Shackled Hearts (Chained Hearts Duet 4)

“How could you?” she screams. Then her fists find my chest, hitting me over and over. I let her take out her anger on me, I deserve it. I got Sergio killed. “How could you take him from me? He loved you, Lucas. Did whatever you needed. He loved you.”

“I loved him too,” I reply. Even if I don’t believe in love, I believed in Sergio.

Sookie collapses into my arms, and I struggle to keep her up with my fucked-up leg, but I don’t move.

“Even after everything, I stayed. I should have left,” she says, sobbing now. A little kid comes running out, and Sookie pulls back from me.

“I never want to see you again, Lucas. Do you hear me?” She picks up her son, Sergio’s mini-me, and puts him on her hip. “Lucas, tell me you understand?”

“Money will be sent to you every month, Sookie.”

“I don’t want your dirty money. I want my husband.”

“You know I can’t do that.” I look behind me, expecting to see him, but I see nothing.

“Here…” she holds out the envelope, “… take your dirty money and leave.”

I place the envelope on the floor and face her again. “I’ll send someone else every month. If you need anything, call me.”

“Fuck you, Lucas.”

“Yeah, I’ve been told that a lot lately,” I say quietly as I head back to the car.

And back to my fucked-up shit hole of a life.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chanel

Right now, I remember everything.

Then, I remember Farris.

Our fight in greater detail now, and the way he spoke to me. The way he expected me to just be okay with him having cheated on me and getting another woman pregnant. Lucas is a lot of things, most of them bad, but I am sure he wouldn’t do something like that, and that’s saying a lot.

I knock on the door.

Merci’s face greets me with a smile as she pulls it open.

“How could I be so…” I pause. “Stupid.” I fall into her arms, and she pats my back.

“Chanel?” she asks, confused.

“I loved him before, and somehow, he made me fall in love with him again. How can that be possible? How can I fall for him again after everything he did to me?” I step back to see her eyes wide.

“You remember?” she asks.

I nod and walk farther inside. It’s my old apartment where I grew up, but now it is Brody’s and Merci’s. “Well, shit.” She shakes her head. “You two were drawn to each other like a moth to a flame. No one really understood it, Chanel. It just… was.”

“I don’t even understand it,” I say on a sigh, sitting on my old couch. “And now, he may very well be dead after the best non-paid date of my life.” I throw my head back, laughing. Men used to pay me to go on dates with them. Some took me to flashy restaurants, some took me to shit ones, but each time it was just a job.

Lucas was the first man to take me out on a real date. Granted, I fucked him, and he deserved that. But Lucas puts in the finer details like he knew I love to read.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“He shot Keir, then went after Sailor. He wanted to kill her.”

“Oh fuck, he’s a dead man,” Merci states.