Page 68 of Always Yours

Then he takes the time to open everyone else’s cell and, when he gets to Lorenzo, he throws himself into his arms crying.

“I didn’t think I would ever see you again,” Dawson cries into his shoulder. Looks like someone else came for the love of their life.

“Let’s get out of here. Who is helping you guys?” Enzo says.

“The club. They will clear the way,” I say before I hear Lily’s name being shouted.

“I’m in here, quick!” she shouts.

A bunch of footsteps are running towards the room.

“We need to get him to the hospital. He’s unresponsive,” Lily says with a sob.

I stare at my brother. He hasn’t looked my way yet; his only focus is Lily. “Come on, brothers. Let’s carry him out. Give them a gun; they can have our back. No time to waste,” Bear shouts.

He turns around to hand me a gun, and gasps when he notices who he is giving the gun to.

“What the fuck?” he shouts.

“Who is that?” a young man asks.

“That’s Sophie’s father,” Bear says in disbelief.

“Hey brother,” I say, and he pulls me into his arms roughly.

“How the fuck is this possible?” he whispers.

“I will tell you all about it after we help Prez. I don’t think he has much time left,” I reply.

He nods his head and hands me his gun as he and a couple other guys carry our Prez out of this hellhole.

I can’t help the tears that fall as I get the first taste in freedom that I have had in twenty years.

Lily

He can’t be dying.

There is no way I will lose him this way.

I watch as they take him into a room, and I’m held behind while they work on him.

I stand there for a long time. When I turn around to the public waiting room, I look to see everyone there. The club, my brothers, Dawson, and Nick. Holy shit. Nick.

I run to him and throw my arms around him.

“How are you alive?” I cry.

“Let’s talk somewhere more private,” he says, his voice rougher than it used to be.

I eye the scar on the side of his neck.

Stitch’s brothers pull some strings to get the best care for Derek. They then get us all set up in a private waiting room.

When we are all in there, we all look at Nick expectantly.

“When I went to meet the lawyers to set up the inheritance for Sophie, Alessandro must have caught my trail. Rebecca had just shot me, and I was bleeding out the neck. I thought I was for sure dead but, when I woke up, I was in that room and stitched up. I couldn’t talk for a year and when I did, I sounded like this. Alessandro was hoping that if he got my voice fixed, I would reveal where you were. When I never let the information out, no matter what he did to me, he had hoped that you would somehow realise I was alive and come for me. He decided to wait to kill me; just in case. I was tortured and constantly in pain, and I was mostly alone until they drugged your brothers and locked them up with me in that warehouse basement. I was in the shock of my life to see Prez brought in after that,” he says.

I cry at his words. He had been alone for twenty years. If I had known there was even a chance he was still alive, I definitely would have went looking for him.

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