Chapter 30 – Ferrin
FERRIN
My heart drops into my feet as she runs from me.
I hardly even felt the punch, though she hit me good.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this. We were supposed to sit on a fucking rowboat and watch the lanterns together.
I wanted that time with her. Even if it felt sappy and romantic, I wanted that fucking time.
All of it. I wanted to hold her hand and kiss her and watch her face as she saw the night sky light up for her.
After that, I was going to tell her that I had spoken to the prince and that he was waiting to meet her.
Then the prince and his man had to fuck all that up, and she had to overhear the worst part. The reward. Something I hadn’t asked about, but he felt the need to mention. “If it’s her, you get the five-hundred-thousand-euro reward, but we have to confirm it’s her first.”
I knew there was a reward, but I never looked into it.
It doesn’t matter. It’s easier if she hates me and lets me go instead of holding onto something that can never be. It’s better to happen now instead of later. Except I can’t stand it. Just as I couldn’t drive away from her either. It’s making my fucking skin crawl.
Why can’t I let her go?
I also can’t have her running off like this. Goddammit, Desta, and fuck me for caring as much as I do.
I take off into a sprint, chasing after her, my hand in my pocket on my gun. If someone is going to act, seeing her run from me as the sun is setting and darkness is coming is the perfect time. Her blonde hair whips as she picks up speed, heading toward the lake that I was going to take her out on.
“Desta!” I call out only to mentally hit myself.
Shockingly, it has the desired effect, and she stops and spins around. “Don’t you dare call me that!”
I hold up my hands, stretching them out to her. “I’m sorry. That was dumb. I need you to listen to me—”
“No!” she yells, walking backward toward the lake and the boats.
There are people everywhere, and I’m positive many are watching us, but I don’t give a shit enough about them to look.
“I’m done with this. With all of you manipulative assholes.
You all want something from me, but no one cares about what I want.
I watched people today. I saw families and smiles and happiness. It’s real. It’s not a lie.”
I take a step toward her, my hands still in front of me. “That’s what I’m trying to give you.”
She shakes her head. “By taking more choices away from me. By doing everything to serve yourself.”
She’s not wrong. I did take her choice away from her.
It felt like the only way to make sure she was safe.
With me, we’d always be looking over our shoulders.
She’d be living on the other side of the law.
What would she have? Lies and permanent unease.
I teased her about her prince husband, but she could have that.
She could have the family and the smiles and the happiness.
As much as it burns me up to think of her like that with someone else, the thought of her never having that feels worse.
I get closer to her, lowering my voice, but she turns and heads for the dock where the boats are secured. Most are already in the water, glowing with their lanterns, ready to launch. The boat I rented is sitting there, gently rocking in the small wake of the lake.
“It’s not safe out here,” I say in a low tone so my voice doesn’t carry.
She wipes her face as she glances up at the sky. The fucking lanterns. Any moment they’ll start, her dream of seeing them a reality, and it’s all gone to hell now, just like everything else does for her.
“That doesn’t concern you. It never really did.”
I grit my teeth. Nothing has concerned me more than keeping her safe.
“Please come with me.”
“Fuck you. I’m not going anywhere with you ever again. Stop following me. I don’t want to know you anymore. I want nothing to do with you.”
“Your brother wants to meet you. It’s not safe out here alone. Please.” I glance around, but there are shadows multiplying by the second, many of them coming from the forest on the other side of the lake.
She scoffs. “Right, because you won’t get your half a mil unless I’m alive and in one piece.”
She goes for the boat and climbs into it.
Furiously, she works to untie it from the dock, and once that’s done, she shoves off, pushing herself out into the lake.
I jog down, the wood planks loud against my feet as I pick up speed.
I make a running jump, barely landing on the boat and not in the lake, causing it to rock violently.
“Oh my god! Just stop! I’ll make sure you get the reward you’re so hot for, but leave me alone! You’re a liar, an opportunist, and a con artist. I hate you. I don’t want you anywhere near me.”
“I’m all of those things, and you can hate me. I won’t stop you or try to change your mind. But I’m not leaving you out here alone with no protection.”
She pats her bag. “I have a gun.”
“That you barely know how to shoot.”
She flips me off, and damn her, it somehow makes my lips twitch despite everything. She’s so fucking cute, even when she’s furious.
Before she can fight with me more, the first of the lanterns takes flight.
She drops to the bench seat, and her chin tilts to the heavens.
A gasp flees her lips, and she covers them with her hand as her large silver eyes sparkle and grow round and wide.
One by one, the sky fills with light, casting the world in a stunning yellow glow.
I’m so locked on her that I don’t see it until it’s too late.
Until the first swoosh from a silencer pops the air and a sharp pain slices my right arm.
I glance down and see blood seeping into my shirt.
It’s a flesh wound, but I hear another hiss and dive for Desta, who is curiously looking back toward the dock.
I fall on her, covering her with my body. We slam into the back of the canoe, and she bumps her head.
I cup it with my hand. “Shit. Are you okay?”
“What’s happening?” she shrieks, her features wrought with panic.
“Sven.” It has to be. I don’t see her mother coming out here and shooting like this. She’s an in the shadows type of predator.
“Oh my god! You’re bleeding.”
“It’s not bad.”
More gunshots sound, and now people are screaming. The bullet hits the side of our boat, and I have to get her out of here.
“Get to shore. Stay low. I’ll find you.”
