by Aly Martinez
I couldn’t bring myself to consider what Mia would have wanted at all.
I needed her.
I lifted my shaking hands to sign when my voice lodged in my throat. This is not your decision to make. You don’t get to play God.
Her mother shook her head in regret. “We didn’t make it. She did—six months ago when she found out there was no treatment for the newest tumor they found.”
My legs buckled as the excruciating pain hit my gut.
She knew. Oh my God, she knew all along.
“You’re lying,” I declared. “She would have told me.”
She shrugged. “Come on, Quarry. You of all people know how stubborn Mia was. She didn’t want you to worry.”
I stumbled back a step.
She didn’t want me to worry?
I was dying right alongside her. I’d have given anything to have more than just a few hours to adjust to the fact that I was never going to see her again.
No.
I wasn’t letting her go.
I could fix this. We’d find some new doctors. Get a second opinion. She’d wake up and be fine.
I’d fight for her, because she would have fought for me.
“I don’t care. I’m unmaking her decision. I should get a say in this and I say she lives.” I swallowed hard, packing down my desperation. “You will not fucking touch her.” I seethed, swinging my gaze between her parents.
“I’m done.” Her short, overweight father stepped forward. “I will not stand here listening to you throw a temper tantrum at the side of my daughter’s deathbed. If there was hope, trust me, we would be clinging to it. But that is the shell of our Mia. She has no brain activity. People don’t just come back from that. We all loved her. But she didn’t want to live like this.”
He choked on the admission, but I abruptly cut him off. “Love. I love her. She’s not gone, and I will not let you take her from me!”
He stepped even closer. “You either get the hell out right now or I will have security escort you out.”
I gritted my teeth and my entire body flexed, preparing for war. “Then make your call, because there isn’t a force in the world that could drag me away from her.” I menacingly bumped my chest to his, forcing him to stumble.
Suddenly a pair of hands slammed into my chest and Liv slid in front of me. I read her lips as she yelled, “Stop!”
My head snapped up as Till, Flint, and Slate filed into the room. My shoulders slacked at the sight of reinforcements. “Get them out of here,” I barked at Till while nodding to Mia’s parents.
“You need to come with me,” he replied with his hands and voice, and then grabbed my arm.
I immediately snatched it away. “Fuck you.”
I turned to look over my shoulder when motion at Mia’s bedside caught my attention.
Liv’s silent wails as she clung to Mia’s hand drained my soul.
What the fuck is going on?
My mind swirled as devastation sunk in.
She can’t be gone.
Not Mia.
Epilogue
Ash
MIA MARCH WAS TAKEN OFF life support less than twenty-four hours after her parents produced a notarized Do Not Resuscitate order dated six months earlier. We all attended her funeral, although Quarry’s presence was limited to physical. His mind seemed to be lost in her deceit while he watched his heart being lowered into the ground. The whole Page family rallied around him, but we all struggled to make any kind of headway as he retreated into his own self-inflicted solitary confinement. News of Quarry’s sudden loss hit sports pages everywhere, and Flint was flooded with phone calls as Quarry’s popularity skyrocketed.
He hated every single second of it.
We were all rocked by Mia’s death. Suddenly, forever didn’t seem as long anymore.
After months of debating, Flint and I decided to start a family. I was just finishing up college when Flint and I welcomed Cole Page into the family. He was born with red hair that eventually turned strawberry blonde. He had Flint’s bright blue eyes and my wide smile.
Having a baby was not as difficult as everyone warned it would be. Cole was a blast. It was the second one who flipped our world upside down. I thought Flint was going to have a stroke when they informed us that I was already pregnant again at my first postpartum appointment.
I cried.
Flint just held Cole and blinked a lot.
But in the end when Chase was born looking exactly like his brother, we all laughed.
Bottles, diapers, and sippy cups became our life. Time marched on, just at a slightly quicker pace.
When the boys were two and three, we buried Julio in the corner next to the weeds in the backyard. I was a mess, but that day I made the decision to go back to school and become a veterinarian. Flint was making excellent money, so upon graduation I was able to volunteer at the local animal shelter. They were grateful for my free expertise, but Flint was slightly less than excited by the constant stream of injured animals parading in and out of our house. He sat me down one night and gave me a firm lecture about not being able to save them all. I rolled my eyes and kept trying.
Over the years Flint and I laughed a lot. We also argued a good bit too, but we always made up. I continued to dream and Flint continued doing everything he could to fulfill them.
The day Flint finally put away his cane for good was a big deal—even to Flint. I cooked dinner that night and then the boys and I danced around the living room singing “Eye of the Tiger” at the top of our lungs while Flint laughed in the corner.
That night as we feel asleep tangled in each other’s arms, Flint whispered in my ear just before I dozed off. “You stayed.”
“Huh,” I mumbled sleepily against his chest.
“You stayed and I’m walking.” He tipped my chin up to take my lips in a reverent kiss. “Maybe those weren’t dreams. Maybe they were our future all along.”
