Worthy of Redemption (39 page)

I fully expected Vic to violate me in the worse ways, but other than trying to kiss me, he didn’t try to touch me intimately. He had me tied to a bed, giving
me enough rope to move around and get comfortable, like that was possible.

“All I’ve ever wanted was to take care of you, Lily,” he said as he slowly paced the room. “I wanted you to appreciate me and to care for me like I care for you.”

“I’ll never care about you,” I whispered, flinching at another contraction.

“You will,” he said, stopping in front of me. “I’m going to take care
of you and that baby, even though it’s not mine. It might take some time, but in time you will appreciate everything I will do for you. You will care about me, and you will love me as I love you. I only have to make you recognize feelings for me you already have deep inside of you.”

I looked up at him with pleading eyes. “Vic, I need a doctor. I
will
appreciate you if you get me to the hospital and save my baby.”

“I think I can deliver your baby here, Lily,” he said and touched my face, repulsing me.

“It’s too soon for her to be born,” I sobbed. “I need medicine to keep her inside of me until she has a better chance. Vic, please,” I cried.

“
If she comes now and she doesn’t survive, we can try again later,” he said calmly.

I turned my face into the pillow under me and sobbed harder than I could recall sobbing in my life. My baby was going to be born, under
his
‘care’ and there was nothing I could do about it. She would be born and die without a fighting chance. Even though Vic was the asshole that kidnapped me, I blamed only myself for not being more vigilant and for not listening to Kyle and Corsey. They repeatedly told me that Vic was a dangerous person and I repeatedly scoffed at them, even after he had hurt me. Now I was stuck here without anyone knowing where I was or how to find me, and I was going to lose another baby.

Vic touched my hair as I cried. I looked up at him and screamed “Get the fuck away from me!”

His eyes grew dark. “Don’t talk to me like that,” he said carefully. “I am trying to fucking take care of you.”

I screamed as he grabbed a handful of my hair and brought my face up to his. “Show some fucking appreciation!”

He shoved me back down and stormed out of the room.

My cries echoed off of the walls of the bedroom. I found myself calling for Kyle, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me. Next to the imminent loss of our baby girl, I was devastated knowing I may never see him again. I had not even told him that he was fathering a girl. I was so angry with him and so hurt; I wanted to withhold that key information from him. I didn’t think he had a right to know, but as I lay tied up in Vic’s mystery house, I cried for many reasons, but also because I didn’t know if Kyle would ever know about his daughter.

