Did he just say he loves me? Did Alzerro the king actually tell me that he loves me? Is he even capable of love?

“Didn’t you just accuse me of lying to you?” I ask. His eyes hold all the answers I will ever need. However, he isn’t giving any away. All I can tell is that he meant what he said. He loves me.

“Shut that sassy ass mouth, Bree. Fuck me. Of course, I fucking love you. How can I not? You’re beautiful. You killed someone for me, and you’re still dealing with my ass after all this… So now will you please, pretty fucking please, ride my cock until I’m swelling and my seed leaks out into you?”

Though it isn’t the sweetest way to confess your love for someone, it is perfect for Zerro.

“Fuck, yes, I will,” I say, kissing him fiercely.

“That a girl…” he somehow mumbles while my lips are on his. My hands go into his hair, gripping at the softness of it. He is beautiful, even if he is lost and broken on the inside. I know if I could do anything, it would be to save him from himself.

One of his hands finds its way onto my hip while the other slides in-between my legs, honing in on my clit.

He flicks at it softly, causing a swarm of butterflies to escape from my belly.

“Ahhh…”

“You feel that baby? Do you fucking feel that? It’s like your soul is soaring while your body takes flight. Your chest fills with air while your mind is going a million miles an hour, but all you can focus on is the one thing that completes you —that’s what being with you is like.”

Though he’s talking, the only thing I can focus on is him and the way his finger flicks back and forth, the way his hot breath feels against my skin, and the way his hand bites into my flesh, so painfully that I know he’s resisting the urge to slam into me.

“Come for me, baby. Come so hard on my hand, harder than you ever have in your life.” At his command, I feel my walls clenching. The delicious sensation of flying zings through me and I feel as if I’m on the verge of something different—something unseen, something never felt before.

I collapse onto his chest, and just when I think it’s over, he slides into me. He places both hands on my hips, holding me in place, waiting for me to come back down from my high.

“You clench me so fucking tightly, baby,” he whispers in my ear, his teeth grazing my skin.

I sit up to look down at him. His eyes are a dark chocolate brown with flecks of gold I hadn’t noticed before.

“I’m hungry for you… Starving…” he murmurs, kneading my breasts in a way that has me moving against him.

“I love you,” I blurt out, slamming down on him. I’m working him in and out of me, focusing on my pace when I think I faintly hear him say, “I know.”

I watch as his head tilts back with his mouth open. His eyes are closed, and he looks to be in heaven.

“Fuck yes…” he hisses as I continue to slam down on him. My hips pivot with every movement, and I feel his tip rubbing against my back wall.

“Oh yeah, baby… Ride that cock… Show me who owns you…” His dirty words and seductive voice push me harder.

I stop bouncing and just swivel my hips back and forth. I push down on him hard and am met with a delicious reward. His hands grip my hips harder and harder as he urges me to go harder, my clit rubbing against his cock. Fuck yes. Fuck yes. Fuck yes.

“I… Can’t…” I barely get out in between breaths. My chest is constricting, and my body is reeling with pleasurable sparks. His hands slip from my hips and behind his head as I open my eyes and peer down at him. He’s watching me ride him with eyes that are glazed over and a soft smile on his lips.

“You can, and you will come, again and again until I tell you that you can’t anymore.”

“Ahhh…” Is all I can say as I continue to ride him harder and harder. Every slide in and out pushes me that much closer to my goal—to the finish line.

“Come. Now!” he yells suddenly. My insides clench around him, and my eyes roll into the back of my head. I stop breathing as beautiful, colorful flashes erupt in my head. I can’t stop myself from scratching his chest. My nails dig into his skin so deeply, I worry he might be bleeding.

His hands come back up to my hips where he holds me so he can slam into me over and over again. My legs tremble like jelly, and just when I don’t think I can take anymore, he’s there pushing me to the edge again.

Zerro’s cum fills me to the brim as he pushes into me over and over until he grows soft. I fall against his bloody chest, surprised that I did that to him. I can’t believe how much I am not myself.

