by Skyla Madi
“Wait.”
I snap upright, unsure if I heard the feminine voice or if it was a figment of my imagination.
“You’re going too fast.”
No. I definitely heard it. I leap to my feet, my hands clenched against my chest. In front of me, bushes rustle and my heart races, filling with glee. He did it. He kept his promise. Joel is first to run into view, followed closely by Monique, her dress torn, her skin painted with blood. I glance over their shoulders for the third body to join us. Jai’s body.
“Oh, Emily,” Joel pants, hunching over and placing his hands on his knees. “Thank God. I thought I was going in the wrong direction.”
I don’t remove my eyes from the forest behind them, ignoring the way my heart ices over and fractures painfully.
“Where’s Jai?” I ask, digging my fingers into my chest when they both stiffen.
“He’s coming. He—” Joel holds his breath.
Booom!
I startle with a squeak as the blast jolts us all, throwing us back. That was the biggest explosion of them all, leaving nothing of Skull’s palace behind, I’m sure. The trees sway, the ground shakes, and a fist of orange flame punches its way into the night sky, towering above the tall trees. I didn’t realize how close the compound was to us. Nausea turns my stomach. I slept right here. Skull could have found me easily.
Alarms—shrill and deafening—erupt. Soon, police and firemen will show up. They’ll search the rubble and its surroundings. We can’t stay for long, that I know, but I’m sure Jai will be here any second.
Joel stares at the bright cloud of smoke until the flames lower enough to darken the forest once more. Slowly, he turns his wide eyes on me and I suck in a breath as my ribs cage my lungs. Why is his body frozen, locked tight?
“What?”
“We…we had an altercation with Skull at the last minute.” Joel’s voice thickens, and he clears it as Monique moves closer to me. I hear her sniffle, but I tune her out. “I begged him to forget it, but Jai insisted.”
No.
I shake my head. “That’s okay. Maybe he got away before…before the explosion. Maybe the explosion didn’t hurt him.”
I hate how erratic my voice sounds, how panicked and stressed. He’s not telling me Jai died in that explosion. I know he isn’t.
“Emily—”
“We can’t leave him!” I snap, shoving past Joel.
He snatches my elbow, pulling me back. “Don’t be stupid. You’re not going back there.”
“Who do you think you are?” I spit, shrugging out of his grip. “Don’t touch me!”
Joel reaches out again, but I swat him away, making Monique cry. “We have to go.”
“So go!” Tears well in my eyes and drip onto my cheeks. “I’m not stopping you.”
“I promised him I’d keep you safe.”
“What about his promises to me?” I cry, swiping at my face. “He promised he’d come back. He promised. I’m not going anywhere.”
“We can wait.” Joel’s voice cracks and he gathers me up in his strong, cold, and damp arms. “We can wait.”
I try to shove him off, to break free from his hold, but he’s too damn strong. There’s a painful, heartbreaking howl ringing in my ears that I don’t realize belongs to me until I gasp for air. I fall to my knees and Joel follows me, cradling me tightly against his chest.
How could Jai do this to me?
We were so close…
JAI’S EPILOGUE
I seal my mouth over hers, kissing her as hard as I can. It’s not sordid or dirty. I keep my tongue to myself, despite the desperate need burning at my throat to dip it into her mouth and taste her. God, I want to taste her so bad…just one flick of my tongue for every day I went without her, for every kiss she shared with someone other than me, for every night I couldn’t sleep because I was going mad without her.
“I want you more than anything,” I tell her between kisses. “But I need you to go.”
The urge to slip my tongue inside becomes unbearable, so I move my lips away from her mouth, avoiding temptation. Emily sighs, and it sends shockwaves of heat through my body, feeding my desire to take her right now.
It wouldn’t be right…
Taking her here on the forest floor isn’t soft enough for her back, or her hands and knees. It’s not warm enough for her petite, naked body. She must be freezing.
