“I’ll forgive you, if you’ll forgive me,” he whispers.
I blink a couple of times. “How? After all of this?”
“Just say the words,” he muses. “Forgive and forget.”
“I …” I take a deep breath as a single tear runs down my cheek. He catches it with his finger and puts it in his mouth, sucking hard.
“Hmm … Nothing like some tears in the morning.”
I shake my head, chuckling to myself. “You’re one sick bastard.”
“One sick bastard you’re in love with.”
This comment makes me want to look away, but I don’t. I’ve looked away enough. All this time, I’ve turned my head, twisted my own heart, and denied the very truth in order to live a good life. However, this was anything but a good life, thanks to my mother. And I can’t help but wonder how it would’ve been if I’d run off with Miles.
I reach for his face and cup his scruffy jaw, and he leans in to let me feel him. His black hair falls across his face so messily, so crude … just the way I like it.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
He smiles a little, looking down at me.
“I’m really sorry,” I repeat, tears welling up in my eyes.
But then he stops my tears with a kiss so deep it takes my breath away.
His mouth latches onto mine with ferocity, almost wanting to suck the love out of me. I know he can feel it, and I can taste it from his licks. No matter how much we try to hide it, we still crave each other. Need each other.
I wrap my hands around his head, wanting him closer than ever before. No restraints to hold me back, no prison to keep me locked. I am here and I want to be here, with him, by my own choice.
Love pours from my veins as I grasp onto his hair and kiss him deeply, allowing his tongue access. One hand cups my face as the other grabs my waist, squeezing lightly, setting my body on fire.
I want it all, I want it so badly, and I can’t deny it anymore. I’ve stopped fighting, stopped battling the bad. I’ll embrace the darkness in my heart, just like he has, because dammit, I deserve it and so does he.
We deserve each other.
“I love you,” he says. “I really do. No matter how much I want to hate you; no matter how much I despise what you’ve done, I can’t stop,” he murmurs against my red, hot lips.
“I know,” I say, licking my lips. “I have the same problem.”
Sirens are audible throughout the house, which makes me think the cops are closing in on us, although I’m not quite sure we still need them. I guess it’s too late for regret now. It’s all my fault.
He laughs. “So, little liar, are you going to come back on your statement?”
“About what?” I lean back on my elbows.
He squints. “You do fucking love me. You can deny it all you want, but I can see that look in your eyes when you see me, you know … all needy and sparkly.”
I roll my eyes, but secretly I’m smiling. “Fine. I submit. You got me.”
He muffles another laugh and then moves in closer again, hovering just above my lips. “I like it when you say that … submitting?” he hisses, biting his lip. “Yeah, I could get used to that.”
“Oh, stop,” I muse. “You’re so freaking filthy.”
“That’s why you love me,” he murmurs, his tongue darting out to tease me, licking my lip but not allowing me to kiss him. “Admit it,” he says. “Say it, Princess. I want to hear you say it.”
“I love you,” I say.
“Say it again,” he growls, arching over me.
“I do love you. I wasn’t lying.”
“No, you were lying when you said it wasn’t true.”
I shrug. “Sometimes a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do to survive.”
“You think you have to run to survive?” He grabs my chin. “I’m not gonna kill you unless you ask for it. So it’s pretty safe to say you’ll survive around me. Besides, if you haven’t noticed, I can get rather protective when it comes to things that belong to me.”
I flush from the thought of belonging to him. I’d like that. For once, I should listen to my heart instead of my brain. Throw the rules out of the window. Kick fortune in its back and run away into the wilderness.
Maybe I’d like that.
“So … the cops are here now,” he says.
“Yeah … I’m sorry. I guess this means the end.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he says, raising an eyebrow.
I admire his optimism, even though it’s a little misplaced.
Phoenix presses a short kiss on my lips, but then he curls his hands underneath my waist and lifts me up from the ground like a knight.
But then, out of nowhere, a loud bang causes him to groan and drop to the ground. I fall to the floor with him and look up in shock at the man standing in the hallway.
“Sorry to interrupt your little rendezvous, but this has gone on long enough.”
It’s Arthur with a gun.
And he’s aiming it at Phoenix.
CHAPTER 30
PHOENIX
The sharp pain stabbing me in the back makes me fall over, my muscles failing on me. I turn around to witness Arthur, the man I thought would’ve bled out by now, standing in the doorway with a gun aimed right at my face.
“Phoenix!” Vanessa cries, turning me over as I cough up blood.
Goddammit, I think he shot me in the lungs.
“Aww, is your boyfriend hurt?” Arthur muses.
“Arthur?” Vanessa looks up at him. “You’re alive.”
“Of course, I’m alive. How else would I be standing here?” He laughs mockingly. “You, on the other hand, shouldn’t be.”
“How are you still alive?” I say with a croaky voice.
“How? Well, after your failed attempt to kill me, I managed to get to a hospital. Had to drag myself all the way to the gate on the other side of the property just to get out. Damn, that wasn’t pretty,” he muses, frowning.
“Gate?” I murmur.
