by Ella Miles
Enzo already knows what to expect and is firing his gun the second we exit. I can barely keep up as he shoots down guard after guard—some of them I recognize as the men from Palmer’s basement.
I regret Enzo killing them, until I see all of them had guns aimed at us.
Enzo shoots the last one in the hallway. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
I nod my agreement and hobble along next to him.
“Palmer’s room is on the end. Give me a minute to take her out then—“
“No.”
Enzo stops and stares at me. “What? She’ll come after you. She’ll come after us. We can’t let her live. It’s not your decision to make.”
“Palmer lives,” I say, not budging on this.
“She can’t. I won’t risk my family.”
“She has to live.”
Enzo shakes his head. Then he grabs the bottom of the hospital gown and lifts it up. “Look what she did to you.” He growls, his eyes daring me to look at my damaged body. But I don’t.
I can feel all the damage. I can feel it on the surface of my skin all the way down to my bones. Unlike other times where I’ve been injured, I won’t recover. I know instinctively that I will never have kids. I don’t even know if I can fuck again.
Now isn’t the time to discuss it, though.
I shove the gown back down.
“I’ll do it. Just stay here,” Enzo says, trying to let me go so he can kill her by himself, but I don’t let go of his arm.
“No. Palmer lives. She won’t come after us.”
“She had dozens of guards outside both of your rooms. That seems like someone who is deep in this world.”
I look back at the damage he did to the guards. “Do any of them look like career criminals? Not one of them got a shot off. And you snuck into my room without any of them noticing. They didn’t have me handcuffed to the bed. They’re amateurs. They are harmless even if they did come after us, but they won’t because Palmer isn’t a villain, she’s just scared.”
“What happened to you? Why are you going soft on me? She tortured you. She deserves to be punished. Death is fairer than what we would usually do to repay those sins.”
My eyes glaze—Enzo’s right. Most people who kidnapped and tortured me would end up getting tortured twice as bad and then eventually killed. Death would actually be showing her mercy.
I haven’t changed. I would still do anything and everything to protect Enzo and his family. This just isn’t one of those times where I need to protect them. There is nothing to protect them from.
I don’t need revenge for what was taken from me.
I need to show compassion to a woman who lost everything and hope her pain didn’t cause me to lose everything as well.
I get in Enzo’s face. “I have followed your orders since we were five. I’ve worked for your company my entire life. I’ve shown devotion and loyalty to you when I could have gotten free of a mad man much sooner. So I think I’ve earned the right to make a decision about what to do with a woman who tortured me.”
I spit out each word—my anger rumbling through my body. I’m not angry at Enzo. I’m angry at what happened to me. I’m angry I couldn’t stop it. I’m angry Lucy is dead, Siren could be as well. I’m angry at what I lost.
“I saved your wife for you. Palmer lives,” I say. I let go of his arm, and I start walking toward the door. I know Enzo well enough—he won’t kill Palmer.
Sure enough, Enzo catches up to me, and grabs hold of my arm again as I step through the automatic sliding doors.
We won’t speak about Palmer again. We’ve been friends too long to let a fight like this impact us. Enzo will be here for me if I ever want to talk about why, but I don’t owe him a reason. He knows how serious this is to me, and that’s enough.
We step out into sticky heat; we must be somewhere near the equator. It’s too blazing not to be. Even hotter than in Miami.
“Which car?” I ask as I hobble down the sidewalk path toward the parking lot, not wanting to take a step in the wrong direction. Each step I take gets more and more painful.
Enzo doesn’t answer me, and I look at him, standing still until he answers me.
He grins and nods in front of us. “That one.”
I turn from him to the direction he’s looking, and I see a van door open. I see Kai holding Siren back.
“We considered drugging Siren to keep her from coming into the hospital with me. I knew you wouldn’t want us to put her at risk to save you. Kai finally convinced her,” Enzo says.
My eyes water seeing Siren alive. I can’t tell from our distance whether Siren is hurt or not, but I’m thankful Enzo didn’t let Siren into that hospital. I need her safe, and I didn’t want her to see me so broken.
I straighten my back, trying to look like I’m not completely shattered. I let go of Enzo’s arm, no longer allowing myself to use him as a crutch. But the tears, those I can’t control—they pour down like rain in a thunderstorm.
“Go get your girl,” Enzo says.
Siren is already way ahead of him, running toward me.
This moment is a turning point for Siren and me. I don’t understand which way we are turning, but we are. I just hope we can continue to keep our promises while we change course.
11
Siren
Bishop put me on a plane the second I agreed to his deal. It was a horrible, awful deal—one I really don’t want to uphold. He’ll kill Zeke in retribution if I don’t keep my end of the deal, though.
Bishop freed me, now I have to do a task for him. One I don’t even understand why he wants me to do.
But I don’t have a choice—I have to do it.
I’m beyond ready to be done making deals with devils. I have two vows left to fulfill. Two promises stand between me and freedom.
When I look out at the grizzly looking man in a hospital gown that only hits him mid-thigh, I would make all those deals again. I would do anything to be with him.
I touch the ring he gave me. I hope to be making one more vow with Zeke soon.
