Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Maddie

I sigh out as I lay back on my bed. I’m only in a towel after my shower, my wet hair settling back on the pillow.

I’ll regret it later, but I couldn’t resist laying on my own bed.

Everything is familiar in a lovely way but also…

Some brick of disappointment settles in my chest. I’d left this place, had new, scary and exciting experiences. I’d lived life.

It had been painful and wonderful, and as nice as it was to be home, I already missed Roman.

I missed his apartment too and I missed Thomasina.

Though a few of my birds were too damaged to ever return to the wild, none of them were like real pets. Animals that I shared my life with.

I sighed as I turned on my side, lifting my head to prop it on my hand. Was I sleeping in this bed alone tonight?

As much as I’d missed my home, that sounded awful.

I liked having Roman’s body wrapped around mine.

I nipped at my lip. Did he really want a future with me? Even now, I questioned it. I’d heard everything he’d said, but was it fair of me to become his wife?

A soft knock on the door had me lifting my head. “It’s me,” Lucia called from the other side.

“Come in,” I answered back, rising off the bed to cross to the dresser.

“Need help?” she asks as she steps into the room and closes the door.

“I’m good,” I answer with a smile, but the smile slips. I grab a comfy cotton dress from the closet and move into the bathroom to dress. When I come out with a brush in my hand, I sit on my bed, patting the spot next to me for Lucia to join. “Can I ask you an honest question?”

“Sure,” she settles on the bed next to me.

“Why did you befriend me?”

Lucia sucks in a breath. She’s older than me, my substitute teacher freshman year of high school. She was looking for extra money over Christmas break. “Because no one has a heart like yours.”

We met when I left another class to pick up a wounded bird I’d heard chirping just outside the window. She helped me. “But…” I shake my head. “I require so much from you. It doesn’t seem fair.”

Lucia laughs, a soft sound as she reaches for my head. “Maddie. I know I’m a lot. Most girls do not punch CEOs of billion-dollar companies in the nuts, FYI.”

That makes me laugh. “Mason deserved it.”

“Yes, he did.” She squeezes my fingers. “When people love me, they love me despite my very obvious flaws. You, my friend, are one of those people. I could ask you, the very same questions you asked me.”

I never think of it like that. I see Lucia’s good. I don’t care about the bad.

“Roman is not too good for you,” she says, clearly knowing why I brought this topic up to begin with. “Honestly, he’s morally gray at best.”

She isn’t wrong.

“That’s all right, though. I kind of assumed you’d be bad-boy material. You’ve got enough ethics to make up for the entire Kincaid family, I think. It’s why I thought Vigo might be a good fit when we met him that first night.”

That makes me cock my head as I consider her words. “I never thought of it like that.”

“I know. But please do. Because as much as you are worried about all the physical care Roman will need to give you, you are going to have to constantly make certain that man stays on a clean path. Right his compass in life. He needs you, Maddie, as much as you do him. Promise.”

I shake my head, stunned by her words.

“I need Josh to shave some of my rough edges too. And he needs me to get in there and scrap sometimes when he wouldn’t. It makes for a good pairing.”

I lift the brush and begin working it through my hair. I look calm, but inside I’m hectic. Maybe I needed to come back here, talk to my friend, to see things with Roman clearly.

I do bring value. Value I’d not even considered. Maybe there is a future for us after all.

Excitement pulses through me. Should I call him? Tell him how I feel?

But that’s the exact moment my phone rings, Roman’s ringtone singing in my ears.

I don’t hesitate. I grab the phone. “Roman?”

“Sweetheart.” But his voice makes me still. It’s rough and worried.

“What’s wrong?”

“Have Lucia and Josh pack a bag. Everyone is coming to my apartment.”

I gasp even as Lucia grabs the phone from my hand, clicking it on speaker. “What happened?”

“Vigo and Vincent are out of prison. Everyone needs to leave Maddie’s house. I’m getting in the car. Mason, Leo and I will be there in five.”

Lucia rises from the bed. “Josh,” she calls. “We need?—”

“Lights out,” Josh calls before he opens the door to my bedroom, closing it behind him.

That’s when I hear the roar of the Lamborghini engine.

I’d know that car anywhere.

Vigo and Vincent are here.