Dakota took his time calming the villagers. They had been through so much already, and the Trepidos’ attack was only one more thing to add to the list. He knew Anastasia needed time, just as Carmen had said, and he assumed that this would give her the time she needed to process whatever it was that was said so that when he got to the cottage, she would be ready to talk.
He said goodnight to his mother, checked the village’s defenses, and then headed towards the training cottage. He pushed open the door and found her sitting at the table, a glass in her hand.
“What the hell are you doing?” he yelled, grabbing the glass from her.
She didn’t look at him, just continued to stare at the table.
“Anastasia, you can’t drink this!” he yelled at her after smelling the whiskey.
He wanted an explanation, an explosion of anger from her, anything at all, but she just continued to stare anywhere but at him.
“What is going on?” he asked again.
“There is no baby.” She said it so quietly that he barely heard it.
“What?” He sat down across from her.
“There is no baby,” she repeated louder, and then finally looked at him.
He noted the pain in her eyes, the slur in her voice.
“The Trepido told you there wasn’t? He must have been lying,” he said simply.
“No he wasn’t. Carmen told me as well. It was an illusion, a lie, courtesy of Vincent.” She growled his name and reached for the bottle.
“I don’t understand.” Anger overwhelmed him. “Why would he lie to us about that? With everything else he could have lied about, why that?”
“Because he wants to fuck with me.” All care aside, she lifted the bottle to her lips. “Wants to hurt me, to hurt us.”
“Are you sure you’re not?” he asked, one last bit of hope leaving him.
She gave him a look and he knew she was sure.
His heart fell. He had been so excited about the baby, about the idea of having a family with her.
“I feel relieved,” she slurred out.
“What?”
“I’m sad, but I’m relieved as well. It makes me feel sick.” She took another swig.
“It’s okay, Ana. We would have made it work, but it would have been bad timing. It doesn’t mean we can’t ever have kids, just maybe we’ll be more careful from now on.”
“I’m done.”
“What do you mean?” Fear licked at him with her statement.
“With this war. I’m done, I quit. Vincent can have the victory.”
He could hear the pain in her slurred words, and it made his heart ache. But this wasn’t the time to give up. They needed her. He needed her.
“You can’t quit, Anastasia.”
“Of course I can. I am my own person. I didn’t choose any of this!”
“You can’t give up,” he said simply again, and it angered her.
“Yes. I. Can,” she growled back.
“What about Gregory? About Brady? What about all the others who have died to get you this far? You would have let them all die in vain?”
“It’s my fault that they are all dead anyways!” She stood so quickly it made her chair fall backwards. She looked behind her, shocked, as if she didn’t know she had been the one who knocked it over.
“You need to get some sleep.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, Dakota. I am my own person,” she repeated.
“Not right now you’re not. Come on, let’s go.” He started towards her and she backed away from him.
“Stay away, Dakota. I mean it, I will make you regret it if you come near me.”
“Don’t be stupid, Ana. Let’s go to bed.”
“I’m not stupid!” she yelled at him.
“You’re absolutely right, you are not stupid, but right now you aren’t being yourself. You need to get the alcohol out of your system so you can start thinking clearly. This isn’t you, Ana.”
“Don’t act like you know me.”
“I do know you, better than I know myself.”
“You knew me, Dakota, but you don’t know me now.”
“Then why don’t you fill me in?” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked her straight in the eye. When she didn’t speak, he continued, “What I know is that you are the most amazing, strongest, smartest woman I have ever known. I know that without hesitation you would sacrifice yourself to save any single person, regardless as to how long you have known them.”
“I’ve killed people, Dakota.”
“Bad people, Ana.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She shook her head.
“It does matter.” He took a step towards her. “They were people who had hurt and killed others. Ophelia killed your father, Mitch spent your entire childhood beating you half to death and was responsible for the death of my father. The Brutes you have killed, they caused the deaths and abductions of thousands of innocent people. You don’t see me beating myself up for killing Maximus, do you?”
“It’s not the same.”
“Why not?”
“You did it to save me.”
“You killed Ophelia because she killed Gregory.”
“She was only able to kill him because of me, Dakota. I brought her into our village.”
“You helped bring her in, but, if I remember the story correctly, Tony and another Fighter brought her in as well. That other Fighter was even sleeping with her, wasn’t he?” Dakota told her, reminding her of Emmitt. “So why is it only you who carries that weight? Gregory even allowed her to stay. He could have told her to leave.”
Anger flushed her face. “It’s not his fault,” she growled.
“I never said it was. I’m just trying to show you that it’s not yours either.” He took another step towards her.
“I’m so sorry.” The tears began to stream down her face and she crumpled to the floor.
“Sorry for what?” he asked as he sat next to her, grateful that the anger had disappeared from her tone. Dakota brushed the hair out of her face and pulled her onto his lap.
“About the baby. It’s all my fault. He wouldn’t have messed with us this way had it not been for me. You were so excited.” She smiled up at him through her tears and then they started again.
“It’s not your fault, Ana. None of it is. This is all Vincent. You have to remember that. We can’t give up now.”
“We are nowhere, Dakota. Literally nowhere. Terrible things keep happening, people keep dying, you keep almost dying, and we are not one step closer to getting him. Some hero I am,” she slurred, and then leaned back against his chest.
“We will beat him, Ana. We just can’t give up.” He stood and lifted her off the ground.
“You know, I’ve never been drunk before,” she said lightly as he carried her.
The change in her tone had him chuckling slightly. She would probably remember little to none of their conversation tomorrow. “No? Well then let me be the first to welcome you to the club.”
“You’ve been drunk before?”
At the shock in her voice, his slight chuckles turned into outright laughter. “Many times.”
“When?”
He laid her gently on the bed and then sat next to her. “After I turned twenty-one.”
“But not one day before, right?” she said sarcastically.
“Not one day before.” He laughed and watched as she leaned back and closed her eyes.
“Such a rule-follower.” She smiled. “Dakota?” he heard her whisper.
“Yeah?”
“I love you. In a way, I’m glad Vincent kidnapped me and sent me to Mitch, otherwise I wouldn’t have ever met you.”
“I love you too, Ana.” He kissed her cheek and looked down at her sleeping face. He would never be glad that she had been hurt so many times by Mitch, but he was beyond thankful that she was sent to the house next door.