Kai touches my shoulder. “Go get him.” Her smile is tight and sad as she looks out at the two men we love exiting the hospital. She risked her husband’s life to save the man I love.
“Thank you,” I say to her through tears.
“Go,” she says, pushing me out of the van. But I see her tears. Kai wants to check on Zeke as well. She wants to embrace her husband even though it’s been less than twenty minutes since the last time we saw him, and this mission was on the low end of risky, compared to most of his tasks.
I jump out of the van and start running toward Zeke. I’m sore, my body aches, my inner thighs are bruised, my body has been cut, and my stomach has been queasy ever since Bishop put me on the plane to Miami to meet up with Enzo and Kai. And I’ve been sick the entire way here to Bogota, Columbia.
Seeing Zeke somehow just intensifies all those feelings instead of reducing them. As I run, all the fears creep back in.
Will Zeke think I’m damaged?
How hurt is Zeke?
Does he still love me?
Does he still want to marry me?
Why isn’t he running toward me? Why was he using Enzo as a crutch?
Zeke takes a step toward me, and I realize why he’s not running. He’s barely standing on his own.
Relief fills me when it shouldn’t. I shouldn’t feel any happiness at his pain, but he’s not running because of his injuries instead of some emotional issue between us.
I run faster, studying him closer, trying to assess his injuries, so I know where to grab him and pull him into a hug. I decide a hug is better than jumping in his arms, even though that’s what I really want to do. When I see the joyous tears on his face, I know he’s feeling all the same emotions I am.
Finally, I’m within reach of him.
“Be gentle with me, beautiful,” Zeke says, winking at me and holding his arms out.
I jump when I know I shouldn’t
.
He catches me, even though his body should be too weak.
We fall onto the grass next to the sidewalk, but I’m able to turn us so I bear more of the brunt than Zeke does.
We both grunt when we hit the ground, but don’t care as we are finally in each other’s arms.
Zeke shakes his head. “Stop saving me.” He looks pointedly at my arm where I hit the grass first. His words repeat the plea I’ve said to him time and time again.
Stop saving me.
I look up at Zeke with a guilty look on my face because I’ve been wanting Zeke to save me the entire time I was captured. I was begging for him to in my sleep, through the nightmare that was my life, but he was obviously dealing with something much worse.
“I’m sorry,” I cry out, the first words I say to him.
Zeke strokes my face. “Don’t. If we start with apologies, we will never stop. We have too much to be sorry for. I’m not sorry for what it took to get you back.”
“I’m not either.”
We grab each other in a desperate kiss. A kiss that we launch at each other with everything we’ve been feeling—all the pain and agony and heartbreak.
We have a lot to work through. He has no idea what I’ve been through, and I have no idea what he’s been through. He doesn’t know what happened to Lucy. He doesn’t know what I agreed to get free. And I don’t know what it cost him to get back to me.
This kiss is about us, though. It’s about proving to the other we still love each other despite everything that has happened. Whatever it is. Whatever horrible things we’ve done, it doesn’t matter. We love each other forever.
Zeke rolls me on top of him, and I panic when I hear the low moans he makes, but he doesn’t let me roll off him. He continues to kiss me until we are both suffocating and only living on the tiny amount of oxygen between us.
Neither of us stop, though. We can’t pull away. The love we feel is too much. The horrific trauma we’ve both been through won’t allow us to stop.
“Guys, we need to get out of here before the police show up,” Enzo says from behind us.
“Fuck off,” Zeke says, going right back in for a kiss.
Enzo sighs. “You can keep making out in the back of the van. Just get your ass up.”
I giggle and push off of Zeke. I stand as Zeke tries to keep me pressed to him, but I win and stand. I extend my hand, and Zeke takes it, but I realize that he doesn’t have the strength to get himself up with my hand alone.
Enzo is already ahead of me, behind Zeke lifting his shoulders up as I pull his arm. Together, we get Zeke on his feet. Enzo throws one of Zeke’s arms over his shoulders, and I do the same to Zeke’s other arm.
Zeke grimaces but doesn’t stop us from helping him. He doesn’t really have a choice. The three of us walk back to the open van where Kai waits in the driver’s seat. Enzo and I ease Zeke into the middle bench seat, lying him sideways. I climb in after him, lift his head up, and let his head fall on my lap.
I know Zeke doesn’t like being vulnerable. He doesn’t like looking weak. He wants to be my protector. As I stroke my hand through his long hair and think about telling him what happened to me, how he couldn’t prevent it from happening, it’s going to kill him. It’s going to reopen every wound and make him feel inadequate.
Enzo hops in the passenger’s seat, and Kai starts driving away from the hospital and Zeke’s looming demons. No matter how fast Kai drives us away, the ghosts will follow. We aren’t escaping them. We are just getting to a place where we can learn to survive them. A place where we can get on an equal playing field where we can fight and eventually defeat them.
I take Zeke’s hand, needing to feel grounded as we drive. Zeke’s hand doesn’t feel warm and comforting. I don’t feel whole gripping his hand, not like when we were kissing.
When we were kissing, we were able to push everything else out. The bad, the good. Every person. Every nightmare. For a moment in time, it was just us.
