Love Me Last

by Rhea Wilde

  I stepped forward and got a better look. My head turned up as I stared at them. I was so distracted by the sight of all the equipment I didn’t even realize what was in front of me.

  “Eva.”

  I jerked my head and a short distance in front of me, saw him standing there. I clenched my jaw as soon as I laid eyes on him, muttering his name under my breath.

  “Reese.”

  Chapter 25

  EVA

  Reese’s taste for fashion hadn’t changed ever since I first met him all those years ago. His expensive-looking suit was highlighted by a red tie he always seemed to wear. The brown raincoat over his jacket looked silly, considering how warm it was in New Gardens. It was just another indication he most likely made his fortune in another city, given his unfamiliarity with the weather.

  I wasn’t too focused on what he was wearing though. Instead, my attention was on the young boy who stood in front of him. He was a little brown-haired kid. His face was dirty like he had been playing in the mud. His eyes were red. I could see the fear in him as he shook with one of Reese’s hands resting on his shoulder. Reese’s other hand was occupied by a handgun.

  He wasn’t the only one holding a gun in the room. Three armed guards stood along the walls of the warehouse, next to the equipment I initially marveled at. They looked the same as the men who approached me so many times over the past few days. Tattooed thugs for hire who would do anything for a dollar.

  Then there was Derek. He stood next to me, his hands clenched into fists. He stared a hole through Reese, who was looking back at him with a confident smile.

  “I’m so glad you finally decided to come see me, Eva,” Reese said, his voice dripping with more sarcasm than I’d ever heard from him before.

  “It’s over,” I said to him. “I know about your plan. You’re not gonna get away with it.”

  “Oh, but I am. There’s always a danger in dealing with drugs. I learned that the hard way.”

  “I learned that the hard way. You used me! I believed in you and you left me!”

  “Eva,” he said, shaking his head. “I remember what I did. Every single day, I think about you, standing there in the rain as that undercover agent arrested you for a drug deal I put you up to. I’m truly sorry. That’s why I came back. I’m here to make it up to you.”

  “Blow me.”

  “Feisty. Not at all like the Eva I remember.”

  Reese patted the young boy in front of him on the shoulder as he chuckled to himself. The cocky little grin on Reese’s face became more annoying with every passing second.

  “You’re all grown up now. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

  “You can’t be that stupid, Reese,” I responded. “You don’t seriously think I’ll ever go back to you. It’ll never happen. I don’t care if you put a gun to my head.”

  He laughed at my response.

  “You’re right. That’s why I’m not putting the gun to your head…”

  He moved his other hand down and pushed the barrel of the pistol against the young boy in front of him.

  “…I’m putting the gun to someone else’s.”

  Derek seethed next to me. I could feel the anger and frustration coming from him. But there was nothing he could do. Not with so many men pointing their weapons right at him. Even he couldn’t get out of this.

  “When I found out you came to New Gardens, I knew I had to come see you. I had a plan. I hired some men to start taking people off the streets, people nobody would miss. I should have hired more competent men. Because one of them decided to kidnap this little man right here.”

  He patted the child on the shoulder.

  “But… I couldn’t send the kid back. It would be a good opportunity to test the new drugs.

  “Then, something strange happened. I sent two men to see you and they ended up dead, right in front of your apartment. I thought to myself, ‘no, that wasn’t Eva. That’s not her style.’ So I did a little research. I hired some more people to look into it and finally all the pieces came together.”

  Reese raised his gun and aimed it right at Derek.

  “This man,” Reese continued. “This mercenary came all the way to New Gardens to save this kid. Brandon Jacobs. Out of all the kids my men could have abducted, they took a child connected to a member of Special Forces. Just my luck.”

  “You know you can’t get out of this,” I said to him. “You’ve made too many mistakes. You’re careless.”

  “Oh, Eva. I told you I’ve changed. I’m a different man now. After I watched you get arrested, I had to cover all of my bases. I knew you would eventually come here with him. It was all part of my plan. I wanted to get caught.”

  My heart sink into my stomach. Reese’s smirk had never been so sinister. I turned my attention to Brandon, who was visibly shaken from being so close to his captor.

  “I don’t care about the money,” Reese said. “I don’t care about the drugs. All I care about is you. So, here’s what’s gonna happen…

  “You come with me and our new son here. We’ll travel around the world together. You can be with him. You can make sure he’s safe. Undoubtedly, you and this Green Beret spoke about this. This young man’s safety is paramount. Now you can make sure he’s safe. Be with me, Eva and you’ll be keeping the boy safe, too. We can all be happy.”

  I shook my head at him.

  “You can’t do this,” I said. “You can’t make me do this.”

  “I’m not making you do anything. I’m merely doing what’s in all of our best interests.”

  “What about him?” I said as I turned to Derek.

  “Your mercenary friend? He’ll take the fall. The evidence is piling up. Owens is getting ready to talk. But I’ve paid him enough money to convince him to point at anybody, even an innocent person. Besides, I hear this man over here has friends looking for him. They don’t take kindly to men who go AWOL. The outcome will be grim for him either way.”

