Page 135 of Born for Lace

Robert places his hand on my shoulder. “Better a broken weapon than one in the hands of a Common Community.”

With a sneer of derision, I turn my chin, glaring at Tomar. “What now for you? You fix him up and take him away with you? Your own mindless bodyguard and soldier?”

I know I’m not being fair, but I can’t help it. He lied to me. Made me second-guess everything between Lagos and me.

Tomar’s usual face of kind superiority crumbles. “I thought I was your friend, Dahlia. Isn’t that what you said? Can’t you understand why I did this?”

“I understand why you did it.” I look back at my brute. Last time, I accepted that Lagos was destined to save people. I was willing to let him go. This time, I can’t do that. This time, I want him to choose me. “I understood then, too. I don’t want to anymore. I want him to pick me.”

“There might not be anything left of him now.” Robert looks at my swollen belly. “At least not in the way you want or need. Wait until the sedation wears off.”

At the sound of his words, something deep inside me wilts to dirt and soil. So close to getting him back, so close to the farmhouse, and the pretty picture we played in where we are happy and raising our child. So close…

“Where is Spero?” I ask, my voice absent and flat, barely a whisper. “I want to stay here, so he needs?—”

“He might not?—”

“Don’t.” I lift my hand, cutting the lies and excuses in the air, finding my spine and it is as strong as the man lying beside me. “I want. To stay.Here.Where is Spero?”

A long pause simmers between us, testing my resolve and his steadfast authority.

“Safe,” Robert finally answers. “He is with Lucy. In her cabin.”

Hm.“Why Lucy?”

I hear the suspicion in his tone as he says, “I thought you were friends?”

“Sure.” I feel his eyes on me. “We are.”

“Give her some time,” Robert says to Tomar and leaves the Patient Room.

With a sigh, Tomar turns to leave. “I won’t be far away. I’ll check in on you.”

“He keeps fighting them,” I rush out. “You did that. You gave him hope all those years ago when others in his place jumped off cliffs and hung themselves. You gave him companionship and purpose. For that, I will always be grateful to you. I could feel him fighting them last night in his mind. You know what you said about the brain, how it is just too powerful to fully control?”

“Yeah. At the end of the day, a man has to submit to Meaningful Purpose. It needs to be the heart and soul of him. Lagos… What did you call him?” He laughs sadly, walking away. “He has always been arogue brute.”

I don’t know how long I stand by Lagos’ bedside, watching his third eyelid swipe from one side to the other, a small sign of brain activity and awareness.

But after the time-lamp turns red, I’m too tired and crawl onto the bed, tucking myself into a small gap between him and the rail.

That is when his heart thuds harder, and that suffocating presence that used to scare me, rolls over me, soothing me, sending me a message. He is inside.

A hot tear rolls down my cheek, and I close my eyes to catch more. Inhaling his sweet, metallic scent and listening to the deepest, strongest pulse in The Cradle, I try to sleep.

ChapterForty-Three

Six

Three weeks ago

Pain.

There is a man named Tomar.

He is an enemy of The Trade.

A killer.

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