by Ella Miles
15
Zeke
We’ve stopped moving, and I don’t hear the purr of the engines anymore, which means we’ve made it to Spain.
Siren is still asleep in my arms. I want to spend every moment with her, hold onto her until the very last second, spending our last moments together kissing, hugging, and fucking.
But I have something important to do to ensure that she is safe. As much as I’d love to lay here holding her in my arms and watching her sleep, I get out of bed, shower quickly, and get dressed in my only attire of jeans and a T-shirt.
When I come back to the bedroom, Siren has stirred.
I walk over and kiss her on the head. “Shhh, sleep and take your time getting dressed. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Where are you going?” she says with a soft smile on her face.
“I’ll be back.” I kiss her again. I don’t have to tell her for her to know exactly what I’m doing.
I don’t know how this conversation is going to go. If this conversation doesn’t go well, I may need to put Siren on a flight by herself to the farthest ends of the earth after I kill Langston.
For now, I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go deal with it and get back to our last few moments together as quickly as possible.
I head upstairs after quickly looking at the security feed to see where Langston is.
He’s making breakfast in the kitchen.
I walk into the doorway of the kitchen, and Langston immediately senses me.
“Are we going to finally talk, or are you going to continue sneaking around and monitoring me on the security cameras?” Langston says, not turning around.
“When did you figure it out?”
“I suspected it when I set up the security system, but couldn’t find any evidence of tampering. But after last night’s show…there was no way the sounds she was making came from a vibrator.”
I chuckle but try to keep it quick. We aren’t back on good footing at the moment.
Langston turns around and stares at me wordlessly. He’s wearing a dark grey T-shirt and jeans just like me. He looks like the same Langston I’ve known since I was a kid, but so much has changed. We are both different men.
“So you’re married now. I never thought I’d see the day. I thought we’d both be bachelors forever,” Langston finally says.
I walk forward silently.
Langston stiffens. He knows what’s coming. And he deserves worse.
I punch him hard in the jaw. His head snaps—blood spills from his broken nose when he turns back to face me.
“That was for hurting my wife,” I say.
He stares at me with his arms at his side. He won’t fight me. He knows he deserves it, and he’s preparing for another hit.
“And this is for protecting her.” I grab his shoulder and pull him into a hug.
He relaxes a second and then hugs me back.
Finally, we step back, staring at each other. “Are you going to tell me why you lied to us? Why you pretended to be Bishop?”
“Partly to protect you all,” Langston answers.
“And the other part?”
“My own personal shit you don’t need to be concerned with.”
I frown.
“I’m trying to trust you, Langston, but when you say shit like that, you don’t make it easy.”
“I’m not trying to make it easy. I’m just doing what I have to.”
Langston’s nose is still bleeding. I walk over to the sink and wet a hand-towel before tossing it to him. “Here.”
He snatches it and wipes the blood from his nose. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to assume the personal stuff has to do with your own woman problems?” Liesel, to be exact, if I had to guess.
“I’m not going to tell you. So if that’s why you are here, you can drop it. I’m not ready to share anything except what you need to know.”
I walk over to the bar and pour us both a scotch.
Langston raises his eyebrows as I hand him the drink. “I’m guessing this isn’t to toast your impending fatherhood? Although, congrats, by the way. I always thought you’d make a good father.”
“No, we have other things to discuss. Come on,” I sigh as we walk to a table on the top deck. We sit and look out at the city beyond the pier where we are parked.
We both sip our scotch, even though it’s early in the morning. We need the drink to get through this conversation.
“Julian Reed has to be killed,” I say.
Langston nods. “I agree, but you can’t just kill him. You have to kill the man financing him.”
“Which is who?’
Langston sips his drink. “I don’t know. I tried investigating, but I never figured it out.”
“We need a plan to make Julian think I’m on his side,” I say.
“I thought that was what you were doing when you went with him in the helicopter.”
“Yea, I was until I realized that you go by the name Bishop.” I give him a dirty look.
He sighs. “Don’t blame this on me.”
“You hurt Siren. I blame you. You could have told me the truth when you bought her.”
“I didn’t realize she was yours. I recognized who she was. I knew she was the girl who flirted with you and that you fell for in the bar that night all those years ago, but I didn’t realize she was yours until you bought her back from me.”
“Speaking of that, you owe me the money I paid you to get her back. Don’t think I forgot.”
Langston chuckles. “That was fun. But it showed me just how much you love her. How far you’re willing to go for her.”
“Well, it wasn’t fun when I didn’t have the money for protecting my friends. And why did you need to test my love for her?”
“So I knew how to handle her to get her memories back.”
“Now that you know, hands off her.”
Langston puts his hands up mockingly. “Have I touched her since you’ve been monitoring me?”
“No, but it doesn’t mean I trust you around her. It doesn’t mean I even trust you completely yet.” Although, I need to trust him in order to leave Siren with him. We all know I need to be the one to go and kill Julian, but I’ll only do that if I believe in my heart that Siren and our baby will be safe.
