Emily
Wolfe
I’m humming again.
Last night with Pete is but a distant nightmare and Jai and I ended the night on good terms—the best terms. We even discussed getting married here in Joel’s orchard and honeymooning in Capri for a whole month. He mentioned children in passing, changing the subject the second it fell from his lips, seemingly to avoid hurting my feelings. I’m aware there’s a high chance Jai and I won’t be able to have children of our own, but I’m open to other options—like adoption. I didn’t get a chance to tell him that because he was onto a new subject quicker than I could blink, but maybe we can discuss it in length the next time we discuss our future.
I tug on my tight white long-sleeved crop top and adjust the laces that line my cleavage and expose tiny slivers of my white and gold bikini. Normally, I wouldn’t wear this crop out, but since Jai and I are going on a day trip to the Bagno Vignoni hot springs, I figure it can’t hurt to show a little skin.
I reach behind me and jerk on the waistband to my high waisted jean shorts, tugging them a little higher, before smoothing the palm of my hand against my belly button. I exhale, pull my long, dark hair around my shoulders, give my outfit one last onceover, and leave the bathroom. As I pass through my bedroom, I snag my handbag off the bed and sling it over my shoulder. Excitement bubbles in my stomach and I continue to hum. It’s a happy tune, an improvisation following no rhythm in particular.
It occurs to me that this will be our first real date. We’ll be outside and seen by other people instead of locked up in a house with only each other for company. It’s exciting, unexplored territory and I can’t meet him at Joel’s place fast enough.
I stop abruptly when I pad down the stairs and see the state of my sitting room. I rake my stare over the untidy couch cushions and the decorative pillows we—apparently—threw all around the place last night. One has hit my expensive crystal vase by my bookcase and knocked it over, snapping the lip. I set my handbag on the floor and rush over to the mess. I figure, if I tidy quickly, then I won’t have to when we get home and we can get straight into our movie marathon.
I straighten the cushions and scoop up my decorative pillows, lining them neatly along the couch. I pick up my vase and set it flat against the plush carpet again, dropping the broken lip inside and making a mental note to tell Jai to fix it.
I turn around and the only offending items to an otherwise tidy room is my black lace camisole and Jai’s hoodie. I stroll over and scoop them up. Exhaling, I throw my cami over the back of the couch and tuck Jai’s hoodie under my arm when something hits the carpet with a light thud and bounces against my foot. I peer down at the black smartphone and frown.
What the hell? I bend down and pick it up. It doesn’t look like Jai’s phone. If it’s not Jai’s, then who does it belong to?
I press the home button and the screen lights up, asking me for a pin code. I try the year Jai was born in.
Nothing.
I try the year I was born in.
Nothing.
I try a whole bunch of different dates and numbers that might be significant.
Nothing.
If this is Jai’s phone, what’s he hiding from me? Or am I just being paranoid?
I stare at the numbers on the keyboard, the pet name Kitten popping into my mind. If only it wasn’t six letters…then it hit me. I straighten my spine and type six-three-six-nine, translated by the old-school number/letter system to spell ‘MEOW.’ To my surprise, the screen unlocks.
My heart thunders in my chest at what I’m about to see. I slide up against the screen, pushing away a dark gray veil.
I frown at the message on the screen that reads:
1 NEW SIGHTING—UKRAINE.
Underneath, a little red box tells me to
“CLICK FOR DETAILED ACCOUNT” so I tap it.
I gasp and drop the phone to the floor, my stomach twisting painfully. Tears spring to my eyes and I squeeze them shut, slapping my hand over my mouth to keep from throwing up.
Once when I was young, I thought it was fun to walk along the tall, wooden fence at the children’s home I lived in. It’d just finished raining and I slipped, falling six feet to the ground, landing on my back. The impact of the fall knocked every wisp of air from my lungs. I couldn’t inhale, and I certainly couldn’t exhale. All I could do was lay there, clenching my sides, mentally begging my lungs to allow air in. That’s how I feel now.
I crouch low to get a better look. My heart thunders in my ears as my stomach becomes turbulent and my brain desperately scrambles to make sense of it all.
Ukraine.
Yesterday’s date.
It even has the current weather stats. To the left is a picture of Skull’s side profile. My mind pulls me through a horrible flashback of all the terrible things he’s done to me—done to us. I thought my nightmare was over. I thought Skull was dead.
Joel told me Jai killed him. Jai agreed.
He lied to me. They lied to me.
Rage replaces the sickness in the pit of my stomach. It boils like a cauldron over hot flames. I snatch Jai’s device in my hand and storm through my house, unable to move my legs quick enough.
I’ve been living my life without fear when I should have been on the run from a madman. Skull, the same crazy person who’s obsessed with me because I look like his dead wife, the very same man who tried to murder everyone I love, is out there looking for me.
