The Price (House of Sin #5) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,20

for all. And this time, you’ll make sure she doesn’t come back.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yeah, I do.” I turned toward the pillows on the bed, wishing for those drugs again so I could just pass out and think about nothing. Instead, I was going to lie here all night and relive every awful thing I’d done to Natalie since the moment I’d met her.

“Do it tonight,” I said before I could change my mind. “By morning, I want her out of my life for good.”

4

Natalie

“No,” I said emphatically, staring at Marco in complete and utter disbelief. “I’m not leaving. Don’t even think about asking me to leave him right now.”

“I’m not asking.” Marco’s hands closed over my shoulders, and he looked down at me in the dim light of the kitchen where I was standing. “I’m a hundred percent on your side. You need to be here. I just wanted you to know what he’s thinking.”

As far as I was concerned, Luc wasn’t thinking. Not rationally at least. His latest order proved that.

After checking on Luc, Marco had joined Fee and I in the kitchen where we were sitting at the table sipping tea, quietly talking. I was so tired, I was barely keeping my eyes open, but the second Marco had dumped the latest bombshell in my lap, I’d come wide-awake.

“He really said that?” I asked, disbelief twisting through my chest. “He wants me to leave?”

“He’s in a dark place right now, Natalie. He’s angry and feeling self-destructive. And realizing you were there isn’t helping matters. I told you things were going to get rough. For tonight, I think it’s best if you give him space. Let him work through some of this stuff before you go in and see him.”

My heart pounded hard as I glanced toward the stairs and thought of Luc suffering in that big room all alone. Every instinct inside me said to go to him, to comfort him, to be the strength I knew he needed. But then I heard his voice from that bathroom, gravelly and filled with so much hatred, screaming for Marco to get me out of the room, not to let me get anywhere near him.

Tears burned the backs of my eyes all over again, and I blinked rapidly, then looked back at Marco. “If he wakes during the night—”

“I’ll take care of him. Trust me. I know Luc. In a day or two, when it’s all not so fresh and he’s had time to process, you can go to him. I just think seeing you right now might make things worse.”

I didn’t believe that for a moment. But I also realized that the Luc I’d seen writhing on that bathroom floor had not been my Luc. It had been a shadow of the man I knew. And I wasn’t willing to give that man any reason to keep my Luc locked away.

I swallowed hard. Nodded. And somehow managed to say, “Okay.”

Marco squeezed my shoulders, then released me. “It’ll get better, Natalie. Just have faith.”

Faith was all I had left. I just hoped it didn’t fail me.

“Come on.” Felicity pushed back from the table. “I’ll take you up to a room. There are lots of suites in this old castle, all with super comfy beds.”

I followed her out of the kitchen and up the stairs, and when she turned into a different wing from where Luc was staying, it was all I could do not to protest. But I didn’t, because I was willing to do whatever it took to bring my Luc back to me. Including give him space even though my heart screamed that was the wrong thing to do.

I just wasn’t sure how long I could stay away from him.

As it turned out, I wasn’t able to stay away long.

I couldn’t sleep not knowing how Luc was doing. So after two or three hours of tossing and turning, I threw back the covers and crept out into the dark hallway.

Marco and Fee had gone to bed sometime after me. I didn’t know which room they were staying in, but I figured it was probably close to Luc in case he needed Marco’s help in the middle of the night.

Moving as quietly as I could down the hardwood floor in my bare feet, I reminded myself that everything was going to be okay. I had faith. I believed in us. I wouldn’t let Luc’s family break us, no matter how hard they tried.

The doors in Luc’s wing were

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