by Ella Miles
Julian chuckles when he sees me standing in the doorway. Not the reaction I’m used to when I aim a gun at someone’s head.
“I’ve been expecting you,” he says, puffing casually on his cigar.
“Then, you know I’m here to get answers and then kill you.”
He exhales. “I might be willing to give you some answers. But you won’t be killing me.”
I step into the room, keeping my gun trained at his head. “I will. Your little guard dog isn’t here to protect you this time. You sent her away to take care of the man she loves.”
Julian chuckles louder, until he’s throwing his head back and his belly jiggles.
I fucking hate him.
“I also think it’s hilarious that you are about to die,” I say.
His dark eyes snap back to me. “I’m not about to die. But you have to admit, my Aria is good. She got you to fall for her, when she was married to another man the entire time.”
“I didn’t fall for her.”
He lifts his scotch to his lips. “Then why did you save her? Why did you come storming over here threatening to kill me but not actually killing me?”
I don’t answer him. I refuse to accept that I fell for her. Sure, she’s strong, independent, sassy, smart, kickass. But she’s also a liar, deceitful, selfish, and in love with another man. I’m better than falling for her tricks.
“Sit,” Julian says.
I frown. I’m not doing a damn thing this man asks again.
“Sit, and I’ll answer your questions.”
“I don’t—”
“Don’t lie; the only reason I’m still breathing is because you have questions. Now fucking sit.”
I refuse. I won’t let anyone control me, not anymore. I want out of my deal, and as I see it, the best way to do that is by killing the man in front of me.
“You’re just like Aria,” Julian smiles to himself.
“I’m nothing like her. I’m loyal, honest, a good person.”
“Unfortunately, she’s all those things, too, even if she refuses to show you that side of herself.”
I freeze. Maybe I don’t want Julian’s point of view on things? He’s just as manipulative as Siren is.
I turn, planning on walking out and shooting him only as I leave.
“Aria can’t divorce Hugo, that’s why she hasn’t.”
His words cause me to stop. Because I want to know the truth. I need to know. I need to know everything. What makes Siren tick? What makes her do what she does? What makes the strongest woman I know bow to such men?
Love?
Hate?
I’m tired of being goaded. I’m tired of not fighting back. I turn and run with everything I have, knocking Julian out of the chair until he’s on the floor on his back. I grab his neck and push him hard into the ground as I aim the gun at his head.
“Tell me everything, now.”
His smile drops, but there is still light behind his eyes. He still doesn’t think this is his end. But from where I’m sitting, I know this is when Julian Reed dies.
“Why can’t Siren divorce Hugo?” I ask.
“Because of the prenup she signed.”
“What does the prenup say?”
“I don’t know, but Hugo drunkenly told me one night that she is his forever because she signed a contract without reading it first. She trusted him, and now she’s trapped. She would have to give up something she’s not prepared to give up. You’ll have to ask him or her what the prenup says.”
I will.
“Does she still love him?” I ask, even though I know it’s a stupid question. Julian doesn’t know the answer. And even if he did, he’s just going to manipulate me.
“Do you still love her even though she betrayed you?”
No. Yes.
“There is no still. I never fell for her. I hate her.”
“Hate is the opposite of love. You can only truly hate those you once loved.”
I push the gun against his head. “No, I hate you, and trust me, I never loved you.”
Julian smiles. “You don’t hate me like you hate her.”
And then I hear her—Siren. She’s standing in the doorway.
Fuck, I thought she’d still be at the hospital. What is she doing here?
I should have killed Julian, immediately. Now she’s going to try and stop me like last time.
“You here to try and stop me from killing your boss?” I ask, staring at Julian, refusing to look at her.
“No. I’ll finish my vow to Julian as long as he’s breathing. I’ll complete the tasks he’s too chicken to carry out on his own. I’ll put my life at risk every day facing his biggest enemies. But I’m done being his personal bodyguard. I re-read the contract I signed. There is nothing there saying I have to protect him at risk of my own life.” Siren walks over to one of the chairs. She sits down and kicks her legs up on the coffee table and then puts her arms behind her head. “I’m just here for the show.”
Siren isn’t going to stop me from killing Julian. I’ll have to deal with her when this is finished. I can’t just let her go free. I don’t trust her. She could continue Julian’s mission of hunting down Enzo Black and his family. But right now, I’m focused on Julian.
“Any last words?” I ask, done with him.
Julian’s eyes cut from me to Siren and then back again. If eyes could kill, his would have killed us both.
Finally, Julian is going to be dead. We are going to be free of him. I will be able to go home.
“If you kill me, my men will kill Lucy,” Julian says.
How the hell does he know about Lucy? No one knows. Not even my best friends know.
But Julian’s snicker says it all—I won’t be killing Julian, at least not until I can ensure Lucy is safe.
3
Siren
I turn to follow Zeke out of the room, when I hear Julian’s voice. “We have a deal. Don’t defy me again, Aria.”
His words chill me for so many reasons. For seven years, I’ve regretted my vow to Julian, but right now, I don’t. Because that vow led me here. And that vow kept me alive. And it led me to Zeke. And now I can save him.
