by Ella Miles
“Now, you will do exactly what I say, or Peter will torture her,” Bishop says.
I close my eyes, trying to reveal nothing, but this man already has me figured out. He knows I will do anything to save someone else from being harmed.
Although, he’s wrong if he thinks that will hurt me. There is only one person who could hurt me, and he’s thousands of miles away.
“What do you want me to do?” I ask.
Bishop smiles. “Oh, princess. All the darkest things you can imagine.”
There is something wrong with him—Bishop. Something fucked up in his head. Something deranged about him.
He doesn’t get off raping women. He doesn’t get off on control. In fact, half the time, he wants me to hurt him in the same way he’s hurting me. That’s what he gets off on—the pain.
Someone hurt him bad.
If I don’t get out of here soon, I’m not going to be able to walk out on my own two feet.
I realize now, even I have a breaking point. Bishop has done his best in the last three days to find it. And he has.
I’m broken.
Not physically, but psychologically. I haven’t slept in three days. I haven’t eaten. I’ve barely had any water.
I’m delusional. All I see is Zeke.
Zeke…Zeke…Zeke…
He’s in my head.
He’s in my heart.
He’s everywhere.
I can’t remember if I should be running toward Zeke or away from him.
But Zeke keeps calling me. He tells me to follow him.
There is a reason I’m not supposed to go with him, but I can’t remember anymore. I can’t think.
I just move.
I sprint.
At least, I think I’m running.
I’m barefoot. Naked under a baggy T-shirt. My hair is a mess. My eyes are exhausted, but I keep them open. If I close them, I feel electric shocks.
Bishop enjoyed shooting electricity through my body. Seeing him do it to another woman made me beg him to give me more and her none. I can’t watch others in pain.
Others! I can’t run, I have to save them.
You can’t save them if you are dead.
Run, get help. That’s the only way to save them. You aren’t strong enough on your own.
Yes, I am!
No, you’re not.
The voices in my head keep fighting as I stumble through the forest. At least I think it’s a forest. All I see are ghosts floating through the shadows, telling me to run.
So I run.
And run.
And run.
But I will never escape the pain. Not my own pain, that man’s pain. I’ve never felt anything like it. I want to turn around and kill him just to end his suffering, but I can’t. I have to run.
I have to escape.
I am strong enough.
I don’t need a man. I don’t need Zeke.
Suddenly I feel the hands grab me as I collapse. The hands aren’t Zeke’s hands. They are the man’s—Bishop’s.
“Did you enjoy your run? I enjoyed the chase.” He pulls me up. “Let’s get you home and fed. Then we can do that again. I quite enjoy chasing you.”
I collapse in his arms. I’m not strong enough. I can’t save myself. I definitely can’t save the women. I failed.
Zeke.
Zeke isn’t coming. He vowed he wouldn’t, and he always keeps his word.
38
Zeke
It cost me everything to get Siren back.
Every penny I had.
The man Hugo sold her to is more sadistic than any man I’ve ever met. He would only sell her to me if I gave everything I had. He didn’t care if I only had a thousand dollars in my account, he would have taken it. He just wanted me to be poor, to be worth nothing when she returned to me.
I could have fought my way in. I could have fought him, killed him. But it would have taken time, time I didn’t have to get her back.
I’ll kill him. Eventually, I will. But the most important thing right now is getting Siren back in my arms and away from him.
Hugo didn’t tell me his name, and I still haven’t learned it. Right now, his name doesn’t matter. Hugo gave me the number to call. He told me she was in northern Spain.
I’m there now, waiting for Siren to be returned to me in a coffee shop.
A freaking coffee shop!
That’s where he said his men would meet me.
I’m afraid he’s going to double-cross me. This dark stranger hides in the shadows and enjoys playing games with me.
He won’t break his word because he’s watching. And he’ll enjoy the show. He thinks Siren won’t want me now that I’m nothing. Now that I have no money.
He’s wrong.
Siren will want me. The millions in my bank account meant nothing to her. She didn’t even know how much money I had. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’ll love me more for giving it all away to save her.
Or she’ll shoot me for not letting her save herself.
I never know which way it will go when it comes to Siren.
A car pulls up, and a woman is pushed out before it takes off.
I run to her before she collapses in the street.
“You’re alive,” I breathe into her hair as my tears fall.
She doesn’t look too beaten up. She looks whole, but that doesn’t mean I know what she’s been through. It doesn’t mean she didn’t suffer.
I lift her up and realize how light she is. How her eyes fall closed. How her breath is weak.
“Fucker. I’m going to kill you,” I vow into the darkness. Whoever you are, you’re dead for whatever you did to her.
Siren doesn’t respond to me holding her; she’s too weak.
“You’re safe now, I’ve got you,” I say as I carry her to my rental truck. I will drive her to the airport where Nora is waiting for us. She hired a private jet that can make the overseas trip, as I have nothing left. No money to save Siren with. No money to bribe anyone to fly us or take care of her.