He’s being misled now, but what happens when he figures it out? What happens when he finds me? I can’t go back to living like that. I can’t go back to living with him, in fear.
I shoot out my front door, barefoot and angry. Twigs and stones stab into the soles of my feet, but I don’t care. When I find Jai, he’s going to tell me everything and, when he spills all his secrets and begs for my forgiveness, I’m going to punch him in his handsome face and kick him in his beautiful dick. Then, we’re going to figure out what to do about it.
How could he do this? How could he look me in the face this whole time and omit something like this?
I storm down the track toward Joel’s place, and get there in record time. When I brought up Skull’s death in Beirut, confirming what Joel told me with Jai, all he said was, yes.
Yes.
A goddamn lie!
I squeeze Jai’s little stalker device in my hand so tightly, I’m surprised the screen doesn’t crack. The brisk walk here did nothing to quell my anger. If anything, it’s only increased it.
Asshole.
Asshole.
Asshole.
Angry tears sting my eyes and my skin is alight with goosebumps. Where is he? I storm around the side of the house, seeing the broad backs of Jai, Joel, and Ted. Each of them wearing tight, black tees.
“You lied to me!” I snap, shouting. The three of them tighten their shoulders, squaring, but no one turns around. I frown. Are they ignoring me? “Jai!”
I plant my hands on my hips. What the hell is going on?
Slowly, Joel and Jai step apart, neither of them looking at me. It happens in slo-mo, the reveal. My heart stutters and I drop the device in my hand to the grass at my feet. All I can see is baby Jake. The skin surrounding his eyes is red from recent crying, but he’s otherwise calm, calmer than he should be being held in those terrifying, inked arms.
My breath hitches painfully in my chest, cramping the muscles that line it, and I’m paralyzed. Completely immobile.
“There’s my girl,” Skull shouts, waving his handgun at me. “Cute outfit. I’m digging those jean shorts.”
By Skull’s long, black cargo-clad legs, Benji stands as stiff as a board, his watery stare on the porch where I’m sure Huss watches on in horror.
“Please,” I hear Monique cry and she inches onto the top step of the porch.
Her usual smooth blonde hair is disheveled and frizzy, her eyes red and puffy. The sight of her, a mother’s panic, stirs a thrumming in my ears, forcing a powerful stress headache to develop in my temples.
I close my eyes.
I don’t want to look at him. I can’t. I never thought I’d have to set eyes on him again. Not his pale skin or the inked skull that covers it.
The phone said Ukraine, but he’s here in Siena, Tuscany. Why, God? Why is this happening?
I lived my nightmare and I beat it. I don’t have the strength to go back into it. I just don’t.
I open my eyes, meeting his wide, wolfish grin and his black, volcanic glass eyes dancing with excitement. Fear sits on me like a pillow over my face. Enough air gets by, allowing my body to keep functioning, but it’s painful and my extremities tremble.
My thighs muscles twitch with the urge to step forward, to beg him to put Jacob down and let Benji go, but I don’t move. I can’t.
“I have to say,” he begins, bouncing Jake in his arms as he turns his attention to Joel, “I’m a little disappointed he doesn’t look like me. It’s surprising really, considering how often Monique and I—”
“Stop it,” I snap, surprising everyone, even myself. “We know what you’re here for.”
I’ve reached the end of my rope. The nerve of this vile creature, using two innocent children to get what he wants. I can’t think of anything more wicked or villainous than that.
He makes me sick—more than ever.
“Straight to the point. I’ve missed you Kitty-Cat.”
My upper lip curls. I thought I’d never have to hear that again.
“You’re boring,” I tell him, earning a scowl from Jai over his shoulder. I know I shouldn’t antagonize him, but I don’t want him to think for a second that he’s caught me off guard or that I’m terrified he’s here. “No grand entrance? You waltz in, pluck a baby from his playmat while his parents aren’t paying attention and wave a gun around? You’ve lost your charm.”
My heart batters my ribs, my lower lip quakes, but I can’t let him think, not even for a second, that he has power over me.
“Yeah, well, when you’ve been chasing a girl around the world for well over a year, her psycho ex-boyfriend on your tail, panache gets old quick.”
“Not ex.”
“Yes, baby. Ex.” Skull dips his chin, peering down the length of his slender nose at me, and plants a gentle kiss on Jacob’s head. “Come with me—quietly—and I’ll give this precious little cherub back to his mom.”
I open and close my fists. It’s a no brainer. Of course I’ll hand myself over for Jacob. He knows it too. I’d die for that kid.
I flick my head at Benji. “The boy too.”
“No. He stays. I need an incentive for them not to follow.”
“Damien—”
“I didn’t ask your opinion.” He drags the gun along Jake’s cheek and Monique whimpers. Joel inches forward, whispering his pleas, as if a normal tone will set the gun off. “So? You coming?”