Another contraction squeezed me and my panic continued.

~~~

I had fallen asleep at some point. I woke up after every contraction, but instantly fell back to sleep, crying even as I slept. I started waking up sooner and realized my contractions were getting closer together. I just lay there, awake now, and resigned to the fact that there was nothing I could do about it. Not a damn thing.

I also realized the only way I was going to get out of there, if I didn’t die giving birth, was if I gave Vic what he wanted. He wasn’t a complete idiot, however. He wouldn’t believe or trust me at first, but after some time, he would, and then maybe he’d give me enough trust so that I could stab him in the back and run away.

I was contemplating this when I heard the doorbell ring, followed by banging on the door. My instincts told me to scream, and so I did. I screamed for help, louder than I ever thought I could scream in my life. As loud as I was screaming, I was worried that I would still be unheard, or worse yet that whoever was at the door was an accomplice of Vic’s, but I screamed anyway.

I felt like I had been screaming for hours, when in reality it was only moments before more than one person burst into the room. I couldn’t stop screaming even after I saw their black uniforms and badges pinned to their shirts. I couldn’t stop screaming even after they cut
me out of the ropes, freeing my hands.

“Ma’am, it’s okay,” the officer said, sweeping me into his arms. “Are the paramedics here?” he managed to ask the other officer over my screams.

“On the way,” he said, looking at me with pity.

My screams died down to loud
sobbing as he carried me down the stairs. We walked through a living room where Vic was on the floor, cuffed and fighting and swearing. Several officers were holding him down. When he saw me being carried away from him, he screamed my name like a mad man. I covered my ears even as the officer carried me outside.

“Lily!” I heard someone screaming my name again, but I didn’t want to hear Vic screaming my name. I closed my eyes against the bright
late afternoon sun and tried squeeze away the pain and fear I felt.

The officer handed me to someone else.

“Lily,” he said, and I slowly opened my eyes. I was in Kyle’s arms and even through my tears I could see that he was crying.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was. I wanted him to give me another chance to make it right, but another contraction hit me right then and I cried out.

“I’m in labor,” I cried, staring up at Kyle with fear. “She’s going to die.”

~Kyle~

“How did you find me?” Lily asked me, hours after an officer carried her out of the Poconos house Vic had hidden her in.

She was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and a machine to monitor the baby’s heartbeats and movements. The doctors had stopped her preterm labor, but warned that Lily needed to be on complete bed rest until the end of her pregnancy, and chances are she may need the drugs again.

The waiting room was full of people: my mother, Emmy, Mayson, Cor
sey, and Harry. Lily’s mom was on her way and Lydia and the kids were to meet us in Philadelphia in a couple of days.

I sat in a chair pulled up to the side of her bed, holding her hand in mine. I could have lost her and our baby girl and there aren’t enough words to explain how that felt.

“Emmy,” I said simply. “If she had not come to the east coast to kick my ass, I may have never known. She remembered Vic telling her about that place. We were leaving the parking lot to drive up here, but Marco called me. He told me that even though the security system wasn’t in place yet, the cameras were fully operational. I had one of Corsey’s guys take the tape to my contact on the force. It took some time and strings being pulled but the police up here finally agreed to at least go check out the situation.”

I sighed heavily at the memory of that period of time. It was the longest wait of my life as two officers walked up to the door while another four wandered around the
perimeter of the house. As soon as they rang the bell and banged on the door, things got crazy. Very faintly I could hear Lily screaming, but the officers close to the house also heard her. They forced their way in as they called for more backup. I tried to run in after them, but Harry and Emmy restrained me until a few minutes later one of the officers carried Lily out.

“Lily, I’m so sorry,” I whispered to her. “If I would have been home with you from the beginning, none of this would have happened.”

“You should have been home with me,” she agreed weakly and then squeezed my hand. “But it’s not your fault that Vic is psychotic.”

“I should have told you everything so that you could protect yourself.”

“I would have lived my life in fear,” she said. “You did the right thing. I should have listened to you and Corsey, but I was being so pig headed. I’m sorry I put you through this.”

I stood up and kissed her head. “Don’t apologize to me. This isn’t your fault.”

“Kiss me,” she whispered her hands in my hair.

I obliged and pressed my mouth against hers. I moaned lightly when my tongue tasted her mouth. I wanted to climb into bed with her and kiss her for a very long time, but the hospital staff probably wouldn’t have liked that very much.

