Chapter 77
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Emilia
The truck roars beneath us as we speed away, every bump jostling my throbbing head. I sit cross-legged, Heidi knelt beside me, murmuring under her breath as she wipes blood from my temple with a white rag.
Across from me, Zac sits, elbows braced on his knees, eyes fixed on me.
He hasn’t looked away since we climbed in.
Not once.
Not even when Jordan groaned.
My chest tightens, something hot but utterly welcome spreading outward. The way he’s staring does something to me. My pulse pounds and my stomach flutters.
I can’t look away either.
He looks furious and relieved and shaken and grateful and weak all at once. His jaw is tight. His brow furrowed. There’s something dark smudged along his cheekbone, and streaks of blood on his arm and sleeve, but he stares at me like I’m the only thing that matters.
In the corner, Claudia is bent over Jordan, whispering to him.
Heidi finishes, leaning back and frowning. “It’s not great, but it’s all I can do right now, Mils.”
I nod and smile weakly. “Thanks, Heid.” I lower my voice. “Do you think I could talk to Zac? Alone? Just for a minute?”
Her eyes dart from me to him, and something knowing warms her expression. A small smile quirks her lips. “Of course,” she whispers.
She squeezes my arm before scooting back towards Claudia and Jordan, giving us space.
Zac’s eyes follow me as I shift across the floor towards him. His posture doesn’t change, but something in his expression does. The corner of his mouth quirks, the smallest twitch, like he’s fighting the urge to smile. The sight sends a ridiculous warmth straight through me.
I inhale, trying to ignore the way my heart skips just because he’s looking at me like that.
“What were you thinking?” I whisper before lifting a hand to the bruise around his eye. “And what happened to your face?”
He doesn’t answer.
I huff a breath, frustration simmering inside my chest. “Am I supposed to believe it was Sam who got all of your friends to come and rescue me? Or maybe it was Heidi? Rayden?”
That gets him.
His shoulders jolt and his jaw tenses. “He couldn’t rescue you if he jumped in front of the damn fucking truck himself,” he mutters.
“Zac,” I snap, sharper than I intend. He shifts, pulling his arms back and letting them hang at his sides. “Are you okay?” I murmur. “You’re not back at full strength—”
His eyes flare at my words. “I’m fine,” he says.
I fight the urge to roll my own and instead change the subject. “Why didn’t you wear a mask? Like the others? You’ve risked everything—”
“We needed something big enough to barricade the road. A truck from the depot was the only thing we could think of,” he interrupts. “I didn’t need a mask, Emilia, because my allegiance is already exposed.”
I stare at him.
“What?” I breathe out. “But… they need you. Information, what’s being transported. Everything you learn—”
“I don’t care.”
The words slam through my ribcage, penetrating deep into my lungs and expelling all oxygen in its path.
“You… you don’t care?” I say, voice hoarse. He just stares at me. “Zac, you’ve been part of the Resistance for years. This was everything you were working towards!”
“I can still do it,” he says, shrugging. “Just… more covertly. Like Riley.”
Covert.
Like Riley.
As if he didn’t just throw away everything, risk everything, for me.
I stare at him. “You shouldn’t have—”
“Saved you?” he bites out. “Shouldn’t have saved you?”
I freeze as his eyes lock onto mine once more. The amber within flares brighter than I’ve ever seen, as though a blazing inferno rages beneath his very skin. Every muscle in his body is tight as his legs part and he sits straighter, head inching towards me.
“You think it’s that easy?” Zac says, lowly, steadier than ever.
“You think I had a fucking choice when I found out they’d taken you?
You think I could keep pretending to support the State knowing what they had planned for you?
Whilst knowing I did nothing to stop it?
” His lips twist. “There was never a question about whether I was coming for you, Emilia. Not for one single fucking second.”
“Zac—”
“I’ve gone through enough fucking shit to last me five lifetimes, but I’ve never known fear like I felt when I heard they were planning to kill you.
You annoy the shit out of me, and you push me to my damn fucking limits.
You’ve destroyed me. Completely obliterated any sense of self-preservation I ever had.
I should hate you. I should fucking despise you for tearing me away from the only thing that ever made any sense to me.
