But I don’t have time, and I have no idea how many more there are. The odd gunshots coming from around the corner, along with Rex barking through to Dawson in my ear, knowing that all my friends are fine, awards me with a tiny bit of time to be an asshole.
“You didn’t say please.”
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
My hand drops to my side, and I wipe my forehead with the other to get rid of the light sheen of sweat I’ve gathered from my performance.
My head turns over my shoulder, and thankfully the corridor is empty, but these guys have either been hiding in these cells, or there’s another entrance at the other side.
“You okay, Indie?!” Rex pants through my earpiece.
I lean against the wall, dropping my elbows to my knees as I stare down at the dead guy. “I’m fine. I think this end is empty now.”
I miss everything that comes in his reply, the hairs on the back of my neck standing.
A dark and all-knowing laugh rumbles from the cell door in front of me, working its way through my bones and filling the hole I’ve been harbouring in my chest for the last eight days.
“I never thought I could love you more, but fuck me, darling. Watching you kill a man, and the smile that followed it? It makesme want to bend you over his corpse and fuck you until your screams have him sent back.”
My tight, burning eyes are drawn upwards like magnets to the source.
He’s perched at the end of the cot, sparking up a cigarette as the amber flame dances in the shadows, leaning back in the same outfit I last thought he was dead in.
Saint.
I rip the cell door, thankful it’s unlocked as it collides with the wall due to my force. Saint stands to catch me the moment I crash into him, lifting me as I wrap my legs around his waist.
The ferocious beats of his heart against my chest confirms my worst nightmares weren’t real.
He’s here, with me, in my arms.
The dam I’ve been holding back collapses, my sob filling the cell as Saint grips me tighter.
“You miss me, darling?” he whispers in my ear.
Dawson comes through the earpiece. “Is that Saint?!” I ignore him, pulling back to stare into those platinum-colour eyes, humming with deviousness and life and the devil’s favourite colour as it shines all around us.
I palm each side of his face, shaking his beautiful face with each word. “You don’t get to leave me, Saint,” I gasp through the tightness in my throat, gaze scanning every inch of his face. Even in the shadows, I see every single feature, knowing it like the back of my hand. “Not ever. Don’t you fucking dare do this to me ever again.”
My teeth clatter as I wrap my arms so tight around his neck, I’m probably choking him. And once we get out of here, when everything settles down, I will fucking choke him.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbles against my neck, squeezing it tight with his hand, “I had to keep you safe.”
He lowers me to the ground and my eyes dart to his side, noticing the slits in his shirt, remembering the video.
Clearing my throat, I make sure my voice is steady before I speak. “There is no me without you. You don’t have the right to make those decisions for us on your own. We get our happily ever after; we earned those dreams we talked about all those years ago. If you think for one second doing this kept me safe, you were wrong.”
His brows dip, darkness clouding over his eyes as his voice finds a deadly tone. “What—”
My hand reaches out to fist his shirt, tugging him to me with a brute force that he allows. “I’ve lost every last ounce of sanity I had left thinking you were gone. Driven to the brink of madness. You made the monster inside me, Saint. Stick around and feed it.”
One minute the room is ice cold, the next, it’s soaring with a heat higher than I imagine the pits of hell can touch. It’s being conjured by the menacing devil that’s staring straight into my eyes.
The moment our lips collide, I truly learn the meaning of being alive.