“Ahem,” a familiar voice said.

Reluctantly, I stopped kissing Lily and we both looked up to see Emmy standing there, smiling at us.

“Sorry to interrupt this love fest,” she said, stepping further into the room. “But I must anyway. Kaitlyn is running out of milk apparently. The cow must go home.” She sighed.

Lily stretched out her arms. I stepped out of the way so that she and Emmy could embrace.

“Thank you so much for saving me,” Lily said to Emmy.

“Thank you so much for saving Kyle,” Emmy said just above a whisper.

“Apologize to Luke for me, will you?” Lily said when Emmy pulled away. “He didn’t like me showing up and getting you involved in my issues. He’s really going to hate what you’ve been through.”

“He’s just glad that you’re okay and that I’m coming home,” she said.
“I’m glad I was here to help.”

“I’ll walk you out,”
I said. I kissed Lily quickly on the lips. “I’ll be right back.”

“Take your time,” she said softly.

“Corsey is going to drive me to the airport if you don’t mind,” Emmy said as stepped into the hallway. “I was going to ask Mayson but she’s in the waiting room forming some kind of really weird bond with your mom.”

“That
is
weird,” I agreed as we passed by the waiting room where my mother and Mayson were involved in what looked like a very serious conversation.

“Your mom was really teary when she got here
.”

I rubbed the back of my head. “I’m still trying to get used to this new ‘caring mom’ thing. I always knew she cared
deep down, but Lily lit a fire under her ass I guess.”

“Well, maybe this will be it. Maybe this time the meds will work and she can find some happiness and peace.”

“I hope so,” I said with a nod.

Emmy punched the button for the elevator. “You don’t have to walk me all the way down. I think I can find the front entrance by myself.”

“I want to walk you down,” I said, looking into her eyes.

“Okay then,” she smiled and then stepped onto the elevator.

“I’ll never be able to fully thank you for all that you’ve done today,” I said to her.

“Just take care of Lily and the baby and stay on track,” she said softly, touching my cheek. “That’s the best way to thank me.”

I took her hand off of my cheek and left a lingering kiss on it. Her eyes glazed over for a moment before I simply held her hand in mine and lead her off of the elevator. We walked outside in silence. Corsey was already waiting at the curb.

“Take care,” Emmy said with a sad smile and started to pull away from me to get into the Escalade.

I pulled her to me and wrapped my arms around her. She didn’t hesitate to reciprocate as she rested her cheek on my chest.

“Your hair still drives me a little crazy, I have to admit,” I whispered to her.

She giggled. “Would you like me to give you a lock of it?”

“I
’m so tempted, but I don’t think it will be the same as it is attached to your head.”

“No, I suppose not,” she said softly.

“I never deserved you,” I said, my lips moving on her hair.

“No,” she agreed. “You deserved better, and you got her.”

She pulled away from me then. She wouldn’t look at me as I opened the door for her, nor as she climbed into the truck. I needed to see her face and I needed to tell her she was wrong, but I couldn’t tell her that. Lily was perfect for me, the one I was supposed to be with. Before I could close the door, however, Emmy looked at me with misty eyes.

“Maybe there will be a place for us in another lifetime,” she said softly.

“I have no doubt about it,” I told her.

I closed the door and watched as part of me was once again whisked away. This time I was okay, and I knew she was, too.
Emmy was going home to her happily ever after, and I was going back to mine.

*~
Lily~*

Amara Sterling has lung power, my goodness can the girl scream.

“I’m telling you, she doesn’t like your driving,” I said to my husband.

“She
loves
my driving. Maybe she doesn’t like this stupid music you have on the radio,” Kyle said. “What the hell is this? Radio Disney? Put on some Boys II Men or something.”

I pursed my lips and turned the radio off altogether. Amara continued to cry.

“Definitely your driving,” I said.

“Maybe she just wants her grandma,” he said
. In an adorable voice used only for his daughter, Kyle asked “Do you want your grandma, sweetie? Is that what you want?”

I reached back into her car
seat, blindly searching for her binky.

“Gotcha,” I said as my hand closed over it. I stuck it in Amara’s mouth and the crying subsided.

“Binky addict,” Kyle murmured and took my hand into his. He brought it to his lips and kissed it.

Life has changed for us since the day Vic took me
, aka V-DAY. Two mornings afterward as the nursing staff prepared me for discharge, Kyle was on the phone with the big guys at Sterling. They wanted him back to London ASAP. They didn’t seem to care about what was going on in his personal life. When they finally did yield, they gave him a whole week of personal time but insisted that he must be back in London by the following Tuesday. Without any hesitation or looks of regret, Kyle quit.

“My unborn baby and her mother need me full-time. This job isn’t even secondary in my life. I quit.” He ended the phone call and went back to talking to
