Chapter 24
Mira
Slow, monotonous beeping pulled me from the depths of nothingness.
Groggily, I opened my eyes. Bright, fluorescent light and the smell of antiseptics made me grimace and shield my eyes, but when I lifted a hand to cover my face a pang of dull pain from my side made me gasp.
“Doc says it’s just a nasty flesh wound. You and the wee one will both be fine.”
I slowly lowered my hand from my face to peer in the direction of the speaker. He was sitting in a chair next to my bed, his flaming red hair brightening up the otherwise sterile hospital room.
“Liam?”
“Louis,” he corrected me, a wicked smile curving the corner of his mouth. “Liam went home with a nurse a few hours ago, left me to the incredibly boring job of waiting for you to wake up on my own. No offense.”
“Sure,” I said, frowning with confusion. “But why? Where’s Blaine?” My heart dropped as I remembered the gunshot. Had I not managed to push him out of the line of fire after all? Oh God, no. “Louis, where is he?”
“Calm down, he’s fine. Got held up at the police station after bashing Clery’s head in. Our dad’s working on getting him out. Until then, Liam and I have been tasked with keeping you safe and sound.” The redhead stretched lazily. “So far, it’s been a supremely tedious task. How long until you think you can manage a half-arsed escape attempt?”
“What do you mean, ‘bashing Clery’s head in’?” I asked, ignoring his playful dig. Waking up after getting shot and finding out the man who rescued you has been arrested doesn’t lend itself to playful banter. “Did he kill someone?”
“Nah, the police got there in time. Your dad’s… well, he’s not fine, but I guess he’s gonna live. Sadly.” Louis gave me a somewhat apologetic look. “Sorry.”
As if I cared if my monster of a father lived or not. The only reason I felt a stab of relief was that I didn’t want Blaine to get charged with murder. I doubted even Steel connections could have gotten him out of that one.
“So what happens now?” I looked at Blaine’s brother with some hesitation. He didn’t seem upset that I’d run away and effectively damaged the Steel’s reputation, but I doubted I was in anyone’s good graces.
Louis shrugged. “Once you get discharged, you’re coming home with Liam and me until Blaine gets out. Marcus offered to look after you, but lucky for you, Blaine refused. And after that—well, I guess it’s up to whatever you and Blaine work out. I wouldn’t expect another vacation to the Mediterranean anytime soon, though. My brother was ever so upset after you gave him the slip, and that was before he knew about the baby.”
I took in a deep breath and let it seep out slowly, taking some of my leftover anxiety with it. If Blaine’s brother was this relaxed about the whole thing, then perhaps the rest of the family was too.
“And the Family? Blaine ratted my— the Clerys out to the police. I know how big of a deal that is.”
Louis winced, somewhat ruining my beginning sense of calm. “You really don’t need to worry about that, Mira.”
“It’s kind of hard not to,” I said, my voice more than a little dry. “Seeing as this all happened because of me.”
“Nah, sweets, it happened because of the Clerys. You didn’t ask to get kidnapped, did you?” He offered me an easy smile. “And no one gets to hurt a Steel and walk away. Whatever it takes, we protect our own. No matter if my idiot brother gets things ironed out with you or not, you’re a Steel now.”
* * *
I was discharged the next day. Though I was still sore, I was able to move around okay, as long as I took things slow.
The twins turned out to be decent hosts. They set me up in Liam’s bedroom with fresh linen and my bottles of medicine and vitamins laid out on the night stand. When I asked where Liam would sleep, feeling bad about putting him out of his bedroom, I got a cheeky wink and a “Don’t you worry about that, sweetheart,” as response. I figured it involved the pretty nurse he’d picked up while hanging around my hospital room and didn’t ask any more questions.
Marcus showed up a few hours after the twins took me home. He let himself into the flat and sat down in an armchair close by the door—and proceeded to not speak a word to me nor the twins.
When I got up the next morning, he was still there, staring straight ahead into the turned-off flat screen TV that decorated most of the near wall. The twins’ flat was a bachelor pad through and through.
“Just ignore him,” Louis—at least, I thought it was Louis—yawned as he came around the corner from the hallway and saw me looking at his brother. “If he doesn’t want to speak, it’s best to just leave him alone.”
I frowned in confusion and followed Louis—still wasn’t completely sure, the twins were impossible to tell apart as far as I could see—to the kitchen.