I feel like a bowl full of Jello shivering uncontrollably, so I don’t resist him lifting me. My eyes are still closed and my body on fire when I feel the soft blanket covering my body. Sleep invades my body and mind, and I can focus on nothing but the memory of Zerro and his soft smile. I can save him. I just know I can.

I awake some time later that night, or at least it feels like nighttime. The clock on the nightstand says three a.m., but I’m not really sure. My body feels extremely worked over, and I smile shyly remembering the way he took me before placing me in bed.

I clear the sleep from my eyes when I hear Zerro and another man’s voice. I instantly recognize the voice that sends shivers down my spine. It belongs to a face that I would much rather not see. I know all of this before pulling on a shirt and a pair of sleep pants.

“She wasn’t ever part of the plan, Z…” I hear Mack whisper yell. Neither of them knows I’m awake yet, and it occurs to me that I can just simply eavesdrop right here.

I hear the sigh that Zerro releases. I can almost see his face. I’m sure it’s filled with anger and agony.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s a part of the plan now, and that’s all that matters.” My heart swells with love. At least I know he won’t be killing me or making me leave him.

“It matters, dude…” I can hear the anxiety in Mack’s voice. Something is very, very wrong.

“Why does it matter? She was nothing before this whole incident and will be nothing after everything takes place. She’s clean. I know it.” Zerro sounds confident, and though I know I have done nothing wrong, if Mack convinces him I did do something, I know I am as good as dead.

“It matters because I know she’s not clean. After Jared had called me, I did a little digging on her and found some shit out. I never did trust her, and I figured you should know being you’re the boss.”

Horror fills my mind. What is it that Mack could have possibly found out about me that will force Zerro to turn me away, or better yet, kill me?

Moments of complete silence pass, and I swear they can hear my heart beating out of my chest. A moment later, Zerro speaks through clenched teeth, “What did you find?” Venom is in every word that leaves his mouth.

“She’s the pig. I know it,” Mack exclaims proudly. It’s as if putting my ass on the line was worth something to him.

“No, she’s not. You’re so fucked up, Mack. I have trusted you from day one, but accusing someone of such dumb shit is just…“ Zerro stops midsentence, interrupted by Mack.

“Really? What’s fucked up is that she threw herself at me over and over again. The night I went to get her from the basement is the night that she tried to come to me. She wanted me to have sex with her and help her escape. She thought that she could use me…” Mack lies.

My eyes grow large at his lie. He’s fucking lying to the man I love! He’s feeding Zerro lies. They’re all lies.

“That’s a lie,” I declare, walking out of the room. I don’t look at Mack whose eyes are probably boring into me. Instead, I focus all my attention on Zerro, begging and pleading with him to know the truth, to believe me.

“I told you the truth. I told you what happened,” I remind him softly, coming to stand near him. I see the gun in his lap and feel like running for the door.

Mack laughs. He actually laughs. “You honestly want to believe this whore over me? Over one of your most trusted men since you came to leadership?”

“That is such a fucking lie! I can’t even stand to look you, much less want to touch you!” I throw at him. I can see the indecision on Zerro’s face and that he doesn’t know who to believe.

“It’s not a lie, and you know it,” Mack counters with such force that I can practically feel the hate in his words.

“It is, and if you were half the man you’re supposed…”

“Enough!” Zerro screams, causing me to take a step away from him. My body and mind are reeling in an attempt to find the loving man who I had been with mere hours ago.

“Go stand over there…” He gestures to me, pointing the gun at me. I scurry across the wood floor near Mack, even though it’s the last place in the world I want to be.

Zerro’s eyes observe both of us. “One of you is lying, and I’m going to fucking find out who.” His eyes are black as he swings the gun back and forth between us.

“I’ve been your right-hand man since before you became the king. You aren’t going to accuse me of lying,” Mack states.

