Page 100 of The Echo of Forever

I watched his face change, watched the confusion shift to disbelief and then understanding, before it settled into something I couldn’t quite place.

“How far along?” he asked, still staring deeply into my soul.

“Eight weeks. I saw her two days before I left on that Job, so…”

I refused to finish my statement, still the truth hung between us.

My recklessness killed our baby.

He could easily put two and two together.

“Fuck,” he cursed, getting out and coming around to my side. “Forever… baby…”

Demetrius spoke softly, coaxing me out of the front seat. And it worked, because I was in his arms in no time.

“I can’t remember,” I whispered, sticking my nose in his neck. “I should’ve told you before leaving. It’s all—”

“Stop that shit right now,” he demanded. “You were set up. It doesn’t matter if you knew about the baby or not. Somebody planned for you not to make it back to me. Focus your anger on that, and when it’s time, we’ll air out our grievances how we see fit.”

My feelings were all over the place, but the urge to air out our growing list of grievances took precedence. Now working with the Fairchilds had become something else entirely.

“Call Lucien and agree,” I said, leaning back to look up into his eyes. “We can let everything else play out accordingly.”

He stared for a long while before obliging.

“What’s it gonna be?” Lucien asked upon answering.

The line had only rang once, which was telling.

“Uniting the city won’t be a problem for us,” Demetrius mused, eyes promising me retribution beyond my imagination. “Under one condition.”

Lucien hummed.

“I have a feeling this one condition will cost me a lot of time. Name it.”

There was a point I thought no man would ever go above and beyond for me. Not the woman raised to kill. The woman a lot of men feared.

I had put stock in being only half of the person living inside of me, never too much but always just enough not to be fucked with. But now, I realized my mistake, and everybody who thought I was an easy target had to see me about it.

I met eyes with the man I was falling head over heels for; he’d walked a distance away from me to make his request. Whatever he was planning left me feeling protected to the fullest extent, because just for fucking with me, they had to see him, too.

And that… that was enough to replace my despair with anticipation.

CHAPTER 24

ECHO

It broughtme great joy to hear my woman kiss her teeth.

“Ayo, Moonlight!”

Violet turned and tilted her head in warning.

I knew when to pick my battles, but using the nickname meant to leave only her husband’s lips was me pushing the limits on purpose. Not to fuck with Violet but to…

“You two on a nickname basis?” Forever asked from beside me.

We were supposed to split up after talking to Lucien and postponing meeting my family for a few extra days. But I couldn’t let that happen just yet, not before giving her something to look forward to in the coming days.