Chapter 12
ZEKE
Eden
Over eight hundred days since I lost my sister.
Thirteen since I got her back.
I walk down the long, dark hallway, mindful to step only over the floorboards I know won’t creak. Can’t risk waking him up. Not tonight.
I ease open Luca’s door and peer inside. He’s curled on his side, blankets pulled tightly around him. His chest rises and falls in slow, even breaths.
Peacefully asleep.
Good.
I keep moving down the hall and come to a halt at the last door on the left. My hand hovers over the handle. I swallow hard, leaning my forehead against the door with a quiet thud.
“Just do it, Zeke,” I whisper, flexing my fingers. I reach in my hoodie pocket and run my fingers over the cool, smooth glass hidden inside. “This is your sister. She’ll understand.”
I turn the handle and carefully push the door open.
A thin strip of light cuts across the room from the hallway, slipping in before the door fully closes.
It washes over familiar shapes that don’t belong here.
Razorback Stadium stretches across the wall beside her bed. Every perfect detail frozen in place.
A damn lie made to look like love.
The room plunges into total darkness as the door shuts behind me. I walk over to her bed and gently click on the lamp perched on the nightstand. My chest knots at the sight of her like this. Asleep in another fucking cage, all because of me.
I sink down on the edge of the mattress, careful not to jostle her. My fingers shake as I brush a strand of her onyx hair away from her face.
This is real.
She’s real.
Bella’s eyelids flutter open and she bolts upright. “What?!” she gasps, scrambling back and nearly knocking herself out on the headboard.
“Shh, Bells,” I whisper, quickly reaching out to cover her mouth before her screeches wake him up. “It’s okay. It’s just me.”
She stares at me with wide, glassy eyes. Her breath is labored. Almost like she’s trying to place what’s real and what’s just another nightmare.
“You good?”
Bella nods frantically.
I release my hand from her mouth and she launches forward, slamming her body into mine. Her arms cinch around my neck so tight it steals the breath clean out of my lungs. I wrap her up just as fiercely with one arm around her waist, the other cradling the back of her head as she starts to shake.
The sobs come fast. Tears she’s been holding in for years violently rip out of her in waves.
“I’m here,” I whisper into her temple, my own eyes burning. “Fuck. I’m here, Bells.”
She pulls back just enough to look at me. Steel gray eyes I’ve missed more than I can even put into words search my face.
“How?” she whispers, brushing her fingers down my face. “H-how the hell are you alive?”
“It’s a long story,” I say, lifting a hand to wipe away a tear tracking down her cheek.
“Always is.” She lets out a weak, broken chuckle. “Care to share?”
“Okay, but first.” I nudge her. “Scoot over.”
She shifts across the bed without question. I slide in beside her and reach back, clicking off the lamp.
Darkness fills the room again.
“What’d you do that for?”
“So he doesn’t see.”
“What?”
“Bells,” I say, dropping my voice to a hushed whisper. “I told you. Your room. My room. It all feeds back to him so he can watch us like some sick fucking peeping-tom.”
“No,” she scolds, sassy as ever. “You actually told me they were watching.” She stiffens. “Who the fuck are they?”
The snark in her voice is oddly calming. A sound I was almost certain I’d never get to hear again.
I pull her in closer, tightening my arm around her shoulder. “Luca and whoever he wants I suppose,” I lie, not having the heart to tell her the truth about earlier.
“So he’s like, what? Getting off on watching me sleep and sending it to his friends?”
I nod. “Something like that.”
“Gross,” she gags. “What if he comes in while you’re in here? Won’t he get mad?”
“Worth the risk,” I whisper. I press a soft kiss on the top of her head. “But don’t worry, I made sure he was out cold before I came in. I couldn’t help myself. I just needed to make sure you were safe.”
“Safe? You’re worried about my safety and yet you fucking branded me,” she says, wincing just slightly as she moves her arm. “How could you do that?”
“I had to,” I confess. “It was a test.”
“That’s a sick test,” she snaps.
“I know,” I tell her, reaching for her hand. Bella’s fingers flinch as I guide them across the C burned deep into my own flesh. “But I passed. He bought it, Bells.”
“What’s the C for?”
“Cassinelli,” I reply. “Luca’s real last name.”
She shakes her head. “This whole thing is insane.”
“I know.” I nod. “Look… I’m sorry I had to hurt you.”
“It’s okay.” Bella sniffles. “I mean, none of this is okay. But I believe you.”
