Chapter 53 The Decision Of Your Life

The time has come. I have my princess back. I need to focus on business, and this means that the war is now truly going to start. I shall need to express to her that I am still going to go after her father. All I need to know if she shall remain by my side no matter what happens.
Now, I think to be true to myself; I am going to admit that Joseph shall not make it out alive. It has always been my intent to get revenge for my father in the same way he was taken. But I will be the one taking his life. Joseph was a coward, well I am not one. His time has come, and the seconds are ticking.
But I am not going to make it easy; of course, I am going to play a little cat and mouse game. I want to see him suffer; I want the fear to ravage through his body until he cannot think straight. This is not going to be easy; in fact, it is going to be hard, and it is going to get very ugly.
I need to have my princess on my side, but it is not every day that your fiancé tells you that he is going to kill your father. I think in the back of her mind, she knows that, but she does not want to say a word or even dare to ask.
Now, the question begs, do I tell her now, or wait until she sees that it has become obvious.
With this in mind, I slip away from her side, where she is still sleeping. Pulling on a pair of jeans, I make my way out of the room down to the kitchen. The kitchen has seemed to become the place where the guys hang out these days, which is great for me as it leaves the study as a sort of safe haven for me.
The first to greet me, and much to my annoyance still, standing next to Lucy is Mason. Now I still have not gotten used to this relationship; the fact is I don t know if I am ever going to do it. But as my mother says, he makes her happy, and who am I to stand in the way of that. Though it does not mean that I can not voice my opinion.
"Mason, do you mind not doing that?"
"Mind what?"
"Having your hands all over my sister," I wait for a moment with the hopes of him listening, but Lucy just gives me a blank stare. "Lucy, do you mind leaving us for a moment? I need to discuss something with Mason."
She weaves herself further into Mason s arms and carries on drinking her coffee.
"Well, I guess that is a no. Now, I have not spoken to Cassandra about this, so please don t say anything to her."
With that, I look around to see if she has not made her way to the kitchen, then I continue, "Mason, I need a list of all of Joseph s men. It is time that we start settling the score."
"Sure, Christian, but I must warn you that while you were away, his support has grown. There is a lot of eager fingers now that your father is gone. I think some of them will turn on Joseph in an instant."
"I don t care for that; I am taking each and everyone out that just as much blinks for Joseph."
"And Joseph?"
"You leave him for me."
I glance over my shoulder for a brief moment before I continue again, "Frank, I want you with Lucy. When she is not glued to this asshole s arm, you make sure you shadow her every move. My father trusted you with his life; I am trusting you with Lucy s."
Frank steps forward and gives me a rather awkward hug, "Sure, boss. I will, well much to my ear s torture, move closer to her room."
Well, everybody else in the room seems to find that rather funny, but I guess at least I…let us rather not get that image in my head.
Then next, I turn to face the only other man that I really truly trust my life with. It is not that I do not trust any of my men; there are just some that go that extra bit to prove their loyalty. Jax has proven this on many occasions over and over, and he is also the best shot that I have.
"Jax, I want you on, Cassandra. I am not intending in sitting at home and waiting for you boys to take out Joseph s army. I will be there right next to you all, so I need you to be here with Cassandra. Please, and I will speak to her, but I do not want her wandering the streets until the score is settled."
"Boss," Jax starts. "This might go on for months. You sure she is going to be okay with that?"
"Jax, she does not really have a choice. Well, she does; she can go home to her father and watch how he kills me. Or…"
Then I hear a soft but very stuttering voice come from behind me.
"Or, I can sit here and watch how you kill my father."
As I spin around, I see Cassandra standing behind me. She has her hands balled into a fist next to her sides, and I can see the mascara lines running down her face as she is crying.
How long has she been standing there?
So I excuse everybody from the kitchen and move closer to where she is clearly standing and trembling in her feet. The girl is beyond scared shitless. Did she hear what I said?
