Page 56 of Twice The Hate

But he also took so many risks for my sake. That must mean something.

And there’s nothing in the world like the feel of having him inside me. When he looked into my eyes out there, with his hair dripping in my face and my body aching for him, something changed. Something that will never change back.

He gets up from the bed and goes to the safe. We’re both dressed in t-shirts and boxer shorts—more like a dress and capris for me. Even in regular old underwear, I could watch him all night. He’s got the sort of body that makes anything look like they custom made it just for him.

He pulls one phone out and turns it on. “Remember. You have to make it quick and don’t, under any circumstances, give any details of where you are.”

“I don’t know where I am, remember? What would I say? Hang a right at the palm tree and keep driving?”

He glances up from the phone and scowls at me. “Don’t make me do something with that smart mouth of yours.”

A flush rolls over my body while he waits for the phone to power on.

When it lights up, his brow lowers even further. “Shit.”

“What is it?”

“This is the phone I use to contact my brother, back home. I normally check it every day to see if there’s anything new from him. He sent me a dozen messages this morning, but you distracted me.” He taps the screen twice and I watch his eyes move back and forth as he reads whatever his brother sent.

When he stumbles a little and falls against the counter, I get up and go to him. I’m not so tired anymore. “What is it?”

“My brother. He says I’ll be able to come home.” He’s staring at the phone as if he’s never seen one before. “That he’ll have the jet in the air by nightfall. He’ll text when he’s landed.”

“Do you want to go home?”

“More than anything.” He finally looks at me, his face slack, like he’s had an enormous shock. “The message is coded, but what he’s saying is the witness who was going to testify against me recanted. Somebody was paying them to lie. We’ve always known it. Saying they saw me running out of a building just before…”

“Before what?”

His brows knit together, and now he’s the Sebastian I know. “Before it blew up.”

I knew it had to be something bad, but this? “You didn’t blow it up?”

“I wasn’t even there. It was a building used by a rival family. Just some random house somebody owned, where they’d hold their poker games or bring their girlfriends, supposedly safe in case anybody decided to visit and shoot the place up. The intel my father received confirmed it was the family themselves that set the explosion. The bodies inside were three of their own guys who ratted to the feds. I guess they figured they could get the rats out of the way and have an excuse to start a war with us all at the same time.”

He looks down at the phone. “They’ve been fighting ever since my brothers got me out of the country. Now, it looks like I can come home. They’re dropping the charges.”

I’m trying my best to keep up. One word stands out in my mind, lit in neon. “Are you saying you’re part of the mafia?”

He nods, stone-faced. “It’s how I was born and raised. My family is everything. The people I love. It’s torture to be away from them and not be able to help fight, but having me in prison for something I didn’t do wouldn’t help things. I’d probably be dead in a day, there’s so many guys inside with a grudge against us.”

“So, they smuggled you out of the country?”

“Yeah. And they want to smuggle me back in.”

He tucks the phone into his pocket and takes me by the shoulders. “I want you to come with me. I know it sounds crazy, but I can’t leave without you. I wouldn’t want to live without you.”

My mouth falls open. My mind is blank. I’m unable to even form words.

He wants me to go with him? To live with him?

“Listen to me.” That intense look is back in his eyes, matching the pressure from his fingers. “The minute I saw you, I knew you were different. It’s like I was drawn to you. I took your picture for Jake, yeah, but I couldn’t stop looking at you once I did. I couldn’t shake you. I never hang around and watch him work. And yeah, I admit it, I’ve never lost a night’s sleep. It is what it is. It’s how I survived. That’s what I told myself.”

He cups my face with one hand now, placing the other against my lower back and pulling me closer. “Something snapped when I saw him with you that night. Everything came into focus. I couldn’t let him or anyone else have you no matter how it would fuck up my life.”

He sighs, stroking my cheek. “You’re mine. You were made for me. It’s like one of those lightning bolt moments they talk about. Lightning struck for sure, and you’re not getting rid of me.”

I wish I knew what to think. How to feel. Regardless of what he’s done for my sake, I can’t forget what he did before now. I’d be lying if I said I could.

Before I can come up with anything to say, bright light washes over the kitchen window from somewhere outside. A car.

“Shit.” Sebastian pulls me down into a crouch, his hand now over my mouth while he cocks his head to the side, listening hard.

Then he leans in, his mouth against my ear as he whispers. “Do exactly as I say if you want to get out of this in one piece.”

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