Zerro cocks his head, an evil look crossing his face. It’s then I know the man standing before me is nothing like the man who made love to me hours before, the man who showed compassion and shared his story with me. Instead, the man standing before me is the shell of that person. This person has no heart, no feelings, nothing can break him, simply because he believes he has nothing to lose.

“Prove to me how you aren’t lying.”

“How do you want me to do that?” Mack asks, confused. I keep my mouth shut knowing if I talk out of term, my brains could very well be splattered across the wall.

“Tell me this information that you found on her,” Zerro sneers, unable to look at me or say my name. That has to mean something, right? That has to mean he feels something for me. That if he points the gun, he won’t actually pull the trigger, right?

Mack shuffles his feet back and forth for a moment as if he’s nervous. Then he talks, and my life spirals out of control.

“I found out from one of Luccio’s men that her father works for the FBI.” The second the words leave his mouth, I’m retaliating.

“Lies! It’s all lies! This whole thing is a lie!” I frantically assert over and over again. Tears escape my eyes, I go to turn around, but am stopped. Zerro’s hold on me is tight as he places the gun against my lips. His eyes hold no mercy as he bruises me.

“Is that true?” he inquires, deathly calm. The tears keep coming, so I’m unable to gain my voice to say anything. Without an answer, he loses it.

“Is that fucking true?” he screams, his face right on mine. His hands grip my arms as he shakes me until my teeth rattled in my head.

All I see is a blur of him as I try to get my mind and body to function so I can answer him. My legs hit the floor as he pushes me down, releasing me to walk away. His hand grips his hair as he stares at the gun in his other hand and back down to me.

“No. No, it’s not true,” I whimper, tears still falling.

“That’s not all, sir.” Mack breaks in. What now? What additional lies can he come up with? What more could rip me to pieces other than Zerro thinking that my father is in the FBI? That I had betrayed him?

“Tell me,” Zerro grits out, his eyes still on mine.

“Don’t listen to him,” I plead, looking him straight in the eyes.

“Silence,” he orders, walking over to me with his hand raised. Will he hit me? Will he hurt me?

“Talk.” He turns back to Mack. All I want to do is cover my ears. I don’t want to listen to the lies that bastard will spew.

“Not only is her dad in the FBI, but he was the one who shot and killed your mother.”

The accusation has me flailing for air. What did he just say? Though nothing about this is funny, I feel like laughing. Mack is crazier than I ever thought.

“That isn’t true!” I shoot back. “Nothing he is saying is true…”

Then it’s as if Zerro loses it. I feel a hand sweep roughly across my face, knocking me off my knees. I am unaware of what’s taking place because my mind goes blank for a second as my eyes roll to the back of my head. My head throbs and something trickles down my face, but I can’t quite get my wits together to sit up.

“There’s more… Her father borrowed the money because he was trying to pin you for something. When it backfired, he sent his daughter in for him. She knew this whole time. She was simply pretending to be something that she wasn’t.”

“No…” I cry out as my vision swims. Did Zerro hit me? Why does everything I see have black spots in it?

Silence ensues for a long second before Zerro speaks. “Get the ropes and tape!” he yells to Mack. I’m lying on the ground on my side when his face comes into my vision.

“Was it all a lie, Bree? Was it all some fucked up lie so that you could get into my head? So you could get the inside job done and walk away unscathed?” His voice is so loud in my ears, I push away from him.

“WAS IT?” he demands, his fingers gripping my chin, pulling me closer again.

“No!” I gasp. “I love you. I really do. I don’t know what he’s talking about. He’s a liar.”

I try and push myself up. I need to get up to escape, but I know there’s no point in running. Zerro wants me dead. The man I love wants me to die.

“Bind her feet and duct tape her mouth,” he orders Mack. Zerro takes a step back, and I await my fate.

“I didn’t do it...” I cry and beg. My pleas go unnoticed, though, as Zerro finds a bottle of bourbon and starts drinking it straight from the bottle.