But as I try to reach out and pull her closer, she pushes me away. God, I cannot stand for us to fight again. Not now. She needs to understand that I need to do this. This is the world that I live in; this is the world that she is yet to step in. She will one day be like me. She needs to understand that here it is blood for blood. You do not take it without having to pay for it. No. Matter. What.
Joseph Cummings will pay!
I am not backing down from it.
While I patiently wait for her to calm down and allow me close to her, I make her a hot cup of coffee. But as I reach out to hand it to her, she snaps and smacks it straight from my hand.
Fuck. Here we go. We are going to fight again.
But then she softly whispers, "Can I have a whiskey instead."
I softly, beyond my control, chuckle at her and push a chair for her to sit down while I grab a bottle from the bar.
When I return back to the kitchen, she seems to have calmed down a bit. As I hand her a whiskey and pour one for myself, she pulls me closer.
"Princess, are you okay?"
She does not answer, and for what seems like an eternity, we just stare into each other s eyes.
She looks down at my slightly parted lips, and I know what is about to happen. We both lean into each other in slow motion, never breaking eye contact once. My heart skips a beat, and my knees get wobbly even though I am not standing on my feet. I curl my hand around her neck and tangle the other in her long wavy hair.
Our lips brush softly against each other like little butterfly wings. Her lips dance soft and delicate against mine. But I pull away and hesitate for a moment. She feels new yet oddly familiar. Her lips seem to have been molded to the shape of mine. My hands curl around hers so perfectly as if they were made just for her. She tastes like passion, like pure, unrestrained passion, and I want more.
So we begin to close the gap even more than before. What begins as a small peck becomes more passionate. The rest of the world spins so fast it becomes non-existent. I lean even further into her, and our body melts into each other. It is as if I can feel a fire blazing within me, out of control. We are completely and utterly in sync at this very moment.
Everything about her is perfect. The sheer softness of her hair as I run my hands through it. The taste of sweet cotton candy that lingers on her lips. Her breath that warms my cheek. The way she plays with the hair at the back of my head that tickles my neck.
Then she presses her lips against mine even harder. Lightning passes through me. I feel lost in a different universe, and she is slowly taking me there. Her cold hand creeps from my neck down my spine and pulls me closer. Her touch makes my body shiver. Her delicate, innocent kiss makes my heart flutter. My heart races. My body surrenders. I let her kiss me as long as she wants. Every time I let go, I go back and kiss her again softly.
After what seems like being away for hours, we part and put our foreheads together.
Then she seeks the depths of my brown eyes again, "Christian, are you really going to kill my father?"
"Princess, I am not going to lie to you, but I am not going to sit by and accept what he did to my father. And there is one thing you need to understand. An eye for an eye is real. In this world, you don t take and not give. Blood for blood. A bullet for a bullet. Whichever way you see it. Revenge is sweet, and god forbid if you find yourself on the other side of it."
I pull her closer to my trembling chest again and softly whisper in her ear, "I love you. And I am not going to sit here and not understand how hard this must be for you. And, yes, it is, unfortunately, a situation where you are going to have to choose a side. But princess, no sugar-coated fairies here; when this war is over, someone is going to die. And you need to prepare yourself for that."
"Christian, how do you choose between the man you love and your father?"
"For me, it is a choice easily made. I did it once, and if my father were here, then I would have made it over and over again. Like is said that day, I will always choose you, princess. No matter where we find ourselves. I will always choose you. And I think that you knew that one day this decision would come."
I see her eyes swell with the tears again; the soft sobs that leave those cherry lips break my heart to pieces. I am asking her to make the hardest decision that she will ever make in her life. Because after all, she will also lose her mother. Now I am not killing her mother, but her mother will not leave her father s side, and if the push comes to choosing, well, that choice, I am not sure if I can make that. But if she chooses me, she loses both her parents.
She will have nothing, and nobody left but me. Is she ready to make this decision? Well, I hate to be the one that has to ask this, for the clock is ticking, and I want to be the one making the next move.
So after handing her another whiskey, I pierce seeking eyes into hers, "Princess, are you going to stay with me?"