His eyes were wide, filled with what looked like fear, but Six feared nothing.
Another creak, and the banister broke away.
“Lacey!”
A scream exploded from me as my stomach flipped from the weightlessness, then came to a sudden stop a second later when I hit the hard surface of the salt water. It took me a moment before panic set in and I opened my eyes. I kicked my feet and moved my arms, but the blurry surface began fading away, becoming darker.
It wasn’t working. My clothes were heavy, dragging me down. I pushed harder, kicking as I fought to surface. The pressure in my ears felt like my head was going to explode. Fire burned in my chest, my lungs begging for a breath as my mind fought for consciousness.
After everything I’d been through, death by drowning was nowhere in the spectrum of ways for me to shed my mortal coil.
No matter how hard I swam, I couldn’t do it. When I was almost ready to give in, something grabbed my wrist and pulled. It moved up my arm until my hand rested on a shoulder as I was chest to chest with him.
We broke the surface and my mouth opened wide, taking in a hard breath. There was no strength left in me, all of it concentrating on circulating the next gulp of air.
There was a stretch of beach near the cliff we’d fallen from, and Six’s strong arms and the current pushed us toward it as fire continued to rain from the sky.
When we reached the shallows, Six threw my arm over his shoulder, carrying me onto the beach. The sand was soft and squishy beneath my bare feet, my shoes lost to the water. He dropped me down on my back where I continued my struggle to get oxygen back in my body. He fell onto his knees, looming over me, panting as well.
I could barely see his eyes in the darkness as he cupped my face, staring at me, his forehead dropping to mine. “Don’t ever fucking do that again.”
I blinked up at him. “W-What?”
“I say when, where, and how you die. Not you or anyone else, so stop trying to kill yourself.”
My lips twitched into a smile before I reached out and grabbed his face, smashing my lips to his. They were salty, but I didn’t care, because for the first time I realized he did.
Six did care about me.
“You like me.”
His brow furrowed, and he grabbed my arm as he stood. “Come on.”
I was about to protest that I needed another minute when he reached down and scooped me up in his arms.
“Are they still around?” I asked, my head leaning against his shoulder.
Another explosion rocked the cliff side, the dilapidated restaurant exploding in a fireball reaching high into the sky.
“Shit!” My eyes were wide as I stared up, the blast wave slamming into us, blowing my hair back.
The second explosion was much stronger than the first, much like the one from the coroner’s office—meant to cover up all evidence.
Up in the black we heard an engine roar down the coastal highway.
Six continued walking toward a wooden staircase in the cliff’s edge that led from the restaurant to the beach.
“Do you think they think we’re dead?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
He started up the stairs, carrying me the whole way, refusing to let me down.
When we reached the top, flames licked high in the sky, engulfing everything. Luckily, the car was, for the most part, okay. There were a few busted windows and a piece or two of shrapnel imbedded into the side. I had no idea how we would get back as we were in the middle of nowhere.
Soaked, sandy, and salty, Six set me down next to the car and we climbed in.
My teeth chattered, arms wrapped around my waist. Six reached over and turned the heat up to high. It was a nice gesture, but with half the windows destroyed, there wasn’t much that was going to take the chill off.
By the time we got back to the motel I was chilled to the bone. My teeth wouldn’t stop chattering, and I was dying to get out of my clothes.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I said, my voice a bit raw, body sore and sluggish.
He didn’t respond, but there was no need. Six wasn’t one for unnecessary conversation, and I knew there was a lot going on in his head.
I stripped off my still damp clothes that were covered in salt and sand, and let them fall to the floor as I turned on the water. My skin felt ice cold to the touch.
As I stepped in, the warm water felt like it was burning my cool skin. I let the warmth fall over me, roll across my skin, and tried to forget.
To forget that Six was betrayed by two of his own, one being his own brother. To forget that we were probably still being hunted, and with a greater ferocity than before.
The sound of the shower curtain rings sliding across the rod made me open my eyes. Six stared at me, completely naked, as he climbed in with me. His eyes were off, his expression confused.
For the first time in months he looked at me like any other man looking at a woman, instead of a captor at his captive.