by Ella Miles
Her watering eyes trigger my own suffering. Lucy is dying, and I’m not there to comfort her. Siren is probably being tortured or raped, and I’m not there to protect her.
Please, god, let Beckett, or Enzo, or Kai…let one of them be there to save her. Please. I’ll never ask for anything again. I just got Siren. She said yes to marrying me, yes to forever. She said yes.
Now, she’s gone.
I failed her.
I promised I would come back when I saved Kai over her and Lucy. I promised. But I failed.
“How long?” I croak, but my voice answers for me. I’ve been out of it for days, most likely. My throat wouldn’t get this dry, my shoulders wouldn’t throb this badly, and my hand would still feel the pain if it had only been a few hours.
“Three days,” the woman answers me.
My eyes fly open again, and my arms and legs struggle against the chains as I roar in agony.
Three.
Fucking.
Days.
So much could happen in that amount of time. Lucy could have died. And Siren…
God, I can’t think of what Julian or Bishop could have done to her in that amount of time. After I got Siren back from Bishop, she was barely able to keep it together. This time…I have no idea if Siren will be the same woman or not. If she’ll ever forgive me for failing her.
I’ll never forgive myself.
The woman pulls out a cigarette and lights it. “You can struggle against those chains all you want, but you won’t get free.”
She puffs out some smoke, and I notice her hand shaking. Her eyes are puffy, like she’s been crying all three days I’ve been unconscious. The nicotine entering her system seems to be the only thing keeping her alive.
“Who are you?” I ask, not sure if she’ll answer me. She did answer my last question.
“You don’t remember?”
She sucks on her cigarette again. I think back, trying to remember if she told me a name.
“I’m Palmer,” she says casually.
“What do you want?” I ask. It’s obvious this isn’t her world. She’s not the type with experience kidnapping and torturing someone. I doubt she’s ever killed anyone before. Her manicured nails and general frailness tell me that she probably has never even held a gun before. She belongs anywhere except in this basement.
Most likely, she had loads of help to get me here. She’s too small to lift my body. I listen carefully, and I hear the creak of a footstep on the floor above. She had help. I don’t even know if she is in charge.
“Nothing you can give me,” she steps forward, the color returning to her cheeks, but her pain never leaving her eyes.
“Palmer, I don’t know what trouble you are in, but I can help you. I don’t care who your enemies are. Let me go, let me save someone I love, and I will do everything I can to help you and protect you. I promise.” Palmer has to be in trouble. Maybe she’s a drug addict. I look at her arms and see no needle marks. Her skin looks healthy, not the yellow-greenish color of most addicts. And her head seems clear.
She’s just in pain—incredible, unmoving pain.
“You think you can help me?”
I nod.
She shakes her head. “I’ve known you for a long time, Zeke Kane. I was told you are a protector, a selfless savior, but it seems to me that you have a hero complex.”
I frown, not sure who she knows that has talked about me. None of my friends would say anything about me to a complete stranger.
“Haven’t figured it out yet?” Her voice lifts, getting stronger as her pain spreads through her veins into every crevice of her body. I can see it move inside her, her torture turning to anger.
“Who are you? What do you want, Palmer?” I keep my voice calm, hoping it will relax her.
“I want the love of my life back!” Her voice is loud and echos throughout the room.
I still. My heart catches, and my breath pauses. I’m afraid I know the answer—why I’m here. And I don’t know how to convince a person who has lost everything to let me go so I can get the only thing in my life back that matters—Siren.
“I want Lucy back,” Palmer says, her hand shaking as she grips the cigarette like it’s her lifeline. The tears fall anyway.
“What happened to Lucy?” I ask, needing her to keep talking. To get it all out and not break down. I try testing the chains again, but I won’t be able to get free without a lot of effort and strength. Strength I don’t have at the moment.
“She’s dead! That’s what happened. She’s dead, and I couldn’t save her!” Palmer screams, but it’s not the volume that gets me. It’s the heartbreak.
