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“Where are my kids?” I ask Lucas as Mark squeezes my waist, still silent from the shock and pain meds. But at least, his childhood monster is dead, and all the people who arrived for the trade event were arrested.
When Mark saw Lester’s body, he sat there next to him for an hour, processing his death. We let him, knowing his monster, who’d been torturing him all his life, was never going to hurt him again. He needed closure.
We didn’t expect that he’d grab a knife from the floor and plow it into his chest, screaming like he was in a battle. But he did. When he rose and walked out, numbness took over him.
“Safe. Dad got them off the island just in time. They saw none of this.” He motions with his head to the island in the distance. “We’re going to meet them in ninety minutes,” he reports and then goes silent.
My mind takes me to the conversation with my mother-in-law.
In the cafeteria, her words stop my heartbeat as she asks, “What are you willing to sacrifice for the safety of your children and the man you love?”
I open my mouth, looking at her makeup-free face. “Everything. Anything.”
“Then you’ll do exactly what I’ll tell you to do.”
“You want me to trust you?” My eyebrows crease as I try to understand this woman who made my life a misery. “Why would I believe you care for my happiness, Helen?”
“If you refuse my help, you’ll lose them.”
My pulse starts to throb in my temples.
“I don’t have enough time to explain, but what I have is more valuable for your survival than anything else.”
She passes me a bracelet, and I look at her, confused. “What is this?”
“It’s a panic bracelet for emergencies in case something happens to
you. It activates right here, and these are transmitters. This is high tech. If anyone removes your bracelet, your earrings will be able to send a signal, and we’ll track your location.”
Hoping it wouldn’t be found, I put it into my twins’ pajama pockets before I lowered them to the ground. Helen knew, or at least, suspected this would happen. They all acted weird for a reason.
But I feel deceived because instead of telling me, they kept me in the dark. Unable to cope with all that could have gone wrong, I shut my eyes and let myself drift to sleep in the embrace of the man I love.
When Mark presses his chapped lips to mine, I snap my eyes open, blinking at the light. “We’re here.” His soft, vulnerable gaze washes over me like a spring of water, and I take a lungful of air. Hot tears spring from my eyelids as I cup his coarse face and kiss those lips. He is mine.
His crestfallen expression when Lester told me the truth about his heart seeps into my mind, sinking like a knife into my soul.
I croak, “He was wrong, you know?” I brush my lips against his earlobe, leaning back to look at him. “I love you regardless of your scars, evil demons, and violent nightmares. You’re capable of sacrificing everything for the safety of innocent children. You’re an extraordinary man, Mark. With a huge heart and courage to fight for the people you love.”
Clear teardrops run down his filthy cheeks, washing over his lips. He parts them to claim mine, filling me with his taste, until all else fades and only we remain.
“I was drawn to you since I received it.” He points to his heart. His words rattle in his raw throat. “And you were drawn to me because of it too.”
I press my forehead to him, as the guys stand outside the chopper with their backs to us, letting us have this moment. Still covered in grime, dust, and crusted blood, we’re two sculptures of jaded lives on a canvas of vivid beauty outside, welcoming us back to safety.
“Does it matter why we feel the way we feel? I lost so much, Mark, and so did you. This”—I point to his steadily beating heart and stroke his scruffy cheek—“is a piece of your brother inside of you. Your heart is a gift of life. But love is a capacity to devote yourself to another regardless of your ego, fears, and scars. I don’t love you because of him, I love you because of who you are.”
His pulse skitters beneath the skin at the crook of his neck as he swallows his emotions, looking at me like I laid down a milky way to my heart for him to follow. I stare at his eyes, feeling like I’m in the center of an amber ocean. The waters are too deep to dive beneath the surface but way too beautiful not to admire and crave to uncover.
“What now?” he huskily asks me, holding me like I’m a precious gem.
“Now we’re going to face our family. They have a lot to explain.”
He nods, looking at the mansion somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
“And then we’re going to savor our victory and make memories that will overshadow the bad ones.”
He chortles, and husky undertones make my heart skip a beat like little rays of sunshine snaking into my soul.
