She returned it. “You still wanna know why I needed Street off the ship?”
“Only if you feel comfortable enough to tell me.”
She nodded. “I do,” she clarified. “I needed them off because after we stopped the Elites and the whole massacre happened, I had to help Daiyu, the girl I mentioned earlier. We stayed in the same house, but I left earlier than her. She reached out to me a couple of months ago, and I learned she had somehow managed to get out.
“She had this group of people hunting down houses here in Mexico and nearby cities. It’s a small, secret organization dedicated to saving as many children as they can. She needed my help to get her people on board. We were supposed to be intercepting a shipment for level-two kids. That’s what they call the fourteen-year-olds moving up to… sex trafficking. It was rough, she got shot, and well… we managed to get them out, and I came back here.”
“It must have been hard… seeing them, the kids.”
She nodded. “Oh yeah, it was… inside the room there was this song Manuel used to hum to me when I was little.” She went silent, then swallowed. “It was like stepping into my personal hell, like a reminder that nothing about me is normal. But the kids, God… they were so young, and scared and familiar, it just—it hurt to see them, to be there.”
“But you took part in saving them, and that’s a good thing.”
She nodded. “Daiyu’s organization is outstanding. But they lack resources that would make their jobs better. I wanted to tell her that if they needed any help, I’d be happy to help them. I know Street would be, too, but if I approach them with this, and they put two and two together, they might find out about how I grew up. They might see me differently.”
“I doubt that,” I countered immediately. “I don’t see you differently. You are still the same Zahra. And I know Street won’t see you differently, either. Take those thoughts from your head.”
A sigh left her. “They’re here,” she said. “Street… dead to the world, but they occupy the other rooms in the penthouse, and I have much explaining to do, but I don’t think I’m ready to tell them yet.”
“And that is okay. I know you will figure something out; you are a better liar than I am, after all.”
She frowned. “I don’t know if that is an insult or a compliment.”
“It was a compliment.”
A small laugh left her.
I brushed her hair back from her face, seeing the tiredness in her eyes. I was happy she’d told me this and confided in me. I knew how much it took from her, but somehow, it made me feel closer to her. It made us feel more intimate than before.
I leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.
“Thank you for telling me all of this, Zahra. I will conduct a little personal research myself, and find out what I can about this organization.”
She smiled, taking in a shuddered breath. “You will?”
“Yes, they need to be stopped,” I said, watching her smile widen as she stifled a yawn. “You are tired. You should sleep. It is almost daylight; I have to find Casmiro and Angelo—”
“I can send them the address here… if you want,” she blurted.
“No, that is all right; I will go.”
She sighed, brows dropping at the idea of me leaving, the tiredness vanishing. “Can we still—still talk about this? I know you might need space after everything, but I don’t want us to end, Elio.”
I frowned. “I thought we covered that already?”
Her shoulders dropped. “Yeah, I know, but I assumed after we talked you might—I don’t know—want to reconsider your decision to… break up?”
“I reconsidered my decision when I walked into the bathroom.” I grazed her cheek softly. “I am still in this with you, Zahra; you don’t have to worry.”
She let out a heavy breath. “Next time, just fucking say it out loud. I’m not smart enough to read minds.”
“I will make note of that.”
She leaned in, joining our lips in a tentative kiss, one I fell into without second thoughts or second-guessing.
When she pulled away, she whispered, “Stay. Please. I will send your location to Angelo, and he’ll forward it to Casmiro, and we can discuss it in the morning about the painting and everything that went down.”
I didn’t have much reason to object to that, so I stayed, and we lay down together like we had been doing for the past few months.
