My heart swells, and pride warms my chest as we settle and sleep creeps up without warning. I dream of nothing but warmth and sunlight, slipping through thoughts that are far too quick to track and wake while it’s still dark outside to Zira curled up against me with her head still on my chest.
Is this what bliss feels like?
How did I go my entire life without this? Without someone to sleep beside me and wake up to in my arms?
Then again, no one would have been good enough because they’re not her.
Zira shifts subtly against me and her breathing deepens. I don’t wake her. I lie there and stare at the ceiling, soaking up her presence. Yesterday was a hard day. Worrying about Raven and those few minutes I feared someone like Harris had been able to take Valentina out, then having to call those families and give my condolences.
None of it would be worth it without Zira.
Suddenly, sharp buzzing rises up from the floor and alarms me, as well as jerking Zira out of her peaceful sleep. She groans and her head snaps up, one eye squinting.
“Wuzzah?”
I laugh softly. “Hi. A phone, I think.” The buzzing comes again.
Zira groans and yawns. “Mine? Yours?”
Mine’s on the bedside table and dark. “Definitely yours.”
“Ugh.” Zira sits up fully and sighs deeply with another yawn while I gently rub at her lower back, then catch her waist and hold her as she leans over the edge of the bed searching for herdiscarded jeans. When she finds them, she straightens back up with a grunt.
I feel the snap of tension move through her as muscles tighten against my palm, and just like that, the bliss is over. “What is it?”
“Harris,” Zira mutters, sounding much more awake now. “He wants to meet and I’m to bring the diamonds.”
34
ZIRA
This is it.
Everything’s in place.
The only thing left is to make sure I don’t mess up my lines, and Harris will meet his end once and for all. Then, everything he’s done to my brother and me, to my entire life, will finally be paid for, and I can move on.
At least, that’s what I tell myself as I sit in the arranged car, idling at a stop sign with no traffic preventing me from moving off. But, for some reason, I can’t. It’s like something’s taken over me and I just can’t bring myself to start driving. If I do this, it means the end. The end of everything.
Does that include Bradley?
Will he drop me by the side of the road when all this is over and thank me for some good sex? Will he get me an apartment as an apology and then wave goodbye as he returns to his life of crime and keeping the city safe from dangerous, greedy men?
I don’t want it to be over.
I don’t want to say goodbye.
“Zira?” As if on cue, Bradley’s name crackles softly in my ear. “Zira, is everything alright?”
“Mmhmm.”
“You haven’t moved in ten minutes.”
“Oh.” Gripping the steering wheel, I squint up and down the road. “Sorry, I was just… thinking.”
“If you don’t want to do this, we can think of another way. Valentina has a couple of other plans that will work?—”
“No,” I cut in quickly. “I want to do this. I need to. I was just… thinking.”
