Page 96 of Unspoken Promises

“Can’t you understand that?” She sobs. “Don’t we all have things we believe, things we can’t prove are true but we use faith to survive? Is that really naïve? Or am I just human?”

I hold the back of her head, hoping my comfort will help her. Her pain radiates beneath me. Up till now, Ava has beenso brave. She lived her tragedy. Escaped it. Told me her story with her head held high, and now, she unravels. Years she’ll never get back pour out onto my shoulder, wetting my t-shirt with agony, loss, confusion.

And her pain makes me forget about myself for a moment. All I want to do is heal her and make sure she’s safe.

But then, she suddenly leans away from me. She takes a few deep breaths and wipes away her tears harshly, as if they have no place in her life. She’s trying to pull herself together. Jesus, my woman is strong.

She thrusts her cell into my hands and I read the message Anton just texted.

She composes herself. “Now you know everything.” Tears bubble up, and she shakes them, but hardly gets the words out as she breaks again. “I don’t want to lose you over this.”

“No…” I scoop her up in my arms. “Never. I got you.” I stroke her soft hair and kiss it. “I got you.”

She cries a little, sniffling hard not to.

I grip the sides of her face. “You don’t have to be strong when you’re with me.”

At that, more sobs unleash. I want to soak them all up for her. Soon, they’ll be the fuel for my vengeance, but now, I yearn to make her whole. It’s hard not to let my own pain for her slip past the knot in my throat. The injustice she’s experienced. The Stockholm syndrome. Never knowing what’s real and what isn’t. She didn’t deserve this, and I ache for her deep in my bones. I ache to give her something good and real that will never let her down.

Finally her crying subsides. She snuffles into my shirt. “What am I going to do?”

I ease her back to see the fierceness in my eyes. “We. What arewegoing to do?”

For the first time since the stable, I see a glimmer of that beautiful smile again. “What are we going to do?”

“We need to involve law enforcement. FBI or CIA.” I’m firmer than I intend to be. “I’m not letting you go and meet with him alone.”

“Letme?” She’s getting feisty again but not quite all the way to fury. “I don’t need your permission to do anything.”

It’s true. Unless I want to betray her now and report this all behind her back, Ava is a free woman. Free to figure out a way to meet him. Free to never come back. I have no control.

“I care about you deeply.” She chokes up. “But you can’t keep me behind these walls.”

Heat blazes off me; an inferno rages inside. This is madness. If I support her going to meet Anton, what does that say about me? If I couldn’t forgive myself after Diego, I would never come back from losing Ava. Not twice in a lifetime. And not with her. Ineedher in my life.

I speak low and steady, sensing I’m at the tipping point, balling up my fists. “Don’t you know by now how hard it is for me to open that door?”

And in this moment, our souls collide. Our losses, our traumas, our fears and wounds come together in one big mess because she knows which door led to my fear for her safety. My need to protect her.

The one I foolishly opened that day in Mexico.

Her whole aura shifts with compassion for how different yet how similar we are. There’s nobody in the world I feel can understand me. Except her. My emotions fight each other. The bridge of my nose stings, and this feels like an impossible stalemate. I’ve reached a place where my headand my heart will never agree on what to do right now. The weight of this is paralyzing.

She considers me for a long time, wind blowing her hair, and I catch sight of a wood chip lost in the soft fiery strands. She’s too important to me. I don’t know how I could ever risk losing her.

Yet this woman defied the impossible. The longer someone is missing, the lower the odds of finding them alive. But here she is, beautiful, shining, and more vibrant than anyone I’ve ever met.

I’ve been waiting a long time for a feeling like redemption to swallow my shame and guilt from years of self-blame. With every chance I’ve had to take down a criminal at GhostEye, I’ve asked God to relieve me. But it never came. And it willnevercome if she’s harmed under my watch.

She takes my hand, that fierce courage blazing in her eyes. I don’t know who’s leading whom anymore.

“Enzo, we’ve both been in chains for a long time now. You’ve never forgiven yourself, locked up behind some sort of self-loathing over a tragedy that was beyond your control. And me?” She pauses, maybe not wanting to reflect any more on what’s behind us. “It ends now. I have to face my past. I’m ready for this to be over. I’m not willing to choose one prison over another.”

I swallow hard. Everything inside me is tight and burning.

She laughs, and it brings tears back up to glisten in the rims of her eyes. “Maybe we were meant to meet each other.” She takes my hand. “So we could let go of our pasts together.”

My head spins, and my heart stops gazing into her soulful amber eyes. Before she came along, I was scared ofnothing. Now, I’m scared to death, and that can only mean one thing…

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