Suddenly, as what I said soaks in, her whole body stills and tightens, like I’ve frozen her on the spot. I hate that I have to do this. I hate that I have to leave her, but Joel…
I know I told him I couldn’t go back, but…Monique. My niece or nephew is tucked away, safe and sound, inside her belly. I can’t, in good conscience, leave them behind. What kind of man would I be if I left them there? What kind of uncle would I be?
I grab the lapels of the jacket I took off my own back for her and pull it tighter around her shoulders, bunching it at the front in my fists. She inhales sharply as I nudge her with my hips and settles against the tree behind her.
It’s dark in the forest, but through the gaps in the canopy, light from the moon spills in and it’s enough to illumine patches of her porcelain skin. I don’t have to see her face clearly to know tears are welling in her eyes. I can hear them in the way she breathes, quick and shallow, as if willing herself not to let them fall.
“What’d you say?” she whispers, sending sad, painful goosebumps over the surface of my skin.
Releasing her, I step away and rake my hand through my black hair, hating how long the strands feel between my fingers. I made a list while I was locked up in Skull’s prison and getting a haircut is number three, right under sex and pizza.
“They’re taking too long and I…” The look on her face punches me in the gut and I grimace. “I want to leave with you. I want to run and not look back, but I can’t. My conscience would be too heavy.”
I don’t mention the baby. I know she’d let me help Joel and Monique without question if I did, but…Emily can’t have children and I don’t know how sensitive she is about the fact she’ll never give birth to a child of her own. I don’t want to make her feel…less. Not that she’s any less of a woman in my eyes because she can’t carry a baby. If anything, it makes her stronger than any other. If she wants to, we can adopt a child already born that needs a family. I firmly believe that the universe selects the most special kind of women as adoptive mothers. It chooses women who are capable of the strongest kind of unconditional love, and that’s what those kids need. It’s what she needed, but never got.
“They’ll be here,” she says, stepping forward. “Give them a little more time.”
“Every second brings Skull’s guards closer. We can’t just assume everyone died and now we can go live our happily ever after.”
Emily squares her shoulders, her eyes thinning into angry slits. “You can’t go back there.”
“Kitten, please.” I close the distance between us, taking her hands in mine, squeezing them gently. “Wait for me here. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“And if you’re not?”
My heart shudders at the sound of her voice, tight and emotional, as she speaks. I hate it. I hate making her sad. It breaks my goddamn heart.
“Then you keep going straight. It’s not far. There’ll be someone on the other side waiting for you.”
Her eyes widen. She rakes her teeth over her bottom lip and tugs at it. I watch her, forcing my demeanor to be calm and collected to ease her worry. With my stare, I try to convey a silent message to her.
Don’t worry about me. I will come back to you.
Exhaling, she manages to fight off her apprehension and her tears, and she squeezes my hand in return. “I’ll wait for you, but you have to promise me you’ll come back.”
Her voice cracks at the end, a sliver of emotion she’s trying to hide seeps through and penetrates my soul. Oh, Kitten. I wrap her up in my arms, holding her tightly.
“I promise.”
&nbs
p; I hold her for a little while. A part of me doesn’t want to let her go, not ever, but the other part of me calls to my brother. My only brother.
I kiss Emily on the top of her head and release her. I remove myself from her presence as fast as I can, desperate to get away from the pull she has over me before I decide to stay with her.
It isn’t until I’m forcing myself through the dense forest, back the way we came, that I can think more clearly. When I’m with her, she occupies my entire world. All I think about is her.
Her.
Her.
Her.
Without Emily, I can focus on the task at hand, free from the fear of her getting hurt. I’m fearless. An unstoppable force with nothing to lose. Without her, I can truly wreak havoc.
***
It doesn’t take long for me to break free of the forest and into the clearing behind Skull’s fallen palace. Smoke burns in my lungs, but I force myself forward, breaking into a jog as I make my way into the back courtyard where I was held captive not too long ago.
