Page 106 of Judas (The Lito Duet #2)

Kace

Five years later

M y wife and daughter.

My whole existence.

My night… and my dawn.

I can’t help but sit aside and watch them together. There’s something about watching the woman you love with every damn fiber of your being, spending time with your only child. We may never have another but I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

We fought for everything, I’ve nearly lost my life twice trying to be the man Nadia needs.

The one who chose to love her despite everything she has done, anything she has experienced, and whatever chaos she may bring in the future.

Along with our completely unhinged daughter, she keeps me on my toes more often than not.

At times, I can’t fathom what it was like to truly raise her, even if I watched from the sidelines like a fucking creep.

Nadia was right, I did some stupid shit but look at us now, a family.

Two months ago Nadia and I said our vows to one another in the tiniest ceremony—one step up from a courthouse shotgun wedding.

My mom and sister were furious that we chose to do it that way but it’s what Nadia wanted.

Her circle decreased to almost nothing when she went inside and that left a hole in her heart that she is too afraid to fill with anything but our daughter and myself.

Between you and I, I like it this way. I have too much time to make up for and I’ll be damned if I let some flaky ass friends come in, consume time she could be spending with me, then hurt her feelings.

If she chooses to keep contact with the twins and Fury, that’s on her, but even they can fuck off.

Especially Ra, he better be glad I didn’t gut him where he stood for touching what’s mine. Nadia glares at me when I bring him up, saying I was dead—bla bla—and he was the one that made her feel safe, and it was only a kiss.

Fuck him.

Either way, my family wanted to see me marry Nadia in an extravagant event.

Every bell and whistle you can imagine, the pomp and circumstance, flaunting our relationship around as it ‘stood the test of time.’ No it didn’t.

It suffered. We suffered. My WIFE still stuffers.

They wanted our friends surrounding us, my ‘throw-money-at-the-problem’ father, people we don’t even know, the press, the whole world.

They don’t deserve us, don’t deserve Nadia nor Sadie.

On the other side of that coin, I know I hurt my mom’s feelings by not letting her have a chance to partake in something monumental like her only son's wedding. She just wanted what was best for her son, and the woman he loves, but our wedding was about us. Not about making some statement.

I couldn’t give a flying fuck about anything else, Nadia and Sadie are everything I will ever need. As long as I get to spend the rest of my goddamn life with these two beautiful souls, I’ll be a happy man.

Tonight we are at the Once Broken, Twice Revived Mental Health Awareness Event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An event that focuses on psychosis and subsequent conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar polar disorder, hallucinations, and psychotic depression.

Things my girls deal with on a daily basis.

The event is being hosted by my father’s company, PattonTech.

Benefactors from countries across the globe gathered here tonight to network and toss around some cash—a tax write off, of course.

Here under the guise of charity, they network, party, and end up doing shady shit.

But, as long as the charities get their funds, I’ll behave.

Programs like ours suffer when there are not enough people who care in the world. Not enough to assist in finding rehabilitative opportunities, who would rather shove pills down a patient's throat versus help them navigate life. Or, at times, end up incarcerated.

Over the past several hours, I have been introduced to some very interesting individuals. Lieutenant Colonel Logan Morrow of the Wretched spec-ops, Detective Dante Sinclair, and reintroduced to Sister Deidamia.

My boys from Cain Defenses came too, Elias hung back in Oregon to hold down the fort.

I guess being out here once was enough to last a lifetime.

Hunting Lucien was rough on him, I saw the ache in his eyes when he looked at Sadie one too many times.

You know there’s a pain in that man that runs bone deep, so, I don’t blame him for staying at their HQ.

Outside of the legitimate groups I’ve encountered tonight, most are here to throw money like my good ol’ dad.

Their event photos will likely be the only form of publicity they share on socials, faking their concerns for awareness.

Brushing the problem under the rug while the rest of us spearhead the organization and keep focus where it is due.

Take my girls for example, Sadie has been heavily medicated for most of her short life, Nadia in therapy.

Many patients like them have arduous histories of abuse, violence, and jail.