my mom as if he had not just made a life altering decision.

Days later
while we relaxed at home, the Sterling men called back and offered Kyle his job back. He could work remotely from home as long as necessary with some light traveling if absolutely necessary. It was the least that they could do. Kyle had saved their asses big time and they never properly thanked him. In addition, he had been a large part in rebuilding the business and they were only just beginning to appreciate his hard work. Kyle said he wouldn’t work more than eight hours a day, and when the baby was born he wanted six weeks off and thereafter he wasn’t willing to travel for at least six months. They called back the following day and agreed to his terms.

Corsey took a vacation. A long vacation. I had run him ragged with the whole Chicago debacle, and the kidnapping thereafter. After he dropped Emmy off at the airport, he called Kyle and told him not to call him. He was going home
to his wife and kid and he didn’t want to be disturbed. Forever. He really said ‘forever’ as if that was going to stop me from calling him and harassing him for letting me push him around in Chicago.

Marco came to see me two days after we got back to the penthouse. He apologized profusely for not doing anything about Vic. Then he apologized profusely that Kyle wasn’t leaving again.

“I was hell bent on seducing you, Lily,” he had said in his fading Italian accent. Lydia had been in the room with me at the time. She snorted and rolled her eyes. Marco had glanced at her and then whispered in my ear. “Well…I’ll settle for your sister.”

I laughed at his joke. In fact I was still giggling about it a few weeks later when I called my sister just for a chat. I wasn’t expecting Marco to answer the phone.

“Why are you always taking my sloppy seconds?” I teased Lydia once I got her on the phone.

“Trust me. There’s nothing sloppy about him,” she had said.

Supposedly, their relationship isn’t that serious, but my mother will have you believing they were about to run away to Vegas and elope. Either way I was happy for Lydia and I was touched that Marco wasn’t as shallow as I had once believed when I first met him. He overlooked my sister’s limp and most likely stepped up to help her deal with her pain.

Felicia was doing very well, better than either Kyle or I could have ever expected. She took her medication religiously and if she didn’t feel right she immediately called her psychiatrist for an adjustment. She started going to therapy twice a week the week after I told her off. Kyle started attending some session
s with her so that they could work on their relationship and deal with their past. It is working, for both of them.

When Walter tried to force his way back into Felicia’s life, she put her foot down and stood her ground until he finally slunk away back into the recesses of hell. She started reforming friendships and even went out on a few dates, much to Kyle’s agitation.
If she had a bad day, she no longer apologized with lunches and brunches. She apologized in person by saying “I’m sorry”. All of the new changes couldn’t have been easy for her, but she really felt she needed to try. She didn’t want to lose Kyle the way she had lost Miranda, and she didn’t want to miss out on Amara’s life.

I couldn’t go to the grand opening of
Lily’s
, but Mayson told me that a lot of the old crowd from
SHOTZ
was there and more. It was a big hit and stayed busy. Marco and Kyle helped run the business end while I was stuck in bed and continued to do so for a few weeks after I had Amara. When I finally made it in there, I was greeted by a lot of familiar faces and cheers for my return. I only worked a few hours a week because I wanted to spend as much time with my baby and Kyle as possible. When she is older, I will spend more time there, but in the meantime, it is running well and is everything I hoped it would be.

All of Vic’s secrets came out in the weeks following his arrest. Since the police now had every reason to search his home in New Jersey, they did so and thoroughly. They found everything they needed to find regarding premeditating my kidnapping and even proving that he had burned down
SHOTZ
. There were other things that they found that also connected him to a couple of other sexual assaults, in addition to some robberies and other things. There was no getting out of it this time. He was going to be in prison for a fairly long time.

Two weeks after V-Day
Kyle proposed to me. It wasn’t quite the proposal a girl would expect, laid up in bed with a bowl of ice-cream resting on my belly, but I was genuinely surprised when he got down on one knee. We got hitched two weeks after Amara was born, at the Sterling estate. My family came in from Ohio, Marco came, Mayson, and a few other people from work. It was quaint and sweet, but how it was done didn’t matter to me. The fact that I married this beautiful person is what mattered most to me.

Kyle is still a dick sometimes, and sometimes his insecurities will trip him up, but he’s always trying to be better. He is always trying to do the right thing and to make me happy. He is the most amazing father I have ever seen, tender and loving to our daughter. Every Sunday he sits on the couch with Amara in his arms and they watch football. He talks to her as if she understands what’s going on. He changes diapers, feeds her, burps her, bathes her, and spends hours a week just watching her facial expressions or watching her sleep.

