Page 75 of Bloody Lace

His gaze flicks to one side, as if he’s gathering his thoughts—and then he freezes, his eyes going wide. He doesn’t move, his face paling, and my heart thuds against my ribs as slowly, I turn to look where his eyes are fixed on the floor.

I know what I’m going to see before I find where he’s looking.

Where my purse fell, it spilled open. And both of the pregnancy tests are lying out in the open, on the floor, right in front of Dimitri.

28

DIMITRI

Ican pinpoint exactly the moment that I knew I had to say something to Evelyn. I’ve been fighting it, day in and day out, for longer than I want to admit. But when I walked into the penthouse tonight and she wasn’t there, I felt my stomach drop, and I knew.

I saw Buttons by the couch, a pet that I didn’t even fucking want, and imagined him gone. I imagined her gone, the penthouse no longer faintly scented with her orange perfume, her side of the bed made up and smooth every morning. And the feeling that washed over me, one of aching, desperate longing, told me everything I needed to know.

I called my driver, went downstairs, and had him take me straight to Pearls & Lace. I hadn’t meant to end up on the floor with her after she gave me a tour, tangled up in her, fucking her like I’d never get to touch her again. Like she was everything I didn’t know I needed until thirty minutes ago. But once I kissed her, I couldn’t stop.

I was going to tell her everything afterwards. What I’d realized. How I felt. How, when I knew I couldn’t fight it any longer, I knew I wanted to let her know that I cared about herin the best way I could think of—by asking her to show me what means the most to her.

And then I looked down, and saw that piece of plastic fallen out of her purse, and my entire world shifted in an instant.

“Evelyn.” Her name comes out strangled, and I find myself hoping that she just hadn’t had a chance to tell me yet. That she was going to. That all the fears that suddenly well up inside of me, fears I didn’t know I could have, are unfounded.

“Dimitri, I—” She breaks off, and the way she says just those two words, the nervous uncertainty in them, tells me everything I need to know.

I push myself to my feet, feeling suddenly dizzy. “You weren’t going to tell me, were you?” I stare at her, wanting to believe it’s not true, but from the way her face pales, her eyes darting from the tests to me, I know it is. “You were going to try to get out of the marriage first.”

“I—”

“This changes everything.” I shake my head. “If you’re having mychild, Evelyn?—”

“I knew you would say that!” The words burst out of her, and she takes a step back, her arms wrapping around herself. She’s standing there in her sweater and panties, but she doesn’t make a move to grab her jeans, her head shaking as she stares at me. “Ijustfound out. Just before you got here. I had Dahlia bring me a test, and?—”

“Dahliaknows, and I didn’t?”

“I needed time to think!” She bites her lip, her eyes going glossy, and a part of me wants to go to her and wrap her up in my arms, tell her that we’ll figure it out. But another part of me is furious that she’s kept it from me, even this short amount of time. That she called her best friend instead of me. That she was going to try to keep it a secret—for how long?

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she whispers. “I was feeling sick the last few days, and I just realized…I counted and figured out that I was late.” She looks away, her teeth still worrying at her lower lip. “I needed to think, Dimitri. That’s all.”

I can hear it in her voice, that 's notall. That she’s afraid of something. “What did you need to think about?” The words come out harsher than I mean for them to, and I see her flinch. “You’re pregnant with my child, Evelyn—what is there to think about?”

“I’m afraid!” She shouts the words, and it’s my turn to flinch, staring at her as she yells at me, the way no one else has ever been brave enough to do. The way only she speaks to me, the only person in the world unafraid to tell me what she’s thinking, what she’s feeling, who is raw and real with me when no one else has ever been.

It’s why I love her.

It’s why I can’t fucking lose her.

“I’m afraid of being tied to this world,” she says, the words tumbling out of her, one after the other. “Of being tied to you, and the violence that’s around you, all of the time. Of bringing a child into that. Of being stuck in a marriage where…you don’t love me, Dimitri! How can I stay in that forever, even with a baby?”

“The baby is exactly why all bets are off,” I growl. “Why everything changes, now.”

It was the wrong thing to say. I should have told her that I do love her, that it’s what I came here to tell her, but it doesn’t come out. And when her face shutters, I know that I’ve missed my moment.

“This is your fault!” Evelyn cries out. “You lost control, and?—”

A bitter laugh escapes me, but what she says after is lost, as thecrackof gunshots suddenly fills the air, and I hear glass shatter.

On instinct, I leap towards her, intent on bringing her down to the ground, to cover her, to make sure she’s safe. I grab for my coat that I tossed over the counter before Evelyn gave me the tour, intending to grab my gun that’s in the pocket as I get her down, but she scrambles away from me with surprising quickness, and I stumble, falling into the counter and hitting my shoulder hard.

I hear Gus shout, and another flurry of gunshots. I spin, grabbing my gun and flicking the safety off as I recover, and I see four—no, five black-garbed men outside, one of them going down as Gus shoots again.

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