I feel it—Lucy’s dead. Palmer isn’t the only one who failed her; I failed Lucy too.
My tears blur my eyes. I lost one of my best friends, a woman I loved. Did I choose wrong? Should I have saved Lucy instead of Kai?
No, I shouldn’t have chosen at all. I should have found a way to save them all.
“I’m so sorry. I loved Lucy too. I—”
“No, you don’t get to speak. You had your chance to save her and you failed,” Palmer shakes her cigarette at me.
I close my mouth. No words can bring back Lucy.
“I tried to use you to bargain with them. I tried to trade you for Lucy, but they wouldn’t trade.”
My eyes darken. They don’t want Lucy—they want Siren. They want what Lucy was protecting. What I was protecting.
“Let me go, and I’ll kill them. I’ll avenge Lucy’s death. I’ll kill every single person responsible for her death.”
Palmer shakes her head. “You’re the reason she’s dead, not them.”
I frown, not following her logic. She’s mourning a woman she loves. She hasn’t said it, but she doesn’t have to. She loved Lucy. I have no doubt Lucy loved her back.
Lucy loved who she loved—man or woman, it made no difference to her. Palmer wouldn’t be hurting so much if Lucy didn’t love her back.
“Lucy was dying. She had cancer. The treatments stopped working. I stood by her side. I want to the chemo. I loved her through it all. She told me she was cured. She told me she didn’t love me anymore. It was all lies.”
She sucks on the cigarette, gaining strength from it.
“She wasn’t cured. She was sick. She was dying. The chemo wasn’t enough. But what her mother created was strong enough.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Don’t I? She had the cure, and she wouldn’t take it. Even for me.” Tears sting her eyes again.
Palmer looks at me with so much damn pain. “She wouldn’t take the cure because of you. She loved you. She wanted to protect you. She knew that opening that box would save her life, but it would risk yours—along with everyone else’s on this planet. It wasn’t just the cure; it was a curse upon this world.”
Palmer’s head falls. “It was because of her love for you that she wouldn’t save herself.”
“No,” I whisper.
Palmer’s head slowly lifts, until she’s looking at me. “Lucy loved you more than she did me.”
“No, she wasn’t thinking about me. She saved the world. If our enemies got it, they would destroy us all.”
“Stop lying! She loved you more. She was protecting you. She died protecting you.”
Palmer is in my face now, her anger pulsing off her body, her breath hot as fire, and her eyes bulging with rage.
“Let me help you,” I say.
She smiles. “Oh, you’ll help me. You’ll help me deal with this pain.” She pounds her hand against her chest, where I know she’s hurting.
“You’ll help me by giving me an outlet for my anger. You will feel everything I feel, because you took her from me. And when I’m finished, you will tell me where the cure is.”
“Palmer, I know you are in pain. That won’t go away easily, but you need help. Let me help you. Torturing me won’t help. I’m built to withstand torture. I won’t break. I’ve never broke. You aren’t experienced with tortu
ring someone. You aren’t a devil. You’re not a monster. Don’t turn into one. Lucy wouldn’t want that.”
Palmer steps back, and I see the pain turning into full-on rage behind her blue eyes.
“You don’t think I can break you?” Her nostrils flare. “That’s only because you’ve never felt torture from someone who has lost someone they love. You’ve never felt the pain of a person who has nothing left to live for. I lost everything.”
“If you keep me here, I’ll have nothing to live for either. We will just be two people locked in an endless battle of pain.”
She steps closer to me again, calm and confident. Her calmness scares me. I don’t cower for me. I can handle the physical pain she’s about to inflict. It terrifies me because every second I’m here is a second Siren is at risk.
I can’t save Lucy.
But I can still save Siren.
“This is for Lucy.” Palmer pushes the cigarette into my skin over my heart.
I don’t react to the pain. I don’t feel it. All I feel is Siren.