I creep around with caution, my body tightly coiled, my posture slightly bent. Adrenaline is riot in my veins, making my heart race and my attention flicker over as many surfaces as I can. I hear fire crackle and the distant howls of pain and fear, but no one seems to be here in the back courtyard. Twenty feet ahead are the wooden posts Monique and I were chained to as we were forced to watch Joel and Emily…my stomach twists and I pull my lips back, baring my teeth as the memory, so vivid in my mind, of Joel slipping his hand between her legs. I could kill him for it, but that wouldn’t be justified. I’d have done the same thing if the roles were reversed and it was Monique and I up there.
“Jai!”
I startle. A bullet ricochets off a large chunk of stone beside me and a heavy body slams into me, shoving me out of the way
“Shit.”
I crash to the ground behind a gigantic chunk of debris, Joel pushing himself to his hands and knees beside me. I follow the line of blood that rolls freely down his arm, the result of a scrape from a scalding bullet as it narrowly missed piercing through a large chunk of his bicep.
“Well, looky here. Now I can kill two Stones with one bullet,” the familiar voice calls out, sending a shudder down my spine.
Skull.
How is he still alive? Why is he trying to fight us instead of running? Cops will be here soon and the ones on his payroll won’t be able to save him from the mess they’re going to find.
“There’s one person missing from your little crew. Where’s Emily?”
I clench my jaw. How dare he speak her name. As long as I’m alive, his soulless black stare will never rest upon her skin again. I press my back against the jagged chunk of debris. Joel does too. I peer around him at Monique, who looks at me with wide eyes. Her face is covered with dirt, and it’s black in places where blood from her head has run into it.
“How many rounds has he shot off?” I ask Joel.
“Don’t hide from me!” Skull shouts, his voice closer than before. “You will face me and atone for everything you’ve done!”
“I don’t know. Four or five?”
“Fuck, Joel. Always count off the rounds.”
“I’ve been a little damn distracted, asshole.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I swallow, desperate to moisten my dry throat, and it only makes it worse. “I’m gonna go that way,” I point to the right, “and distract him. While I do that, you two get the hell out of here.”
Joel shakes his head, refusing to look at me. “No, absolutely not.”
“Look at her,” I demand. “Look at Monique.”
Exhaling, he turns his head in her direction. Her tiny frame trembles, one hand clenching her gold dress, the other shaking fearfully, her palm against her womb.
“Don’t be stupid. Get her out of here.”
“And what about you? What do I tell Emily?”
I shrug, not daring to acknowledge the emotion swelling in my stomach. Turns out, coming back to help Joel and Monique wasn’t so cut and dried. Skull is alive, which means we’re all in danger. Emily’s in danger. Joel’s unborn child is in danger. My family can’t prosper while Skull’s alive. He’d never allow it.
He must die.
He will die.
“Tell her I’ll keep my promise. No matter what.”
Joel turns his attention back to me. “And if something goes wrong?”
My heart stutters, sending pain shooting into my ribs. If something goes wrong, then I guess I can’t keep my promise. “Promise me you’ll look after her.”
He brushes me off. “Don’t talk like that.”
“Take what I have left and give it to her. Take her to Italy, buy her a nice cottage overlooking a vineyard. Keep her refrigerator stocked with feta-stuffed olives and the nicest wine Italy has to offer.” I clear my throat. I always imagined I would be the one boarding a plane with her and taking her across the ocean. I thought I’d be the one to make all her dreams come true. “Be there for her like you would your sister…love her like family.”
“Take her to Italy? What about her family?”
I lift my hand, my fingers barely breaching the top of the stone. There’s a bang as a bullet tears from Skull’s gun and smashes more pieces of rock, dust from the impact settling on my skin. I pull my hand back. Surely, he’s out of bullets?
“She doesn’t have one. We’re all she’s got.”
Slowly nodding, Joel pushes his fingers through his hair, nudging pieces of rock deeper into his locks. “I promise I’ll take care of her if…”
…you don’t make it back.
