Page 36 of Savage Reign

I was no longer takingthe bus.

Not when I found a set of keys to a brand new car on my dresser just where Maverick had left his overnight bag.

I first thought it was a mistake, but I knew Maverick wasn’t the kind of man to make mistakes like this.

He left a car here for me. I had no doubt there was a tracking device on it, so it wasn’t like I could just drive away with it. And I didn’t want to run.

I was done running.

Maverick had left after he ordered us some breakfast, and we ate it in the motel room. Something about a fallout with another organization, and he needed to be back in the city. I didn’t really pay attention when he told me, not much caring for the politics of it all. I never much cared for what went on with Dad at the club, and now that Maverick and his brothers had taken over the narcotic trade Dad had headed for so long, I found I cared even less about it.

Just as long as they returned to me at the end of the day, I didn’t want to know the details.

But now that I had a car and didn’t have to wait out in the scorching heat for the bus, I took it on a drive and found myself heading to the diner for lunch.

I was hungry.

I had thrown up the breakfast Maverick had gotten me soon after he left—thank God. I didn’t want to explain the sudden morning sickness to him, and I found I was more hungry than usual. Though I supposed that was normal.

So I went to the diner, feeling light for the first time in ages. The same server who had helped me before smiled and indicated with her head for me to take a seat.

I found one by the window.

I grabbed the menu next to the condiments and looked it over, taking in the different foods I hadn’t tried. I was craving something… only I didn’t know what that was.

Even by the time the server came by, I was still indecisive, so I ordered about three plates, thinking I could always take it back with me for dinner tonight. The server looked at me strangely, though she didn’t comment and walked away.

I looked out the window, lost in thought. So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and yet, not much at all, that I was left dumbfounded.

A shadow fell over me then, and I thought it was the server coming back with my food, but before I could look up, the shadow moved, and suddenly, a warm body was pressed up against me from the side. I startled and looked over to meet honey-brown eyes.

He smiled at me.

I was too stupefied to do anything with my face but look at him.

I didn’t stop him when he moved his hand up and pressed it softly to my side, stroking it gently.

My lips opened, but still nothing came out.

I didn’t know why I was even surprised, considering Maverick had spent the night with me, so no doubt Silas and Killian would be close by.

He got to my lips, tracing around them, his touch featherlight, and I felt my bottom lip twitching, then trembling. I pulled back and turned away from him, focusing my gaze back out the window.

I supposed I was angrier with him than I was with Maverick or Killian because he had been the one I came to for the birth control. He was also the one who had “given” it to me as some sort of consolation bargain after I had witnessed him torturing another man in the basement of the house, as if that had been any better.

His lie hurt more than anything else, especially since I had thought I was closer to him than the other two.

“Baby,” he said softly, his voice tinged with regret. I didn’t turn around to look at him, trying to get my emotions under control. I didn’t want to show him too much, and I wasn’t sure I couldnotwhen he was sitting nearby.

“Mila, please look at me.”

I shook my head. I felt his hand on my thigh, but he didn’t move it. “Fuck me, angel, but it’s so good to see you, to feel you. These past weeks have been fucking hell.”

He paused. I wasn’t sure what he expected me to say, but when I said nothing, he continued, “I’m so fucking sorry.”

I turned back slightly to look at him. There was something about his face then. He still looked like my Silas, but there was something dark in his eyes that made my heart pinch.

Our eyes met, and he slid in a little closer to me, his heat comforting me in a way I wished I hadn’t noticed. It made it harder for me to hold on to my anger. To hold on to the image of him as a man in the mob who tortured people. I knew bothMaverick and Killian tortured people as well, but it was different knowing about it thanseeingit firsthand.

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