Anna and Gavin are never far from my mind. I feel sad that they are gone, but I look at Gavin’s kids and feel fortunate to have a piece of both him and Anna living on – three adorable pieces. Kyle didn’t forget about Little Gavin either. He called him weekly, even when we weren’t together apparently. He didn’t want Gavin to feel like another man had deserted him. Could I possibly love this man anymore?

“It looks like mom has some company,” Kyle said absently as we pulled into the driveway at the big house.

My stomach knotted up. I wasn’t nervous before now. I just nodded, acknowledging him before getting out of the car. My hands were shaking as I picked up the diaper bag. Kyle picked up Amara in her car seat and we walked towards the door. I took a very deep breath as I unlocked the door and pushed it open. I could hear voices drifting in from the kitchen at the back of the house. I let Kyle walk ahead of me and I watched as he came to a sudden stop at the threshold to the kitchen. I stepped up beside him to see her with my own eyes.

Miranda, Kyle’s long gone sister stood a few feet away from him with her hands folded in front of her. Hell, she was
gorgeous and she and Kyle have similar facial features. Three children, two of them identical, stood off to the side between their grandmother and a man I guessed was Chad, Miranda’s husband.

Miranda smiled as tears filled her eyes.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Randi…” Kyle choked out and then looked at me with wide eyes. “You knew about this?”

I nodded slowly. Know about it? I contacted her and talked to her for weeks before I convinced her to visit her mother and subsequently Kyle.

Kyle handed me the car seat and meet
his sister halfway for the most emotional, heartfelt embrace I had ever seen or experienced in my life. I wiped away my own tears as the pair murmured and cried. After a couple of minutes Kyle was introduced to his twin nieces, thirteen year old nephew and his brother in-law. I hugged Miranda and each of the children and shook her husband’s hand. She cried again when she got to hold Amara, and I couldn’t blame her. Our baby was beautiful with her dark hair and gray eyes.

Felicia had made a big dinner. We sat down and ate and talked and laughed. It felt like a real family, something Kyle had been lacking most of his life. It made my heart ache with joy to see his face li
ght up and to see how happy he was. I was so happy for him, I had to excuse myself half way through dessert so that I could go be a girl and cry in solitude.

I shut myself into the bathroom and cried. I was so happy for him, for me…for us. I felt like a pussy sitting on the tub, crying – like a pussy – but I couldn’t help it. My life was so different from a year ago, so perfect.

“Lily?” Kyle’s voice came through the door after a light knock.

“Yeah?” I said, standing up and rushing over to the mirror to wipe my face.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m great,” I said honestly.

“Wanna unlock the door?”

“No,” I said with a small laugh and unlocked it anyway.

“Hey,” he said, coming inside and closing the door behind him.

“Hey,” I said.

“Why are you crying?” He frowned as he wiped my eyes with a towel.

“Because I’m a little bitch,” I laughed. “I’m just so happy for us, but especially for you.”

He smiled and kissed me on the lips. “You did this for us,” he said. “You’ve done so much for me over the past year and a half. You’ve made me so happy even when I didn’t think I deserved it.”

“You don’t deserve it,” I teased, poking him in the chest.

He put his arms around me and slipped his hands down to my ass. “There must be a way to thank you, Mrs. Sterling,” he said in a voice that made my toes curl in my boots.

“I’m sure we can work something out, Mr. Sterling,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“I’m so glad you wore a skirt,” he said as he lifted me onto the vanity.

“Mr. Sterling, are you going to take advantage of me in this bathroom in your mother’s home?” I asked, appalled.

“Absofuckinglutely,” he growled before taking my mouth with his.

While he kissed me, his hands moved under my skirt and slowly tore my panties away. I growled my approval in his mouth as my fingers worked to unbutton his jeans and push them down to spring his erection free. His hands were back under my ass, pulling me to the very edge of the vanity before sinking into me. My moan was swallowed into his mouth as he thrust slowly inside of me.

Kyle broke the kiss and stared down into my eyes as he moved painfully slow, stroking my walls with his cock.

“Thank you,” he whispered, running a thumb along my jaw.

“For what?”

“For believing I was worthy of redemption,” he said seriously.

“Do you believe you are worthy of redemption?” I asked, running my fingers through his hair.

“I do now,” he whispered.

“Then that’s all that matters,” I said and kissed him again.

Kyle was a new man, mixed with a lot of the old
Kyle. He was perfect. He was mine, and he was redeemed.

*
The End
*