“I have something for you,” I say, pulling out the small piece of glass from my hoodie. Her fingers roam over the smooth curves. She gasps the second she realizes what it is.
“The swan?”
I nod. “The swan.”
During our first Christmas together in Miami, Bella’s school had this market where kids could bring in a few dollars and purchase holiday presents for their family.
Small little trinkets, candy bars, baseball cards, that sort of thing.
Mariela had put a couple of bucks in Bella’s lunchbox that morning so she could get Dylan and me something.
That Christmas, Bella beamed when she handed me my present. It was a little red, glass swan. Nothing more than a paperweight to most people.
And even though the little psycho got it specifically because she thought it would hurt like hell if I chucked it at Carlos’s skull, the smile on her face when she handed it over was priceless.
“I can’t believe you still have this.”
“Had it with me in Chicago. Hell, it was with me on every mission. I never let it out of my sight. Never let it go,” I admit, kissing her temple. I wrap my arms tighter around my sister. “Just like you, Bells. I’m never gonna let you go.”
She exhales slowly, her forehead settling into me as her breath finally evens out.
“You can start your story now,” she whispers, one hand clutching the swan tight.
“Okay,” I murmur into the dark. “Guess I should probably begin with Chicago.”
“Smart,” she yawns.
“The second I stepped inside, I knew something was off,” I begin. “Ivan never showed. No guards. Not a single kid to be found. Nothing but an empty room and a laptop sitting on this rusted metal table.”
Her fingers curl into my shirt.
“When I opened it,” I continue, keeping my voice down. “Something released from underneath. Some sort of gas. I’m not really sure. I didn’t even see it at first, only felt it. Burning my eyes and making the room tilt. Couldn’t see shit through the tears.”
“W-what the?” she stutters.
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s sort of fuzzy after that. I remember Luca standing there. He had this gas mask on, calm as hell.” I swallow. “He was dragging someone behind him. A body. It was burnt to a crisp, so I couldn’t tell who the hell it was.”
She flinches hard, the swan falling from her grasp. I catch it before it has a chance to hit the floor and shatter. Gently, I lay it on the nightstand and continue.
“He shoved a mask on me right as the explosion hit. Controlled just enough to make the outside burn first.”
“To keep Tex and Nate out,” she adds.
I nod. “Yeah, that and to give him time to drag my ass outta there.”
She shifts her weight, hugging me tighter.
“The gas had already fucked with my head though,” I say, trying to breathe through the haunting memory.
“Couldn’t think straight for the life of me.
Fucker took my gun, my knife, and smashed my comms with the heel of his boot.
Then he made me crawl through this hidden tunnel system deep under the warehouse when a second explosion went off. ”
I pause, my jaw tightening.
“Next thing I knew, I woke up in a pitch-black room with ringing ears and a pounding headache worse than any hangover. Had one of our Project Dylan collars locked around my neck.”
Her breath hitches. “Zeke.”
“I know,” I whisper, wrapping her up tighter. “I know.”
She’s quiet for a second. “And you’ve been here? All this time? Alone.”
“Not exactly,” I answer.
She lifts her head slightly. “What do you mean?”
“We weren’t here at first,” I continue softly. “Eden came later.”
“Eden?”
“It’s what he calls this house.” I run my fingers through her hair, gently raking them through a few knots. “This place, it came later. Before this it was… different. Not even really a house more like a damp basement.” A dry huff slips out of me. “Real ninja-turtle sewer shit.”
She goes completely still against me. “You were in the dark for over two years?”
“Kinda.”
“How did you survive that?” Her voice cracks and her body rattles, just a tad.
“Hey. Breathe, Bells,” I whisper, running my fingers up and down her back in the steady familiar way I used to in Miami.
I release a deep sigh of relief as my sister calms under my touch.
“He didn’t keep me locked down there the whole time.” I explain, my fingers stilling on her spine. “He needed me to set up the surveillance system on you and your friends, remember? But every time I would see you through those feeds, you were worse.”
I clear my throat, trying to clear the sound of her screaming at the walls at Rosethorne from my memory.
“I wasn’t going to let the darkness take you,” I say softly. “So I pulled back.”
“You what?”
“Anytime Knox found a lead that would even remotely seem like I was alive, I forced myself to bury it. I hacked into the search from this side and killed any breadcrumbs. Made sure every single trail led to a graveyard.” I suck in a deep breath, exhaling hard through my nose. “I had to get you to stop looking.”
