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I close my eyes at the sweetness of his promise. “Okay.”
“It’s almost over, sweetheart.”
Almost is not really good when you’re dealing with a nutcase like Zervas. I don’t tell Marco that—mostly because I figure he already knows. He’s trying to give me hope. I’m doing the best I can to hold onto it, but I have to admit, I’m kind of failing at that. “I’m going to hide the phone now,” I tell him. “I love you, Marco.”
“Fuck I don’t want the first time that I tell you I love you to be like this,” he growls.
I moisten my lips. “Do you… uh love me?”
“Princess, you’re the breath in my lungs.”
“Oh…” I whisper, those words burning through me.
“You’re the blood running through my fucking veins, Ena.”
“You love me.” The words come out a mix between a sob and a whimper.
“Endlessly. Now, hide the phone, Princess. Keep yourself safe until my men get there and I can be with you.”
“Okay,” I whisper, thinking that apparently is my new favorite word, but for the life of me, I can’t force myself to say anything else. “I’ll get through this,” I add.
“You will. You absolutely will,” I hear Marco say as I put the phone back in my pocket.
I don’t tell him that I will if only to see him one more time. I need to look at him as he’s telling me he loves me. I need the chance to grow old with him…
God, please give me that chance.
Marco
I click the mic off on my cell and look over at my brothers. “Give me a fucking phone,” I growl. All three of them are handing me one, but I just grab the first and then I dial EZ’s fucking number by memory.
“Yo.”
“The Strand. Hotel near the strip, but off the beaten path,” I snap.
“We’re on it. Your brother already gave me the info. We’ve met with the men you sent, too. Looks like a fucking convoy going to war what with our bikes and the SUV’s on our tail. We got this brother.”
“Protect, Helena. Make sure she’s safe, EZ. That’s all that matters.”
“Man, I happen to like your woman. More importantly, my woman, likes yours. I got this and when I tell you that, I’m saying you have my word I will bring her to you alive and breathing.”
“If he hears your bikes—”
“This is not my first rodeo, ese.”
“I want updates.”
“Respect, brother, but you aren’t going to get those unless you let me go.”
“Later,” I snap and click the phone to hang up.
“It’s going to be okay, Marco.”
“You don’t know that, Gio.”
“You’re right,” he says with a sigh. “I don’t.”
“So—”
“But I do know that woman has waited a fucking long time for you to love her. There’s no way after hearing you say all of that, that she will go down without a fight. It will be okay.”
I grunt.
Chapter 41
Helena
“Lovely place you chose,” I whisper, looking around at the fake wood paneling and shag carpeting. The showstopper, however, is the mirrored tiles in front of the bed. Okay, it might be a tie with the bed itself—which is heart shaped with a fluffy pink headboard that is also in the shape of a heart. If this thing has a vibration attachment or goes around in a circle, I’m going to scream. I’m going to try very hard not to die tonight, but if I do, I don’t want it to be on a reject seventies bed that probably has enough bedbugs to start their own colony on a planet in another galaxy. Perhaps they’ve even developed superpowers by surviving enough bodily fluids from the bed that they are now invincible and will come back to Earth to destroy our planet because it's clear from their point of view that the inhabitants are nothing but pure stupidity.
“If you hadn’t been a bitch, we could have been living it up at that Mirage. So blame yourself, Hel.”
“Whatever,” I murmur, still staring at the bed.
“What are you thinking when you look like that? Deciding you want to give me a go after all?”
“Actually, I’m thinking how you will be single-handedly responsible for the entire nihilation of the planet Earth.”
“Huh?” he asks, understandably confused.
“What’s next in your grand schemes, Zervas?” I ask, not about to explain and trying to figure out how to stay alive and away from any part of Zervas while I wait for my rescuers to show up.
He tosses a bag at me. “Grabbed these at a store while you were unconscious. You’re going to use them to make your face look better. Then, we’re going to drive down the street and get this damn wedding over with.”
I catch the bag by pure reflex alone—well, that and desperation. If I hadn’t have caught it, it would have hit my face. That hurts enough already. I open the yellow bag and stare down into it and see a bunch of cheap makeup. I know it’s cheap because never in my life have I seen tags that say a dollar on a freaking compact.