  I stared at Derek and felt helpless. Reese had Brandon and his men were pointing weapons at us. I couldn’t refuse. Not if I wanted to get out of this alive. I couldn’t fight either. Not without turning into a live target.

  Think, Eva… Think…

  I swallowed anxiously, searching for any way to get out of this. There was only one thing left for me to do. I wasn’t even sure it was going to work. I just had no other choice.

  “What’s it gonna be, Eva?” Reese prodded me. “Come with me and the boy and we’ll leave this city together. Or this boy can die along with the mercenary you don’t even know.”

  “…Okay,” I sighed with a nod. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Wonderful! Eva, you won’t regret this. I’ll love you like I should have loved you the first time. We’ll travel the world. We’ll see all of the sights you wanna see.”

  “Okay, I just… I wanna see the boy.”

  “What?”

  “Let me see Brandon. I just wanna make sure he’s okay. There’s no need to hold him any longer. I can’t try anything. Your men will kill us all if we do.”

  Reese hesitated, staring at me hard, before reluctantly nodding to me.

  “Okay,” he said as he released his grip from Brandon’s shoulder. “Boys, make sure this man doesn’t make a single move. You never know what these Green Berets are capable of.”

  Reese freed Brandon then directed his men to move in on Derek. They surrounded Derek and pointed their guns right at him. I took a step back from them and held my arms out to Brandon.

  “It’s okay,” I said as I nodded to him. “Everything is gonna be all right. Come here.”

  The child hesitated. He turned to Reese as he made his first reluctant step then turned back to me and ran into my arms. I squeezed him in a big hug and whispered into his ear.

  “It’s okay. It’s almost over… It’s almost over.”

  “What a beautiful sight,” Reese commented. “Our first son. You’re going to make a wonderful mother.”

  I ignored Ree
se. I held Brandon in my arms and looked into his eyes. I wasn’t sure if it were the right decision but another option still hadn’t popped into my mind.

  I stood up straight and turned my attention back to Reese.

  “There’s one more thing,” I said. “I have to call the police.”

  “And why would I let you do something like that?” Reese asked.

  “All of the drugs, the equipment. All of this evidence is here. The police force in this city is incompetent. When they arrive here, they’ll pin everything on him. And we’ll be long gone by the time they get here.”

  “Hmm… I like the way you think, Eva. It’s clear you’ve grown so much since the last time.”

  “I’ve learned a lot.”

  I pulled the cell phone that Derek had given me earlier out of my pocket. I glanced at him before looking down at it. When I swiped on the phone, I saw that I had to type a number combination to activate the detonator. Derek had made it foolproof, usable by someone like me.

  There were four numbers. I typed the first three numbers. The phone started to tremble in my hand. My heart rumbled inside of my chest. My knees started to shake.

  I turned my head back up to Derek. I stared at him. His head shifted slightly, a barely noticeable nod as he locked his eyes on me. It was the reassuring confirmation I needed.

  I bent down and took a knee in front of Brandon. I smiled at him, trying to hold back the fear I had from what was about to happen.

  “I can’t wait to leave this city,” Reese said. “It’s so hot and dreary. Where should we go first? We can go anywhere in the world, Eva.”

  I wrapped one arm around Brandon then responded to Reese.

  “…Sudan. I’ve always wanted to visit Sudan.”

  “Sudan? Why would you want to go—”

  I pressed the last button on the detonator then wrapped both arms around Brandon. I fell on top of him, shielding him as best I could with my body.

  I heard a commotion among the men next to me for less than a split-second.

  Then it happened.

  The explosion was louder than anything I could have ever imagined. The explosives sent a shockwave so loud through the warehouse I felt it against my skin, almost ripping through my clothes.

  I braced myself and held my body tight against Brandon. My eyes shut tight and my jaw clenched. My ears continued to ring. My whole body felt strange. I thought I was moments away from dying.

  Please, God… Please…

  I tried to maintain my focus. I kept hoping and praying for my thoughts to stay with me. It felt as if everything around me had disappeared. The only thing I knew for sure was the young child screaming, buried underneath my body.

  The ringing slowly started to disappear. The dust started to settle. I opened my eyes slightly and raised my head up. I could barely make out my surroundings. Dust and smoke filled the room as a large fire began to consume all of the equipment.

  The first thing I did was to make sure Brandon was all right. He coughed in a fit with tears streaking down his face. I didn’t care about anybody else.

  “Come on.”

  My arms still wrapped around him, I picked him up from the ground and rushed through the door in the same direction I came from. As I left, I heard the sound of gunshots and men screaming.

  I kept running. I ran until I was free from the dust and the smoke. I knew I had made it when a gust of the warm summer air blew against me. I’d never been so grateful to feel something so familiar.

  I collapsed to one knee and nearly dropped Brandon to the ground. I laid him down and stared at him. There didn’t appear to be any injuries.

  “You’re okay,” I whispered to him. “You’re okay.”

  Tears were streaming from his eyes but he did a good job of staying quiet. I put my hand up to his face and caressed away some of the dirt on his skin.

  After making sure he wasn’t injured, I slowly worked my way back up to my feet. I turned around and saw the dust finally beginning to clear.

