Red. (Den of Mercenaries #1)(55)

Niklaus…

She didn’t know why his name popped into her head at that moment, but once again, she found herself considering confiding in him like she once had, because now that she thought about it, he had solved her first problem.

He might have walked away without a word, but not without leaving a parting gift, one that had meant the world to her even as it crushed her.

“But he’s not important now,” Liam said walking towards her. “How about you put those in water, then we can get out of here.”

Frowning, she shook her head. “I have plans today.” Which mostly consisted of doing absolutely nothing, but he didn’t have to know that.

“Cancel them. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

Reagan was clueless. She thought she’d met everyone he deemed important. “Who?”

“My da’s in town on business, but while he’s free, I thought he’d like to meet the girl who’s stolen my heart.”

He couldn’t be f*cking serious. And why could he possibly want the two of them to meet? She had never given him the impression that she wanted that, or even that she wanted to really be in a relationship with him.

“Liam,” she said, trying another tactic. “Isn’t it a bit early for that?”

“Of course not, dove. We have a good thing here. No one’s going to f*ck that up for us.”

“Seriously, Liam—”

“Go, now. We don’t have much time.”

Reluctantly, Reagan walked to her bedroom, but closed the door after, making sure to push in the lock just in case Liam thought to follow behind her.

She grabbed the first things she saw, not bothering to try and dress up, especially when she had no intention of trying to impress his father.

Tugging on some jeans, a plain tank top, and a pair of sneakers, Reagan tossed up her hair, and grabbed a light jacket, pulling it on as she left her bedroom.

Liam frowned at the sight of her. “Is that the best you can do?”

That statement coming from anyone else might have hurt her feelings. It wasn’t like she looked bad, but by the way he was looking at her, you would think she’d just gotten off work after a sixteen-hour shift and hadn’t bothered to change clothes.

What was funny was how she had looked worse a couple of years ago when Niklaus had stumbled into the diner, and he hadn’t seemed bothered in the slightest. Even yesterday, he still looked at her the way he did so long ago.

“We don’t have the time, right?” she asked, grabbing her keys from the counter and heading out the door, looking back once she was outside to make sure he understood she wouldn’t be changing or anything else.

Liam didn’t look pleased as he exited her apartment, and maybe he’d been truthful when he said there wasn’t much time because judging from the look on his face, he looked like he wanted to drag her back in to change.

Reagan took this, however small it might have been, as a victory.



* * *



A lot could change over the course of a year, Niklaus knew that better than anyone considering how drastically his life had shifted in a handful of days, but as he rode the elevator up to the penthouse apartment in Manhattan, he wasn’t sure what he would find once the doors opened.

He hadn’t seen, nor spoken to the Russian or his wife since he had left town almost a year ago after the birth of their son, Sacha. No matter that they argued more than they didn’t, or that Niklaus threatened to murder Mishca every chance he got, the second he had received that phone call from one of his brother’s men, just an address in fact, he had been out of bed and racing there.

Considering the animosity between them, Niklaus had never expected for Mishca to call on him that night and be a part of something so intimate. Sure, the little baby was his nephew, but that hadn’t meant he was to be included—it wasn’t like he had ever given them any reason to ask him to be in the baby’s life.

But he had cared. Since the moment Lauren had told him she was pregnant.

His first reaction was anger, as was his usual reaction to most things he wasn’t expecting, but deep beneath that was fear. Fear that Sacha would be hurt due to the life he was born into, and worse, that he would end up like Niklaus.

He didn’t pretend to think he was a good person. He doubted there was even a shred of goodness left inside of him after everything he had been through.

And despite his own shortcomings, Niklaus had made it a point to hang around a little more, make sure the baby—or Lauren since she had been pregnant at the time—had everything she could have possibly needed.

But the night she gave birth, as he’d sat out and waited, he hadn’t expected what the sight of Sacha would do to him.

Niklaus didn’t mean to care, but the moment he saw him, with the soft blue blanket wrapped around his tiny body, tucked securely in his father’s arms, he felt something other than hatred and anger and frustration and the rest of the roiling emotions that constantly churned inside of him.

And the very idea that the tiny little human that had yet to open his eyes—and had looked exactly like him since he was a carbon copy of his father—was another piece of his family had scared the shit out of him.

He wanted a family.

He wanted to be free of the burdens that had always sat heavy on his shoulders, but he didn’t know how. For so long, the only thing he had ever wanted was vengeance, feeding a vendetta that had already been fulfilled, but even after it had, Niklaus hadn’t known what to do with himself.