“This is going to be fun. You’re strong. You have your own love you are holding onto. I’m going to enjoy taking her from you.”
3
Siren
I expect to be brought into a dungeon. A room with ropes and chains to bind me, to prevent me from fighting, so Julian Reed can do what he wants with my body.
I expect darkness and pain. I expect him to rip my legs apart and push himself inside.
Instead, Julian holds my hand like we are lovers as he leads me into the large tent-like house in the middle of the African savannah. He leads me past his men. Past Bishop. Past everyone. Until we reach the room at the far end.
When we step inside, it’s nothing like the dungeon it should be. This room isn’t a cage. This room is awe-inspiring.
Large windows cover two of the walls and the ceiling, giving a perfect view of the starry night and storm clouds rolling in. The floor is white and luxurious, like a cloud beneath our feet. Beautiful candles are lit in one corner of the room, providing romantic lighting. Champagne and strawberries chill on the other side of the room.
This room is meant for honeymooners, for couples celebrating special anniversaries. This room isn’t meant for a man to take what he wants from a woman without her consent. This room can’t handle what is going through Julian’s head right now. It can’t take in the dangerous thoughts.
This room is pure. It’s beautiful. It’s romantic. None of the things that Julian wants. So why did he choose this room?
If all Julian wanted to do was rape me, he would have done it years ago. He wants more. He wants me to surrender to him. He wants me to be his.
My lips tighten, and my heart thumps carefully in my chest, looking for an escape route. Julian can want me to be his all he wants. He can rape and torture me for years in this perfect room, but I will never be his. Even if I wanted to be—I’m Zeke’s. I gave Zeke Kane everything, and I can never get my heart back.
“What do you think?” Julian asks, his voice husky and dripping with hunger.
“Pretty. It doesn’t suit you,” I say.
He brings our connected hands up to his lips, and he kisses the back of my hand before he sucks in a deep breath, taking in my scent.
“You smell like wildflowers,” he says.
“I smell like mud and rainwater.”
He kisses my hand again, and I jerk it away on instinct. I can’t stand his lips touching me. How am I going to let him do anything else to me?
I’m not.
I take a step away from Julian, expecting this to be the moment where he grabs me and tries to use his force to fuck me. The moment where he snaps his fingers and guards come running in to pin me down.
I’m ready. I don’t have any weapons, but I don’t need them. I only need the desire to avenge Lucy’s death. The desire to save myself. The pull to Zeke, a man who gave me a ring, and promised me forever.
“Relax, Aria. I’m not going to hurt you,” Julian says, his voice purring.
I scoff. “You’ve already hurt me by kidnapping me. By making the man I love choose between the women he loves.”
“I thought he would choose you. I really did.” Julian walks over to the champagne, pops the cork, and then pours two glasses.
I watch him from across the room, careful to avoid what is sitting in the middle of the room. I refuse to look at it. If I do, the situation will become real, the fear will rise in my chest, fight or flight will kick in.
I won’t run; I’ll fight. I’ll have to fight every man in the house to escape. I could win, but I could also end up dead. Something I promised Zeke wouldn’t happen.
I shouldn’t fight. I should be smart. I should manipulate Julian into letting me go. I’m just not sure how to do that yet.
Julian walks back to me as my eyes cut to the door behind me.
“It’s a metal door. Soundproof. Bulletproof. And I’m the only one who can open it,” Julian says, handing me a glass of champagne.
“What do you mean, you are the only one who can open it?”
“Test it.”
I reach behind me and push on the door—nothing.
Julian pulls out his phone. “Duncan, try to open the door to my room.” Julian ends the call, and we hear a faint sound as a man pushes on the door.
Nothing.
“As I was saying, this is my own little piece of heaven. I brought you here because I knew you would love it. It’s beautiful and enchanting, and I’m the only person who has ever been in this room, until you.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I know you, Julian. You like nice things, but nothing this beautiful. This room wasn’t built for you.”