Many of which were not given the opportunity to obtain adequate intervention.

Mostly due to the expenses and lack of available resources.

Which, ultimately, is why there is about 1.

7 billion dollars of net worth walking around this venue.

I know Nadia's, Sadie’s, and Lucien’s problems stem from their mother Clara Bardot—who I made it my next mission to investigate to the fullest extent. Public records, private records, sealed medical records too. I have been hunting down everything on this woman to figure out how to help my family.

Clara became pregnant shortly after she left Nadia’s father, prostituting herself to have enough money for drugs and alcohol.

While pregnant with Lucien, she had several run-ins with law enforcement and a few stints in psyche wards.

Never staying long enough to get help, sadly.

Once she had him, she endured physical and mental abuse from Lucien’s father before drinking herself to death when Lucien was only a few years old.

Outside of Clara’s abuse, we never discovered what kind of life Lucien lived as a young boy. Not that I give a fuck. Some try to imagine how hard it was for him, based on the way he ended up —fighting his own unchecked psychosis. Ending up in whatever hole he has been tossed into.

Now we don’t have to care.

Thankfully, my wife managed to skirt by with the lesser effects of being mentally ill. We are able to get her treated by seeing a therapist, routine, and have established a very low-dose medication regimen where she lives a normal life.

Sadie is a whole different story, however.

Her new therapist, because the wild thing eats them up and chews them out, has her on a new prescription regiment to manage psychotic depression and schizophrenia.

Some days we lose her to the erratic behavior and hallucinations.

Having full blown conversations with people who are not there, and concocting plans that scare the hell out of Nadia.

Thinking Sadie is going to retaliate and repeat the horrors she took part in through the ordeal with Lucien.

She hasn’t gotten that far, and while I hope she never does, we are ready.

Part of me likes to believe that she will fight the darkness because she has her biological parents, one she can truly relate to, and one who will protect her by any means necessary.

Then there’s Elias. Insert eye roll here.

I know they text back and forth. Probably another good reason he isn’t here tonight.

While I appreciate his help and admire the way he went above and beyond to shield her from things that bring her down, I can’t help but want to fuck him up at the same time.

It’s not the most comfortable feeling, knowing they are in contact, but it could be worse. Let’s just hope he’s being respectful. I have a few years on him, both of us in our fifty’s, but I’ll beat the hell out of him if he gets the wrong idea about my daughter.

Long gone are the days where my family is being harmed.

I almost put Lucien in the ground over them, if it wasn’t for Nadia pleading for his pathetic life, and her owning me, I would have chained cinderblocks to the fuckers ankles and tossed him into a Canadian lake.

He’s lucky to be alive, especially since the person he has been trying to kill for two decades was the one that saved his life.

Standing up, the suit I am wearing squeezes my frame uncomfortably.

The inseam digs into the most sensitive parts of me but I’m too nice to reach down and adjust it.

I’m still not used to civilian clothing, despite being out of prison jumpers for a while.

Once you get used to the loose fit, it’s hard to wear things that are tailored to fit your body.

I struggled with a simple pair of jeans, fuck this formal shit.

Anyway, my charcoal gray suit gives away to a black button up shirt that I left unfastened up at the top—hating the restriction around my neck.

Brings back memories I try to forget. Besides, it shows off the delicate tattoos that creep up dangerously close to my jawline.

Which Nadia seems to love—the way she drags her tongue along them while she rides me…

Jesus fucking Christ , get your head in the game, Patton.

Stepping away from my seat, I adjust my cuff-links as I cross the half occupied dance floor. My eyes set on the woman on my fucking dreams.

Nadia catches me out of the corner of those silver orbs of hers and I be damned if my heart doesn’t skip seeing her.

She’s in a deep phthalo green satin gown.

The straps that hold the fucking thing up look so delicate and breakable as they reach over her shoulders.

The neckline is—well it makes my mouth water.

It plunging down over her breasts, giving the whole congregation a peek of her cleavage.

