Chapter 93 Chapter Ninety-two
ARA
My breath left me with a strangled sound. “No—”
Thayne’s hand clamped over my mouth instantly, his palm warm, steady, grounding me before panic could spiral.
“She’s gone,” he murmured into my hair, already scanning the rafters, the windows, the treeline beyond the broken chapel walls. “Focus on me. Stay with me.”
Another shot rang out, and this time around, it hit stone.
Chips of rock exploded from the wall inches from where my head had been a second earlier.
“Ara, move!” Thayne half-yelled, half-whispered.
He didn’t wait for agreement. He hauled me forward, half-carrying me as we bolted through the side door, boots pounding over gravel, candles guttering out behind us as the chapel was swallowed by darkness.
The night was chaos. A helicopter thudded overhead again, closer now. The searchlight kept sweeping wide and round.
“They found us,” I whispered, terror clawing up my throat.
“No,” Thayne said. “They found where we were.”
Gunfire cracked from the trees.
Thayne veered sharply, dragging me downhill, through thick brush, branches clawing at my arms, my dress tearing, thorns biting into skin I barely felt.
My lungs burned, and not only that, my legs were screaming.
I stumbled, but Thayne caught me instantly.
“Don’t stop,” he said, gripping my face, forcing my eyes to his. “Baby, look at me. Look at me. Breathe. I'm here with you. Love, do you hear me?”
I nodded, shaking, panic frying my already fried nerves.
We resumed running, and Thayne made sure to never loosen his grip on my hand.
Bullets thudded into the earth behind us. Dirt sprayed my calves.
From above, someone shouted orders. There were too many voices. This was too organized.
This wasn’t my father. This was Slade Senior.
We burst out onto the shoreline, the black water stretching endlessly before us.
The boat was still there, and Thayne shoved me toward it, then spun and fired three shots into the darkness.
Then he jumped in after me, cutting the engine loose with a brutal yank. The boat surged forward just as another shot shattered the air where my head had been moments before.
I screamed as we tore away from the shore.
Thayne crouched low, pulling me down with him as the helicopter’s light sliced across the water, missing us by seconds.
The chapel disappeared behind us. The officiant.The vows we exchanged. The blood.
I pressed my face into Thayne’s chest, shaking violently now that the adrenaline had vanished.
“She died because of us,” I whispered, broken.
He tightened his arms around me, his jaw clenched hard enough to hurt.
“She died because monsters don’t tolerate witnesses,” he said. “And because they underestimated how far I’d go.”
I looked up at him, eyes burning.
“We’re married,” I whispered, like saying it out loud might make it real enough to survive this.
His gaze softened for half a second. Just one.
“Yes,” he said. “And now they’re going to learn what that means.”
Behind us, the helicopter circled. I couldn't help but ask Thayne, “What are we to do now? We need to do something. They still have Sasha. Your father won't stop chasing us until we surrender. I thought it was just me they wanted, but now I know what it really is. He is a sick bastard who wants our twins for himself.”
Thayne didn’t answer me immediately. He reached for me instead.
He cupped my face like I might disappear if he didn’t anchor me there, his forehead resting against mine as his breath shuddered out slow and uneven.
“They won’t touch our children,” he said quietly.
His thumb brushed beneath my eye, wiping away tears I hadn’t realized had fallen.
“I swear this to you,” he continued. “No one gets near you. No one gets near our babies.”
I wanted to believe him. God, I wanted to. But fear still trembled in my bones. “They killed her,” I whispered. “Right in front of us. They’ll keep coming.”
Thayne pulled me closer, my cheek pressed against his chest, right over his heart.
“I don’t see you as a prize,” he murmured, like he was answering every doubt I hadn’t said aloud. “You’re not leverage. You’re not a ticket.”
He leaned back just enough to look at me. His eyes were stripped bare now.
“You’re my choice.”
Something inside me cracked. I fisted my hands into his shirt, pressing my forehead to his collarbone as emotion flooded me, relief, terror, love, all tangled and burning.
“Say it again,” I whispered.
He didn’t hesitate. “My choice.”
He kissed me then, devastatingly gentle. Not the kind meant to consume, but the kind meant to claim. Like a vow spoken without words.
When he pulled back, his thumb lingered against my lower lip.
“We didn’t need a chapel,” he said quietly. “Or witnesses.”
His gaze softened, but his voice didn’t waver.
“You’re already mine. And I am already yours.”
I exhaled shakily.
“What happens now?” I asked.
His expression hardened, not away from me, but toward the world.
“Now,” Thayne said, “we take Sasha back.”
“And after that?”
A dangerous smile touched his mouth. “We burn every cage they built for us.”
The helicopter hovered low now, blades slicing the night air so violently the water beneath us churned white.
I didn’t need Thayne to tell me who was inside.
“He’s there,” I whispered.
“Yes,” Thayne replied calmly. “He doesn’t trust reports. He likes to see things end.”
A spotlight snapped on. Blinding, white-hot. It pinned us to the water like an accusation.
The boat’s engine stuttered as the pilot veered sharply, panic setting in. My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I thought it might tear free.
Thayne leaned close, shielding me with his body as the light burned into my eyes.
“He’ll order the shot himself,” he said quietly. “He won’t miss.”
My breath hitched. “Then what?”
His hand slid to my stomach.
“Then we give him exactly what he wants to see.”
The helicopter dipped lower. I could almost feel eyes on us, cold, assessing, merciless.
A voice crackled over a loudspeaker, distorted by distance but unmistakable.
“End it.”
The words punched the air, but Thayne didn’t flinch.
“When the first round hits,” he murmured against my temple, “you jump with me. Don’t fight the water. Don’t scream. And whatever you do, don’t surface.”
Wait, what?! “Thayne—”
He kissed my forehead, brief and fierce, like a vow carved in bone.
“Trust me.”
The gunfire erupted.
The first shot tore through the side of the boat, sending splinters flying. The second shattered the console.
On the third shot, Thayne roared: “NOW.”
He wrapped an arm around me and threw us both overboard. The water swallowed us whole.
Cold slammed into my lungs like knives as Thayne dragged me under, deeper, faster, away from the surface where the spotlight raked wildly.
Above us, the helicopter circled. More shots were fired. The boat exploded in a deafening roar, shockwaves rippling through the sea. Burning debris rained down, sinking past us in jagged silhouettes.
Thayne pulled me further down, pressing my body tight to his, one hand locked around my waist, the other clamped over my mouth to keep me silent.
I went limp. Just like he’d told me, and just like a body would.
Above us, the water glowed briefly with fire before going dark again.
I imagined Slade Senior watching the wreckage float. Imagined his cold eyes narrowing… then turning away. Satisfied.
The spotlight was cut off. The helicopter drifted back, its blades fading into the distance. And still, Thayne didn’t let me go.
My lungs burned, and my vision blurred.
Just when I thought I couldn’t hold on another second, he kicked. Hard.
The current caught us, dragging us sideways, away from the sinking debris, away from where anyone would think to look.
As darkness closed in, one terrifying thought wrapped around my chest like iron:
If the sea didn’t kill us…
We were officially dead.