Langston drinks his scotch wearily, leaning back in his chair as the sun rises higher behind him. We don’t have much time until Siren decides to join us.
“What do you need from me to trust me again?” Langston asks.
“Show me how far you are willing to go to protect her.”
Langston finishes his drink, already preparing to do whatever I ask him to do. He’s one of my best friends. I don’t want to see him in pain. I just want to test his loyalty. I want to see how far he’s willing to go to protect Siren.
I pull a knife from my pocket and hand it to him. He takes it carefully, knowing I’m going to ask him to use it against himself.
“Cut off your finger so I know you’d be willing to lose a limb for her. That is how far I need you to go if you love her.”
He sucks in a breath as he processes what I’m saying. He holds the silver knife in his hand expertly, like he could hit a man in the heart with it. He could.
But that’s not what I’m asking him to do. I’m asking him to cut off a finger. Remove part of himself that he can never get back.
I don’t know exactly what Langston did to try to get her memories back, but no more. The pain and torture stops now. Only slow, gentle methods from here forward. This is payback for what he did, and proof that he will do what it takes to protect her.
“Which finger?” Langston says, casually flicking the knife around in his hand.
I give him a stern look. “Your choice.”
He glides the knife over each finger of his left hand, considering. I assume he’ll choose his pinky, but instead, he lets the knife stop on his pointer finger.
He takes a deep breath. We have both been through plenty of
pain and torture before, but none that was self-inflicted. We’ve hurt each other fighting and training, and been hurt countless times by our enemies, but that is as far as it has gone.
It’s different inflicting physical pain on yourself rather than it being inflicted upon you. When you are tortured, you fight back. You have adrenaline pumping to keep the pain from becoming too much.
That’s not true right now.
“I regret ever hurting Siren. I regret pushing her as far as I did, but Siren is a part of our family now. You love her. I will protect Siren with my life. I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe and alive. I will protect your unborn baby with my life.” Langston lifts the knife above his index finger and is about to slam down. He looks me straight in the eye. “I promise to protect Siren no matter what it costs me. No matter how much I lose, I’ll ensure that she lives. I vow.”
And then he’s slamming his arm down, intent on slicing off his finger in one quick movement. My hand catches his wrist just as the knife hits the flesh on top of his finger.
Langston exhales harshly, surprised by my sudden movement to save his finger. The knife draws some blood, but his finger is still intact.
Langston slowly looks at me, his blue eyes dilating in surprise. “Why did you stop me?”
“I don’t need to maim you for no reason. I just needed to know you were willing to do it. You’ll be able to protect Siren better with all ten fingers.”
Langston’s shoulders relax. He gives me a curt nod in understanding.
“But if you let anyone hurt Siren, yourself included, I’ll do the same thing to the woman you love.” My words are harsh and cruel. And exactly how I feel.
He can deny that he loves a woman all he wants, but if he doesn’t love Liesel, he definitely cares deeply for her. He wouldn’t want me to lay a finger on her.
“Did I pass? Do you trust me?” Langston asks.
“Yes, I trust you. Don’t make me regret it.”
Langston stands and fetches the bottle of scotch, before refilling our glasses. His hand shakes as he pours, his nerves still a bit shot. He could have been faking his attempt, but based on how he’s acting, it seems like he truly believed he was going to cut off his finger.
“So, what’s your plan? Find Julian’s financier and kill them both?”
I think for a minute. “Are you still in contact with Julian?”
“Yes,” Langston says, drinking all of his scotch before he pours another glass. His hand shakes less this time.
“Does he still think you are working together toward the same goal?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Good.”
“What are you two planning without me?” Siren asks, smiling in the doorway. When I look at her, I’m glad that I didn’t make Langston cut off his finger. She would be disappointed in me.
I hold out my hand, and she takes a seat on my lap. I hold her tightly, looking across the table to Langston. I’m putting everything I love in his hands.
Don’t fail me, asshole.
16
Siren
We have a plan, and as usual, I hate it.
One of us has to sacrifice too much to save the rest of us, but I can’t think of a better option.
We are doing this as safely as possible. Kai and Enzo will be there to protect Zeke, but Zeke is still going willingly back into the lion’s den. And as much as I want to be his shield, I can’t.
Instead, I sit on his lap while Langston pulls his phone out to arrange everything. I’m thankful that the two of them are getting along and trusting each other again. I don’t know what Langston had to do to gain Zeke’s trust again, but he did. Otherwise, Zeke wouldn’t be leaving me here with Langston.
Langston puts the phone to his ear, while Zeke and I sit silently by.
“Hello,” Langston says.
A pause.
“I have a trade I’d like to make,” Langston says.
We wait patiently for Julian to talk.
“I want in, fifty-fifty, on the box when we find it. In exchange, I’ll give you Zeke.”
Another pause. Langston looks up at both of us, waiting for us to stop him.
“Deal,” he says and then ends the call.
“Where is the trade happening?”
