For then she confessed,
“I called because…I miss dancing with you.” The moment the words finally were allowed to flow over me, I lost my stance allowing my body to slide down the wall until I was sat on the floor leaning against it. An elbow to my bent knee was when I rested a heavy mind in my hand, holding it there as if it was suddenly too much to ask my body to support it.
Gods, how much I wanted her back!
“Then choose not to miss it and come back to me, for I can only promise you a dance when you’re back in my arms,” I told her, making her suck back a sob.
“I…I can’t.” This was when I couldn’t help but lose the fake persona of patience with her,
“So that’s it then, you truly believe that we will never see each other again!?”
“The world’s a big place, Lucius, but who knows, maybe one day I will be ready to come home and maybe then I will be able to look at you again without it being too damn painful. Without this feeling, without this fucking agony that is tearing me in two…without remembering…”
“Without remembering what…tell me?” I asked forcing my hand to ease the pressure on the damn device that I wanted to crush in my anger, in my frustration and in the drowning reality that my own fucking heart was breaking!
But then she whispered her answer before hanging up the phone and I swear that crack in my heart became a fucking chasm,
“Without remembering…”
“…the days you loved me.”
Chapter 16
After the Night’s Promise
After she hung up the phone my head dropped, and I must have looked like a man broken. In fact, the only reason my phone survived was in the hope that she would call me back. I was also damning not having my people monitoring my phone for calls to be traced, thinking the very last thing she would have done was call me.
But she had.
She missed me.
The knowledge was like a bitter scented balm that soothed the doubts of her actions in leaving me. I was furious that she had left, of course I was. And knowing that she was somewhere in the world hurting did little to relieve the ache. What did relieve it, however, was knowing that her heart was still mine and it gave me hope that not all was lost between us. That the fight I thought I would have on my hands once I did finally find her, no longer looked like an impossible win.
But the true pain came from not knowing when that battle would be. I had tried to get what information I could from her. But I swear the moment I heard her voice again it became harder to focus on the mission. Of course, knowing she was drunk had been an advantage I wanted to exploit, which was why my promise made was only one for after tonight. Because I knew if she had been drinking then the barricades on her mind wouldn’t be there and the best part about it was, she wouldn’t even realise that I was there.
But first I needed to pick myself off the floor and in this moment, I will be honest, that in itself seemed like an immeasurable task.
“Now, that looks like a place I have been before,” Dom said making me barely even acknowledge him by anything more than a shrug of my shoulders. But then, as the silence between us grew, I found myself asking,
“And did you also curse the Gods, as I do now?”
“Every damn day me and Keira were apart,” he replied honestly. Then I saw a movement in front of me, making me look up to find his hand was held out for me to take. So, I took the moment between us for what it was…
A show of kinship.
I rose to my feet with his help and shook his hand in silent thanks before letting go.
“I take it she called?” he asked nodding to the phone in my hand with the now cracked screen.
“What gave it away?” I asked dryly.
“Other than often looking down at a broken phone being a place I have also lived through, then it is the look of someone who’s just had their chest ripped open and their heart handed to them.” I scoffed at that and said,
“And I take it this is also something…”
“I have experienced...let’s just say that my daughter shares many traits with those of her mother. Give it time, Luc, she will see sense.”
“Yes, well just as long as that sense doesn’t include a French prick with daddy issues.” At this he growled at the memory before grumbling,
“Don’t fucking remind me of that poisonous heartbeat with a death wish.”
“Yeah, well lucky for you, you’re not reminded of the shit stain every time you clench your fist and hear leather groan.” At this Dom laughed as we started walking towards his office,
“All in the name of saving the world, Luc.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you didn’t get ten years of Michael Jackson jokes from Pip.” At this he actually threw his head back and laughed, so loud in fact that as we walked into the office Keira was startled by the sound.
“Alright, you two walking into a room both laughing tells me that I have reason enough to be concerned,” she stated with a frown. Then Dom walked up to her, tipped her head back before telling her,
“Nothing to concern yourself with, but how do you think Amelia would feel about changing her name to Billy Jean?” At this I growled,
“Not fucking funny.” To which he ignored me and told her,
“Amelia rang Luc.” Her eyes grew wide before looking to me with hope blooming quickly.
“She did?!” I nodded and before I had the chance to explain the extent of it, Pip and Adam chose that moment to walk in, with her asking,
“Someone was talking about me, I know because my third and favorite toe was itchingalingalo.” Keira laughed and muttered,
“Oh Gods, not this again.”
“Well, am I wrongalingalo?” she asked with her hands on her hips above what looked like a fucking red and white polka dot tutu.
“Wrongalingalo?” Keira dared to ask.
“She is trying out this new thing where the last word in every sentence ends in an alingalo sound and if you could find any way to get her to stop this, then I would be in your debt,” Adam replied making her smack him and complain,
“You said it was cutealingalo?”
“That was before I realised the level of your commitment to doing so, my little peach,” he replied flicking her nose playfully.
“Ha, well that’s what you get for being a Mr Doubty Pantalingalo!” He groaned and muttered,
“No that is what I get for having an insanely cute wife…any news?” Adam asked after making this comment, no doubt hoping to end the discussion with a certain colourful aspect in his life.
“I just received a call from her,” I informed him, unsurprisingly, making Pip the first to comment.
“Holy shitalingalo,” she uttered gripping onto Adam’s arm as I knew that by Amelia leaving the way she did, hadn’t only affected me or her parents, but it had shaken everyone who cared deeply for her. It was also the reason why most of Dom’s council were still out there looking for her, using what resources they had to do so.
But no resource would be enough and not like the one I would be using against her one last time. However, before that, I explained what had been said, making Keira get teary once more before she started blaming herself… and cryptically, damning the Fates. But before I could ask why, Pip suddenly shouted,