Page 94 of Warlord’s Empire

When she finished dressing, she thanked the doctor who seemed relieved to leave the room, though she handed Saskia her card on her way out. “Please call if you have any questions. We’ll have another meeting in a few weeks to discuss your birth plan.”

Saskia was rushed out of the hospital, surrounded by Shola, Leeza, Havel, Jozef and a contingent of bodyguards. Jozef put his hand protectively on her head as she ducked into a waiting SUV. As they drove away from the hospital, Shola grinned at her and Saskia grinned back. They’d both heard what the doctor said before they were interrupted.

Saskia was having a girl.

Chapter Forty-One

“I’m going to her,” Radik stated, his tone urgent. “She was targeted by an attacker at the hospital where she should have been safe. She needs me to review her security.”

“You’re not going and that’s final,” Ayaan snapped. “You aren’t decent company for anyone at the moment, let alone your pregnant ex-girlfriend.”

“She’s not my ex,” he snarled.

Ayaan smirked. “Finally, a reaction other than cold acceptance.”

“What do you want from me?” he demanded. “Why did you come here?”

Ayaan had arrived two days earlier, declaring she needed an extended vacation from her high-stress job as a security specialist.

Radik had allowed the visit, having missed her fiercely while she was in Prague, but now she was beginning to cross his boundaries, a word he’d learned from Dr. Vanhooven. It turned out, he had many boundaries and his biggest one was Saskia.

“I came to see you.” She sat in the chair opposite his desk. “Saskia doesn’t need you, brother, she needs her people and they’re doing a good job of keeping her safe.” Her words cut him, but he didn’t interrupt. “The potential attacker at the hospital didn’t get anywhere near her. She was perfectly safe the entire time and continues to be so.”

He breathed a little easier at her assurance that Saskia was safe.

“You’re not needed there.” She softened her tone. “You’re needed here.”

He shook his head. “I’m not needed here. Nuani can do my job better than I can, and most days he does. With the efficiency surrounding me, I’m mostly retired now. I can go anywhere I want.”

She smiled, but it was a sad smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m glad to hear this but not surprised. You’ve always surrounded yourself with the best and the brightest, never jealous that someone may be better than you. It’s probably your biggest strength and is what sets you above other warlords in this part of the world. You don’t make stupid, costly mistakes, until now.”

“Until now,” he repeated, pacing away from his desk. “One stupid mistake after another and it has cost me the woman I love.”

Ayaan stood and stepped in his way, stopping him in his tracks. “No, it hasn’t. She still loves you and from what I’ve heard, considers her presence in Prague to be temporary.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible. She was so angry with me when she left. She hung up on me this morning when she called.”

“Of course she’s angry, anyone would be in her situation. No woman wants to give birth alone and you’ve sent her away to do just that, but her love is stronger than one disagreement. Give the woman some credit, she knows her heart and her mind.” Ayaan’s eyes followed him as he continued to pace. “It’s part of what makes her special.”

“I know what makes her special,” he snapped, “and none of this is convincing me I shouldn’t get on the jet now and go to her.”

“If you do, you’ll break her heart and you probably won’t get it back.”

He stopped pacing to look at her, to listen to her words. She was maturing, becoming calmer and more thoughtful. Her insight could be useful to him. “Explain,” he demanded.

She seemed to gather her thoughts. “You would fly to her, arrange her security to your specifications, then you would leave. She understands why you need this time to yourself, why you fear for her and the baby if they stay here with you. But she will not understand if you go to her now because you are going for the wrong reasons. You think your protectiveness is a way of showing how much she matters to you, but she’ll interpret it as you prioritizing her security over your love for her. Which, by the way, brother, are not the same thing. And then you will leave again without her, which doesn’t matter because she’ll be done with you. She will choose herself, she will move on and you will lose her forever.”

Her words sent ice through his veins, but turning them over in his mind, he couldn’t deny them. He was still a work in progress. He still woke up with nightmares, occasionally wandering the house, sometimes clutching his gun. He was in therapy weekly with Dr. Vanhooven, and had been for months, but his progress felt agonizingly slow.

“This is what you mean when you say I’m needed here,” he said in a heavy tone. “Not that I’m actually needed, but that I must stay in isolation where I can get better without putting those I love at risk.”

Ayaan looked stricken. “No, that’s not what I mean at all.” She wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him. “What I mean is that I need you.” Her voice broke a little as she spoke. “We’ve been separated for years. I’ve grown up while you’ve grown into a different man. We’re each other’s only family, my brother. We need each other.”

He held her, cradling her the way he had when she was a child. Their mother died when Ayaan was five and he’d had to become both mother and father to her. When she’d passed into womanhood and he’d opened his eyes to the violence he was surrounding her with, he’d sent her away.

She’d then joined a mercenary group, but at least it was her choice, not his. She was right, they were family and they were the last two in theirs. At least until the baby was born.

“I’ve missed you too,” he admitted.