I run out of the room without another word. I chase Zeke outside and go to jump into his truck. But when I reach for the handle, the door is locked. He doesn’t look at me, but I swear I see a hint of a snicker at the corner of his lip. He knows what he’s doing—shutting me out.
It’s a short jog to his house, and the weather is abnormally cold, but I’m not worried about the walk. I fear that I’m permanently shut out. That Zeke won’t let me in again. That he’s locked me out forever.
I start walking down the street toward his house, when the skies open up, and a loud thunder rolls through. Then raindrops start pouring down, and my easy walk turns into an uncomfortable slog. It’s like the weather itself is against me now, in addition to Zeke.
Fuck you, rain! All I’ve ever done is the right, unselfish thing, and it’s turned the entire world against me. Everyone hates me—my husband, Zeke, even Julian is pissed. But the only person I care about liking me is Zeke. I need him to like me enough to at least listen to me.
I reach the doorstep of Zeke’s house completely soaked, not exactly the look I was going for to tell Zeke the truth. Or at least enough of the truth to set him free.
I knock on the door loudly as the wind picks up and the rain starts blowing sideways. It’s the tropics, but when it decides to rain like this, it can turn cold quickly. I shiver, crossing my arms over my body and rubbing my hands up and down my arms, trying to stay warm.
I listen for Zeke’s footsteps to come open the door, but I don’t hear him move. He can’t hide from me; his truck is parked in the drive.
I pound on the door, loud enough that there is no denying he can hear me, even over the howl of the wind trying to knock me into the door. But still, Zeke doesn’t answer.
I may have hardly cracked the surface when it comes to understanding Zeke, but I k
now that if it were up to Zeke, he and I would never speak again.
“Open up! I know you are inside, Zeke.”
I pound again.
No answer.
“I’ll break the door down!” I yell.
I hear footsteps this time, and I smile—finally. I hear the clink of the lock as Zeke turns it. And then nothing.
He doesn’t open the door. This is as far as he’ll go, unlocking the door so he doesn’t have to deal with the hassle of replacing a broken door.
I grab the doorknob and push my way inside.
Zeke is no longer standing on the other side of the door. He isn’t waiting for me or greeting me. He’s going to ignore me.
I shiver as I step inside, my wet shoes leaving water tracks wherever I walk, and my soaked hair is dripping down my face. I should go try and find some clothes to change into—something to warm myself up, so I don’t get pneumonia. But I need to see Zeke first.
It’s selfish to see Zeke right now when he’s so hurt. I should have told him the truth about Hugo. He shouldn’t have found out that way. But there is so much Zeke doesn’t know. So much he can never know.
I thought if Zeke thought the worst of me, I could save him easier. But it turns out I can’t stand for Zeke to truly hate me, to shut me out, and never protect me even if it’s for the best. I need him to like me, just not save me.
I march through the house—the kitchen, the bedroom, the sitting room. Zeke isn’t in any of the rooms.
What?
Did he immediately run out of the house in this storm to avoid talking to me?
I turn to head to the front of the house to check if his truck is still here, when I spot his dark hair outside.
He’s leaning against the side of the house, with a whiskey in his hand, as he stares out at the rain. He’s standing close enough to the house that the rain can’t touch him. But it still seems like a stupid move when a crack of lighting roars overhead.
I open the door. “Zeke!”
He doesn’t turn. Or speak. Or even blink.
Zeke ignores me completely.
I became dead to him as soon as he found out I was married. Which is a fair way for Zeke to respond. But only because he doesn’t know the truth. He doesn’t know that my marriage isn’t a marriage at all. It never was. Not really. I’m trapped into staying, and I can’t do anything to get out of the marriage.
I step out next to Zeke, the rain pouring down on half of my body.
“Zeke!” I try again.
He sips his whiskey, deaf to my words.
Maybe it’s for the best. I can get my side of the story out without him interrupting. He can pretend he can’t hear me all he wants, but try as he might, he won’t be able to resist listening.
“I didn’t run to Hugo’s side because I was worried. I ran to Hugo’s side because I needed to know if he was alive or dead. I needed to know—”
“Enough,” Zeke says, with one word sinking all of his indignation into me.
I close my eyes, forcing my pain inside. A tear escapes anyway. The rain hitting my face quickly washes it away, hiding my agony at being so close to him, at finally allowing myself to feel my love for Zeke, while accepting his hate.
“You deserve the truth,” I say, opening my eyes and discerning the anger on Zeke’s face. His eyes are red with passion, his body stiff with rage.
“I deserve more than the truth, but I’m not going to get it from you.”
“Let me try,” I say firmly. He needs to know the truth. At least part of it. Enough so that his hate softens. It will never go away, I hurt him too much, but maybe he can see that the brief times we spent together were real. The feelings we sparked—real. All of it was real. And I wouldn’t take a second of it back.
“No. Go back to your husband,” Zeke says, finishing his drink.
I take a deep breath, knowing that he won’t listen. That my time is running out.
“I’m sorry,” I say, meaning my words more than any others I’ve spoken to him. If I could pour everything I’m feeling into those two words, we would be standing here all day. But I try in the single moment Zeke gives me.