He claps his hand against my shoulder before turning to Monique. He tells her to stay down and to crawl along the stone, toward the gazebo. All I have to do is distract Skull and they just might make it. I stand up from behind the stone, my spine steeled, my shoulders square, and I look Skull dead in the face. He stands fifteen feet away, his arm outstretched, a gun pointed at my face.
I’ve stared down plenty of barrels in my life, felt the scalding metal of a bullet as it buried itself in my skin. I’ve never been afraid of what might happen when the trigger is pulled…
…until now.
I don’t want to die. I want to go to Italy. I want to marry Emily on the hillside, surrounded by people I care about, people I’d die for. Emily isn’t incapable, not by any means, but she needs me. I’m all she’s got.
I lift my arms, slowly exposing my palms. Skull’s hand twitches around his little silver gun, the other clenching and unclenching.
“Where is she?”
“Long gone,” I lie, not daring to give away the fact she’s not far away at all.
“You’re lying.”
“You think I’d let her stick around?”
I take in his battered appearance. His once crisp suit is torn around the shoulders and down the arms. The left front pocket is ripped and dangling over his belt, resting against his dusty slacks. The champagne accents of the fabric are more brown than anything else, its golden hue now soiled by dirt. I step closer, and his fingers tighten around the gun.
“How did you do this? How’d you plan it?”
I slide my teeth together. I’m not giving him anything. No Ted. No Huss. No Hannah. I want to be the only person on his radar, the only person to take the brunt of his rage.
“You underestimated me.”
“How?” he booms, stomping forward a step. “You were locked up. I had you right where I wanted you, where I held all the power.”
Obviously not. I swallow the words.
Red and orange hues from the surrounding fires flicker across his black ink. The face in front of me is the face of the man who terrorized Emily for months on end. Months. How she managed to look upon his face day in and day out is beyond me.
“What’s done is done. It doesn’t matter how.” I inch forward. “We’ve won.”
“You haven’t won a damn thing. Not while I’m alive.”
“It’s a good thing I
plan on killing you then, isn’t it?”
He laughs, waving his gun like a madman. “You? Kill me?” His amusement dies hard, his face falling into a murderous glare. “What a cold day in hell that would be.”
I step forward and he startles, shoving the gun in my direction, his finger almost squeezing the trigger. I stop, clenching my exposed hands into tight fists.
“I’ll kill your brother first, then that crazy whore, Monique.”
I open my mouth to tell him to fucking try, but a sad feminine sob pulls me away from my threat. We quirk an eyebrow at each other, as if we made up the sound in our heads, but then, I see a sparkle of gold out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head and the girl from earlier, the third one that follows Skull everywhere, pushes herself to her feet with shaky arms. Heavy pieces of rock and wood fall from her body as she forces her trembling legs to hold her weight. My chest clenches at the painful sight. The front of her gold dress is drenched in blood, her skin too. Her hair, once pinned into a classy half-up-half-down messy bun is now disheveled and tangled, a prime nesting spot for a bird to live and nurture its eggs.
“Damien,” she cries, her voice barely a sound.
I glance at Skull, who watches the woman closely as she sobs, clenching her bleeding stomach.
“Help me.”
He doesn’t reach out to her. In fact, his expression reflects nothing. Is he so dead inside that her sad, desperate face stirs nothing? Not even the sight of her petite body quivering in obvious pain? I don’t know the girl, but the sight of her makes my heart ache. My fingers twitch with the urge to reach out to her, to call her over to me and get her help, but she doesn’t bat an eyelid in my direction. All she sees is him and Skull gives her nothing in return.
Not even a frown.
The girl collapses to her knees, a choked cry of pain jamming in her throat. I inch toward her, but Skull flicks his stare to me, warning clear in his eyes—leave her. I clench my fists. Turning his gun from me to her, he bares his teeth in disgust and anger.