Julian chuckles. “I love how well you know me, Aria. You’re right. This room is far too feminine and romantic for my likes, but it’s perfect for the woman I love.”
He holds out his glass and waits for me to do the same. My hand shakes as I raise my glass in the air. My throat tightens, trying to suffocate me to save me. In my head, I already know what’s going to happen next. I know, and I can’t stop it.
No, I could stop it, I just won’t. The cost would be too great.
“To the woman I love finally finding the man of her dreams.”
He clinks his glass against mine, the ring of the crystal hits my ears like a sharp knife to my eardrums. It continues to ring in my ears long after the sound has stopped.
Julian sips his champagne. My weak hand drops my glass to the floor, shattering it into hundreds of tiny pieces.
“Oh, my love, you’re shaking. I knew I should have gotten you inside before you became soaked by the rainstorm. Here, let me warm you up.”
Julian leans forward, his hand tucking my soaking wet hair behind my hear and gripping my neck in a move all men do when they are trying to comfort a woman before going into a kiss. But there is nothing comforting about his touch. There is nothing welcome about his kiss.
I lean back, just enough for him to notice.
“We had a deal,” Julian says in a soothing voice, like he knows he doesn’t even have to raise his voice in order to get me to do what he wants.
He’s right. We did have a deal. I promised to surrender myself if he let Lucy spend her last moments in my arms, in peace. A promise is a promise. I don’t regret it at all, for Lucy’s sake.
I also promised to tell them where Lucy’s secret is, the box containing the cure and curse, not that I have a clue. But Julian is too focused on fucking me to ask about Lucy’s box.
So this time, when his lips move toward mine, I don’t move. I literally don’t move. I’m stiller than a statue. I don’t breathe. I don’t twitch. I don’t grimace. I swear my heart, brain, and nerves shut down so I don’t feel a damn thing when his lips brush over mine.
I feel nothing, but my damn eyes see everything. I see him lean in. I see his tongue lick over his lips, moistening them in anticipation of our kiss. I see his eyes close, and I hear his soft moan as he kisses me.
&n
bsp; I see the shit-eating grin on his face when he ends the kiss a few seconds later.
Fuck, what have I gotten myself into? I promised I would surrender to him, and he’s not going to stop with a kiss. The kiss is nothing compared to the thoughts in his head. I won’t be able to survive everything he plans on doing.
“That’s not surrendering, Siren. You promised to be mine. You promised to give me everything. That was like kissing a corpse. When I kiss you, you’re supposed to kiss me back,” Julian says, stroking my neck with his thumb like he has a claim to me.
“That wasn’t part of our deal. Surrendering and giving you everything is not the same thing,” I say, taking a step back again.
His hand drops, and I’m free for another second.
“You aren’t one to back down on a deal.” He raises his brow, and his smirk returns to his disgusting, vile face.
I surrendered myself to save Lucy.
But I gave everything to protect Zeke. Zeke will never know why. He will never forgive me, either.
I twist the ring on my right hand. A ring I doubt will ever move to my left. It would be a sin. I can’t give myself to Zeke, not fully, not in the way I want and he deserves. Not without risking everything.
Surrender and live—keep my promise that I traded to give Lucy a peaceful end.
Fight and die—ruining the promise I made to Zeke to stay alive. To let him come save me.
I’m fucked either way.
“I surrender,” I say, keeping my promise and ensuring I live just a little longer. But knowing that by giving myself to this monster, I’ll probably want to die.
4
Zeke
Palmer is pissed.
She’s full of rage.
It emanates off her in waves. Her wrath has confiscated every corner of her body. Every nerve. Every blood vessel. Every organ is consumed with her anger.
When she pushes the cigarette butt into my skin, it’s not just the pain of the searing fire that I feel, it’s her anger. It’s impossible not to absorb it. She’s shoving her anger into the space between us.