It seems important to find out.
But right now, I have more important things to worry about. I need to ensure Langston hasn’t gone into shock and figure out a way to protect all three of my kids that are with three separate monsters. I have no idea if Langston is still willing to do this with me or not. Now that he realizes he actually has no biological children, he could just run—file for divorce and live his life. He has no loyalty to me.
In some ways, it might be better if he did. The longer he stays with me, the higher the possibility of him falling in love with me. Other than getting my children back, the next most important thing to me is ensuring he doesn’t fall for me.
But what if he already has?
“Langston?” I speak tentatively.
He runs his hand through his hair and immediately snaps back out of his trance.
“Talk to me. What’s going through your head?” I ask.
My heart skips waiting for his answer. Somehow this is more important than all the other words he’s given me.
“We have three kids we have to get back.”
There’s that word again—we. We have three kids. He speaks about them as if they are his. I guess even though they are all biologically mine, he has a much closer relationship with at least two of them. They call him father. It’s clear in his eyes and the words he uses that he won’t let that change any time soon.
He grabs my neck and yanks me into his chest until I’m consumed with his smell—pine, sweat, sex—that’s him. For a second, I can breathe again. Would this have happened if, instead of walking away from my hospital room, he walked toward me? Would I have felt like I could breathe again? Like I could face another second of a day? Would I have kept enough of my heart to keep living instead of turning in a shell?
“I hate you,” he says.
I love you.
Fuck. Fuck!
He’s not supposed to love me, and I’m not supposed to love him. I don’t have a heart left to love him with, right?
Something is keeping him from saying the actual words, though, so instead of saying he loves me, he says he hates me. Maybe he senses the fear in me? Maybe he thinks I’d run if he said he loves me? Maybe he’s too stubborn to say the actual words?
Whatever it is that is preventing him from saying the words I’ll hold on to that for as long as I can. It doesn’t actually change anything, but it makes me feel like we are safe for a few more minutes.
“I hate you more,” I say back.
He smiles, knowing the truth of my words. That’s what we do—we lie.
“What are we going to do?” I ask.
“We are going to get our kids back. We are going to get the damn treasure. And we are going to kill anyone who gets in our way.”
He speaks his words as if it’s already happened, without fear. He’s not afraid of failing because it’s not a possibility. We are going to get our kids back.
I, on the other hand, am not so sure.
“Hey,” he lifts my chin as if sensing that I need comforting. “I’m not going to let anything happen to those kids—all three of them. I love them. They are mine as much as they are yours. I won’t let anyone hurt them. We are going to get them back and then never let them out of sight again. Beckett won’t be babysitting again; no one will. We’ll homeschool them, do whatever it takes to keep them safe. I’m telling you the truth, huntress. Believe every word I’m telling you.”
His lips lower, and he seals his promise to me with a kiss. Our lips touch only for a second, but with that kiss, he breathes new life into me.
“What do we do now?” I ask, my head spinning, trying to decide between getting the treasure to pay the ransom to get our kids back and going after them now before getting the treasure.
“Now, we get the crew together. We fight. We get the treasure, and we get our kids.”
The crew—he means Enzo, Kai, Zeke, Siren, Beckett.
“Do you trust them after what they did?”
He nods. “I think we’ve punished them enough. We have three kids to keep safe, being kept in three separate locations. We need their help.”
I don’t want to trust anyone, not even them. Beckett failed to keep my kids safe. The others betrayed us and manipulated us to try and get us to like each other. But we need help, and they are the closest thing to family that we have.
Langston calls for a car, and then we are headed back to the airport. We are in our private plane in record time. I should ask Langston about the treasure, about what he found out about what we have to do next. But all I can think about is my kids and about what Langston said about Atlas being sick.
I have to choose my words carefully, so he doesn’t know that I was lying. I had no idea that Atlas was sick and dying. If I did, of course, I would have done what I could to help him. Langston holding on to that little piece of hate might be the only thing that ends up saving him in the end, but I have to know what happened.
I’m lying against Langston’s chest as the plane takeoffs. “Tell me about when Atlas was sick. How did you save him?”
2
Langston
I don’t want to talk to her about Atlas being sick. Up until this point, it was the worst time of my life. I had her child, and he was dying. Terminal, the doctors said. I had to live with the fact that Liesel knew and did nothing.
But did she really know? The fear she feels about him now is real. I can’t imagine she wouldn’t have felt the same fear then if she had known. She would have tried to save him, just like I did.
Liesel lies to protect those she cares about. So why is she lying to me?
Right now isn’t the time to get the truth from her.
I can’t talk in great detail about Atlas. It will break me. Although, she deserves to hear a sliver of the truth even if she won’t give it to me, so I say a single sentence and hope she reads into it.
“I went to the end of the world to find a cure for him.”
She sits up, her eyes blinking as she soaks in my words, trying to decipher what I’m not saying. Her eyes light up, and her head tilts. She’s smart—it took her less than three seconds to realize what I’m not saying.
“The cure that Siren and Zeke had. That’s why you went after it? For Atlas?”
I nod.
I would have done anything for that boy. I’ll continue to do anything for him.
“Thank you for everything, killer.”
There is so much truth behind her words. But I didn’t do it for her—I did it for him.
She takes my hand in hers, and then we think about the kids the rest of the flight. About Atlas and Rose, who were taken from us. About Declan, who neither of us has met. And about how together we will do whatever it takes to save them.
I glance at her stomach, and something stirs inside me. I have five lives to worry about—Atlas, Rose, Declan, Liesel, and the baby in her womb.
Liesel and I drop hands as we walk up the porch to Kai and Enzo’s house. Sure, we are together. We’re married. We are in this fight together. But we don’t want anyone in the house to look at us as a couple. We don’t want them to think they somehow were in the right to kidnap us and try to form a bond between us. Our bond has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with us.