by Staci Hart
“Put the gun down.” He released the safety.
Her heart stopped.
“Put it down, you stupid bitch.”
She lowered her hands, dropping the gun with a clunk.
“Get your hands up.”
She raised them again, palms out, mind racing.
There was no way out but one.
Keep him fucking talking.
Her voice was calm, her face a mask of composure. “So is this your grand plan?”
“I told you this wasn’t over. You shouldn’t have raced, you know that? If you really didn’t want me to find you, you should have just shut the fuck up. Not that it would have saved you. I would have just waited. I would have found her. I will always find her.”
“Now you’ve got her. And what about me?”
“Collateral damage and a debt owed. You should never have taken her from me.”
She kept still against every instinct. “Tanaka knows you’re here. If you kill us, he won’t stop until he finds you.”
“Then I’ll just have to disappear.” He looked down at Kiki, squeezing her neck a little tighter. “Change your mind. Tell me you want me.”
Kiki twisted to look at him, her face smooth, betrayed by a tear slipping down her cheek. “I want you. I shouldn’t have left.”
“You’re right. You shouldn’t have.”
He cupped the back of her head with the hand around her neck in a gesture that was sickly tender, the touch of a lover and a killer. “Tell me you love me.”
“I love you,” she echoed, the sound hollow.
Eric’s face twisted in rage as he pressed the gun deeper into her temple, eliciting a scream.
“You fucking liar!” he howled. Then, he said softly, “You can’t lie to me, Kiki. You don’t know how bad it hurts when you lie.” And then Eric looked back to Kat, saying to Kiki, “Sleep, baby. It’s time me and your sister had a heart-to-heart.”
He flexed his arm, squeezing her airway as her mouth opened and closed in a silent scream, hands tearing at him, her legs kicking and thrashing, her tears slipping down purple cheeks.
And then she slowed, her eyes rolling back, her hands dropping from his arms to hang lifelessly at her sides. He gently dropped her to the ground.
Kat’s eyes were on her sister, quiet tears falling. She couldn’t look away. “What are you going to do with me, Eric?”
He pointed the gun at her. “I’m gonna kill you.”
Dillon pulled up next to Kat’s car, leaving it in the middle of the street with the door gaping, his adrenaline raging, his body shaking, his mind with one purpose.
Save them.
He took the stairs to the building two at a time, slowly pulling the door open, softly stepping in, stopping in front of the broken front door to listen. He held his hand out to stop Owen from moving past him, pressing a single finger to his lips.
“So, you’re just going to shoot me?” Kat sounded fearless, but he heard the edge in her words, the tightness of her throat.
Footsteps. Eric’s voice moving closer to the door. “What else can I do? I have no use for you.”
“And you’re not worried about attracting attention with a gunshot?”
He laughed, and the sound made Dillon’s skin crawl. “I’ll be long gone.”
“What are you going to do with her?”
“Keep her. Convince her.”
“And if you can’t?”
“Well, there’s only one other way out. If she can’t see, if she can’t understand, there’s only one answer.”
A pause. “Tanaka’s not going to let you go. He knows you’re here, and he’s coming for you.”
“Shut the fuck up, Kat,” Eric said, deadly calm on the other side of the door. “It’s over. It was always going to end this way. You should have shot me when you had the chance.”
And Dillon wouldn’t wait a second longer. He stepped into the doorway, finding Eric, back turned and just a few feet in front of him.
His gun was trained on Kat.
Her eyes darted to his in a moment of salvation and fear.
And Eric turned.
And everything flew into motion.
Dillon stepped into Eric with a swing that caught him in the eye, his arms flailing in surprise. The gun skittered across the room.
But Eric didn’t care about the gun — he had a new mark. His dark hair was wild, his lip curled as they circled. And in the darkness, he could see the dim red glow of Eric’s eyes, watching him.
And then Eric moved.
He moved with inhuman speed, landing a heavy punch to Dillon’s jaw that sent him reeling, the room spinning away from him. Two steps back, and Dillon sprang, charging Eric.
But Eric saw him coming, catching him in a hold, picking him up like he weighed nothing, slamming him into the ground, emptying his lungs. As Eric descended, Dillon gasped for breath, using his reserve strength to sweep his leg. Eric stumbled, and Dillon bounded into him, taking him down in a roll that ended with Dillon at an advantage.
Dillon pinned him with his knees and unleashed, swinging and swinging.
Kat fumbled with the gun, too shaken for composure, trying to track them, but they were too fast, it was too dark.
“Shoot him!” Owen yelled.
“I can’t get a clean shot!”
They rolled again, grappling for purchase until Dillon rolled away, and they rose from the ground. But it was only long enough for them to spring into motion again. Eric charged Dillon, who spun out of the way at the last minute, sending Eric careening into the wall. And the second he turned around, Dillon was waiting.
He put every ounce of his weight, every shred of who he was, behind his fist as he swung, feet rooted to the ground, body pivoting. And when it connected with Eric’s temple, Dillon heard the crack and knew.
Eric went down sideways and hit the ground with nothing to break his fall, his limbs as dead as his eyes. Eyes that stared across the room at where Kiki lay, as if he’d twisted his neck too far in an effort to get one last look.