“Oh, you didn’t know there was another entry? Tsk. You should’ve done more research,” Arthur muses. “How else did you think I came in here?”
“But the doors … all locked,” I mutter.
“No, you forgot about the one in the basement, hidden behind all the boxes.”
“Fuck …” I mutter, the pain making adrenaline rush through my body.
“You didn’t think I’d survive, did you? Should’ve killed me when you had the chance,” Arthur jests. “Now I’m alive and well. Got the doctors at the hospital to thank for that. Of course, I couldn’t explain to the cops how I was shot, seeing as I was the one who hired you to kill her. All the traces would lead back to me. Couldn’t have that, nope. But I’m back now, and I’m ready to kill you both,” he says.
“Why did you shoot him?” Vanessa yells, grabbing me and pulling me closer. “He has nothing to do with your anger against me!”
“Because he was in the goddamn way,” Arthur says. “Plus, I’m a little mad here, if you can’t tell.” He looks at me now. “I fucking hired you to kill her, and what do you do?”
She frowns. “So, it’s true.”
“Yes, honey, it’s true,” Arthur says, swaying his gun like it’s some kind of toy. “I wanted you dead.”
“Why?” she says, tears staining her eyes. “What did I ever do to you?”
He smiles. “You think you don’t deserve it? After everything you did to my family?” He steps closer, still keeping his gun pointed at us, ready to fire. “You took my mother from me. My brother. And now my chance to get my family’s fortune.”
“What? That’s what you were after?”
He shakes his head, laughing. “Oh, Vanessa. You didn’t really think I loved you, did you? I was only with you so I could gain access to the money you stole when you married my brother.”
“It wasn’t your money to begin with,” she hisses.
“My brother always got what he wanted,” he growls. “He never ea
rned it. He didn’t even deserve it.”
“Oh, and you do? By planning to have me killed?”
“I worked hard; I took over his business, the business my father should have left me, instead of that half-wit brother of mine.”
She makes a face. “You’re a two-faced liar.”
He cocks his head. “So are you, honey, but nobody complains about that.”
“I do,” I cough, and I immediately cringe from the pain.
“What are you doing here?” Vanessa asks. “Haven’t you hurt me enough?”
“No, as a matter of fact, I haven’t. You just couldn’t drop dead, could you? No matter how hard I tried to push you away so you’d go kill yourself, you just wouldn’t, and then I had to resort to hiring someone to do the job and even they can’t do it. So now I’m here to finish the job.”
He raises his gun. “No, stop!” I yell. “Don’t fucking kill her.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re a pathetic hitman, you know that? Falling for the victim? Really?”
“I’m not the victim, you are,” Vanessa yells, and she reaches for her gun lying on the floor.
He fires a shot at the ground, making her jolt up and squeal. Her fingers almost were blown off.
“Uh-uh, Vanessa. That’s not how this is going to work. Kick it over here,” he says. “Give it to me.”
The sirens outside are booming, and the slot is being fiddled with. I’m guessing the cops are trying to break in to see what’s going on after her desperate call. It’ll only take a few minutes for them to come bursting into the hallway with their rifles and arrest us.
But we won’t make it out alive before that time. Not as long as Arthur is here.
Whatever happens, I will not let her die.
There’s only one thing left to do.
Vanessa and I exchange glances, and it’s all we need to determine what to do. We’re going to die anyway, better go out with a bang.
I reach into my pocket when his eyes are focused on Vanessa, and I take out a small pocket knife. As I attempt to throw it at his leg, he notices me, and points his gun at me.
“Fuck no,” he growls.
And then he shoots as I throw.
“No!” Vanessa’s scream goes through marrow and bone. It’s so full of sorrow, that I know for sure she really loved me, even in the end.
The shot hits me in the chest, but Arthur sinks to his knees.
Vanessa focuses her attention on me. “Don’t die, don’t die!”
“I won’t,” I lie. “Do it now,” I say, gurgling up blood. “Save yourself.”
Vanessa immediately reaches for the gun and picks it up while he’s trying to scramble up.
“I’m not fucking going down like this,” Arthur growls. “Not by your hand.”
“Say hi to your brother in hell!” she screams.
Shots are fired, but I only catch half of the ruckus.
The bangs are loud, but the pain in my chest and back are overtaking my body. Blurring my vision, the sirens cloud my hearing.
All I see is Arthur sinking to his knees. His body flops to the floor like a bag of sand.
And then Vanessa slowly drops to her knees beside me.
First, she sighs.
And then her head slams to the ground.
Blood pools underneath her.
I turn around and try to reach for her. She feels so far away, and yet so close I can almost touch her. Her sparkling eyes look at mine as our heads turn toward each other, our faces and clothes covered in blood. My body is leaking blood like a faucet, but all I can think of his her beautiful face and her wretched soul. All mine. I won’t share her. Not even her death.
“I love you,” I whisper, but I don’t think she can hear me.
She mouths back the same words.
Her fingertips reach out toward me, and for a second they graze mine, setting a fire in my heart that can never be extinguished.
No matter if we die, our spark will always live on and on.