I have nothing but love to offer Siren.
I drive to the airport with Siren in my lap and my hand on the pulse on her neck, making sure she’s alive. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but the waiting doctors on the plane will find out.
“Hold on, Siren. Hold on,” I say.
I drive faster than I ever have before to get her to the plane. I spot Nora standing on the tarmac as I arrive. Her eyes search for Siren, still limp in my lap.
Nora grabs the door as I lift Siren out.
“Is she okay?” Nora asks.
“I don’t know. She hasn’t spoken. She hasn’t acknowledged me at all.”
Nora’s eyes tell me everything. She’s worried.
I carry Siren up the stairs and onto the plane where the medical team is waiting.
“How is she?” the doctor asks as I lay her on a makeshift table.
“She’s unresponsive, but I felt a pulse.”
“Let’s get to work! Oxygen, pulse, fluids…” the doctor barks orders at his team while Nora and I stand and watch. There is nothing for us to do. We’ve done everything we can. Now it’s up to the medical team.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask, when the flurry of excitement seems to settle down. Siren still hasn’t opened her eyes.
The doctor rubs his neck. “She’s definitely dehydrated, which is why she’s so weak and skinny, but we couldn’t find anything else physically wrong with her.”
“Was she…” Goddammit, I can’t even ask. I swallow my anger, needing to know the answer. “Was she raped?”
The doctor puts his hand on my shoulder as if to prepare me for the bad news. “I can’t answer that for you. We did a rape kit, but we found no real evidence. Physically, she’s fine. She could have been raped. She could have been mentally tortured. So much could have happened that I can’t answer, only she can.”
“How long until she wakes up?”
“Minutes, hours, days. She’s exhauste
d and dehydrated, so her body shut down to preserve energy. I can’t tell you when the body will feel rested enough to reverse course.”
I nod. “Thank you, doctor.”
“Sit with her. Sometimes having the person we love most close does more healing than medicine ever can.”
The person we love most—I love her.
I knew it the second I realized she was sold. There was nothing I wouldn’t do. Nothing.
I’d even hurt others I cared about or supposedly loved. Siren sucked me in and made me fall for her. I can’t explain it. I’m hers. I’m fucking hers.
Everything else disappeared.
Lucy.
Kai.
Enzo.
My whole life—no one mattered as much as Siren. Nothing has been as complicated as loving Siren either, but I want complicated. I want messy. I want complex.
I used to think the only way to settle down was a simple life. A life where I met a simple girl who made my life easy. A woman who didn’t push me to be better.
But with Siren, she makes me want to learn how to fight harder. How to be better. How to love her deeper.
I want to experience the full range of emotion. The full spectrum of life—with her. I love trying to figure her out. I love that I’m the only man capable of loving her and being loved in return without dying from heartbreak like Hugo did.
I love that this complex, strong, incredible woman chose me. Wants me.
I sit next to Siren.
Nora pokes her head in. “I’m going to try and get some sleep. If you need a break, wake me up, and I can sit with her.”
“I won’t need a break,” I say, staring at a sleeping Siren.
Nora smiles. “I know. Wake me up if there is any change.”
“I will.”
Nora leaves me in the room at the back of the plane with Siren sleeping in the bed.
I run my hand through my long hair.
“I’m wearing my hair down for you. I know you like it better this way. Open your eyes and see for yourself,” I say.
But of course, she doesn’t open her eyes.
I sigh.
“This plane is huge, and we have a bed all to ourselves. We could really do some damage to our mile-high status on this plane,” I joke.
Nothing.
“Yea, okay, that was dumb.”
Just be with her.
Maybe words aren’t the way.
I grab her hand, planning on holding it until she wakes up. There’s a shock, probably static electricity. I pull my hand back for a second, and her eyes open.
“My anchor,” she sighs.
“Yes, I’m your anchor,” I say, still not knowing why she calls me that.
I reach out to pull her into a hug at the same time she sits up, but there’s that damn static electricity again, shocking us both. It seems to hurt Siren worse than it does me.
“I’m sorry,” I say, holding my hands wide and letting her come to me. I don’t feel anything when she touches me, but it’s clear she feels something painful.
“Never mind, I can hug you in a minute. Do you need anything? Water? Food?”
She shakes her head, smiling. “Just you.”
I nod. “You have me.”
“My anchor,” she says again with a bigger smile on her face. “You’ve been my anchor this whole time. Thank you for saving me again.”
“It seems like you did a pretty good job saving yourself. I just got you the last little bit. Only minor injuries.”
She nods, her smile falling a little. Please tell me he didn’t rape you.
“He didn’t rape me.”
I exhale. “Thank you,” I whisper.
She nods, her eyes watering. “I fell for you, Zeke. I tried not to. Every man who falls for me ends up dead.”
Our eyes meet. She knows Hugo is dead. I don’t know how, but she does.
I nod, though, confirming her thoughts.
“I don’t want you to suffer the same fate.”
“I won’t.”
She swallows. “You want to know when you became my anchor?”
