I set my jaw. “Okay, well, I gotta say it was hard watching you scare that woman like that. I don’t even get it. She’s gonna be traumatized for God knows how long. Do you think about that?” Because I do. I think of how it felt being in that chair. It seeps into my thoughts and sits in the back of my head waiting to overcome me. Sometimes it’s all I can think about. My body still hurts for no reason and even now I can’t imagine sleeping on my own. I sunk down on to the bed, my eyes wet with tears. He came and joined me. “It’s hard for me to look at Eliseo sometimes. Do you know that? It’ll be hard for her to look at you. You’ll be her monster.”
“I’m not a monster.”
I didn’t like the denial. It was unfair to that woman, unfair to me. “Yes you are. That is what you are to her. The big bad wolf.”
I heard a sharp intake of breath and could practically feel him go tense next to me. “Interesting choice of words.”
“Don’t you care?” I could have internally kicked myself for even asking the question. Of course he didn’t. How could I expect him to?
“Do you think I like this?” He demanded as if to call my own judgement into question.
I narrowed my eyes. “Obviously.” I was challenging him and I knew it. I wanted to break him because I hoped there’d be something soft inside. I watched as he glared at me. I watched the corner of his eyes twitch and his lips pull back into a sneer. I watched him set his jaw. There was something inside, something he held in. But it didn’t take me long to realize he wasn’t going to tell me.
After a long pause, he stood up. “I have business. That woman has given us everything we need. There are plans to draft.”
He slammed the door behind him before I even got a chance to respond. In the hours that followed I did some more pacing. Now, they were closer to finding Cody than ever. In fact, it had practically already happened. That same old question, the one that had run through my head over and over again plagued me once again. What would happen if they found him? If they could torture me, and then another woman in front of me for no reason other than the fact that we happened to be in their way, what would they do when they got a hold of someone who had actually crossed them intentionally?
After I had grown tired of my own mind, I started searching through the room for some paper. I needed to write something, anything, whatever outlet I could find to get rid of my thoughts. It didn’t take me long to find a moleskin notebook Markus had in the third drawer of his night stand.
I settled down onto the bed and started scribbling away, but every time I would get in to something, the thought of Markus would stop me short. He was like a fucking disease in my head, there behind every word, staring in every thought and there was nothing I could do to get rid of it. In fact, it only took me a couple of hours of being alone and away from him to start missing him again. All at once, the question of mates had come to mind again. Is he just as attached to me as I am to him?
The next time he came back, the sun was already starting to set and he had a look of determination in his eye, one that discouraged me from attempting a second line of questioning. “What’s going on?”
He reached under the bed for a duffel bag and started stuffing it with clothes, both men’s and women’s. “We’re catching a plane.”
I cocked my head to the side. “What? To Morocco? I don’t have my passport.”
He didn’t even stop or look at me when he responded. “I had someone stop at your apartment to pick it up.”
My heart sunk. “You broke into my apartment again? Stole my stuff?”
He stopped, stood up straight and let out a huff of breath. “Can you please do me a favor and not talk about this?”
“How can you ask me that?”
He continued to pack. “Do you plan on helping me?”
I glowered at him. “Why the hell would I help you hunt down my boyfriend?” As soon as the words left my lips, I knew it was a mistake.
He dropped the pair of women’s jeans he had in his hands and crossed the room to me, grabbing my shoulders with each of his hands. “Boyfriend?”
“Isn’t that why I’m here? Because I’m closest to him?”
“It’s not my job to decide what happens to him.”
A lump had begun to form in the pit of my throat. For everything that had happened between us, I didn’t want Cody to die or get murdered or anything. “I see.”
He lifted my chin, his amber eyes cutting mine. “Do you still have feelings for him?”
I glowered at him, while my mind went into overdrive, trying to decide what the best answer to the question was, the most correct one. “I don’t know. I haven’t felt anything in a long time and now…”
“Now?”
“Now I’m scared for him. I’m terrified.”
Chapter Ten
The seven-hour flight to Morocco was the tensest flight of my life. At every security checkpoint, every stop, every point of downtime, I would look around me at all of the regular people feeling normal emotions like excitement for their upcoming trip or melancholy at the fact that they were leaving a much-loved place. Could they tell when they looked at me that I was being dragged half way across the world to watch my boyfriend die because he was a thief tied up with the mob?
By the time we were landing, I was disoriented and tired of being in my own thoughts. I was ready for the change of scenery. When we stepped outside of the airport, waiting for the motorcade of cars that were dedicated to taking us every place we could possible need to go, Morocco practically slapped me in the face. The sun was so bright it almost hurt to look around. Luckily, Markus had packed me a pair of ray bans (of course), but once I put them on, the sun was dimmed but not the colors around me. Everything was so vibrant. Even the bright clays of the ground, the sandy cabs peeling off the curb, the men and women wandering down the arrivals terminal, the wildfires growing in the little Venetian gardens. The sounds of chattering, car horns, wind and sand whirling around us. All of this stimulation and sunshine might have been enough to raise my mood if Markus hadn’t shoved me into the back of a Mercedes before I could protest.
