“It’s for the boys,” I tell him. “I didn’t spend anything on myself. Mom was going to pay for lunch.”
“That is not what I asked; I asked how you got it,” he says, rummaging through bags and looking at the receipts. “Did Khan give it to you? I fucking knew it,” he snarls before grabbing the bags and tossing them in the bin.
I shriek, knowing how expensive the comforter is, and reach in to pluck the bag out when he seizes my arm in his tight grip.
“I told you my boys need nothing,” he snarls, marching me down the hall toward my room.
I wait to be tossed into my room and locked in when he turns to his bedroom and pushes me inside.
He moves toward the walk-in closet, only he stops beside it and pushes on the bookcase. I hear a lock click, and the bookcase opens to reveal another door. Pulling a key from his pocket, he jams it in the lock, and I squirm, trying to get out of his grip, but he holds tight.
“Axton, please. It was just lunch,” I tell him when he shoves the door open to reveal a nursery. I remember there’s a locked door in the hall next to his room. He’s always told me it’s a gym. Yet looking around, that is clearly a lie.
Two blue cribs are in the room, and the room looks like something out of a baby magazine. The walls even have murals of clouds and airplanes, a safari setting along the bottom of the walls. It is everything and more I would have loved to do for them.
I gasp, looking at each crib and touching the soft blankets. I poke one of the mobiles with my fingers, and it makes a noise as it spins. Lexa also excitedly comes forward, relief flooding her that he hasn’t been lying about them having everything they need.
“You should have told me; I would have liked to help set this up,” I say, peering over at him where he stands by the door. I smile, tracing the pattern on the blanket and picking up a plushie.
“Now, why would I ask for your help when you won’t be here after they are born?” he asks, and I lift my head to look at him.
“Pardon?” I ask, wondering if I misheard. Lexa also stares at him.
“The women I bring every night.”
“Your whores?”
He shakes his head and laughs. “No, Elena, they aren’t my whores. I have been interviewing them. I am looking for a nanny to help me raise them once you’re gone.”
“What? Gone where?” I ask him, my hands moving to my belly.
“I don’t give a fuck where you go, but once they are born, you are no longer needed.”
Chapter
Forty-Two
Axton
The moment the words leave my lips, Khan growls as he sees the broken look on her face. Despite the bond being gone, I still want to take the words back. Yes, I have been looking at nannies but haven’t picked one. I don’t think I truly would have. I just liked seeing her face when I brought them into the house, needing to see the pain I had felt for months in her eyes, too.
“Tell her you didn’t mean it. Take it back, Axton,” Khan roars angrily in my head.
She looks down at the crib, her hand sweeping over her giant belly, as her lip quivers and her eyes turn glassy with tears. She sets the teddy back in the crib and looks at me. The look she gives me says more than any words could.
Khan whimpers in my head, seeing her pain reflected back at us. “Axton, take it back. Tell her you didn’t mean it.”
My lips part, yet I am choked by the raw emotion that is so easily seen on her face. Khan’s fury is like an erupting volcano about to spill out and decimate everything.
“Elena,” I stammer out, grabbing her arm as she walks toward me. She stops, and I let out a breath of relief.
She turns to face me, and I am about to apologize, but she rushes past.
“I sho—” My words are cut off by the force of her hand connecting with my face, my face turning from the impact as heat rushes up the side of my face. Every finger I can feel branded into my skin, and the taste of copper fills my mouth as my teeth bite into my cheek.
Instinctively, my hand goes to my face where she’s slapped me, the skin welting, and I know that must have hurt her hand because, fuck, my face is stinging. Shocked, it takes me a few seconds to recover, and by the time I do, she is already walking out of my room. Khan growls, the noise ripping from my chest as I go to stalk after her.
“I swear, if you touch her, I will throw us off the fucking roof,” Khan snarls at me, making me stop.