Page 54 of Wreck and Ruin

Pain.

Disbelief.

Agony.

Those are the feelings that flash across his face. This man has spent years turning this whole globe upside down, searching for the woman he loves, only to find out that she’s dead. Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen him with a woman before. He’s never taken a wife, which is unheard of in our world.

“When?” he chokes.

“When I was six,” she replies, and my eyes search her in disbelief. How she can be this strong is beyond me.

“You are eighteen?” Titan says, tear-stained eyes narrowing as he glares at me.

Okay, so he’s obviously figured out that she’s mine.

“Nineteen,” she says, removing her hand and tucking it back behind the bloodied cape still draped around her body.

A medic approaches and Titan stands, allowing them to tend to Airlie’s wounds. I lay her down on the mat that was placed on the ground for her, and as I begin to stand, her voice stops me.

“Ezekiel?” she questions, not caring that there are others around who can hear her. Smiling, I place a kiss on her lips. I don’t give a shit about the blood that marks her skin. Nothing could ever stop me from wanting her lips.

“Yeah, baby?” I reply.

She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, and my eyes fall on them. They’re full, beautiful,mine. I refrain from kissing her again now that I know she’s my boss’s daughter. The last thing I need is my balls in a vice because he will do it.

I’ve seen him in action.

“My pet spiders. They’re alone, down in my cave. I love them. I can’t leave them behind,” her eyebrows furrow, and I realize just how lonely she has been.

“I’ll get them for you, baby, don’t worry. Where is your cave?” I ask, and she excitedly rattles off directions to a cave I’ve never been to, but I promise her I’ll find her spiders and bring them back to her.

I ask the medic for a plastic container or something to carry them in, and then I start walking back to the cathedral.

I’d do anything for her, and if she wants her spiders, she’ll get her fucking spiders.

I start walking across the dock, spider container in hand, when a deep voice calls for me to wait. I stop, turning to face Titan, showing his age more now since the last time I saw him four years ago.

“Ezekiel, I—” he pauses, looking up at me, emotions raw and fully displayed. I’m right there with him. It’s been a rough four years. And in my darkest hour, when I didn’t think I could make it through, it was him that I thought of.

The man who saved me.

“I don’t know the words to say that will encapsulate how grateful I am for what you’ve done for me. Your sacrifices. Your sheer determination. You saved my baby girl. I can never repay you for that.”

“You would have done it for me if the roles were reversed.”

“Yeah, I would have,” he replies. He holds out his hand, and I take it as he brings me in for a hug. He’s never hugged me before, but we’re going all out today.

“You love her?”

“With all that I am, Sir,” I reply without hesitation.

Wrong choice of fucking words, Ezekiel.

My heart feels cut open, exposed because I know that Titan is aware of all the horrible, heinous things I’ve done. Not just as his offsider all those years ago, but the disgusting things I had to do when I went undercover. He would have seen it all to keep tabs on me, and half of what I did was broadcasted across every dark, depraved corner of the internet. Because, of course, it was.

I am by no means agood man.

But it doesn’t change the fact that I love Airlie with every fiber of my fucking being, and as long as she’ll have me around, I am never letting her go.

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