After about thirty minutes in the back of that car, tanning from the sheer force of the sun, growing tired just from looking at so many new sights, the driver pulled up to an expensive-looking hotel with aging, Renaissance architecture and a steady stream of people coming and going. They were dressed in attire that was undoubtedly composed of brands so expensive and obscure someone like me wouldn’t even have heard of them.
The inside of the room I shared with Markus did not disappoint. It was smaller than I would expect from a Four Seasons but it was well-lit with sunlight streaming in from the large bay windows on the back walls. I followed the rays of sunlight until I found myself looking out into a vast garden, dotted with pools and fountains and covered in grass that was either expensively well-maintained or not even real. If I squinted my eyes, I could just see Don sitting beside a large pool in a bright linen suit with a newspaper in hand. An older woman who must have been his wife accompanied him. I could feel a smile forming on the edges of my lips as Markus came up behind me and put his arms around me. It was like a terrible dream, a terribly beautiful dream. “This is…”
“I know,” He whispered.
When I looked up at him, I wished that nothing else existed. We didn’t work in the grand scheme of things. Out in the real world where he was a mobster and I was a writer, this could never go anywhere, but in between the walls of that room, when there was just the driving desire of a shifter and his mate, everything made just as much sense as it needed to.
He kissed me like he could read my mind.
Then, he pulled away. He walked back around our bed, going straight for the closet. Out of the secret compartment, he pulled out a black duffel bag. I watched as he laid out the weapons; a hand gun, rifle, hunting knife, rounds and a holster. After the twenty minutes it took for him to arm himself, he turned to me with another gun, holding it out with his brow furrowed as i
f he were still trying to decide something. “Hmm… Better not.”
“What?”
He stuffed it into the now-empty duffel and gestured for me to follow him out of the door. “I can’t give you a weapon. Eliseo would go mad again and this is too… sensitive. I can’t have that.”
My heart pounded the entire car ride, it throbbed in my chest and rang in my ears as we assembled in front of the building their intel had determined to be the apartment Cody was renting for the month. Four men stayed in their cars, two others guarded the doors while Eliseo and Markus dragged me to the second, side entrance.
Eliseo faced me, his eyes daring me to defy him. “You know why you are here?”
I started to nod before I realized I actually had no idea. “Maybe?”
He rolled his eyes, then pressed me against the stucco. I gulped, watching Markus clench his fist out of the corner of my eye. “He is in room 304. You go up there. You tell him you’ve been looking for him. You lead him down here.”
My eyes widened, my face frozen in shock. They wanted to use me as bait, to lead Cody to his death. “Do I have to?” I whimpered like a child.
Eliseo nodded.
I turned my head up to the sky. “Please don’t make me do this.”
I felt Markus grab my hand before I watched him nudge Eliseo away.
Eliseo grunted, but gave us the space anyway.
“I’ll be right here,” He whispered into my ear. Then, as he kissed my forehead, I felt him slip something hard and cold into my palm. He had slipped me a knife in secret. I furrowed my brow at him but all I got was an aggressively even face back.
I slipped the knife into the waist of my denim shorts as I turned and entered the side of the building. Everything from the chipping white walls, the weak doors, and the gold handles, the red numbers screamed mundane. Who would have thought Cody would run away to this place? That hidden behind one of these doors was a man about to face a world of pain.
I reached the end of the hallway and started up the stairs, walked down the next hallway. Again, stairs. The third floor. I started reading the numbers but when I got to 304, I had to hesitate. After everything that had transpired the past few days, only a door separated me from him. I pressed my ear against it, listening for signs of life because I still couldn’t believe it.
I knocked.
In the next few seconds, I heard footsteps on the other side. When there was a pause, I looked up at the eye-hole, putting on the nicest face I could muster. He yanked the door open and stood before me wearing nothing but wrinkled pants, his skin a shade darker than the last time I had seen him, his eyes bearing dark circles, his blond hair disheveled. “What is this?”
I gulped. I hadn’t exactly thought of what to say, which was less than advisable because in times of extreme stress and minimal planning a person can say anything. I mean it, anything and everything can be running through a woman’s mind, including, “I wanna break up.” I huffed out a breath. There, it was out. I had done it. albeit, at the worst time ever.
He cocked his head to the side. “You tracked me down and flew to a different country to tell me you wanted to break up with me?”
I nodded, brushing past him into the room, fully aware of the fact that I was doing exactly the opposite of what Markus and Eliseo said to do, but this was going to keep Cody alive. I couldn’t bring myself to lie about my feelings for him for a second longer, especially in this situation. “Yes,” I said, my voice catching. “I did it just so that you would see that I could.” I glanced around him room, bare except for a bed slammed against the wall, a small window, a little suitcase and his MacBook sitting, open on his bed.
He stood watching me, his arms crossed. “You were never good at lying.”
I scoffed. It bothered me that he assumed I was lying about how I felt, like there was no way I could actually want out of this whole thing. I gestured around me. “Well, apparently, you were.”
He rolled his eyes.