Zeke turns sideways until he is facing me, half of his body is now getting pounded with rain, same as me.
“What exactly are you sorry for, Siren? Sorry for lying? For cheating on your husband? For betraying me again?” Zeke’s voice doesn’t need the entire day to express his feelings. It’s clear he’s only feeling one thing—anger.
“For all of it,” I answer, not backing down even though it looks like he’s about to hit me. Zeke may be angry, but he’d never hit me. He can pretend he’s a vicious man with everyone but me.
Zeke takes another step toward me, blocking some of the rain from my face. I want him to kiss me. To put his hands on me. To touch me. Give me any amount of hope that we will get one more night together if we can’t have forever.
He doesn’t touch me; his eyes command me—tell me exactly what he wants me to do.
And for once, I do as he commands. I step aside and watch him walk inside. Leaving me for the second time in twenty-four hours without a chance to explain my truth.
I reach out to grab the door, to prevent him from locking me out, but I miss. Instead, our fingers brush. Zeke freezes at our electric touch. I’ve never felt such a spark with a man before. I thought for sure it would be gone. It would have been easier to let Zeke go if it was. And I know Zeke would have preferred it that way.
The spark isn’t gone. In fact, I feel it deeper into my soul than I’ve ever felt it before. Zeke feels it too. It’s why he’s frozen in place. We can fight our love for each other all we want, but we can’t fight our attraction, our physical connection. It won’t go away. Not now. Not ever.
Zeke finally snaps out of it, he walks into the house, leaving me standing in the rain. It’s what I deserve in his eyes, and what I wanted—for him to shut me out. But it’s the most painful thing I can imagine. I’d rather be dead than live in a world where Zeke hates me, and yet, that’s exactly the world I created.
4
Zeke
Two women keep floating around in my head. Both of them kept me up all night, and not for good reasons. I didn’t get to kiss or fuck either of them.
Lucy Greene.
Jesus, I haven’t thought that name in years. I never thought I’d think that name again. I thought Lucy was out of my life forever. No one knows about our past. At least, that was what I thought until Julian mentioned her name.
How in the hell does he know about Lucy?
She was my ultimate secret.
The one piece of my life that wasn’t tainted with darkness.
But now that Julian knows about her, I have to act. I have to go back to the one light spot in my life. The one woman who I thought would never enter my new life. None of my friends or family knew about her. So I have no idea how Julian knows about her, but I will fight to the death to keep Lucy safe.
Lucy is a true angel. She’s innocent. Sweet, kind, a school teacher. She volunteered at animal shelters. She was the perfect woman if one was ever to exist.
I should have spent my entire night coming up with a plan to keep her safe. A way to safely contact her. A plan to find out how Julian found her. Because if he found her, anyone could.
That’s what I was doing outside as I looked out at the storm. But then Siren walked outside and consumed my thoughts.
Siren looked hot as sin standing outside in the rain, her clothes clinging to her body, revealing every curve. And then she shivered, and I got the urge to wrap my arms around her. To carry her inside, rip her wet clothes from her body, and warm her up.
But then I remembered—she’s not mine. She never was. She may not be Hugo’s either. But she certainly isn’t mine.
The outrage came back, keeping me from touching her. Followed by the resentment, the double-cross, and finally the need to fuck her harder than I ever have before, until I make her mine only to tell her that I don’t want he
r.
All I let her see was the anger.
I did everything right. I ignored her. Yelled at her. Refused to let her tell her side of the story. If she isn’t talking and I’m not looking at her, then her lies can’t hurt me.
I did everything right and yet…I made one mistake. I let our hands touch. It wasn’t so much a mistake as an accident. I thought I could control my feelings. I thought any attraction I felt for her left my body the second she said she was married. I don’t fuck married women, no matter their circumstances. I don’t do cheaters, and backstabbers, and liars.
But what the fuck was with that touch?
How can one touch knock all sense from my head?
I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s like her body is calling to me, and when we touch, it’s the only way my body can operate at full power. Without her, I feel like I’m slowly being drained of all my energy, and the second our fingers brushed together, I came alive.
She’s just messing with my head again. She doesn’t care about me, and I don’t care about her. So what if we have physical attraction? I can find that again with any girl. It’s just been too long since I’ve been with another woman. I can find the spark again.
I spent the night shutting Siren out of my room. I didn’t speak to her. And I didn’t let her into my room. But it didn’t stop her from speaking.
I tried not to listen, really I did.
But she said everything I was desperate to hear—I don’t love Hugo. I’m not sure I ever did.
Eventually, I threw a pillow over my head to drown her out. And at some point in the night, she gave up, because when I woke up, Siren was gone.
I may have spent too much time last night thinking about Siren. But this morning, it’s clear what my next step is.
I grab my keys, jump in my truck, and head back to the hospital. I know Julian and Siren are my enemies. But I need to know if I have one ally. Julian was the one who put Hugo in the hospital. Siren cheated on him. Maybe Hugo’s on my side. Although, when he finds out I’m the one who’s been sleeping with his wife, that may change.
