Bleeding Heart (Captured Miracle Book 2)(65)

Calix sighed. “That was my original plan. I never intended to tell you.”

“Then why?”

“Because I love you. Because you have a beautiful, bleeding heart.” He said quietly. “I love you in a way I’ve never loved any other. I don’t know how to show you, Nova. I don’t know how to keep you. But I do know that I want normal with you. I want this child and I want you and I want us to be a family.”

I cried harder and Calix made a strangled noise of agony in the back of his throat as he moved over the bed.

“Let me hold you, love.” He begged. “Please let me hold you.”

“I,” The word can’t lodged in my throat and Calix took that as answer enough to scoop me up in his arms. I cried harder, sobbing into his chest where every line was so familiar to me. His scent flooded my senses and again, I cried even harder.

It was in that moment that all hell broke loose. The door of our bedroom swung open and a dark figure appeared. Suddenly, I could hear banging and grunting in the background. And then I heard a gunshot and my body froze as Calix tensed beneath me. For a moment, time froze and then Calix snapped into motion. He lifted me from his body to place me on the bed before opening the side of his nightstand where a gun appeared in his hand.

My blood turned to ice.

The man who’d appeared in our bedroom lifted his hand to whip his mask from his face and again, I felt my heart thunder in my chest as I stared into the face of my father.

“Get over here, Nova.” He commanded - but I couldn’t move.

Calix lifted his gun and my father settled his on Calix.

“She’s not going anywhere with you, Mark.”

“She is my daughter.” My father spoke slowly in his commanding tone. “If I have to kill you, Calix, I will. But Nova is coming home with me.”

At my father’s words, I felt my body jolt into motion and before I knew it, I’d whipped from the blankets to run across the room between the two men - one my father and one my lover. Both armed.

I commanded. “Enough. Both of you!”

My father demanded. “What are you doing, Nova?”

I spun to face my father. “I won’t let you hurt him, dad. You’ve caused Calix enough pain, I won’t allow you to hurt him anymore.”

“This man kidnapped you from your bed, Nova.” My father spoke diplomatically. There was little emotion in his tone apart from irritation. He was irritated with my senselessness, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. “Why are you protecting him?”

“Calix is my husband.” I said sternly. “I love him.”

“You’re sick, Nova.” My father replied tightly. “You have a condition called Stockholm syndrome. Come with me and I will get you the help you need.”

“I don’t need help!” I said shrilly when the two men refused to lower their weapons. “I need you to stop fighting!”

“Your mother is losing her mind with worry, Nova.” Those words made me whip to face my father and I watched his eyes light with determination at the knowledge that he’d affected me. “Your sisters are terrified. Amy isn’t sleeping and Jaylah blames herself for not hearing the scuffle.”

“What?” I gasped. “Why would she blame herself?”

“Her bedroom is next to yours, Nova.” I felt tears fill my eyes again and my father continued. “Step out of the way so I can end this here and now.”

Those words snapped me back into the here and now like the painful bite of an elastic band on my wrist. “I don’t want this ended here and now.”

“You want to stay here with him?” My father asked incredulously, his gun still drawn.

“I love him.”

“You have Stockholm, Nova. I know you don’t feel it now, but you will go back to the life you knew when you are finally away from him.”

“I don’t want to go back to that life, dad.”

“Nova.”

Just then, I heard a clink on the floor. And I looked to Calix in time to see him kick his gun toward my father. “I love your daughter, Mark. I won’t force her to remain with me and I won’t hurt you, because I promised her I wouldn’t.”

My mind came rushing back to Calix vowing that if I gave him a child, he wouldn’t hold onto his revenge toward my father. And I felt my heart break. My captor, husband, and lover was now unarmed in my father’s presence. Still, he hadn’t lowered his gun from Calix. I watched as my father lifted a radio looking device from the chest of his suit.

He spoke. “Ready.”

With only one word spoken, another four men burst through the open door of the bedroom. Their booted feet pounded against the wood floor, sending vibrations through my body. I felt my muscles tense as I turned to stand myself in front of Calix, but an arm around my waist restrained me and I watched, in slow motion, as Calix was forced to his knees. His eyes never left me as my father carted me from the room and I cried.