“Shut up, you stupid bitch,” Mack says smugly, pressing my face into the wood floor. More blood falls from my face, and I feel the blackness begging to take me under.

“Listen to me!!!” I demand over and over again. Nothing changes in the way he looks at me. I know the hate he has for the people who killed his mother, and I know even the absurd possibility of me having any relation to them will do me no good.

“Leave the duct tape off. I want to hear her screams when I shoot her in the head,” Zerro coldly commands. His voice is far off, and I wonder if it’s me who’s slipping away or him.

My body is pulled up until I’m resting on my knees before him. Is he really going to kill me? Is this the end?

I look into the eyes of the man who took me, the man who I saved from death, but I see nothing of the person I fell in love with. I know today isn’t just my funeral but his as well. With my death will come guilt and heartache like he has never felt before.

The gun in his hand is cocked and loaded. The light glistens off the metal as I watch him raise the barrel toward the side of my head.

“Tell me you didn’t know, Bree…” His face is the same of the beautiful man I made love to merely hours ago. Our love is magnificent, but in the big world of things, it is nothing. Fear courses through me as I wait for him to pull the trigger. He will… I have watched him kill too many people to think otherwise. He always pulls the trigger…

“Tell me! Tell me you didn’t fucking do it, Bree! Tell me that this bullet isn’t for you. Tell me because right now, I’m contemplating killing the one person who means more to me than anything else in the world!” Zerro’s voice, though frantic and anguished, is soothing me and giving me hope. Maybe, just maybe, our love can conquer the darkness that is lurking close to his surface.

There is no point in begging him. I know it will do nothing for me, but I have to try to make him understand Mack is lying. “I didn’t… I didn’t know, I swear...He's lying! My God! How could I have even known you were going to be at my house to collect from my father the day I came home on break? You met my father whom you, yourself, described as weak and simple minded. You honestly think my father could kill someone? He didn’t even fight to save me, his own daughter! He let you take me because he was scared of you! There’s no way a simple, spineless farmer could be a tough, intelligent FBI agent...” My voice halts in the midst of me trying to convince him I’m telling the truth. Time stands still as Zerro stares into my eyes. He’s looking at me but doesn’t see me. Hate and anger come to the surface with a vengeance.

“He's your father, Bree. You had to have known. Payment is due, and this bullet has his name written on it in your family's blood. So, I suppose this bullet is meant for you.” He refuses to listen to reason, refuses to believe me. Gone is the man I have grown to love and care for. I know death is imminent when I feel the cold metal of his gun against my head,

"Any last words?" His voice is so cold that I barely recognize it as the same tender voice that proclaimed his love for me only hours ago.

"You have to believe me! Look at me! Look at me and tell me you can't see that I am telling the truth. It is Mack who is lying, Zerro! Please. You once claimed you could always tell when I am lying. Why can't you tell now?" I am breathless, drowning in my own tears as I try so desperately to make him believe me.

"Why can't I tell now? I am the king, Bree. From the very beginning, I was taught to trust no one, and that's how I lived my life. Until you...until you came and clouded not only my mind, but my judgment, as well. I want to believe you. I really do, but I am in the middle of a war. Not only with Luccio's people, but with myself. I am at a fucking raging battle with myself because of you! The good you unlocked in me is fighting to be free, but the dark, evil, fucked up part of me is telling me not to trust either one of you. That part of me wants to see both of you with bullets in your heads."

Time stands still as I take a deep breath. There is nothing else to say. The monster has been set free, and he won’t be at peace until I am lying on this very floor in a puddle of my own blood.

The silence is literally killing me, it surrounds us, sucking the life right out of me.

“Pull the trigger!” I scream. I feel every single shred of hope leave me. My body, mind, and soul shut down. I am ready, there is no other way around it.

“I will.” Placing his lips against my forehead, he pulls the trigger. He actually pulls the trigger! The sound of the gun going off is loud as Zerro’s beautiful face is the last thing I see before my world goes dark.