Dillon stood over him, fists tight, mind tripping, chest rising and falling and rising.
And then he heard his name on her lips.
He turned to the sound, finding her there, gun hanging in her hands between the wide stance of her legs, her mouth slack and brows knit in shock and fear and relief. And he closed the space between them, wrapping his arms around her, whispering to her that it was over, that she was safe. Her knees gave out. He dropped to the ground with her.
Owen ran to Kiki, calling her name, touching her face, taking her pulse, whispering to her until her eyelids fluttered, and she stirred.
Kat clung to Dillon, his shirt fisted in her hands. “I called my father. Someone will be here soon. They’ll know what to do.”
Dillon frowned. “Your father? How …”
“He’s yakuza.”
His eyes widened, and he leaned back to meet her gaze. “As in Japanese Mafia?”
Kat nodded.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he breathed. “Did you know?” he asked Owen, who rocked Kiki.
Owen nodded once, solemnly.
He looked back to Kat. “Are you hurt?” The words were soft. His hands were on her face, inspecting her.
She rested her hand on his. “I’m all right. You … you saved us.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I hurt you. He found you. You’re safe. You’re safe. His voice broke, his thumb on her cheek.
With shining eyes, she said, “Me too. Don’t leave. Please don’t leave.”
“I hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you, not ever.” A shaky whisper.
A tear from her eye.
“I know,” she breathed with forgiveness. “I know,” she whispered in thanks.
And then she kissed him, offering the absolution he’d wished for.
Ares’s head was in his hands, back against the wall, sitting in the wreckage of the room.
Game over.
Ares had lost. He realize
d he’d known all along that it was inevitable, ignoring the truth, as he always did, thinking he was above it, beyond it.
His anger had burned down to smoldering ashes, and he sat around the ruin and counted his losses, one by one.
The elevator doors opened, and one of those losses walked through them.
Dita’s eyes were bloodshot, her face tight, eyes sharp and cold as ice. Her arms wrapped around her middle as if to protect herself, and when she took a breath, it shuddered, trembling through her like a leaf against the wind.
She was afraid.
She should be afraid.
Heff walked up behind her, his limp controlled, as if he was trying to hide it from Ares. He postured himself, arms folded and body tight, a silent threat. The blaze in his eyes held a promise to implement that threat.
Dita let herself go, straightening up, looking down her nose at him, just like she always loved to.
“I just wanted to tell you,” she said with a wavering voice and eyes hard with hatred, “you cannot stop me. You will never stop me. You’ll never beat me. And you will never touch me again, under any context.” Another breath, this one steadier, as she closed her eyes. “Our bond is broken.” Her voice grew, too loud, too strong, a wind summoned and whipping. “Betrayal has severed the tie once made of love. It ends in hate. Never will it be mended, not as long as there are stars in the sky. Not in this life or the next. Of that, I promise you.”
The wind died down, her eyes opening, the incantation complete.
Perhaps she felt different, but he did not, no tug or pull, no shift between them. And she could promise for eternity; it would not change the truth.
She was his. He was hers. And he would show her.
For a long moment, she stood before him, their eyes connected. And then she turned and walked away.
But Heff did not.
“I will say this once and once only,” he said, his voice the calm center of a hurricane. “Should you ever lay a finger on her, I will hurt you. I will hurt you in ways you can’t imagine until you beg for Tartarus. Never again, Ares. Never will you hurt her. And if you do, no one will save you from me.”
His blue eyes cut into Ares for a long moment, brother to brother, and he knew Heff meant every word.
And then his brother was gone, and he was alone once more.
Ares opened his palm, the medallion resting there, black and white, the cool weight so familiar. He traced the knot from the mouth of one snake to the mouth of the other and closed his fist again.
The muscles in his jaw flexed with his arm, lip curling as he pulled back and threw it as hard as he could through the gaping window. And then he closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall, his wrists hanging on his knees as the cold night breeze ruffled his hair.
And he knew he’d lost it all.
But he’d be damned if he gave up.
Day 14
The soft light of dawn broke through the windows in Dillon’s kitchen, and he found himself grateful that he’d lived to see it.
Kat’s father had instructed them to go to Dillon’s. The doctor Tanaka had sent to tend to Dillon and Kiki had come and gone, leaving the four sitting in silence. There had been no words. The night had been a long pause, a warp of time that had left none of them with any footing. They had been too shocked and stunned to do anything but sit, holding each other, their minds turned inward.
Dillon’s only comfort had been Kat in his arms, her head tucked under his chin.
She was alive and safe.
They all were.
It was a miracle or a nightmare; he couldn’t be sure which. He’d killed a man, and that had saved them.
Nothing in Dillon’s life had ever come easy, and the sweetness of survival was bruised, discolored by the death of another.
Not that there had been much of a choice.
Dillon glanced into the living room where Kiki lay on the couch, wrapped in a blanket in Owen’s lap. Owen’s bloodshot eyes were trained on his hand as he stroked her black hair.
