26. Demi #2
The heavy whump of Malevsky’s body tumbling down the stone stairs plays out inside my head as I wait for it to stop, for more gunshots, for Enzo to collapse on top of me and the Russian to drag me out from underneath him.
But Enzo is holding onto me again, and I’m not sure which one of us is supporting who.
Then Gio is there, carrying me across the basement to the door on the other side.
The dark cocoon of an underground tunnel swallows us whole— me, Gio, and Enzo— and we emerge into a night where the air is sweet enough to eradicate the gasoline clinging to my sneakers and running tights, and the only sound is the wind rustling the leaves on the trees.
My eyes feel heavy when I try to open them.
Did he drug me again? I don’t remember eating whatever food was left on the nightstand, but when I crack my eyelids, the room is a blur. At least the lights aren’t glaring at me, which means he isn’t watching me sleep.
“Hey, baby.” The voice is barely louder than a whisper, but it makes my pulse race, nonetheless. “How are you feeling?”
I roll my head across the pillow towards the sound and force my trembling lids to stay open long enough for me to focus. Enzo’s beautiful face is on the pillow beside me, his smile exactly how I remember it, the gleam in his eyes all for me.
“Enzo?” I sound as if I have laryngitis and have run out of throat lozenges.
“I’m right here, baby.”
I stare at him, willing the tiredness still crashing through me in waves to fuck off and give me this moment.
That’s all I’m asking for: the chance to tell him how I feel and put things right.
“How did you…?” It’s all a bit vague, but my brain is replaying a ghost of gunfire in my head like it was the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness.
“You’re in the hospital.” He smiles to soften the delivery. “Well, technically, we both are, but I refused to let you out of my sight, and I think my brother might’ve bribed them with a small donation to leave us alone for a while.”
My eyes travel down from his beautiful face to the sling around his neck, and the dressing peeking out from the neckline of his sweater.
That’s when the image of his ruined shoulder comes flooding back, followed by the nauseating smell of gasoline that makes my breath hitch.
The house.
Malevsky. The lighter. The trapdoor and the noose around my neck.
Bianca!
“Hey, it’s okay, sweetheart.” Enzo smooths my hair away from my face and kisses my forehead, bringing tears to my eyes. “You’re safe now. I won’t let anything happen to you ever again, I promise.”
I feel drained, and it isn’t only down to whatever drugs they’ve administered in the hospital.
I haven’t truly relaxed since I left my heart behind a year ago and walked away from Enzo, but I haven’t drawn a full breath since working undercover in the nightclub that brought him back to me either.
Now, everything hurts. My chest, my lungs, my head, and there’s a dull throb in my arm that’s keeping time with my erratic pulse.
I try to move my arm, and pain flares inside my skull.
“The bullet tore through muscle,” Enzo says, his voice low and calm. “You broke your elbow too when you fell down the stairs into the basement. You won’t be playing tennis for a while.”
I smile, although I can’t be sure if my mouth cooperates. “I never enjoyed playing tennis.” I’m hoarse, but I know he can hear me when his face lights up with an even wider smile.
“Only because you’re a sore loser.”
“You wish…” My eyelids droop, and I jolt back to the present before I succumb to drug-induced oblivion again. There’s still so much to say, so much I need to ask him. “I’ll have whatever they’re giving you to keep you awake.”
He chuckles, and I’ve missed his laughter so much it hurts deep inside my chest. “Hospital vending machine coffee.”
“I don’t believe you.” He would rather die of thirst than drink instant, let alone vending machine slop.
“It’s the new me.” He shrugs, then his expression softens. “I might’ve refused pain relief while I’m guarding the most beautiful woman in the world.”
This time, my cheeks ache when I try to smile. “Who is she? Do I know her?”
“You might. She goes by the name of Nyx at night.”
Heat rushes to my face as my heart rate increases, pumping blood around my worn-out body.
Did he know all along that I was Nyx? A flash of memory explodes behind my eyes: the night I tried to help Brian escape, he wasn’t wearing a mask, and I heard his real voice for the first time.
It triggered something in me, but then the situation escalated out of control, and Malevsky was drugging me, and it got lost along the way.
But I knew I recognized him.
I knew Brian was Enzo, I simply didn’t hold onto the thought long enough to keep it safe.
“Brian…” I leave the name hanging between us.
“Do you think it suits me?” He gives me a small smile and turns from side to side, showing me his profiles.
“No. I knew you weren’t a Brian.”
His expression turns serious. “And I think, deep down, I always knew you weren’t a Nyx.”
“Is that why you kept coming back?”
“You were… not what I expected. There was something real about you beneath the mask and the games.” He pauses. “Something vulnerable.”
“Only with you.”
I want to ask him why he was there, why he went to JADED in the first place. What was he looking for? Because the Enzo I knew didn’t need gimmicky illusions to live out his fantasies.
As if he can read my mind, he says, “I almost turned around and walked away the first time. But curiosity won. The invitation felt personal, and I knew I couldn’t spend the rest of my life staring at the bottom of an empty bottle while I waited for a refill.”
I watch him closely, dragging up snippets of my conversations with Brian through the medication-fuzz. “You never did tell me about your fantasy.”
He rests his chin on the pillow and strokes my hair.
There are deep bruise-colored smudges under his eyes, and his skin is paler than I remember, with a greenish tinge which might be from the dim lights in the hospital room and the monitor beside my bed.
But his pupils enlarge when he looks at me, and I’m waiting for his lips to meet mine.
“You’re my fantasy.” He tilts my chin towards him and kisses me tenderly. “You’re the only fantasy I ever needed. Without you in my life…”