I nod.
“When I saved you. You were weak, out of it on my boat, looking a lot like I look right now.”
“No, no one is as beautiful as you.” I want to touch her, but I don’t want to shock her, so I’ll wait until the end of her story.
She smiles. “There was a storm, choppy waves. I knew I had to get you to land as fast as possible. It was the only way you’d survive. So I pushed us faster. Harder into the waves.
“One of the waves was too big. It pushed me overboard. I tried to swim against the current, but I was too weak. You were drifting away. But, somehow, my ankle got twisted up in a rope. A rope tied to the boat. All I had to do was hold on and you pulled me back.”
I stroke her face, and watch it turn to pain at my touch.
“I was far too weak to pull you back,” I say.
“It didn’t matter. We were tied together. When all hope was gone, you pulled me back. Maybe not intentionally, but you gave me strength. I had to save you, and you had to save me. When I got back on the boat, I felt myself falling, my heart beating for you. Call it instant love. Call it fate. I don’t know. But it scared me. I needed to get away from you.”
I nod.
“God, I need to kiss you.”
“Then kiss me.”
I do. I devour her. I need this kiss to be fucking everything.
She screams in pain as soon as my lips touch hers.
The doctors fly into the room, and I’m pushed back. Every time they touch her, she screams like she’s being shocked.
What did he do to her?
Why can’t she handle being touched?
And how can I love her without touching her?
39
Siren
It takes the doctors a minute to realize what happened to me. It takes Zeke and me even less time.
I remember. Bishop shocked me. He played games with my head until I hated being touched. Then he sold me to my love, knowing I couldn’t handle him touching me.
He thought it would break us. It might have, if something else didn’t break us first.
A truth that turned out to be a lie. A truth I found out accidentally. A truth Zeke never thought I’d learn.
The doctors fuss over me most of the plane ride. Zeke speaks to me some, but we don’t try touching again. We hardly talk until I’m back at Zeke’s house.
Then everything comes out.
“You lied to me,” I say.
Zeke stares at me. “What?”
“You said you didn’t sell those women. You said you saved them.”
“I did.”
“You lied.”
“What are you talking about? You should rest, and we can talk more in the morning. I have doctors coming who can help reverse what happened to you.”
I scream. “This can’t be reversed just like that! Is that all that matters to you? Touching me?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m just trying to help you.”
I grab his hair and yank hard, needing to hurt Zeke without shocking myself.
But I’m already in pain. So much pain. Zeke isn’t the man I thought he was. I have high standards for the men I love. I thought Zeke would pass my tests.
I was wrong.
“I’ve been falling in love with you since the moment I saved you,” I say.
“And I’ve been falling—”
I can’t hear him say it.
“I gave up everything to save you. I risked everything,” I continue as my tears come.
Zeke stills at the sight of my tears and not being able to do a damn thing to help me. Not because he can’t touch me, but because he’s just like all the other men in my life.
This is how I get rid of him. This is how Zeke leaves my life.
I have to get through this first. Just a little longer.
“Lucy is safe. I’ll make sure you know exactly where she is before I leave.
”
“Leave? You are in no state to go anywhere, Siren. You’re not going anywhere.”
But I am. There is no use fighting him on this. I need to leave. I’m not going far. Just to Julian’s. To figure out how to cross out his name from my body.
“You’re not going anywhere with me, Siren. I know you’re free now that Hugo is dead. You no longer owe anything to Julian. Your debt is over.”
If only it were that easy.
“I used to love you, you know. Until I learned that you are just like all the rest of the dangerous men in my life.”
“What are you talking about, Siren?”
“The women you supposedly saved. The women you said you didn’t sell. They had a different story to tell. Two of the women were sold to Bishop. They were sold by you, Zeke. You didn’t save them. You sold them.”
Zeke doesn’t respond. He just blinks at me. “Bishop, who?”
“I don’t know, but you aren’t even going to deny it?”
“No, you are the only woman I care to save. I love you, Siren. I want you. And I’m the man for you.”
I shake my head as he walks closer.
“I’m going to fight for you. I’m going to kill Bishop for what he did to you. I’ll rescue any woman I want. I’ll spill every secret, lie, and horrible thing I did in front of your feet so that you can make me pay in blood for my sins. You’re the person for me, Siren. You, not Lucy. Not Kai. Not any other woman. You’re mine.”
God, his words are everything. But I’ve heard them before. From Hugo. From Julian.
I thought they would sound different coming from Zeke, but they don’t. They all sound the same. Because all the men in my life are the same—murderous monsters who only care about themselves.
“You’re free now, Siren. Free from Julian. Together we can take him down. Together we can find our happily ever after.”
Oh god, his words are going to kill me.
But he still doesn’t understand my truth. I hope to god the words he’s saying aren’t the truth. Because I realized one thing with my time with Bishop. I can’t be with Zeke, no matter if I love him or not. Whatever his reason for lying to me about selling the women, I might be able to forgive him—maybe.