Her elbow digs into my side as she bolts upright, staring down at me in the dark. “Why would you do that?”
“Numerous reasons to be honest.”
“Which are?”
“Because you weren’t okay, sis. Not even by a little bit.” I sigh, taking her hand in mine. “And giving you that intel would’ve led you right into his trap. You would’ve come runnin’ and he would’ve caught you.”
Bella sniffles, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “I was dealing.”
“You weren’t dealing,” I counter flatly. “You were dying.”
Her mouth opens, but I don’t give her a chance to argue.
“You stopped eating. Barely drank anything. You refused to dance and pushed everyone away except Knox.” I swallow hard.
“Every time Luca would let me see you, I had to sit there and watch as another piece of you disappeared. So I made sure you thought I was dead. That way you’d stop digging your own grave trying to find me. ”
Her chin trembles. “What other reason?”
“What?”
“You said numerous reasons earlier,” she whispers. “Me not being okay, and what else?”
“Because I needed to stay a little longer.”
“Why would you want to stay here any longer?” she gripes, her voice rising in frustration.
“My parents,” I breathe.
“Your parents?” she asks, entirely thrown. “What the hell do your parents have to do with any of this, Zeke? You’re not making any sense.”
“He dangled my parents’ plane crash in front of me, Bells. Had me convinced he knew who caused it.”
“And did he?”
“Oh he knew alright.” I rub the back of my neck. “Because he was the one who put them in the ground. But back then, every time I’d set up a new surveillance for him, he’d feed me a file pertaining to their crash.”
“And…” Bella prods.
I don’t respond right away. My jaw clenches so hard my teeth ache.
“Zeke…”
“It was all bullshit,” I finally spit out.
“He fed me just enough truth to keep me hoping. Just enough lies to keep me obedient. By the time I realized he was the fucker who caused the crash…” I exhale shakily, the anger burning hot in my throat.
“…Knox had finally got you to breathe again. So, I snapped out of it and came up with a plan. Took a little longer than I hoped but I made it work.”
“What plan?”
“Fucker needed some intel off of the Project Dylan servers. I had him convinced I couldn’t bypass the encryption remotely.
Told him I needed physical access to the mainframe.
” I scoff, laughing at the memory. “Luca’s dumb as shit with tech, so he actually bought it.
Sent me on a little road trip to our penthouse with one of his lackeys.
I changed our password in the penthouse, hoping that when the system locked you out, one of you would realize that I was alive. ”
“Oh no,” she sobs as the tremors start all over again when the pieces of this mangled puzzle click together. “I’m sorry. I… we…” she stutters, her voice brittle. “I couldn’t go back there after—”
“I know,” I cut in gently. “I don’t blame you.”
I hesitate. Just a second too long.
“Zeke?”
“He did, though,” I add, staring blankly into the darkness. “Bastard wasn’t a fan of that little stunt.”
I flinch despite myself. The memory flashes—the gunshot, the crack of lashes on bare flesh—but I shove it back down. She doesn’t need that, not now. Not ever.
She presses her face against my chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey. Shh.” I lower my head, pressing my forehead to the crown of hers. “It’s alright, Bells. I’m okay.”
“No you’re not,” she whispers, sniffling. “I saw your wounds.”
“Nah. They’re all healed by now.” I shrug. “Ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before. Carlos taught me well. Remember?”
She lets out a shaky laugh and smacks my chest. “That’s not funny.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
She goes quiet again. “I hate that you had to endure all of this alone.”
“I never said I was alone,” I admit, my pulse spiking at the memory of her. The way her auburn hair glowed in the candlelight. The way she loved me like her own and never once judged me. How she saved my life in this nightmare more times than I can count.
“What do you mean?” Bella murmurs, her words slurring slightly around a yawn.
I brush my thumb over her knuckles. “We can finish this later.”
“No,” she yawns again. “I want…” Another yawn slips through. “I want to know.”
“You’re exhausted and need some sleep.”
“No,” she pulls me in closer. “Please don’t go.”
“Who said I was leaving?” I ask. “I’m moving in here. Just like Miami, sis.”
“Really?” she beams, looking up at me even though it’s too dark to see.
“I just got you back. You really think I’m gonna leave your ass again?”
Her head settles down fully against my chest. One arm drapes over my stomach like muscle memory never forgot me. Within a minute or two, her breathing slows and deepens. I stay still, running my fingers through her hair as she finally falls asleep.