“Oh my God,” I say, unable to catch my breath. “How does he know?”

“Don’t know, but you’ve gotta get rid of him. He knows too much. He could already be on his way to the police.”

“No,” I blurt out, trying to scramble my thoughts together. “He wouldn’t do that, would he? I mean, he’s the one who killed Bennett.”

“Are you willing to put your trust in a man you’ve only known for a few months, a man you conned, a man you drove to murder someone? This is no joke. You could go to prison if this got uncovered.”

The rampant fear running through me causes me to go lightheaded and I have to sit down. I can’t even think straight as I stare at the floor, trying to think of all the ways he could’ve found out. But the dagger here is how I deceived him and what he must be thinking, coming to the realization that he probably just killed a man for nothing but a lie—because that’s exactly what he just did.

“Elizabeth, you can’t sit here and wait. You have to go find him.”

“And do what?” I question as I look up at him.

He stands next to the couch where I sit, and with determination in his eyes, he says, “You have to kill him.”

“No.” I snap, jumping off the couch, and the pain from my ribs twinges and causes me to stumble. Pike just stands there, unmoving as he watches me. And with my hand clenched around my side, I argue, “No. I’m not doing that.”

“You don’t have a choice! Are you not hearing me? He knows about us.”

“I can’t kill him, Pike. I won’t do it.”

“Cut the shit and wake up! You’re not understanding what this could do to you,” he shouts.

“I love him.”

“You don’t. And in the end, you’re gonna see that you just got caught up in this fantasy. A fantasy that you and I both created for you. But it’s not your life.”

“It was my life! And then you came in and took it all away!” I yell, losing my cool and letting my emotions take over. “I do love him, and he loves me. I was finally going to have everything I’ve ever wanted. We were making plans for us, for our baby, and you destroyed it all! I hate you! I fucking hate you, Pike!”

He doesn’t flinch at my words as he stands here. “We had a plan and that plan affected both of us. Bennett needed to die—for you! If I didn’t do what I did, to push Declan over the edge, Bennett would still be alive and you’d never be able to forgive yourself for letting him go without any consequences for what he did to you.” He takes a step towards me, and his condescending tone on his next words do nothing but fuel my hate, not only for him, but for everything my life is. “Do I need to remind you about how Carl would rape you, piss on that mattress, and force you to lay in it while he pounded his filthy dick inside of you?”

“Fuck you!” I shriek as I start throwing fists into him, frantically beating him in the swarm of pure, seething fire.

He quickly grabs my wrists, forcing me down to the couch, and with his face in mine, hisses, “Either you kill him or I will.”

“Pike, no! Maybe he won’t do anything at all. Maybe he’s scared and will keep his mouth shut,” my words tumbling out, giving him weak reason after weak reason, but I’m desperate.

“A scared man wouldn’t have shown up to my place alone,” he says before letting go of me and walking to the door.

I lurch off the couch and throw my body against him, trying to knock him down, but in a flash, he turns and strikes his fist against my already battered face. The force of his punch sends me stumbling back and falling down. By the time I can get up on my feet, he’s gone.

“Shit!”

Adrenaline pumps its fury into my system, numbing all of my body’s pains as I run to the bedroom and grab my keys. Running out of the room, I waste no time with the elevator as I make a mad dash down the stairs, flight after flight after flight, until I finally make it to the lobby. My throat burns with each breath as I run to my car. Pike is nowhere in sight, and when I pull out of the garage, I have two choices: Lotus or River North. I make the quick decision to try Declan’s loft first, praying to anyone who will listen to me that he’s there and Pike isn’t. I fly through the busy streets, running stop signs and ignoring the red lights I hit.

“Fuck!” I bite out when I drive by Pike’s car parked a block down from Declan’s building.

Slamming on my brakes when I reach the front of the building, pain pierces my battered body as I run like hell, fumbling with the keycard Declan gave me, and when the elevator opens, I pound the button for his floor over and over as my body quakes in dread and anxiety.

“Come on, come on, come on. COME THE FUCK ON!” I scream with each floor we pass, and as soon as I hit the top floor, two rapid gunshots fire, echoing as the doors slide open.

Speaking isn’t even a possibility as I run out and into Declan’s living room where I see Pike charging through the loft and then look down at a massive puddle of blood pooling underneath the lifeless body of my prince.

A disgustingly vulgar shriek rips straight from the core of my heart as I run to Declan, falling to my knees in his blood. Touching his face, I try to take in the beauty of this perfectly sculpted man as I wail painfully over him.

“I’ve got it,” I hear Pike say as he rushes back into the room, shoving a file inside of his jacket. Pike’s hands are on me quick, pulling me back as I fight against him, screaming and crying. “We have to go!” he urges in a panic.

But I can’t speak; the agony is choking me into screeching cries filled with sharp gravel.

“Come on! We have to go. NOW!”

I cover Delcan’s body with mine, sealing my lips to his in a breathless kiss as the life drains out of him.

And then . . .

The touch is lost.

Pike has his arms banded around my chest as he lifts me off the floor and starts running.

“Let me go!” I scream, wincing against the pain of my injuries, as I thrash my arms, kicking, trying helplessly to fight my way out of his grip.

“We have to go before the cops get here.”

Pike slams through a door, and when we get into the stairwell, he sets me down and pins me against the wall, keeping his hands locked on me.

“Listen to me,” he says in a whispered grunt. “Pull yourself together before we both wind up in prison.”

“You killed him!” I cry, my words bleeding through the jagged fractures of my heart.

“To save us. I killed him to save us,” he defends. “You need to calm down and focus. Look into my eyes and focus.”

I do.

“You with me?” he asks.

I don’t respond when he adds, “I need you with me, okay? I’m all you have. Listen to me. I need you to do exactly what I say.” His words are frantically rushed. “Get in your car. Go home, pack a couple bags, and meet me at the trailer. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t speak to anyone. Got it?”

“What are we going to do?”

“We’re running. Don’t fuck around, Elizabeth. Now come on, we have to go!”

And he’s right, if we don’t get out of here now, our lives will be over. So in a mindless rush of fight or flight, I thoughtlessly fly down the stairs, covered in Declan’s blood as I flee towards a freedom I’m not sure even exists.

But I run anyway.

My hands clench the steering wheel, covered in the crimson life of the one man I thought could save me from me. But maybe people like me aren’t supposed to be saved. Maybe I’m just destined to bear the weight of the demons that lurk among the good.

When I arrive back at the penthouse, walking through the door as only one, no longer having my beacon of hope growing inside of me, I begin to wonder: What’s the point? I couldn’t even protect the baby that was supposed to be safe from this world. Life’s cruel joke of finally giving me something pure and holy, just to have it ripped away from me in an instant.

I don’t waste any time though, running straight to the bedroom, the smell of Bennett everywhere. I wonder if he’s watching me right now, laughing at the downfall, enjoying my suffering. The bile rises, and I begin slinging clothes in a mad haze into a bag, not even paying attention to what I’m throwing in. Simply moving for the sake of moving, but the actions are entirely thoughtless as the bitterness of my tears leak out and eat through my skin, burning their way back into me. Like a metaphor, reminding me that no matter what I do, I won’t ever escape this pain because the moment my body tries to release it, it soaks it right back up.