“It will break your heart.”
“You forget, I don’t have a heart to break.”
“That’s a lie, and we both know it.”
I frown. Come on, Liesel. Just tell me.
I reach into my back pocket and pull out my phone and scroll until I find her number. Then I hand it to her. Hoping to pull on her heartstrings.
She stares at the phone, at the name I’ve given her number in my phone.
My everything.
Liesel tears up at the contact entry. She never cries. Never. But she does now.
I kneel down in front of her. Knowing this could be it—the moment where I win a game before it even starts.
“You see, there is nothing you could tell me that I wouldn’t forgive you for. You wouldn’t even have to ask for my forgiveness; I would just give it—freely. I give it now, before you even tell me, because there is nothing you could say that would make me feel differently about you. You are my everything. You have been since your big brown eyes showed up on my doorstep when we were ten. You mean the world to me. I’ve vowed to protect you, to never let anyone hurt you, including me. Don’t make me break my promise to you.”
Liesel reaches out and touches my heart, feeling the unrelenting pounding in my chest. I wish I could say it was beating so wildly because of her. Maybe then she’d tell me her secret, but it’s beating for Kai. Longing to go rescue her from her own torture in the other room.
Because I know who’s she’s trapped with—Zeke. A man she’s formed a bond with I can’t understand. It could be Langston, she’s formed a relationship with him as well, but Langston is still mine, while Zeke has become hers.
I send out a silent plea to Kai. Don’t you dare touch him. Just wait. Let me win this one. I’m so close.
I don’t send the plea because I’m worried about Zeke. He’s withstood plenty of torture before, and I know Kai can’t physically hurt him too badly. But because I don’t want Kai to relinquish the part of herself that is pure and innocent. The part of herself that makes her her. The part that is holy and sacred and hers. If she sacrifices her soul, it will only be for one reason. To save me. And I don’t deserve her saving.
I look down at where Liesel still rests her hand against my chest. I take her hand calmly and bring her palm to my lips. I kiss her palm sensually.
“Please,” I beg. “Please tell me. I already forgive you for whatever it is.”
“You’re a liar, Enzo Black.”
I frown. “I’m not.”
She shakes her head, hands me back my phone, and then pulls her palm from my grasp.
“I’m not your everything, not anymore. And you will never forgive me.”
“Liesel, please,” I beg again. I’ve never begged a woman so much in my life. But there is only one woman I would beg like this for: Kai, the woman who means sea itself. A woman that has conquered the sea, along with her fears and my heart.
“Please,” I whisper one last time.
“I can’t.”
I stand, closing my eyes and turning away from Liesel. And then I let the darkness in. It doesn’t take much, it’s always in my heart, locked in the deepest part. It takes everything I have to keep the evil in and not let it out without me telling it to be free. But it’s always there. Always ready when I need it, even when I don’t.
It’s the part of me that escaped its cage when I thought Kai had betrayed me. And I almost burned us all down in the process.
It’s why even when I have to do evil things, I rarely let the monster out. I prefer to handle all the cruel things myself. I let myself feel every drop of pain, but that only feeds the monster more.
But this time, the only way I’m going to be able to hurt Liesel and save Kai is by letting the monster out.
So I do.
I stare at the table filled with weapons, and the monster laughs. I don’t need a weapon to torture Liesel. Even the cruelest part of me isn’t that cruel to hurt a woman in that way. And even if I did, Liesel is too strong to be broken with knives, whips, or guns.
She’s faced it all at my father’s hand and never broke.