“He said to meet him in Belize. I’ll send my men in my place to travel with you. He knows my task is to make Siren remember, so she’s safe with me. He won’t interfere with trying to learn her memories.”
Zeke kisses my hair.
“Good,” Zeke says.
“I’ll help you understand his security system and give you ideas on how to infiltrate the system before you leave,” Langston says.
Zeke nods.
I stand up, and then Zeke stands. “Go get ready. I’ll be right down,” I instruct.
Zeke kisses me again, and then he walks downstairs.
I look at Langston. “What did he make you do to earn his trust?”
“Nothing.”
I shake my head. “Liar. I know Zeke better than you do.”
“Truly. In the end, he didn’t make me go through with it.”
“Good.”
Langston stands and stares at me, looking through to my soul. “You haven’t told him what you plan to do to get your memories back, have you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because if I did, he wouldn’t go.”
Langston frowns.
“Are you going to tell him?” I ask.
Langston looks past me. “No, I won’t tell him. He feels other’s pain worse than any of us. He physically can’t stand to see you hurt, and I don’t like hurting him.”
I nod, and then I head downstairs to find Zeke preparing to leave. He’s gathered all his weapons and hidden them as best as he can beneath his clothes.
“I’m not sure I’m ready for this,” I say honestly. I don’t want him to leave. I’m too afraid he won’t come back.
Zeke holds out his hand, and I take it.
“Me neither.” He pulls me to him for the hundredth time in the last few days. We’re bound together like magnets, and it’s going to hurt like hell when we are pulled apart.
“It’s for the best, though. You need to go. Kill Julian and protect this family.”
He rests his hand on my stomach. “And you need to protect our little one.”
“I will.”
“Kiss me.”
Then our lips are smashed together, our tongues pushing and striking to bore deeper into each other’s mouths. Maybe if we tangle ourselves together further, then we won’t be able to be ripped apart.
It’s a lie.
We both know it.
It’s just going to make the separation harder.
But neither of us cares. We need this more than we need air.
Our hands find their way under each other’s clothes. We don’t have time to fuck, but that doesn’t matter. We need each other too much to stop with just a simple kiss.
Our time is running out. These are our last moments together. Zeke may never come back. We may both fail in our missions.
That only makes my heart beat faster, my pulse race, and my breath catch in my throat as I kiss him. I’m sure I’m a flushed mess. My hair is tangled in his fist, and my clothes are out of place, but I don’t care. I never want these kisses to end.
“It’s time,” Langston says sadly from the doorway. Even he can’t stand to make this end. But Langston’s men are here to pretend to take Zeke as their prisoner to Julian, and if I don’t let Zeke go, he’ll miss his flight. And if that happens, I’ll never let him go.
So I grab onto Zeke’s shirt with my fists, as I peel my lips from his, still staying close. This is going to take everything in me to step away from him.
Zeke tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, knowing how hard this is for me as I still clutch onto him.
“This isn’t goodbye,” he breathes.
“I know.” But I feel the te
ars and fear welling. We can’t promise that this isn’t goodbye. We can never make that promise.
“I’ll come back. I won’t miss the birth of our child.”
“That’s months away,” I breathe. He better be back long before our child is born.
“I wish I could promise more. If all goes well, I’ll be back in a few days, but if it doesn’t…”
“It could take months.” I kiss him firmly on the cheek. “Just come back to me.”
“I promise.”
Zeke looks down, where I’m gripping his shirt.
“I’m going to need your help,” I whisper.
He clutches his hands over mine. “I’ll always be with you, even when I’m not physically here.”
“I’ll hold you in my heart forever.”
“Close your eyes, baby.”
I don’t want to. I know what’s going to happen when I do.
“It’s okay. Close your eyes.”
I look at Zeke one last time, and then I close them.
“Imagine me in your head.”
I do.
Zeke loosens my grip on his shirt, and then he kisses me, one last time.
“I love you,” he whispers over my lips.
“I love you, too.”
And then he’s gone. I keep my eyes closed for as long as I can. I pretend he’s still here with me, that he isn’t risking his life to save our family.
Finally, I open my eyes. And as I guessed, Zeke is gone.
Langston is standing in the doorway, giving me my space. But when he sees how broken I am, he rushes over and pulls me into his arms. It’s comforting, but nothing like being held by Zeke.
“You’re going to get through this—you’re strong.” He doesn’t say Zeke is going to survive, or that he’s going to come back, but that I’m going to get through this. I’m strong.
His words are the truth, but it still hurts. It hurts that he can’t promise me Zeke is going to be okay.
“Zeke is the strongest man I know. If anyone can survive this, he can.”
I look up at Langston, and I see the truth of his words in his eyes. He believes them. That’s enough for me.
I step back out of his arms and realize that I’ve been crying. I wipe my tears on the back of my hand. Crying isn’t going to help anything. I need to be strong. I need to get to the task at hand. Zeke isn’t the only one with a mission to save this family.
