Chapter 31
I didn’t think. I grabbed a candelabra from a wall stand and smashed it against the curtain near the door. The fire caught fast…too fast. The fabric was dry and dust–covered, and in seconds the flames roared up the walls.
Smoke billowed. I ducked low, coughing hard, and ran for the nearest door that led outside. My lungs screamed, my legs felt like jelly, and I nearly collapsed again. But I kept going. I had to.
I pushed through the back exit and ran barefoot into the woods. The ground was cold and uneven, sharp stones cutting my skin. Branches slapped my face and tangled in my hair, but I didn’t stop.
The night was brutal. Wind sliced through the thin coat and the cold sank straight to my bones. My vision blurred, and every breath burned. I had no idea where I was going, only that I had to keep moving. I had to survive long enough to tell Ephraim the truth.
Then the trees broke open and I saw a narrow road. My legs gave out as I stumbled onto the gravel, and my body hit the ground hard.
The last thing I saw before blacking out again was the faint beam of headlights in the distance. I didn’t know if they were friends or enemies.
But I hoped to God it was him.
**
I woke to warmth. Not just the kind that settled on your skin from soft blankets or sun through glass, but something deeper. Safer.
My eyes blinked open slowly, the light above me soft and golden. The scent of antiseptic clung to the air, but it was faint, almost drowned out by something else–lavender and cedarwood. Something familiar. Someone familiar.
A low humming reached my ears. Gentle. Steady. Then a hand squeezed mine.
I turned my head, and there he was.
Ephraim.
His eyes were swollen. Red. Like he hadn’t slept in days. His suit jacket was wrinkled and thrown carelessly over the chair, his sleeves rolled up, his usually perfect tie long gone. He looked nothing like the man people feared and everything like the man I loved.
He was holding my hand like if he let go, I’d disappear again.
I opened my mouth. The word was barely a whisper. “Ephraim…”
He froze. Then his face broke. The smile that trembled across his lips cracked into a sob, and he leaned in, pressing his forehead to our joined hands.
“Fuck,” he breathed. “I thought I lost you. Again.”
He Left Me for Dead. Now He Beas Me for Mercy
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manage was a hoarse breath. My throat burned, and my limbs were too heavy to lift.
He lifted his head and cupped my face so gently, like I was glass. His thumb brushed just beneath my eye. “Don’t talk. Don’t try, angel. Just rest. I’ve got you now.”
His voice cracked on the last word, and I saw it… how much he’d broken while I was gone.
He didn’t leave my side that night.
Even when the nurses came in to check my vitals or when they tried to convince him to go get some sleep in a proper bed, he ignored them. He pulled a chair close, rested his head beside my arm, and wrapped his fingers through mine again.
He slept like that. Still wearing my ring on a chain around his neck. Still gripping my hand like if he let go, I’d slip through his fingers all over again.
When I opened my eyes the next morning, the sun was just starting to pour through the blinds. Ephraim was already awake.
His eyes were still bloodshot, darker from the shadows under them, but his expression had softened. Calmer. Like watching me breathe gave him back pieces of himself.
“I thought I was dreaming,” I murmured, my voice raw and slow. “But you’re really here.”
He leaned in and kissed my knuckles. “I’m not going anywhere. Ever again.”
There was a silence, then his jaw clenched, and he sat back, rubbing his palms against his face.
“The night you disappeared…” he started, voice hoarse. “The hospital called me too fucking late. They told me you flatlined. And when I got there, everything was wrong. The guards were dead. Poisoned. Your body was missing. They didn’t even know how long you’d been gone.”
My heart thudded weakly in my chest, and I tightened my hold on his hand.
He didn’t look at me. Just stared at the floor like it was easier.
“I lost it. I called everyone. Hired every kind of mercenary, SWAT unit, hacker, fucking bounty hunter that owed me a favor. I turned this entire country upside down trying to find you.”
“You found me,” I whispered.
He exhaled hard. “Yeah. Because I-” he paused and looked at me then, ashamed. “I put a tracker in your necklace. When you were in that coma. I didn’t want to lose you again, and I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d be pissed.”
I tried to smile, but my lip just trembled. “I’m not mad.”
He nodded once, quickly, and continued.
“We got the signal an hour after you were taken. You were in some rotting chapel in the woods. My men breached the place but… by the time they got inside, it was burning. You’d already escaped. We found you passed out on the road, barefoot, bleeding, cold as hell.”
Chapter 21
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He ran a hand through his hair, then looked at me, eyes filling again.
“Ruby and that witch Massaro hired some guy named to kill you. We got them. They’re gone now. But Ruby and Mrs. Masarro escaped. They disappeared before I could crush their skulls with my own hands.”
Silence settled between us. The only sound was the steady beep of my heart monitor and the low hum of a machine nearby.
Then he dropped his face into his palms and whispered, “I should’ve protected you. I should’ve seen this coming. All of it. I let them touch you. I let them take you.”
I reached for his face. My hand barely made it halfway before he caught it in both of his.
“You came,” I said softly. “That’s all that matters.”
He shook his head. “No. No, it’s not. Because next time, I don’t want to be too late. I want
there to be no fucking next time at all.”
He leaned forward and kissed my fingers, one by one. His voice dropped low. Possessive.
Raw.
“I’m going to kill them, Therese. With my own hands. And after that? I’m going to build you a world so safe, no one will ever touch you again. That’s my promise. You hear me?”
I nodded slowly, and he rested his forehead against mine, whispering, “You’re everything. You always were.”
22:35 Sun, Aug 10
