I nod, unable to form words. Why would he be upset with me after everything? My heart pounds against my ribs at the thought. A thud draws my attention away as Mimi's legs give out completely. Her face is ashen, shock finally taking its toll as the adrenaline drains from her system. Joe rushes to her side without hesitation, catching her before she fully collapses. He wraps his arms around her trembling frame, and she silently crumples to her knees, her eyes vacant and unfocused.
“Hey, hey, I got you,” Joe whispers, his voice tender. He cradles her against his chest, one hand smoothing her hair while the other supports her back. Not sure how to feel, I swallow the lump of relief and the sadness from letting him go. Joe notices my eyes on him, but I glance away. I don’t want to be in the way of him living again.
Liam pulls me by the waist to his chest and mutters, “Let’s go.”
When we reach the deck,all the men who clearly arenot working with Mateo, Riviera, and Damienaredead. The luxurious boat turned into an absolute bloodbath. I look up and see Damien with his gun behind the captain’s back as the boat turns us all around back to Saint-Tropez.
“When the helicopter circles back around, it can only take four of us.” Liam barks out as he reaches the deck behind me, his hand at my back, “Joe, Mimi, Sara and I will head back, and you Damien and Mateo both bring the boat back to Saint-Tropez. Mateo, can you have your guys do a sweep?”
Mateo nods, “Yes, you got it, and we meet at the next location as we planned if Fred wasn’t here?” He asks.
I look over to Liam as unease settles in my chest, but Joe beats me to it.
“Where’s that?” he asks Liam.
“I’ll fill you in.”
After picking us up, the helicopter touches down, and my legs wobble beneath me as I step onto solid ground, but I can’t shake the vertigo. Although, nothing beats the implicit rage Liam has reverberated throughout the ride back.
As we walk across the tarmac, two vehicles await us. One is a sleek black Audi with tinted windows and the other is Liam's mud-splattered Jeep Wrangler with its top off.
The weight of Liam's gaze presses against my spine like hot iron, making my skin prickle beneath my blood-stained shirt. My hair whips across my face from the wind, temporarily blinding me as I glimpse at Joe guiding a still-trembling Mimi toward the Audi, his hand protectively cupping her elbow.
“Sara…” Liam calls out, his voice timber and graveled but I quicken my pace toward his Jeep, desperate to sink into its leather seats and leave behind the metallic smell of death that seems to have seeped into my pores.
“Stop walking for one goddamn second and look at me,” Liam hisses, but I’m too scared, my nervous system completely dysregulated, and I want to hide.
As I reach the jeep, I’m pinned almost immediately against the car. Liam towers over me, breathing heavily, and I recognize the monster that inhabits him, that I had laid dormant but very much awoken now.
“Do not ignore me right now, Sara. I’m about to lose my fucking mind. Not when I've spent the last hours picturing you dead because you thought martyring yourself was a solution.” He grits through his teeth.
“I-I was so scared, Liam.” I whisper. “And I had a plan.” My eyes dart away from his.
“A plan? A plan? Humor me, Sara!” he says sharply, the unmistakable sting in his beautiful eyes. “For someone so brilliant, you've made the most idiotic calculation I've ever seen. You factored in everything with no backup or strategy in sight, like some brave goddamn sacrifice, but you didn’t consider one thing that matters most — the one fucking thing.” He puts his hand over my heart. “At how losing you would destroy me. Didn’t even cross that little mind of yours.” His finger drills into my temple. He leans away from me, cupping his mouth with both his hands, disbelief and pure abolition in his face as his posture turns rigid.
“I’m sorry, Liam, I’m so sorry. Tyler threatened you and me. He was hiding in the house, Liam. I didn’t know what to do. I thought maybe this was the only way to get answers—”
“What answers? Ones where I'm left wondering which part of you they'll send back first? That’s your fucking answer? That’s how you want to start our lives?” Liam's voice trembles as he steps back into me and lifts my chin. “This isn't about anger, Sara. This is about terror. Pure terror that's been eating me alive. More importantly, you knew I’d feel this way. We’ve both confided to each other so many times how we’d feel if something happened to either of us. What do I do with that, Sara? You ripped yourself away from me.”
“Liam, I—”
“The worst part isn't that you left. It's that you looked me in the eyes while I fucked you, kissed you, all while knowing exactly what you were about to do. That kind of betrayal doesn't wash off...”
“How do you—”
“How do I know? Does it even matter that I found out about your littleplanfrom Tyler? There's no version of this story where you're gone and I'm still breathing normally.”
“Yes, it does matter!” I cry out. “Whatever Tyler told you, I didn’t come up with any kind of plan with him! He was going to kill you.”
“Have you fucking met me, Sara?” He points a finger at his chest. “I’m the one who would’ve ripped his throat out and tucked you into bed right after.”
Inside me, panic swirls when he says, “But perhaps you’ve started training me to find my breath without you…”
“What are you saying?” My voice shakes, fear gripping me whole. “Don’t do this.”
“When you walked away, you took my choice with you. Now I’m taking yours. Your choice. Poof.” He exhales harshly, mimicking an explosion with his hand. “But you know what, sweetheart? At least I have the decency to tell you first. You promised me you'd always be there.” He bites out, stopping a runaway tear with his thumb, and the ground swallows me whole.
The pain of a fractured heart blinding me, and I'm frozen, frozen in place because he’s right… I put myself at risk, again, when I had promised I wouldn’t ever again.
