject him. I hadn’t yet, and I doubted I ever would.
I inhaled a deeper breath, already this much more excited and impatient for Emil to come home and return to me safe and sound.
“I’m going to go check on Gabriella,” Luka said, standing.
“And I need to run to the bathroom.” I grabbed the armrests to get up. “Again.”
He laughed lightly, not moving away as I rocked back and forth to try to get up out of the chair. “Need a hand?”
I growled lightly, so frustrated at this awkward balance. “Yes, please,” I said with a little laugh.
Another cramp gripped me, but with him holding my hand to get me upright, I stood. Then hissed.
Warm liquid alerted me to the embarrassing reality that with how hard it was to get up out of the chair, I’d… peed my pants from the effort.
“Sadie.” Luka’s voice was deadly serious.
I glanced up at him, lifting my head from staring openmouthed at the wetness at my crotch and down my legs.
“I think we all jinxed it,” he stated, matter-of-fact.
Gabriella and Raisa entered the room right then. They both gasped, eyes wide. Gabriella dropped a bowl of popcorn, and Raisa reacted with faster reflexes to knock the bowl aside before it fell on Andre’s head.
“Sadie!” Gabriella exclaimed. “Your water broke!”
Raisa furrowed her brow, ready to act like the problem-solver she was. She backpedaled without a delay while Gabriella only stared in shock. “I’ll get the doctor. Lev,” she called out to her son, “pick up the popcorn before Andre tries to grab it all.”
Luka still held my hand as I stood there frozen.
Whoops.
I winced at him, aware the timing wasn’t ideal. Then as a sharp pain gripped me, like my spine was being squeezed from the inside out, I involuntarily tightened my fingers on his.
Fuck, that hurt.
He whipped his head around and stared at Gabriella. Pointing one finger, he said, “Don’t you dare. Not both of you.”
She held her hands up in a truce. “All r—” Sucking a sharp breath in, she leaned over with a cringe to hold her stomach.
“You’vegotto be kidding me,” Luka growled.
Pandemonium followed.
35
EMIL
All of us were locked down in getting this mission done well.
None of them have the satisfaction that I would gain from killing everyone at this meeting. The glory of taking the lives of those involved in Sadie’s capture would belong to me alone. She was mine, and it was an honor to do this for her. It would be my triumph to end them all and know that they’d paid with their lives for endangering her and my child. Just like the men who were there on site in Afghanistan when we found her and rescued her, a group that was expected to only hold her until this Obsidian Eye group met, they would all be six feet under.
Their blood would be on my hands, and rightfully so.
