ZANE

 

I’m not going to lie and say that I’m not happy to see her because I am happy to see her, but that’s about the point where my happiness ends. She shouldn’t be here. If she had the means to escape, she should have gone back and got help from the team at Ford Security. She should be safe and sound at the factory, but instead she’s on this rooftop with me and I’m terrified that her need to be a hero is going to get her killed.

I can live with dying.

I can’t live with watching her die.

I’d sacrifice myself if it meant saving her, but I’d rather if we both survived so we can have our shot at a happily ever after of our own. I’m not going to lie though. The odds of that happening are slim, and they’re getting slimmer by the minute.

No doubt, Anna has learned so much today about herself and the world she lives in. She has learned that she’s stronger than she ever thought she could be and on some level, she’s learned how to take care of herself in ways that most people could only dream about, but I fear it’s not going to be enough to save her life when it counts.

I shake my head furiously at her, trying to tell her nonverbally to leave.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she exclaims, taking one careful step after the other as she approaches the woman from a comfortable distance. “Not without Zane.”

“You poor lovesick bastards,” the woman exclaims with a maniacal chuckle. “Are you really going to risk your life to save his? Now, I know he’d do the same for you, but he’s built for this. You’re not and that’s the key difference that’s going to get both of you lovebirds killed.”

“I’m not afraid of you.” Anna swallows a heavy gulp and takes another step forward until she’s right behind me. She shakes the gun at the woman. “Put the gun down and just maybe you’ll get out of this tower alive.”

“No, no, no.” She laughs again, this time heartier than before. “That’s not how this is going to work.”

Anna raises the gun slightly and pulls the trigger. A bullet passes just over the woman’s shoulder. “That was a warning shot.”

The woman just continues to chuckle. She’s really lost all of her marbles and then some. “Do you have any idea who I am, young girl?” She takes a step forward as if she’s not afraid of Anna or the gun. “Let me tell you something. If I come up missing, you might as well kiss your asses goodbye.”

Anna moves to speak, but I move to intercept her and take the lead. “And who the hell are you?”

She scoffs as if I should already know the answer. But I don’t. I have no damn idea who she is or who she could be. She’s obviously not as important as she thinks. And if we’ve met before, she’s certainly not memorable either.

She sways slightly from side to side, cocking her head with a wide, shit-eating grin. “I am Lola Grimm.

“No, you’re not,” I grind out between gritted teeth. “I’ve met her before and you most certainly are not her.”

“Excuse me?” She leans forward and questions me incredulously, still holding her gun at her side. “Boy, you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”

“Who in the hell do you think you’re trying to fool?” I can’t help but to laugh even though the circumstances are rather dire. I’d recognize Lola’s face any day of the week and with the exception of having the same color of hair, they don’t even share any similar features. “The last time I saw the real Lola Grimm, she was disappearing into a warehouse to go perish with her father.”

That seems to take her aback. She pushes her tongue against her cheek and shakes her head. “You’re lying.”

“Yeah, it would seem like you’re the one who doesn’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What the hell is going on?” Anna questions from behind me with her gun still aimed at the woman’s head. I don’t know if the question is directed at me or the fake Lola standing in front of me. “This is what this is all about?” she continues, her voice cracking in disbelief and agitation. “You’re pissed off because your father was a bad man and he died in a fiery explosion?”

“Anna, stop it,” I grit out, my eyes twisting backwards to try and meet her gaze, but she’s standing behind me now, working quickly to untie my binds while she still tries to aim the gun squarely at the woman. “You need to stay out of this,” I warn her, but I know that she’s already in it. She’s in it about as deep as she could possibly be. “Just leave me here and get out of here before it’s too late.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she scoffs right against my ear just before I feel the binds slip free from my wrists. “Now stand up.”

I rise to my feet, slowly as to not agitate the crazy woman any more. I take a step back and circle around the chair so that I’m standing behind Anna now. The woman’s eyes follow me intently, watching my every movement.

Good.

She can watch as I reach forward and gently grab the gun out of Anna’s hand and move to step in front of her, to shield her and protect her like I swore I’d do. Like I’ve failed to do. I take another step forward towards the crazy woman who is most certainly not Lola Grimm. I want to shoot her where she stands and end this right now, but I still need answers and I can’t get those from a dead body.

“You have taken everything away from me,” she seethes and jerks her wrist so that she’s able to point the gun right back at me. We’re now in a war of attrition. The first person who shoots is going to be the one to survive the night.

She has every motive to shoot and I’m trying to hold her off long enough so that I can at least get a few of the numerous questions circling through my head answered. “Why don’t you put down that gun and we can talk,” I suggest.

To which, she simply shakes her head and says coolly, “Nah, I think I’m good.”

I let out a heavy sigh and step sideways. With my free hand, I reach back and push Anna gently and then whisper to her, “You need to get out of here.”

“Not without you,” she seethes, and I realize that there is no way she’s going to leave me behind. It’s honorable but it’s incredibly stupid. She should want to be as far away from this as humanly possible. “Just kill her,” she howls into my ear.

The crazy woman cackles when she hears Anna say those words. “You better watch that girl of yours. She’s got a fire in her soul that will not be easy to put out. Me thinks you’ve awoken the monster inside her.”

“Shut up,” I scream and shake the gun at her. “You’re either going to tell me who you really are or I’m going to shoot you in the head and they’ll be scraping your body off the sidewalk for weeks.”

