Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Liam didn’t say anything.
Silence fell between them. The only sounds in the room were those of the machines and the commotion of the nurses outside.
He stared at his wife and prayed that his fucking father hadn’t done this. Alex didn’t deserve to die. She was a good person. Sweet. Kind. She had been born to the wrong man, that was her only fault.
Roman could imagine her with a bunch of kids running around at her feet. Smiling. Happy. Safe. He didn’t like where the thought took him.
There was only one man who was going to be coming home to her, and that was him. Alex was his.
She was his wife. And he would go up against his father if he had to.
****
“It’s not Roman,” Lucas said.
“What about his three friends?” Liam asked.
Lucas shook his head. “I’m not sure.” He’d stepped out of the hospital to make a call. “The security footage is being delivered to my house.”
“Masked men?” Liam asked.
Lucas had to agree with the man. “I don’t like this. Someone is trying to fuck with us, and they’re using an old enemy to do it.” He and Liam had been trying to figure out who it was that could have put the call out to take Alex. Today’s attack was a step-up, attempted murder. If it hadn’t been for his son, Alex would be dead. “But it has to be someone close. Someone who knows Alex and Roman’s movements. Only a small circle of people knew he was taking her to the restaurant.”
“Fuck!” Liam yelled the word, startling some people who were walking past. He didn’t apologize. “Nothing can happen to my daughter. Nothing.”
“I swore to you that I will protect you.”
“Your son is going to suspect you,” Liam said.
“Good. I need him to be on alert. If they come after Alex, they’ll come after him, and it will only be a matter of time before chaos floods our streets again. I will not let that happen.” He’d already lost one child because of it.
Pretending to be the enemy was not the best idea. His son may get it through his mind to attempt to overthrow him, but what he needed most was for his son to get his fucking head back in the game.
Someone close to them was fucking with them. Prepared to start a war, and Lucas knew there were many casualties in battle. He’d nearly lost everything years ago in his quest to be on top.
He glanced over at Liam. His … friend had also experienced loss and pain. They both knew what coming together meant, what being united meant. Neither of them wanted to see their children suffer because of them.
It was why they had agreed to meet up. Why they had spent many hours learning to trust each other and finally coming to the agreement that the only way forward for them was through family.
Lucas wouldn’t fuck that up.
Regardless of what his son, or anyone else thought, he adored Alex. When she refused to take that virginity test, it had annoyed him a little. He was always suspicious, especially of women, as they had tried to fuck him over in the past. Alex wasn’t manipulative. He had asked for a private word, and she had said to him that she didn’t feel comfortable having strange men or women between her thighs.
He believed her.
Roman wasn’t a good man. Lucas hadn’t been able to raise a good man. He had to raise his eldest son to take over, to be in charge, to be feared. It was going to take one hell of a woman to deal with him, and he knew Alex and Roman would have a rocky start, but they would find each other, eventually.
Who was trying to fuck up his plans?
****
Roman hadn’t left Alex’s side. Liam rarely left. When his cell phone went off and he needed privacy, he stepped out of the room. Lucas visited often as well.
Alex’s private room had a small bathroom, and that was where he went. The nurses and his friends brought him food, but otherwise, he kept his ass in the chair, only getting up for bathroom breaks.
The first twenty-four hours came and went, but Alex didn’t wake up. The doctor didn’t seem overly concerned.
Roman didn’t like this. He wasn’t a doctor, but people shouldn’t just stay asleep. They should fucking wake up.
Reaching for her hand, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles. At least she felt warm to him. “Alex, babe, you need to wake up.”
He didn’t like where this was going. With every hour that passed, his suspicions about his father grew. “I know you didn’t want to be married to me, and that is okay. It is fine. I don’t care. You can hate me. That’s fine as well. I can deal with everything, but you’ve got to give me a chance. Not waking up, you’re not giving me a chance to show you that I can be different. You’ve got to wake up,” he said. “Even if it is to just prove that I’m not a good enough husband. Alex, please, wake the fuck up.”