Gritting my teeth, I force myself forward and it’s fucking hard. I feel like I’m up to my knees in sticky, dense mud, each step toward my doom taking a lot of effort. As I pass Jai, he snags my wrist with a grip so tight blood is cut off from my fingers.
“Emily…” he orders under his voice and I cut my eyes at him.
His concern is awfully believable for someone who had to know this was inevitable. What did he expect? That we were going to live happily ever after when the big bad “Wolfe” was out there hunting us?
“You lied to me. Fixing this mess is on you.” I snatch my arm free and keep my chin high. I have no doubt Jai will rectify his mistake. When he does, of course I’ll forgive him. I don’t want to, but I’m powerless when it comes to staying mad at him. The only way he can salvage this, is by showing me Skull’s blood on his hands.
* Jai *
Fuck!
I’m kicking myself for not carrying a gun.
I’m such an idiot!
I’ve been so caught up in Joel and Emily’s lives that I stopped paying close attention to Skull. I went from checking his whereabouts every hour and cross-checking every ping of my device with flight arrival times at each airport. I should have crossed checked the alert I got when it told me he landed in Ukraine. The fact he was in Italy so briefly should have been a red flag, but I was too distracted to bother following it up. I promised Joel I’d stay alert, for Jacob’s sake, that I’d leave again just as soon as I came up with a good enough story for Emily to believe. I threw the idea of lying to her out the window and I was going to come clean to her at the hot springs today. Instead, we’re suffering the consequences of my neglect.
Emily closes the distance between her and Skull. With every step she takes, his sardonic grin widens, his eyes raking over her long, taut legs, snug jean shorts, flat tummy, and a long sleeve crop that hugs her generous breasts. She chose the outfit for me, for our trip. She told me she’d wear something sexy and fun and she did. She looks stunning and playful. I want nothing more than to parade her around in front of everyone, claiming her as mine as we walk side by side, our fingers threaded together. Now, I don’t get to because of this asshole in front of me and his sick obsession with Emily and her likeness to his late wife.
I get it’s sad his wife was murdered, along with his unborn child, but that doesn’t give him any right to take mine.
Skull plants another kiss to Jacob’s temple before holding him out for Emily. She eagerly scoops him into her slender arms, pulling his chubby onesie-clad body to her chest, and he lets out a soft cry as she turns toward Monique.
As she widens the distance between them, Skull slaps his hand against Benji’s shoulder, pointing the gun toward his ribcage. Ben visibly shakes, his large brown eyes watery, but I can tell he’s trying to hold it together in front of his dad.
Poor guy.
How can Skull threaten a child? Especially after what happened to his in utero? He really is soulless.
“You thought you were so clever, didn’t you?” he sneers at me, the arrogance thick in his aura.
“We fooled you for a while.”
“But you must’ve known I’d figure it out eventually. The world may be big, but there’s only so many places you could’ve hidden her from me.” He tips his head to the side. “Aren’t you the least bit curious how I figured out where you were hiding her? How I tricked you?”
I tighten my jaw, refusing to answer. I can’t bear to hear the mistake I’d obviously made somewhere along the line.
“It was real easy once I realized what you were doing,” he simpers. “The first time I saw you was in Damascus. You were too busy staring off into the distance to notice me walk by and I could not believe my lucky stars. I thought I’d finally found what I’d been looking for…until I realized you were alone. Foolishly, I assumed you were looking for Emily too, so I moved on to Beirut, hoping to get to her first. That’s when it became clear that you were following me and if you were following me, well, that meant you knew exactly where to find her.”
I ask no questions, offer no commentary as Emily hands Jacob over to Monique, who all but collapses on the stairs in relief. Jake squirms and whines as she squeezes him against her and rains kisses onto his head and face. I turn my head and look at Joel. His shoulders are slightly more relaxed, his face the perfect picture of respite. If we can get Benji to safety too, then I can get a little more reckless with my planning. So far, my plan consists of chasing them down in my car, pulling Skull out of the driver’s seat, and beating his head into the asphalt.
“You remember that pretty little maid in Beirut?” he asks as Emily heads back toward him.
I do my best to remain uninterested. “The one you threw out a window?”
“That’s the one.” Skull grins. “I paid her good money to listen in on your phone conversations with your brother. I even paid her to go through your hotel room one morning when you left early for breakfast.” His lips pull even wider. “For a guy who had everything to hide, you sure didn’t try too hard. Wasn’t hard to set up fake alerts to your device once I figured it all out.”
I slide my teeth together. Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence that the three of us ended up in that hall after all and, maybe I hadn’t taken all the necessary precautions to shield what I was doing, but fuck, by that point I was exhausted. Maybe I didn’t care if anyone found out. Maybe I subconsciously wanted Skull to see me, to find out where Emily was hiding so I could end the wild goose chase I was on.