“You can’t threaten me,” she scowls, and I take careful notice of the way her finger is dancing with the trigger of the gun. Even if she doesn’t intend to shoot anytime soon, she’s playing with fire and could accidentally unload her clip if she’s not careful. “There is nothing else you can take away from me.”

“Seriously?” I arch one brow and shake my head again. “Are you really that far gone? Do you really believe that you are Lola Grimm?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” She reaches her other hand forward to help steady her aim. “But I already know the answer. It’s clear to me that you’re not right in the head.”

“Yeah? And why’s that?”

“Because,” she snickers, “You’ve had the chance to shoot me and I’m still alive. If I were in your shoes—”

I drop my aim and pull the trigger.

She drops down, the gun clattering against the hard roof. Her hand trails to the bullet wound in her thigh. She cries out in pain but is still persistent. She lunges forward to grab her gun, but I’m too quick for her. I rush ahead and kick the gun out of her reach.

She lets out a scream that’s torn between a cackle and agony. It’s a weird combination but for a woman as crazy as she is, it’s more than fitting. She pushes herself backwards and cranes her head up to meet my gaze. She forces a smile and exhales sharply. “My men will show you no mercy.”

“That’s the point, though, right?” I shrug. “You don’t have any men. What I’m guessing is going on is that you somehow knew Lola perished in that explosion and knowing that she always stayed hidden from the spotlight, you realized that nobody would know what she looked like. So you thought you could take her place and take over her father’s empire.”

“That’s basically the gist of it, but you’re leaving out a few key details.” She heaves trying to catch her breath. The pain of the bullet hole with no exit wound must be agonizing for her. And though she’s obviously a bad person, I can’t help but to feel some sympathy for her. It’s never easy to take a life, especially not that of a woman’s. No matter how crazy they may be, taking any life will leave a mark on one’s soul.

My soul is already heavy enough for all that I’ve done in my life. And though I’ve never done anything out of malice, and though I’ve never been evil for the sake of being evil, it doesn’t do much to change the equation.

“The only thing you’re missing,” she continues with ragged breaths, “is that I am Lola Grimm.”

I step to her so that I’m standing just above her head. She cranes her head upwards and practically pushes her head against the barrel of my gun. I swallow a gulp in my throat as my entire body almost goes numb. I lose touch with my emotions because that’s what I have to do in order to do what has to be done.

It’s easier when I’m numb.

“I… am… Lola… Grimm.”

“No, you’re not.”

I pull the trigger once, ending this once and for all. And though I’m numb, I’m relieved because this nightmare is finally over for Anna.

The crazy woman’s body drops dead against the hard surface and out of the corner of my eye, I can see Anna recoiling. I twist to face her and drop the gun beside the woman’s dead body.

“I didn’t want you to see that,” I say lowly.

She nods, trying to take it all in. “It’s okay,” she says in almost a whisper. It’s like she’s trying to convince herself just as much as she’s trying to convince me that she’s okay with the events that have transpired here today, culminating in this woman taking a bullet to the head.

I did what had to be done and I’m okay with that. This woman orchestrated our kidnapping. I imagine that she did it to prove to her father’s minions that she was a capable leader but she was anything but. She was a complete and total fraud and I pity the idiots who blindly followed her thinking she was somebody she wasn’t.

Now that she’s dead, I’m hoping Seth Grimm’s empire will crumble. And if it doesn’t, I just pray that this is the last time I ever hear that name. I pray that when Anna and I return back to our homes that this nightmare doesn’t follow us.

“Do you want to take a vacation to the Caribbean?” I question Anna half-jokingly, but if she says yes, I might have to take her up on that offer. After the nightmare that was today, I’m definitely going to need a break. Hell, it might even be time for me to retire.

“That sounds amazing,” she says, her shoulders relaxing with relief for the first time since this nightmare began. Her response makes me perk up, but she destroys any hope I had when she continues, “But I think the only vacation I want right now is to go to sleep in my own bed and perhaps never leave my apartment again.”

“Don’t do that.” I step to her and drop a hand to either side of her waist. “Because I feel like I would never see you again and I don’t like that idea.” I lower my head and tilt her head by the chin. When her eyes meet mine, I somehow manage to forget the carnage that we’ve left in our path.

“You’re cute, you know that?”

“Yeah.” I flash a cocky grin. “I do know that.”

“But…” She pushes me firmly against the chest, hard enough that I force myself backwards. “Can we wait to be all cute with each other until we’re not standing beside a dead body?”

I pass a quick glance back over to the dead crazy woman behind me and nod in agreement. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

“We should get out of here before the police arrive.”

“You just keep surprising me,” I say as we begin to head towards the stairwell, leaving the deadly scene behind us. “If you surprise me anymore, you might just give me a heart attack.”

“Then there’s something you should know,” she says as we walk side by side. “I’m pregnant.”

“That’s obviously a lie.”

“Yeah, it’s a lie.” She drops her hand and her fingers rub against mine. I take her hand into my hand and offer her a tight squeeze. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m starving.”

“You’re so weird,” she chuckles. “How could you be hungry right now?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “Because I’m a man?”

“That seems like the most logical answer.”

It’s okay that we’re joking around with each other right now. It’s a defense mechanism, and that’s something she’s going to need in order to move on from the events that have transpired today. But like I said, she’s stronger than she ever could have believed. Stronger than I could have ever pegged her for.

Just before we disappear into the stairwell, I take one last look at the dead woman on the rooftop. I know that I will never have all the answers as to why we were kidnapped and held hostage today, but I’m content to live in the fantasy that I was right when I said she was just an imposter trying to take over Seth Grimm’s family business.

I sigh before retreating back inside the building.