Now that we are in the van with Kai and Enzo, we are no longer alone. We have to face reality. Soon, we are going to have to spill everything that happened.
I’m not afraid of hearing what atrocities Zeke lived through. He’s strong enough to handle his own physical pain. I don’t know if he’s strong enough to handle what Julian and Bishop did to me.
My grip on his hand tightens, until I’m squeezing so hard his hand turns white. Instead of telling me to let go, his thumb just traces the back of my hand gently, trying to calm me.
I look down at Zeke’s eyes and see the wildness of the thoughts spinning there. We’ve only just begun our journey. We can say we love each other and want to spend our lives together, but our journey is going to be a lot of work. And there is no guarantee of success.
We drive all afternoon, into the darkness, before reaching the dock where the Black’s yacht is tied up. Everyone is tense as we drive, prepared for one of Palmer’s team to attack us at any moment. Or waiting for Julian or Bishop to sideswipe and attack us with guns and bombs. Kai parks the rental van as close as we can get to the pier.
Zeke is pretty weak at this point. He’s been dosing on and off, and he needs food, water, sleep, and possibly more medical help. There is a team of hired doctors aboard the yacht to help Zeke. The doctors saw to me when I first got on, and I trust them completely.
Zeke needs to talk to them and be examined, that is the first priority, but I can’t help but think I need him. One of the most important things for us to heal is to reconnect. And that process is going to be grueling.
Kai and Enzo step out of the van, and as soon as they do, I feel a heaviness lift. It only reaffirms to me that Zeke and I need time alone to figure out where we go from here. But I’ll be patient. Zeke needs medical attention first.
Enzo opens the door, and Zeke tenses. Something happened between these two in that hospital that changed the dynamic of their relationship. Enzo helps Zeke out of the van and lifts him in the air, cradling him like a baby.
“I’m carrying your big ass; you don’t get to argue with me,” Enzo says.
I don’t hear Zeke’s response, but I smile, watching the two men together like brothers.
Kai takes my hand, and we follow behind our men. Both us scanning the entire walk down the pier, watching for any of our many enemies. I try to push out one of the last times I walked down a pier, having it blown to pieces. It won’t happen again, I remind myself.
We make it to the safety of the yacht. Enzo and Zeke have already disappeared inside the ship, but I find Nora and Beckett waiting for us.
“You okay?” Nora asks.
I nod, not able to speak.
Kai squeezes my hand, telling me she’s here for me. All I want to do is snuggle up next to Zeke.
“Come on,” Kai says, still holding my hand like I’m her child she’s leading to her bedroom to tuck her in.
I give Nora and Beckett a small tight-lipped smile, and then I’m down in the hallways being led to the bedrooms. I expect Kai to lead me back to my bedroom and let me know the doctors are checking on Zeke. She’s going to tell me to get some sleep and she’ll have the doctors check on me in the morning.
Instead, she leads me to a different door. The door is already open, and I can see the doctors fussing over Zeke. I can hear Enzo’s raised voice yelling at Zeke to let the doctors do their work.
“Out,” Kai says forcefully.
All eyes turn to her.
“Everyone out of Zeke’s room. Now,” Kai says again.
I think they are all going to argue, say that Zeke needs medical attention now.
But one by one, every man files past us. Enzo gives his wife a stern look, but she just raises her brow. He leaves, letting her have all the power over the situation.
I stand behind her, still not seeing Zeke.
“Why did you do that? Zeke needs medical attention,” I say, although I don’t believe my own words.
“No, he needs you. Just you,” she says.
She hugs me. “You have the power to heal him. Trust me.” She releases me and tilts her head, telling me it’s okay to enter.
“I’ll have some wrapped food brought down and left outside the door. You can get it when you’re ready.”
I nod but don’t thank her. I need to save everything for Zeke, for whatever truths are going to be spilled. Once I enter the room, I’m not going to leave again until Zeke and I have fought off all our enemies. Until we are solid in our love and our forever.
I step inside, holding my breath. I see Zeke, and my heart heals instantly, but his bleeds out to me. His heart is in turmoil—turmoil I may not be able to heal.
12
Zeke
I’m broken.
That’s what everyone’s eyes have been telling me. Enzo knows how physically damaged I am. Kai knows I’m emotionally torn up. Nora and Beckett both looked at me with pity. The doctors ran into the room and treated me like I was on the verge of dying.
And then—Siren.
Siren isn’t broken.
She doesn’t see me as broken.
I thought what we had would be gone after what we just went through. Neither of us was able to protect the other. Neither of us was able to save the other.
We both had to fight alone.
I’m still unsure if that brought us closer together or pushed us apart—a hurricane of evil threw us to the edges of the earth. Can we ever swim the lengths of the earth to get back to each other?
“Hi,” Siren says timidly, like we are meeting again for the first time. In a way, this is a second first meeting.
Her single, tentative word sends my heart racing, thump-thumping like a drum trying to call her toward me. She smiles bashfully at my need but takes her time walking to me.
She’s wearing jeans and a black tank top. Her arms are fit, but I see the bruises. I see the extra layers of makeup on her face and want to know what she’s hiding.