Page 101 of While He Breathes

I force myself to relax against the soft leather seats and watch as the city flies by out the window. There are so many memories here I would rather forget, especially as we pass the derelict building where Travis and I spent our first night on the streets all those years ago. But this is also where I fell in love, where I fell apart and was put back together again.

Wherever Lucas decides we’re going after the wedding, I’ll miss Los Angeles and everything it gave me.

“Have you decided where we’re moving?” I ask quietly.

Lucas turns his attention to me, amusement glimmering in his eyes. “I thought we might take a honeymoon. The doc said it might take a bit to knock you up, so I thought I’d spend a few weeks working on that, and then we’ll have to wait and see.”

Nausea rolls over me at the thought of being stuck under Lucas for days on end. God, that sounds worse than torture.

“Why are you so desperate to get me pregnant straight away?”

“I need an heir. I told you that.”

“But why? We’re leaving LA. You’re going to be starting again. You don’t even have an empire to pass on to an heir right now.”

Anger replaces the amusement, and before I can blink, he’s on me. His body presses mine against the door, and my neck aches from the angle he has me pinned in.

“That’s none of your concern, Ember. You will be my wife, the mother of my children, and a set of warm holes for me to fuck when I feel like it. That’s it. You are not my partner. You are nothing,” he spits. The onslaught is a world away from theconversation I had with Orion the morning before this whole ordeal began.

He offered me the world, any position I wanted, anything I wanted.

And here I am with a man who just wants a pretty wife and baby farm.

Oh, how far I’ve fallen.

I just wish I’d realized how good I had it before it was too late.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

ORION

The scene is so similar to the one outside the clinic that I feel like I’m having déjà vu.

Elsie is tucked up safely in the penthouse with Darius keeping her company. He’s the only person she seems to not hiss and spit at with vitriol, and he’s been working on getting her access to her sister.

We didn’t want to leave her by herself with all she’s been through, so Max is the one sitting beside me now, his body vibrating with just as much anxiety as mine is.

“Tell me this is going to work,” I say, turning to the man I could have sworn I hated a week ago, but has been a solid rock for us all since Ember disappeared.

“This is going to work,” he assures me. “We’re going to get her back.”

I sigh. “How can you sound so sure of that?”

“Because Ember is a fighter. She’s not going to be marched down an aisle into a marriage with a man she hates. And she knows we’re looking for her. She saw Darius at the clinic. She told Elsie to go to him. She won’t give up when she knows we’re close.”

“She probably thinks I’m dead,” I remind him.

He nods, not bothering to answer the argument we’ve had over and over.

I’m not so egotistical to think she’ll give up just because she believes I was blown into a million pieces, but she is fragile. She’s been through so much. Far more than anyone should ever have to live through.

It’s only reasonable that at some point, she’s going to reach the limit of what she can deal with.

A black SUV pulls up outside the small chapel, and we both straighten.

We’ve foregone our caps and glasses, deciding that this is likely our last chance. A last-ditch effort to save the woman who holds my heart.

Anonymity doesn’t mean shit after this.