  The warehouse we had saved all the patients from was gone completely, like it had been vaporized into a cloud of dust. The other warehouse was on fire with smoke billowing up into the sky. But it remained intact outside of the wall that had been crushed by the explosives.

  I swallowed as I stared at the building. I took a step forward then realized just how much the fire was raging inside. My heart started to sink deeper inside of my chest. I blinked my eyes as they started to glaze over.

  “Derek… Come on, Derek…”

  I waited for him but he didn’t come out. Nobody else had survived.

  “Derek…”

  I muttered to myself and fell to my knees. I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I stared down at the ground and saw the pavement get wet from the tears dripping from my eyes.

  I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t. I heard his voice. I swore that I heard his voice. But when I looked back up again, I didn’t see anything. There were just the remnants of the warehouse I had destroyed.

  I closed my eyes and sighed a deep breath. As the sirens went off in the distance, I did my best to maintain my composure. It would only be a few minutes longer before someone would come to see what happened for themselves.

  I turned back to Brandon to see he was still all right. He was sitting up now, tears still streaming down his cheeks, as he looked off into the distance.

  I took a knee and moved right next to him.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “You’re gonna be all right. I’ll take care of you—”

  “Look.”

  He pointed his finger back at the warehouse. I raised my head up and saw a figure emerging from the smoke and fire. A man stumbled out. I raced toward him without thinking.

  “Derek!”

  He lurched forward and I caught him in my arms. His shirt had singed off of him. His skin was covered in ash and dust. I looked up into his eyes as he put his arm over my shoulder. He stared back at me, more exhausted than I’d ever seen him, but still managing to work a smile onto his lips.

  “Come on! Let’s get out of here!”

  “No,” he responded. “There’s nowhere left to go for me.”

  We walked away from the warehouse and back to where Brandon was sitting. Derek nearly collapsed as he fell to his knees.

  “Hey!”

  A familiar voice shouted from behind me. I turned around to see who it was. I blinked my eyes in disbelief.

  Reese stumbled out of the warehouse toward us.

  “What have you done?” he shouted. “Eva, we have to go now.”

  “It’s over!” I said to him. “Don’t you see that?”

  “No! It’s not over between us. I did all of this for you.”

  He kept advancing toward me. As he moved toward me, I noticed the gun in his hand. I nervously took a step back, not wanting to be any closer to him.

  “I love you,” he pleaded with me. “I love you so much. Ever since I first laid eyes on you.”

  I felt a strange sense of pity seeing him the way he was now. He was always so smooth and collected. His hair was disheveled and his suit was covered in soot. He looked like a completely different person, far from the man I first met all those years ago.

  “Sean… It’s over. Just give up. I… I don’t love you.”

  “It’s him,” Reese said as he turned to Derek. “It’s all his fault. Well, if I can’t have you, Eva, then no one can.”

  Reese raised his gun up. My heart skipped a beat as I heard a gunshot.

  Bang.

  The sound of it rang in my ears and up into the night sky.

  I froze. I stood there paralyzed, unable to even blink.

  I stared forward at Reese and saw the small hole appear on his forehead. His eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed back onto the ground.

  I turned my head and saw Derek still on his knees, holding the gun he’d pulled from his waistband. The gunsmoke rose from the barrel as Derek kept it pointed in front of him.

&nb
sp; I took a knee and sat down next to him.

  “Is there anyone else?” I asked. “Inside…”

  Derek shook his head. I closed my eyes and sighed a deep breath of relief in response.

  It was over. It was all finally over. A heavy weight lifted from my shoulders like I was floating.

  Derek dropped his gun on the ground and I wrapped my arms around him. I continued to breathe deeply as my heart thumped inside of my chest.

  “Come on,” I said to him. “We have to get out of here.”

  “I already told you. There’s nowhere left to go for me.”

  I pulled away from him and saw the sadness in his eyes. It was a sadness I’d never seen before.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said to him.

  I got back up to my feet and used all of my strength to pick him up.

  “Come on.”

  I turned to Brandon and helped the young boy get off the ground. The three of us stood together. Just as I turned around to leave, I saw three men standing there.

  “Captain Jacobs.”

  Agent Neville stood in front of us, accompanied by the same two men Derek had evaded earlier.

  “When I noticed the explosion, how did I know it was you?” Neville said.

  “You train us well,” Derek replied.

  “Is your business finished or are you going to lead us on another chase? Fifty-thousand volts, Captain.”

  The two men pulled tasers from their jackets and pointed them at Derek.

  “No,” Derek replied, shaking his head. “There’s just one more thing. Please.”

  Derek turned to me. He removed the dog tags from around his neck. He placed the tags in my hand and wrapped my fingers around the warm metal.

  “You have to watch over him… Keep him safe… For me…”

  His words rang in my head.

  “I will,” I said as I swallowed. “I promise.”

  He didn’t say anything more. He just nodded to me then turned his attention back to Neville and his men.

  “All right,” Derek said. “Let’s go.”

  Derek walked with the other three men toward a black SUV parked a few meters away. I looked down and opened my palm, staring at the dog tags.