EPILOGUE
VANESSA
“She looks so peaceful,” my mother says. “Almost as if she’s happy.”
“I know. Despite what she’s been through, she’s still as tough as ever,” my father says.
“God, I’m so glad the police came quickly. My poor baby.” My mother sniffs.
“She needs her rest now, though.”
My mother caresses my cheek. “Sleep tight, honey.”
“You’ll need your rest for the coming days,” my father muses.
“The family is coming to see you when you’re all better,” my mother adds.
“Let’s just leave her to herself, shall we?” my father says. “Nothing we can do that the doctors can’t.”
“Right,” my mother says as they shuffle away. “She’ll be safe here.”
“Let’s get a cup of coffee and get back home.” They shuffle out of the room.
The moment the door closes, one of my eyes snaps open and I check my environment to make sure no one’s there before I sit up in the hospital bed. I pull all the electrodes from my body and slide out of bed. I check the door to see if someone’s coming, before reaching under my bed and pulling out a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. I tear off my gown and pull on the clothes that I stole from the nurse when she thought I was asleep. Then I silently make my way out of the room.
Every time someone enters or exits a door, I hide in a corner or hallway crevice until they’re gone, and then I make a run for it. I pass the room Paige is lying in, and for a second our eyes connect. Shit, I don’t want her to see me, let alone talk to me. Our interests no longer align because she was kept in my closet for days, so I keep running ahead. Once I get to the visitor’s section, I quickly spin on my ankles when I spot my parents sitting in a corner drinking some coffee. Instead, I open a safe-exit door and run down the stairs, all the way to the parking lot.
The car is already parked right in front of the road exit.
Just seeing the Jeep makes my heart beat faster.
Freedom.
I smile, knowing that the plan has succeeded.
My parents are oblivious. They think I’m still sick, tired, weak, and that’s exactly what I want them to think. They won’t find out that I’ve left until it’s too late, and they’ll never know where I’ve gone. I won’t ever tell them, either.
I walk toward the Jeep with pride and wanderlust coursing through my veins. I can already picture the trips I’m going to take, and the experiences I’ll have traveling the world. Everywhere a new name—incognito, just like in the movies.
My real life has become an acting job, and I refuse to look back. It’s way too sunny up ahead.
I feel like dancing, but instead, I run toward the Jeep as the door opens from the inside.
His lopsided smile, his chiseled, scruffy face, his tousled black hair and piercings make my heart flutter. And at the sound of his voice, I might have died and gone to heaven.
“Let’s go, Princess.”
“Phoenix, you came,” I say.
“Of course, I did.” He winks. “You didn’t think I’d leave you to rot in that hospital, did you? Besides, your parents would probably kill you if they found out what we’re doing.”
“I’d kill them first if they tried anything,” I say, hopping into the car.
“You sure you don’t want to go and kill them now?” he asks.
I actually have to think about that for a second. “Nah.”
I laugh and so does he, and I buckle up and close the door. In the rearview mirror, I see my own neck again, which has been a long time. The moment I touch it I feel so naked, damn … I never thought I’d miss something like that.
The hospital staff took it off when I was still in bed, but I have no clue how they did it.
“Look what souvenir I found in the trash,” Phoenix says.
I turn my head and a smile appears on my face the moment I see the collar. “I can’t believe you found it.”
“Well, it’s mine, and
I’m not letting them throw it away,” he says, holding it up above my neck as we both look in the rearview mirror. “You know, I still think it looks good on you. What do you think?”
I blush. “I liked it more because it meant I was yours.”
He grins when he looks my way. “What do you say we get a new one then? Just for the fun of it?”
“What? You mean as a collar? For me?”
“Yeah,” he says, licking his lips. “Once my pet, always my pet. And I don’t just say that because I’m a kinky bastard. I just like it when you’re mine.”
I bite my lip. “Ah … hmmm … Maybe.” I’m seriously a bad liar now because I can’t seem to hide my enthusiasm, nor can he hide his. It’s written all over his face.
He presses a kiss to my cheek. “I know you love it when I say you’re mine.”
His comment makes me grin like a twelve-year-old. God, I feel young again when I’m around him.
“So, where’d you get this car?” I ask.
“Stole it.”
The way he says it, without any remorse whatsoever, makes me smile. He just doesn’t give a damn, and neither do I.
I’m already glad we both made a full recovery, and not just one of us. I don’t know how he succeeded in escaping the hospital before me, considering there were heavy guards on duty near his door, but I don’t think I want to know either.
“You didn’t kill them, did you?” I ask.
He turns his head toward me. “Who?”
“Anyone. I don’t care.”
He smirks. “Would you really mind?”
“Well, if they’re innocent.”
He shakes his head, laughing. “Do you really want me to say it?”
“Yes,” I say, putting on some shades I find on the dashboard.
“Fine, no innocents were killed in the grand escape of Phoenix Sullivan. Happy?”
My smile turns into a grin as he turns on the rumbling engine. “Couldn’t be happier.”
“Although, I can’t promise you that I didn’t knock them out to free myself.”
“Phoenix!” I gasp.
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