“Why is he here?”
“Dunno,” he shrugged. “Possibly thinks we can’t look after a pregnant lady, or he’s making sure you don’t escape. Or he’s just in the mood for company. He’s my brother and I’d die for him, but he’s nuts as fuck. To tell you the truth, back when he called Blaine and said you were at his place, we were all a bit concerned he’d done something to you. Eggs?”
I blinked at his nonchalant tone. “Er… sure. Thanks.” I sat down at the small cafe table in the corner by the window overlooking the river while the twin began to cook breakfast. “He was quite nice to me, actually.”
“Marcus? Huh. That’s a first.”
“That’s not very nice, Louis,” I chided, feeling a bit protective of the man who had shown me kindness when I’d needed it the most.
“Liam. And maybe not, but it’s true. There’s a reason Blaine noped right out of having you stay with him. Again, he’s my brother, but if I had a pregnant wife I wouldn’t let him within fifty yards of her, either. You think Blaine’s bad? He’s a fucking puppy dog in comparison.”
Huh. “What happened to the nurse?”
“Louis is with her—it’s his turn.” Liam poured two mugs of tea and brought one over to me, before he returned to the frying pan as if he hadn’t said anything out of the norm. A promising scent of bacon was beginning to spread in the kitchen.
“His turn? And she’s okay with that?” I regretted asking the second the words left my mouth, and flushed hotly.
The redhead flashed me a wicked grin. “Who says she knows? We’re identical, after all.”
“That’s…” Exactly the sort of shit I could imagine guys like the Steel brothers getting up to. I shook my head and cradled the hot mug. It wasn’t my concern—I had enough to deal with right now, without trying to school Blaine’s brothers on how to treat women. “Never mind.”
Liam winked at me, but thankfully didn’t comment further.
* * *
Blaine got out later that afternoon.
Louis—who’d come back sometime during the late morning—poked his head into Liam’s bedroom just past two to let me know he was on his way to get me.
I spent the next forty-five minutes quietly freaking out.
I had no way of knowing how this would go down—how he would react to seeing me, now that there was no immediate danger. I was positive what I’d seen in his eyes in that warehouse was love, and for him to risk his life and the entire Steel empire to get me, there had to be more than hurt pride in it. But I was under no illusion that Blaine Steel was happy with me. There had been pure fury in his eyes too, and I was pretty certain it wasn’t all reserved for my father.
I had left him, after we’d bared our souls to each other. I’d run away with his child.
Whatever he may feel for me, I wasn’t sure it would be a positive outcome for me.
And then there were my own messed up emotions.
I had wanted him from the very start. I’d thought it was pure, physical attraction, because I’d been too scared to even consider the alternative. And then, when he’d finally let me in… I had been so overwhelmed with everything, so wrapped up in the way he made me feel safe and protected. The way my entire being sang for him.
The next time I’d seen him, he had been brutally torturing a man.
Even now, the thought of seeing the man I’d let myself be vulnerable with be so savage made my heart flutter with fear. If he was capable of such violence, would I ever truly be safe with him? Would my child?
As if the baby knew I was thinking about its father, it moved restlessly inside. I put a hand against my stomach to soothe it.
I wanted to be with him more than I had ever wanted anything else. No one had ever made me feel like he had. But I couldn’t let my own feelings come ahead of my child’s safety. I couldn’t be that selfish.
Maybe if my mother had been strong enough to put her children ahead of herself, none of all the horrible things in my life would have happened. Maybe Michael and Devlen wouldn’t have been messed up beyond repair.
I couldn’t repeat my mother’s mistakes. Even if it meant ripping out my own heart instead.
The faint sound of a knock on the front door tore me out of my thoughts.
I swallowed thickly and climbed off the bed, wiping my sweaty palms against my thighs.
There was no more time for thinking. Blaine was here.
* * *
He stood just inside the front door, arms folded across his leather-clad chest when I came out from the bedroom. Both the twins were talking to him, and from the frown on his face they weren’t discussing the weather. Marcus was nowhere in sight.
Blaine looked up as I came around the corner, his frown only deepening as he locked eyes with me.
My heart flip-flopped in my chest at the look in his eyes. It was dark. Yearning.
It made me forget every reservation and every fear I’d had for the past hour. Without thought, I launched myself across the room and into his arms.