My eyes popped open as I suddenly bolted upright. “Oh my God,” I breathed as my heart began to race. “Do you know what this means?” I swallowed hard.
His eyes flashed alarm. “Jesus, Ash, what the hell are you talking about?”
“I really am clairvoyant.” I breathed.
His shoulders fell as he glared, unimpressed with my joke.
“No, wait! We’re both clairvoyant. Hurry, get up! We need to start training the boys to harness their powers for good and not evil.”
Grabbing my waist, he flipped me to the other side of the bed and covered me with his body. “Funny girl, huh?” He began tickling me, only to silence my howls of laughter with his mouth. Pinning my wrists above my head, he glided a hand between my legs, instantly finding my clit with his thumb.
I threw my head back against the bed. “Oh God.”
“What’s wrong, smartass? You didn’t see that in your future?”
I rolled my hips off the bed, grinding against his hand. “Oh, I did. All of these years have been a meticulously crafted plan just to get to this exact moment. You better not disappoint me now.” He laughed as I began pushing the sweatpants off his hips.
Seconds later he was inside me.
And he didn’t disappoint.
Ever.
THE END
Dedication
Daddy,
Thank you for forcing me to watch Rocky at least once a week for most of my childhood. The Page brothers wouldn’t be here without you.
I love you.
P.S. Rocky IV will always be my favorite.
Prologue
“MIA!” I SHOUTED.
It was worthless. She’d been deaf since the day I’d met her.
She’d never once heard my voice.
She’d never heard the deep rumble of my laugh when she was excited, signing so fast I could barely keep up.
She’d never heard my content sigh when she barged into the locker room after a fight—just her presence soothed the lingering madness brewing within me.
She’d never hea
rd me whispering my deepest fears into her ear as she fell asleep on top of me.
She’d never heard the reverence in which I cried her name each and every time I took her body.
And she’d never once heard the ease in which the words I love you tumbled from my lips as I stared into her deep, jade-green eyes.
But, as I screamed her name while watching her petite body seizing in the passenger’s seat beside me, I’d never needed her to hear me more.
“Mia. Oh God. I’ve got you, baby.”
She was still thrashing violently as I made my way around to her door and yanked it open while pleading with whichever god was willing to help.
When she stilled, a whole new level of silence filled the air around us. It wasn’t the absence of sound.
It was the absence of life.
“Mia, breathe!” I roared as her chest remained agonizingly still. “Help me!” I screamed at the closed emergency room doors, but no medical savior rushed out with the miracle I so desperately needed.
My hands shook wildly as I released her lifeless body from the seat belt.
“I’ve got you. Just hang on. Please just hang on, baby,” I whispered, lifting her into my arms and sprinting through the sliding doors. “I need a doctor! She’s not breathing!”
Nurses rushed toward me in slow motion as the seconds without air in her lungs passed at a terrifying speed.
Breathe.
A doctor appeared with a gurney and quickly took her from my arms.
The immediate loss was staggering.
Hope became my only solace.
She needed help I wasn’t capable of giving her, but that didn’t stop me from following close behind as they rolled her away. I was on the verge of self-destructing; letting her out of my sight wasn’t an option.
I stood motionless in the doorway while doctors and nurses swarmed around her. Their mouths moved frantically, but without my hearing aids, I was worthless, unable to make out the words their faint voices carried.
I never wore my hearing aids when I was with Mia. There was no point. She rarely spoke with her voice.
We’d spent four years building a relationship with our hands.
Those hands had told me animated stories that had made me laugh until my face hurt from smiling.
They’d fought with me relentlessly, but they’d always ended the night raking down my back in silent ecstasy.
Her fingers had fluidly signed I love you more times than I could ever count—or forget.
But, as I felt the nurse attempting to physically remove me from the room, my eyes became fixated on her limp hand dangling off the side of the bed. It was the only sight more frightening than watching her flail mid-seizure.
It ripped the heart straight from my chest.
That hand was supposed to be full of life.
It was the very essence of Mia.
Pale.
White.
Still.
Oh, God.
After sucking in a deep breath, I held it until the room began to spin.
It provided me no relief even as it forced me to my knees.
There would be no distraction from this.
I was going to lose her.
Yet another woman I couldn’t save.
Chapter One
Liv
I MET QUARRY PAGE IN the back alley behind On The Ropes boxing gym. He saved my life. Well, more accurately, he saved me from a life sentence in prison for killing two twelve-year-old boys who thought picking on me was a good idea.
“Let me go!” the boy shouted, only seconds away from tears.
I squeezed my arm even tighter around his neck. “Take it back!”
“Dude… Get…her off me,” he grunted to his friend.
His buddy wasn’t about to jump in though. I’d already dropped him to the ground with a kick to the crotch. So, like a good little wimp, he watched with huge eyes, justly terrified as I clung to his friend’s back and threatened to choke the life out of him.