” He leans even closer. My lips part. “But I can’t. I’ve never been able to.”
His eyes dart to my lips, and then back to my gaze, his pupils blown.
“You were made to test me, Emilia. It’s the only answer I can come up with for the way my entire being fucking yearns for you.
Burns for you. Desires you.” He lifts an arm, the palm of his hand resting softly against my cheek.
A crease appears between his brows. “If you asked me to, I’d burn the entire fucking city to the ground. And I don’t even know why.”
Softly, I exhale, eyes wide. Inside, everything begs me to close the distance, to grab onto his shirt and prove that everything he’s said I feel, too.
A cruel smirk tugs at his lips. “Those bastards will rue the day they ever decided to tether me to you,” he murmurs.
Something inside me unravels. Heat that’s no longer anything but utter lava spills through every vein, every artery, every crevice of my goddamn body.
The noise of the truck fades until we’re the only two people here, and my pulse stutters, as though needing me to answer his words in order to keep beating.
And I know, with a clarity that feels like standing too close to the edge of a cliff, that whatever I’ve been pretending I don’t want… I can’t anymore.
So I dive off, headfirst.
“Fuck it,” I mutter, launching myself forward. I grab the front of his shirt and pull as hard as I can. He meets me halfway with a sound that vibrates from his chest.
His summery scent and traces of oil hit me just before our mouths crash together in a hot, desperate fervour that feels completely and utterly right, like everything leading up to this moment has been inevitable.
His hand slides to the nape of my neck, fingers threading into my knotted hair, tugging me closer. I open my mouth, and his tongue rushes to meet mine, soft but aggressive all at the same time, and so, so us that everything inside my chest aches for more.
He kisses like he’s furious and relieved, like he’s greedy but reserved, like he’s punishing me but worshipping me all at the same time.
I break for air, but he doesn’t allow it, lips brushing mine, tugging me back as if letting go for even a second hurts him. My hands fist tight in his shirt, dragging him closer, trying to erase any space between us.
And when he tilts his head and deepens the kiss further than before, everything in me just… vanishes. The fear, the gunfire, the pain in my temple—all gone. It’s just him and this wild, consuming desire trailing over every inch of my skin.
He pulls me into his lap, grip tightening on my waist like he needs the proof that I’m here, that this is really happening. I melt into him, kissing him back with every frustration I’ve ever held for him.
And fuck, he kisses like it’s everything he ever needs to survive. Fiery. Fierce. All-consuming.
I’m breathing loudly when we finally part. His forehead rests against mine.
Zac smiles. “Not too personal for you?”
I hum, returning the smile as I shift in his lap, facing him fully. “You were right. Kissing is fun.”
“Just imagine how I am in bed—”
“Don’t ruin this,” I say, cutting him off, and he laughs, low and rough.
My stomach flutters at the sound. “It wasn’t too personal,” I say softly, hands toying with the hair that curls at the base of his neck.
His smile widens—ever so slightly—and he leans back in, placing a chaste peck on my lips.
My legs widen of their own accord, and he smirks against my mouth.
“Good,” he murmurs. “Then fuck it.”
“Fuck it,” I agree.
A small shuffle from the end of the truck reaches my ears, and before he can drag me back into him, reality slams over me like a bucket of cold water.
We’re not alone.
Heat rushes to my face as I shift back a fraction and turn my head. Heidi is picking at her nails and Jordan and Claudia are whispering again, but Claudia’s eyes dart to me, and the tiny twitch of her lips tells me she saw absolutely everything.
My cheeks burn.
I start to move back, to shift off Zac’s lap, but his arm comes up fast, winding around my spine, fingers catching my jaw. He turns my face back to him, and his eyes drag over my lips.
“Fuck it, yeah?” he says, voice hoarse.
I nod, a small smile tugging at the edges of my lips. I melt back into his arms and rest my hands on his chest. “So… what do we do now?” I murmur.
He grins, letting go of my spine and lightly curling his hand into my hair to give it a sharp tug.
“Now, Emilia,” Zac murmurs, voice full of malice and promise. “Now, we fight for our fucking lives.”