She looks radiant, elegant, and there’s no way I can contain the shit-eating grin that now pulls at the corners of my mouth.

Nadia Rayle Patton, my wife.

Silver strands look like glitter in her dark hair, the entirety of her locks piled up high on her head in a messy array of curls and escaped tendrils.

Those thin pieces frame her face, neck, and barely spill over her naked shoulders.

My hands ache to brush along the delicate skin there, to kiss and mark her flesh with irritation from my whiskers… and my teeth.

My demon, as stunning as ever.

Though I can only see her out of my one good eye, she’s so bright I don’t need two to take in everything she is.

I definitely don’t need both to see how hard she’s eye fucking me as I get closer.

Her head tilts back like it did the day I fucked that mouth of hers in my cell.

Trusting me, giving me pieces of her I never have to return.

“Hi—“ I greet in a low murmur.

Nadia laughs softly, shaking her head and pats Sadie on the hand while holding on to it.

She’s been clinging to Sadie ever since we have come back to civilization.

They are never without one another, making up for seventeen years apart.

She doesn’t tell me, but I know Nadia still feels guilty for having to sign Sadie away, even if she didn’t have a choice in the matter.

It saddens me, but I made sure Sadie didn’t want for anything.

That she was always safe, while Nadia served her sentence.

Sadie, while the typical young woman, has her moments. She bickers with Nadia occasionally but instead of allowing those arguments to soil their relationship, they work through it like they were always meant to. Making their bond stronger.

I can see a lot of myself in Sadie too. Outside of her major features, she has my dry humor which only exists between us.

She tried it out with Nadia once before and, well, if you know anything about my past with Nadia, it didn’t go over well.

Can chalk it up to one of those ‘father-daughter’ things.

We also bond over music and my dislike for Batman. I still say Iron Man reigns supreme but I guess my dark girl likes ‘em broody.

Fuck me, that explains her fascination with Elias.

I stand here, staring at Nadia as the realization slaps me out of nowhere. My eye flicks over to Sadie, seeing her buried in her cellphone. The word ‘Sunshine’ catches what little focus I can manage.

I’m going to kill him. Calm down, killer, she’s an adult.

Outside of the fact I’m going to be having a serious chat with her later, we like to go out to concerts, ride in sports cars, all that shit you’d typically see with a father and son. In a way, this girl is the best of both worlds.

She doesn’t know it, but I have a surprise for her. In a few months we are going to go to the NASCAR track a few cities over and drive Indy cars—just a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.

I’ve also taken her for her first few tattoos. She got a few of the scars obtained in fighting for our lives covered with the tiniest flowers. Thin lines for the stems and leaves, slight splashes of colors for the petals. Said she wanted to remind herself that beauty blooms in the worst places.

She’s distracted with her phone. I look at her, and Nadia notices, turning to take a peek at Sadie too.

Her thin fingers fly across the screen after unraveling from Nadia’s grip.

Her spine straightens, shoulders growing tense, and I laugh.

That’s my wife in her, that attitude. I guess whoever is calling her ‘Sunshine’ just pissed her off and is in for one hell of a verbal lashing.

Good luck to them.

Extracting Nadia and I from Sadie’s business, I give my undivided attention to the woman that dug her nails into my heart and refused to let go.

Love of my life.

“You look breathtaking, baby.”

“Don’t look so bad yourself, Patton.” She clips back.

“That’s ‘husband’ to you, brat. Think you can manage letting Sadie go for a bit? I want to twirl you across this pompous dance floor before we have to let the emcee take over.”

I place my hand out to her, and expect her to take it. When she brushes me off, looking back to Sadie, I know she’s fucking with me.

That’s alright, Mrs. Patton, I fuck right back.

Leaning in, I whisper into her ear, letting the very tip of my nose graze the shell.

“Get your ass up, Officer Pierce, before I force the issue. We both know I’m not above embarrassing you in public, and making you scream my name like the whore you are for me.”

A blush skyrockets up her neck and my cock hardens. It’s going to be a long night, and with any luck, an even longer life.

For I will forever be her prisoner, in body and in heart.