The soft leather of his coat pressed against me as he closed his arms around me and lifted me up. I cradled my head against the side of his neck and closed my ankles behind his lower back. My bulging stomach pressed firmly into his, keeping me from getting as close as I needed to be fully secure, but Blaine put a hand underneath my backside and another around my back, supporting my weight perfectly.
He held me close, his head buried in my hair. His breath huffed against the shell of my ear in deep, shaky draws, and I knew he was fighting to stay in control of the onslaught of emotions that currently warred inside my chest, too. It took all I had not to start bawling like a baby.
Home. I was home.
“So… we’re gonna head out then,” one of the twins said. “Give you two some time to catch up.”
They both gave Blaine a pat on the shoulder before they left, leaving us alone in the apartment.
When they were gone, Blaine pulled his head back a little, and when I looked up, he brushed his mouth gently against mine.
My heart sped up at the tingling spreading in my lips from his featherlight caress. Mindlessly, I tightened my fingers around his shoulders and kissed him back with every ounce of need and every drop of desperation in my body and soul.
Blaine’s grip on me tightened as our tongues met, and I moaned with bliss.
Yes, yes! This was right—this was what I needed more than the air in my lungs.
When he finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard.
“Hey,” he whispered.
“Hey,” I answered, my lips pulling up in an involuntary smile.
Gently, he let me slide down to the floor again, and I winced when my wound made itself known through the haze of bliss. Right. No steamy make-out sessions right after getting shot.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“Not really. The hospital gave me excellent drugs.”
“Hmm,” he rumbled, his brows knitting into a frown as he looked down at me. “Don’t ever take a bullet for me again.”
“I wasn’t planning to,” I said. “But maybe don’t provoke any more crazy men with guns, either.”
Blaine made a noncommittal noise.
“So… what now?” I bit my lip as the bliss of being in his embrace slowly withdrew. As good as it had felt to kiss him, and as much as I wanted to just stay in his protective arms forever, reality began to seep through the cracks.
I was still pregnant with a baby who didn’t deserve to grow up in the brutal world I had.
He shrugged. “You tell me. You’re the one who ran away. What happens next really depends on whether or not you want to stay.”
I blinked. “You would let me go?”
“No.” Blaine’s lips flattened, but he kept his voice calm and business like. “I won’t force you to stay as my wife, but I can’t let you leave again. It wouldn’t be safe. Especially not… with the baby.” His eyes flickered to my stomach for the briefest moment, but I saw the yearning in them clear as day.
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “It’s not that easy, Blaine. I…”
“I love you,” he said softly.
“I love you too,” I whispered, sniffling. I was quickly losing the battle to the tears. “But I saw you hurt that man. I know you… I know you hurt people all the time. It’s what men like you do. And I can’t… I can’t put my baby through that. I can’t hurt it like you and I were hurt by growing up like this.”
Blaine reached out and wiped the tears from my cheeks with a thumb. His other hand curved around my belly. “It’s our baby, love. And I don’t want him to grow up like we did, either. I want him to grow up with love and safety. That man you saw me… saw me torture—he was scum. He’s kidnapped and brutally raped countless women. But more importantly, he had insider information about your family’s connection to the Belfast prostitution ring, and I needed him to tell me so I could nail your father for what he did to you as a kid. Make sure he never walked free again.
“I’m not sorry for what I did to that guy, and I’m not sorry for every sleazeball I’m going to hurt in the future to make sure you’re safe. But I will promise you this, Mira: if you stay with me, if you let me be the husband you deserve, I won’t hurt anyone who isn’t a threat to you or our family. And I will spend every moment of every day worshiping you. You are the only one who has ever made me feel whole—like there is more to me than what my father created with his violence and terror. You are the only one I could ever love. You, and our little one.
“Please, Mira. Please stay with me.”
I was crying in earnest now, and no matter how much Blaine stroked at my cheeks, the tears kept coming thick and fast. But despite my outright sobbing, the swell of emotions in my chest were for once strikingly clear.
I had a man who had gone against everything he’d been taught just to make sure I was safe, and who swore to do anything and everything to keep me that way.
A man, who loved me despite everything I’d put him through in my fear.
The only thing I felt as I raised up on my tiptoes and pressed a salty kiss to his lips was happiness so strong it nearly took my breath away.
“Yes,” I whispered against his lips. “I will stay with you. Forever and always.”
* * * *