I’ve been having trouble fucking sleeping since Mistress Strokes told Destiny her story. The horrified look in her face told me something I really needed to realize: Lester has to be fucking stopped.

There has to be a way to do it.

Somehow.

“Austin…?” I hear Destiny’s voice coming from the bed, and I see her head peeking from under the covers. Her hair is disheveled and she has no makeup on but, somehow, I think that seeing her like this just makes me love her even more. Fantasies and mirrors are fun, but I think that the simple things are the ones most worthy of our attention.

And that’s right.

I fucking love her. I’m sure of it by now.

I mean, I’ve been telling you for a few chapters now.

And regardless of what I do next, there’s one thing I need to do first.

I need to fucking tell her.

“Yeah, babe, I’m here,” I reply to her query.

I’m standing against the wall-to-ceiling windows in my (or should I say our?) bedroom, wearing nothing but boxer briefs. We fucked like crazy when we got home tonight, Strokes coming clean about everything drawing us even closer, but I just couldn’t fall asleep.

Even when Destiny drifted off, I remained awake, staring at the ceiling and counting the minutes. Eventually, I just got out of the bed as quietly as I could and came here to the window so that I could watch the city outside.

There’s something about New York that calms me down. Which is kinda fucking ironic, don’t you think?

This city which really doesn’t fucking sleep, it just has a soothing effect on me. Whenever I need to think, New York and its bright tall skyscrapers are what I turn to. Just like that tonight.

“What are you doing over there? Come back to bed,” she tells me in a lazy tone, still half-asleep.

“I can’t sleep. I’m thinking,” I admit. My brain has been working non-stop since I came to the realization that I couldn’t postpone a showdown any longer. The game between Lester and me and Strokes might have been a chess match, but now it’s time to just kick the board and turn this into a boxing fight.

“Thinking?” she asks, and I roll my eyes. It’s not like I don’t fucking think. “About what?” She sits up on the bed, staring me. My eyes dart to her naked breasts, and I remember how it felt to feel them under my hands a while ago. My cock twitches inside my boxer briefs, but now isn’t the time to be thinking of sex. I’m far too worried for that, which is another first for me, that’s for sure.

I drag my feet back to the bed and sit next to her, holding her hand. “I’m trying to think of a way out of all this.” I smile faintly but, to be honest, I don’t have the slightest fucking clue about what we can do.

Even though we know what Lester is involved in, we have no evidence. Zero fucking proof. He might be a bastard, but he’s a cunning bastard. He always does his dealings through someone else, and even his financials are handled through a fucking patsy.

As far as I can make out, the Commissioner is immune to whatever we do. And now he’s closing in on us… He even gave Destiny an ultimatum. He wants her back on her side or he’s going to go fucking berserk on us.

But there’s no way I’m ever going to let go for that talk he wants to have. Unless…

Oh, fuck!

Why didn’t I think of this before?

It’s so fucking obvious!

“Babe, I fucking got it. We can fight him!” She looks at me with a pale smile, and that isn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting. I was looking for some enthusiasm, even some excitement, but all she manages to present me with is a weak smile. What’s going on here? “Babe, what is it? We can end him fucking once and for all.”

Then, she says something that just hits me out of nowhere. “Austin… Why don’t we just leave?” she whispers, lowering her voice so much that I can barely hear her words.

“Leave?” I ask, shocked.

“Yeah. Somewhere else… Somewhere far away from here,” she says to me. “Away from all of this. I… I don’t know what might happen if we go up against Lester. It’s too dangerous for you, for me and for…” She stops, hesitating, and runs her tongue between her lips. “Austin, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What?”

She pauses. Takes a deep breath.

I can’t wait any fucking longer.

I need to tell her.

“I love you, Destiny Renee,” I tell her.

“I’m pregnant, Austin” she says, and I don’t know if she just replied or what.

Wait.

What?

I didn’t see that fucking coming. “What did you just say?” I ask her in disbelief.