With that, I roll her under me, keeping my back to the dock as a shield for her, and toss her in the water.
She goes in with a splash, but two things happen at once.
The first is I’m shot in the back, left shoulder.
The second is that I remember that Desta doesn’t know how to swim.
Pain and panic surge through me. I search the water for her, but she doesn’t come up.
The water is dark, and as the lanterns rise higher, it grows even darker.
A cold, sickly sweat breaks out across my forehead. Warm blood coats my back and front, the bullet having gone straight through me. Still, I toss myself overboard, plunging into the frigid, murky water. Immediately, I submerge, which only terrified me more.
She can’t swim. And I pushed her right in.
I’m barely able to move my left arm, so I focus on swimming with my right as I drive through the water.
I can’t see anything. I kick and push my way, reaching out and searching for her. The lake is deeper than I thought it would be, and each second I can’t find her feels like an eternity. My lungs twist with pressure from the lack of air, but if she’s not getting any, neither am I.
Where the hell is she? What if I never find her? What if she dies and it’s my fault?
Please, princess. Where are you? Give me something.
My heart starts to give out, my lungs along with it, when my fingertips brush what feels like hair.
I grasp it and haul it into me, yanking her body along with it.
My arm wraps around her waist, and I use the bottom of the lake to slingshot up and break through the surface.
We gasp for air, both of us choking. Water shoots from her mouth as she coughs and sputters.
Thank god. Holy fuck, thank god. I almost lost her.
“Are you okay? I’ve got you. I’m so sorry!” I grab her and hold her tighter than I should. “I forgot you couldn’t swim.”
“I’m fine. Are you okay?”
I’m not okay. I can tell that much, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Another bullet comes dangerously close to hitting us, slicing into the water and creating a small splash that kicks up into my face.
I have to get her out of here.
“Hold onto me. Don’t let go and stay down.”
She wraps her arms around my shoulders, and I tense with pain, nausea and dizziness rising from within me, but I press on. The shore is up ahead, but we never reach it.
Right as my feet gain purchase on the bottom of the lake, I’m jolted from behind, causing me to trip and stumble forward.
My face goes underwater, and I reach back for Desta, yelling through the pain as I try to secure her to me.
But it’s too late. She’s ripped off me, her hands clawing at my back and her legs frantically kicking.
I shoot to my feet, agony ripping through my left shoulder as I attempt to swing around. A fist lands straight in my face, and I tumble back into the water, sputtering with shock and outrage.
“You motherfucker, you killed my brother.” Another hard shot to the face, and I go under before he pulls me back up and releases me to float. “You get to die knowing I’ve got her, and mercy isn’t something I plan to grant. I’ll fuck her and torture her, and you can’t do dick about it.”
I blink in time to see the gun pointing at my face. I drop into the water as gunshots fire, one after the other. Motherfucker, he has her, and I have nothing. I don’t even have my gun. I lost it when I went into the water after her.
I release the air in my lungs, letting heavy bubbles guide the way as my body goes slack and I bob up to the surface facedown. He’ll see the gunshot wound on my back, but it’s a risk. He could rage and shoot me again, but I don’t think he will.
He doesn’t have that kind of time.
I’m proven right when the boat takes off with a small motor and no way for me to catch it.
Stupid. So fucking stupid! I should have taken her to the clifftop to watch the lanterns, but that felt too isolated.
Too dangerous. I shouldn’t have taken her here at all.
I should have brought her straight to the prince this morning.
It’s my fault, and now he has her.
I move toward the shore as best I can, my left arm all but useless and my head fuzzy.
The cold of the water isn’t so much a shock to me anymore, and I’m tired, my limbs heavy.
There are people nearby. I hear them more than I see them, but they can’t help me.
I need the royal guard. I need the prince.
He typically makes a small speech after all the lanterns have taken to the sky. Tonight I was to meet him with Desta. I told him who I believe she is. I told him how I found her. He didn’t believe me. Why would he? His sister has been missing for over twenty years.
Then I explained about the tiara and how I had it before it was stolen from me by a woman. How Desta’s mother claims her sister has it, but I don’t believe that. I believe she has it. That she stole it from me. She’s the only one who knew I had it.
That’s when the prince started believing me.
I was going to kiss her goodbye and send her to the guard who was to meet her.
I couldn’t join her. I’d be arrested. At the very least, the necklace would be confiscated from me, and I can’t have that happen.
That’s my future. As much as I’d love to say she is too, I know that’s not an option.
I needed her to be safe. I needed her to be with the royal family.
Then I could go because I knew they’d take care of her from there. She’d finally have what she deserves. What she should have had all along. From behind the scenes, I’d work to get Sven and her mother so no one could ever hurt her or take her again.
Now she’s gone, and I have to get her back.
They’ll kill her. I don’t know why he didn’t now. It doesn’t make any sense. Then again, I don’t know why that woman took her in the first place or kept her there all these years. Maybe she loves Desta. Maybe that’ll save her.
I claw my way to shore as royal attendants storm the beach, their guns drawn. They’re too late.
“Sir, you’re hit,” one says to me, dragging me farther onto the shore, my legs creating trails in the grass.
“I need the prince,” I tell him, my vision swaying as he sets me down.
I shiver, my teeth chattering as everything goes left then right.
I’ll end up dead or in jail, but who cares about that anymore?
“Get a message to him. Tell him I’m the one he spoke to about the girl. It’s urgent. They have her.”
Then the world goes black once again.