I. Was. Exhausted.
I still am.
It was hard trying to find the right place and time to end him. He was always in public places and was rarely alone. It seemed he knew someone in every country. Nightly, he took women back to his hotel and I couldn’t risk dragging a civilian into our mess.
Whenever I caught wind of a routine, he was gone by the time I could plot and enact my plan and I’d have to start from the beginning in a new city.
Scouting. Plotting. Moving.
Scouting. Plotting. Moving.
As hard as it is for me to admit…maybe I gave up.
When Skull arrived in Naples, I didn’t bother finding out which hotel he was staying in, like I normally would. Instead, I rented a car and I drove from Naples to Siena. I couldn’t stop myself. Energy vibrated up my calves the moment I stepped onto Italy’s soil. I could smell Emily on the wind, feel her in the sun’s rays. Knowing I was on the same continent as her sent fire through my blood and filled me with an excitement I thought I’d never feel again.
Emily’s birthday wasn’t the first time I’d seen her in a year. It was the day before her birthday. I was walking down the main street, looking for nothing in particular. With my hands in the pockets of my black bomber jacket, I heard the gentle ringing of a metal bell attached to a door and a familiar melodious laugh that pierced through my chest. I turned my head toward the sound and there she was, carrying a transparent box that held a chocolate cake inside.
Wind was sucked from my lungs and I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was beautiful—more beautiful than my mind recalled.
The old Italian gentleman spoke English, but his accent was thick. He told her to enjoy her birthday and he hoped her friends would spoil her. She thanked him and turned toward the street. I slipped into the doorway of a jewelry store and watched through the glass as she placed the cake in the passenger side of her sleek black sedan then smoothed her hands down the front of her fitted black slacks before climbing into the driver’s seat. I stepped out of the doorway as she pulled away from the curb. It killed me to know I wasn’t going to be with her on her birthday for the second year in a row.
I turned back toward the glitzy jewelry store and stared at the sparkling assortment of rings and necklaces…and I went inside. I purchased a delicate gold necklace with a single floating diamond that’d sit in the hollow of her throat, where her collarbones almost meet. It was beautiful and understated, yet full of personality, everything I loved most about her.
The second thing I purchased was a gold solitaire engagement ring that came with a single prong eternity band. Both rings were littered with small diamonds, save for the single large diamond in the center of the front ring. I didn’t know when I’d give it to her, only that I would.
I blink, dragging myself back to the present. I want to give it to her now—right now—but this asshole stands in my way.
Emily returns to Skull and my stomach turns as he slides his hand around her bare, slender waist and squeezes her against him. “We’re leaving. If you follow us, the boy dies.”
“You’re just going to take the kid along with you? For the rest of your life?” Ted asks and Skull shakes his head.
“No. I’ll dump him on the side of the road when I’m comfortable with the distance I’ve put between us.”
“He’s a kid. You can’t just—”
“I can do whatever I want. I thought that was obvious by now.”
Ted licks his lips. “Give Benji to us. You still have leverage without him.”
Skull gently tips his head to the side. “How so?”
“She’s pregnant.”
“Ted—” His name flies from my mouth before I can register it and Emily frowns.
I know what he’s doing, and it might work, but it’s insensitive given her condition.
“Not possible,” Skull snaps, baring his teeth. “She can’t carry children.”
Ted shrugs. “Miracles happen. Right, Huss?”
Jealousy flares inside me. It makes sense to use Huss since I’ve only been here a few days…doesn’t make it sting any less though. I’d sooner prefer Joel be the father of Emily’s imaginary baby. I don’t mean to disrespect Huss, but he’s not good enough for her. The thought of them together…I make a deep noise in my chest and ball my fists at my sides.
“Right,” Huss shouts from somewhere on the porch.
Skull contemplates what they’ve said before peering at Emily. “Really? That guy?”
She shrugs her shoulders and Skull shoves Benji forward, pointing the gun toward Emily’s empty womb, none the wiser. Ben sprints away from Skull as fast as he can, crying as he bounds up the porch steps toward Huss.
Slowly, Skull backs Emily away, and she can’t bring herself to look at me. I don’t blame her. I betrayed her. I kept the fact he was alive from her. She hates me.
Emily doesn’t fight him as he opens the passenger door of his all black SUV. Hell, she even climbs inside without help.
When she’s settled, her belt fastened, she lifts her gaze to mine and it all but rips my heart from my chest. She holds my gaze for a second before dropping her head into her hands, her shoulders shaking as she cries.
I turn away, unable to watch as he backs them out of the drive.
I’m going to get her back and Skull will die today.
I’m going to end this once and for all.