“Never mind me,” she says to me. “What did you just say?”

My mouth hangs open as I try to understand the ramifications of what she just told me. Pregnant? As in p-r-e-g-n-a-n-t? I must have heard wrong.

“Austin,” she says again. “I love you too.”

“Pregnant?” I ask.

She nods. “Do you still love me after I told you?”

Is she fucking joking?

No, I didn’t hear wrong. She’s pregnant. Pregnant! I jump on top of the bed and hug her so tightly she has to push me away from her.

“I don’t even know what to say.” I look at her with a dumb smile, feeling so fucking happy.

I wasn’t this happy when I became a millionaire for the first time, and I wasn’t this happy when I opened Python.

This is a different kind of happiness. A fucking baby?

I mean…a baby?

Can you fucking imagine it? I’ll tell you something, with Destiny’s genes and my DNA, it’s going to be one badass baby. Smart, beautiful and brave. My child.

“I was afraid of what your reaction would be,” she confesses, her weak smile turning into a genuine one. There’s a glint in her eyes, and I realize that my reaction was everything she needed.

I realize something.

“Yes I still fucking love you, Destiny Renee,” I tell her.

She smiles.

“Good,” she says. “Because I fucking love you too. And I’m glad you’re not upset.”

“Are you crazy? I’m so fucking happy, babe,” I say as I hug her once more, and then kiss her on the lips. “Now I know why you want to leave.” Now that we’re going to have a child, everything changes. I’m not just fucking around with my life, or even with Destiny’s; there’s a whole new life to consider.

“Yeah… I’m just a bit afraid, that’s all,” she whispers, instinctively placing one hand over her belly, as if she’s trying to protect our kid from the whole mess of the world we’re in.

“Okay, okay. Let me think,” I take one deep breath, trying to rearrange the thoughts inside my head. This changes everything. But one thing is obvious: I can’t go forward with the plan I came up with. I can’t put Destiny in danger. “You’re leaving then, Destiny. I’ll arrange a place for both of us… Somewhere warm where you can rest and enjoy yourself. California? What about Europe?” She cuts me short by placing her index finger over my moving lips.

“Austin… You said ‘you’re leaving’. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

“Babe… It’s just for a while. I have to face Lester.” There’s no way around it. Sure, I'm going to be a father now, but a lot of women depend on me. What kind of example would I set for my child if I just walked out on hundreds of women who are victims of sex trafficking? And leave Lester to prosper? He’d give free reign to all the human traffickers in the city, make New York a hub for the worst scum that’s ever walked the Earth. I can’t walk out on this. Even if it costs me everything—all my money, even my life, I have to do my best to finish off that fucking bastard.

“When I’m done with all this I’ll go and join you… Or you can come back to New York. Whichever you prefer, babe,” I continue, but she’s not buying it.

“No, Austin, stop it. That’s not happening.” She’s laying the law down and I know it. Her decision has been made, and she won’t change her mind. Fuck, I really don’t feel comfortable with her staying in New York. “I get it why you want to stay… And you’re right, we can’t turn our backs to this. Strokes doesn’t have a chance without us.” She takes a deep breath, mentally preparing for her next words. “What’s your plan?” She asks me.

“No, I don’t want you involved in this any more than you are right now,” is my only answer.

“The plan, Austin. Tell me.” Do I have the right to make decisions for her? She’s as tough as I am.

With a resigned sigh, I start explaining what’s on my mind. She sits there quietly, just taking in my words and nodding slightly.

“That’s it,” she says afterwards. “We’re doing it.”

“Babe, I don’t feel comfortable about it… Not anymore, now that I know you’re pregnant.”

“We’re doing it,” she whispers, her lips a straight line, and that’s it. We’re doing it. “It’s going to work, Austin. I know it will,” she says in a soothing tone, placing one hand on my face and laying a tender kiss on my lips.

It’s going to work.

I know it will.

I mean, it has to work.

Or we’re all fucked.