Kat walked down the stairs, running her fingers through her hair, looking exhausted. Her eyes caught his, and she came into the kitchen to sit next to him at the bar.
They said nothing for a moment.
She turned her eyes on him, green and heavy and understanding. “I’m sorry.”
He opened his hands, looking over his palms, his weapons. “I’ve never killed anyone.” The words were hollow, distant.
“I haven’t either,” she said softly, “but I’ve come close.”
“So have I.” Jimmy’s face slipped into his mind and away again. “He was going to kill you.”
“Yes, he was.”
Neither of them had anything to say, but everything seemed to pass between them. I’m sorry. I need you. Forgive me.
“That night when I saw you last, I need … I want to tell you …”
She turned her face to his with eyes so sad, so hurt, but she said nothing.
“There’s nothing I can do to make that right, make that better. There’s nothing I can say that will undo what I did. But I want you to know everything. Because there’s no excuse, but there are reasons.”
She nodded.
“I told you my father beat me, but I didn’t tell you why.” Dillon took a breath that singed his lungs, hating the things he would say but saying them all the same. “Owen wasn’t his.”
Kat reached for his hand, her long fingers soft and comforting.
“When Jimmy drank, Jimmy would snap. And when Jimmy snapped, bad things would happen. I don’t blame my mother for finding comfort somewhere else. I only hope Owen’s father loved her.” He swallowed hard, his eyes on her hand in his, his thumb shifting against her index finger. “Instead of leaving my mother, he held her captive. He beat her often and with little warning. And one night, he found her walking to the subway after work and beat her to death.”
A gasp, just a small intake of breath from his side, but he couldn’t look at her.
“Once she was gone, there was no one to protect us. To protect Owen. No one but me. Owen was the manifestation of Jimmy’s failure, and Jimmy wanted to take payment in blood. And I knew it. So I learned two very important things — how to push Jimmy’s buttons and how to fight back. When he wanted to fight, I was right there to push him, and he’d wear himself out on me and leave Owen alone. For the most part. The last time he touched Owen, I almost beat him to death. We haven’t seen or heard from him since.”
Dillon looked into her wide green eyes.
“I’m not afraid of much of anything, besides myself. I am my father’s son. When I break, there’s no reasoning. When the beast takes over, I disappear. I’ve never been willing to risk a relationship because I will not live my father’s life. I will not hurt the ones I love, but I can’t be trusted. So I loved no one. It seemed easier that way. Until I met you.”
He took her hand and turned it over, held it, pressed his thumb into her palm.
“I wanted to try, believed I was strong enough. And if I wasn’t strong enough, you would be strong enough for both of us. But that night …” He paused, chest aching. “It was the realization of all my fears, the justification of my loneliness. It was my nightmare. I’ll never forgive myself for that, not as long as I’m breathing. And if it had ended at that, I would have walked away. I would have walked straight into hell itself. But it didn’t. Because there was hope. When you touched me, when you said my name, you brought me back. The only other person who can stop me when I’m that far gone is Owen. But you can too. You … you brought me back.”
She opened her mouth as if to speak, but he wasn’t ready to be rejected, not until he was finished. So he stopped her, continuing.
“Kat, you are a gift, a gift I never believed the universe would grant me. From the very first moment I saw you, I knew you would change me, and I was right. I knew you were all I feared and everything I could wish for, and you are. When I broke your trust, I broke my own heart.” He took a breath, a
shaky breath, and met her eyes. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I’ll ask for it all the same. All I can offer is a promise. I will never stop trying to earn your faith. You have shown me what can be, and if you will give me a chance I know I’m not worthy of, I will prove to you that I can be the man you deserve. I can swear to you that I will never give up my hope in us. And I will cherish you as long as you’ll have me, if you’ll have me.”
She slid off the stool, and when he turned to face her, she moved between his knees.
“I believe you, and I believe in you. I trust you, and I trust in you. The minute you walked away from me, my heart broke. I didn’t think I could be with you. After what happened…” She paused, shaking her head. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again after that night. I thought I had to walk away. But I never wanted to. And then you … Dillon, you saved us. You ran into that room with single-minded focus and one objective — to protect us. And you did.”
She cupped his jaw, tears sparkling in her eyes as she searched his.
“I know the kind of men who hurts women, and you are not one of them. I don’t know what happened that night, in that moment, any more than you do, but I know that wasn’t you. When I looked into your eyes, I knew it wasn’t you. And I know I can bring you back. It happened again last night. It’s happened with Owen. And I know why.”
His brows quirked, and she smiled.
“It’s because you wouldn’t hurt someone you love because your father hurt those he wasn’t supposed to. You are not your father. You’re the man who saved us.”
He closed his eyes, lowering his chin as if in prayer. “Will you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” she whispered.
His eyes opened, his hands finding her cheeks. And he when he stood, he pulled her into him, tilting her face up to his, lowering his lips to hers.
The promise was spoken in the whisper of their breath, the sweetness of their lips, through their fingertips on skin so soft. And she leaned into him, and he held on to her, their lives slipping together with a click they felt deep in their hearts.
“Katsumi.”
Kat broke the kiss so quickly, it left him breathless.