All of this could have been avoided if they hadn’t acted like idiots. I had been minding my own business, reading a book on my iPad with my headphones blaring, when they’d stumbled upon me. I was sure I’d looked like an easy target for them to unleash some childhood cruelty on.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Sure, I was a little girl who loved all things purple, makeup, and high heels, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t tough as nails. When you grow up with a druggie birth mother, you quickly realize that the world doesn’t owe you anything. The random guys parading in and out of my house sure as hell didn’t. If I was lucky, they left me the hell alone. If I wasn’t… Well, anyway.
It wasn’t until my mother overdosed on heroin a few years earlier that my father entered the picture, allowing me to breathe easy for the first time in my young life. He had money. A nice house. A warm bed. A stocked fridge. And, because he was the owner of Guardian Protection Agency, our security system was unrivaled. We were always surrounded by his men. They were part of my family too—and the reason I knew how to defend myself in the first place. Insecurity and fear should have been a thing of the past for me. But experiences like mine didn’t leave a person easily, no matter how old they were. So, when those two boys snatched my iPad and began throwing rocks at me as I scrambled to get it back, I lost my mind.
And then they lost their pride at the hands of a nine-year-old girl.
“Take it back!” I screamed again as he painfully banged me against the brick wall.
My grip faltered, which allowed him enough time to flip my small body over his shoulder and fling me to the hard ground. At the last second, I caught him and dragged him down with me.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” the boy heaved as I attempted to regain my hold on his neck.
It was worthless. While I’d caught him off guard the first time, he was way bigger than I was and used that to his advantage. His body quickly covered mine as I fought underneath him.
“Get your hands off me, butt face!” I shouted.
Suddenly, he was gone, and I don’t mean he let me go. I mean, one second, he was on top of me and, the next, he was flying away from me as if I had finally been able to harness The Force.
“Who the hell are you?” the boy, still cupping his balls, shouted.
Before I even had a chance to see who the question was aimed at, a pair of unforgettable hazel eyes leaned over me.
“Are you okay?”
I was nine. Boys were disgusting. They were even worse than snips and snails and puppy-dog tails.
But not this one.
This one was beautiful, and my normal sass evaded me as my mouth dried out.
I stared up at him from the ground for entirely too long.
With a wicked dimple denting his cheek, he tilted his head in question, causing his straight, black hair to hang in his eyes. “Did you swallow your tongue? I just heard you screaming, so I know you can talk. Are you okay?”
I nodded, still unable to find my voice. After pushing myself off the ground, I dusted dirt off the back of my purple dress, which I’d paired with adorable, sparkly leggings.
“You bitch!” the punk I’d almost killed yelled, rubbing his neck.
The hazel eyes I couldn’t stop staring at never left mine, even as his jaw twitched from the boy’s curse.
“Are you a bitch?” he asked calmly.
I shook my head and the most spectacular lopsided grin formed on his lips.
“I didn’t think so.” Spinning, he grabbed the boy’s throat and swept his leg out from under him. Hazel Eyes crashed to the ground, pinning him. “What the fuck did you call her, dickhead?” He mercilessly grabbed his throat as the boy fought under his grip.
I wasn’t sure how old my hero was, but I figured he had to have been at least fourteen. He was a giant compared to both of the wusses who had been picking on me.
Blue Balls made a tight circle around them, unsure whether to jump in and help his pal or not.
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I made his decision for him when I shook my head and leveled him with a pointed glare.
His eyes nervously flashed between his friend and me. “She attacked us!” he yelled, slowly backing toward the door.
“I did not! You threw a rock at me first.”
“You kicked me in the balls!” he returned.
“Yep. Want another go?” I took a giant step toward him.
“Judging by the fact that you’re scared of a girl half your size, I’m not sure you had any balls to begin with,” my nameless hero sniped.
I smiled proudly, turning to him. My stomach fluttered when my gaze met his. His murderous expression softened as he blinked at me with thick, black lashes.
We both awkwardly looked away.
“Apologize,” he growled at the boy still pinned to the ground.
Hazel Eyes released his neck long enough for the boy to cough a, “Sorry,” in my direction.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Make him apologize for calling me a girl, too.”
He swung his head to face me. “Um. You are a girl,” he stated incredulously.
I let out a frustrated huff and looked away to cover the heat that rushed to my cheeks.
I was completely okay with being a girl in his eyes. Those two idiots though? No way.
“Just do it!” I ordered.
Shrugging, he shook his head and then barked, “Fucking apologize.”
“This is bull crap. I’m telling Slate,” the boy said.
“Telling him what? That you got your ass handed to you by a”—his gaze flicked to mine—“girl you were throwing rocks at? Let me know how that works out for you.”
“No, I’m telling on you. There’s no fighting allowed outside the ring. He’ll kick you out of the youth program if he finds out you put your hands on me.”
I swear I saw the proverbial light bulb flash on above my hero’s head.
“Well, seeing as this is my first day and I don’t want to be here anyway, that would be awesome.” He moved to the back door of the gym before yanking it open. “My name’s Quarry Page. Make sure you add that so there’s no confusion.”
“Ugh,” one of them mumbled. “You’re Till’s little brother.”