I narrowed mine, reminding myself that I promised myself I wouldn’t get into this. But here we were. It was happening. “Honestly, Cody. How could you keep this from me? What even is this?”
He set his jaw. “I was in the weeds, alright? So I borrowed money.”
My eyes went wide. “I have money!” Ever since my first published book, I’ve had money, more than I’ve known how to spend. “You could have taken some of mine.”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t bring myself…”
“To be weak in front of me? To make mistakes? To act like a real fucking person?”
He grimaced. “God, Emily. Tell me how you really feel.”
I huffed. “This isn’t the time.” I glanced at my watch. We had been up there for far too long. Would they come up after me?
“Who gave you that watch?”
I took another look at it. Tom Ford. I pursed my lips.
He was already catching on. “How did you find me?”
“You used my credit card remember? I just looked at my statement.”
“But this is the middle of nowhere.”
I was starting to feel cornered, the way he kept pressing me. “I asked around…” I was the worst at this. Can you imagine that? A writer with no operational imagination…
“They got to you didn’t they?”
“What?”
“They picked you up and sent you up here to trick me.”
That’s exactly what happened. “No.”
We were running out of time.
He took my face in both of his hands. “Tell me the truth.”
I swatted his hands away. “You first, asshole!”
He shook his head, glowering at me. “I can’t believe you would sell me out.”
My jaw dropped, anger coursing through my body “Excuse me? You left me to die!”
“So you admit it.”
How could I have lived with this monster for months? How long would it have taken before I saw this side of him? “They tortured me, Cody! They would have killed me if—“
His eyes flashed wide. “If?”
I glanced at my watch again, my heart throbbing, my whole body shaking. “There’s no time.” But I barely got the words out of my mouth before Eliseo and Markus barged through the door.
Chapter Eleven
“I can explain!” I shouted the words like they were a Hail Mary pass in the last seconds of a game.
“Fuck you.” Eliseo stormed across the room. Before I knew it, he was shoving me across the floor. My eyes shut defensively as he slammed me into the wall. I swear I could feel my heart pounded against the front of my chest. A ripple of pain shot through my entire body.
“Oh…” I muttered as he pressed the cold barrel of a gun against my temple.
“You had one job.” Eliseo said. “You were going to try to escape, weren’t you?”
My eyes started to water. “You can’t believe that.”
“Drop it.”
I looked up just in time to watch Markus rip a badge from the side of his holster. A stream of sirens flooded all around us. There was the sound of boots slamming concrete and gunshots going off. Markus pointed the gun at Eliseo, but he might as well have been pointing it at me.
I felt him tighten his grip, the barrel dug farther into my temple. My eyes slipped from Cody’s to Markus’s.
“You can let her go now or you can let twelve feds pry her from your dead arms.”
I gulped.
“I’ll shoot you first, wolf,” Eliseo said.
I couldn’t stand the thought of yet another thing happening to label me as a victim. I wouldn’t let myself get caught in the crossfire, helpless in the middle of a quarrel between two men who wanted each other dead. “No.” I hissed as I slipped the knife from my belt. I held my breath as I shoved it into his stomach. I felt his body push back at me as I broke the skin and the muscle and whatever was underneath. I wasn’t expecting the blood. There was so much of it.
He hunched over, a grunt of pain slippi
ng from his lips. But no sooner had he recovered than he lifted his gun and pointed it right at Markus. “I told my father you were a goddamn snake. He wouldn’t believe me. As soon as he saw your fucking fur… he wanted you… instead…”
The knife slipped from my hands. “No!”
But Markus was faster. He shot Eliseo without hesitation.
The thumping of Feds storming up the staircase drowned out his fall.
Chapter Twelve
Medics were at the apartment within minutes. I stood around in the street in front of the apartment building, taking in the scene unfolding around me. There were dozens of cop cars (Moroccan) and black cars that probably belonged to the feds. Cody had gotten lost in the rush of people, but when I turned around, I saw Markus pushing him into a black car. He got one, long look at me, his face was drained, his whole person defeated. I knew, in that moment, I should have felt sorry for him…
But I didn’t.
A couple of minutes later, Markus found me in the back of an ambulance. A medic had motioned me over and was checking me up and down. His chest inflated with his breath. “So…”
I nodded. “So… You work for the FBI.” It was such a relief.
He pursed his lips. “I wanted to tell you.”
I nodded. “I know. You must have.” I furrowed my brow as I remembered some of my words to him. “I said such shitty stuff. God I’m so sorry.”
He sat down next to me, motioning the medic to give us a minute. “I made it impossible for you to build trust in me and I’m sorry. Because I truly want you to trust me.”
I let out a dry laugh. “My ex-boyfriend borrowed money from the mob, stole my credit card and almost got me killed. The trust thing is gonna take a while.”
He wrapped his arms around me pulling me against his firm chest. “I’m willing to wait.”
We sat there watching the scene a little while longer. The sun had begun to set and the street was slowly clearing up. The residents, who had come out to see what it was all about had now retreated back to own homes, settling in for the evening.
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