Page 56 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The metal box, as I’d feared, is locked. I pull the switchblade from my pocket, flip it open and begin to pick at the mechanism until the latch springs. There’s a soft cracking sound, the sound of opening a cap from a bottle of water for the first time, then much louder, Liv choking and coughing. Quick to shift, I slap her on the back several slaps to bring up the wayward liquid. “Careful, baby. You’ve hardly had anything in your stomach. Don’t wanna get sick.”

I know it’s love when she coughs up water, which bursts from her mouth and even out her nose and I still want to fucking kiss her in her wet, nose water T-shirt.

Liv. Safe for now. Back in my arms. Once her breathing evens out again, I turn to the metal box and flip the lid. Jackpot. There’re canned peaches with the pull tab top, a couple bags of jerky, a can of nuts and pre-wrapped packages of Swiss cake rolls.

A smorgasbord for the perpetually hungry and malnourished. If he hadn’t been feeding her, the jerky would sit like a lead weight in the bottom of her belly and when we run again, we won’t be able to afford her getting sick. So, jerky out. The cake rolls might be a little rich on an empty stomach. Cake rolls out, too. To get her jumping back in the food pool, I pull open a can of peaches and hand it over. There’re no forks or spoons. “Use your fingers,” I tell her, though she’d already started digging in. “Chew slowly. Don’t overdo it.”

I would’ve thought she indulged on the most decadent chocolate truffles, not a can of peaches the way she savors them. “You need to rest,” I order. One she needs to heed. She needs to rest, to get some strength back, before we start out again. I roll out the sleeping bag flat for her. “I’ll keep watch.”

“No,” she protests. Stubborn woman. “Lay next to me. I’ll rest, but I need you, Gage. Hold me until I fall asleep.”

Lying next to her is the last thing I need to think about. No, what I need is to stay diligent, to keep her safe. But as always, my inability to saynoto Liv is my Achilles’ heel. It was my downfall when we were kids, and at the compound when she refused to see a professional counselor. Somehow, I’ve got to get over the power she has on me, though for now she’s got me by the balls, my heart and any other organ she wants to control. Her wish is my command, and she damn well knows it. Which means I lower myself to lay next to her, curling one arm under her head for a pillow and turn her body so her chin rests on my shoulder. She flops a leg over my hip, thigh pressed to my side, and snuggles in.

Shit. Liv lets out a contented sigh and I’m an asshole for the way my dick twitches in response. She’s been kidnapped and tortured, and my dick, with a mind of its own, wants to play snake in the garden.

Though it’s what she does next that absolutely guts me in both the best and worst possible ways. “This is what got me through,” she whispers low, then brushes a soft kiss to the bared skin of my neck. “With Michael… and especially Houdini. I pictured myself lying next to you again.

I could smell you in my mind. Taste you. Feel you in every deep corner of my soul.”

“Liv, baby.” My voice is strangled. Then I stop because I don’t know what else to say.

She talks over me as if I hadn’t said a word. “You saved me in that railroad car.” There’re tears with her words. “Memories of the life we’ve shared. Our first kiss, the first time we made love. Aside from the five years after my dad died, we were never apart.”

“Liv,baby.” I try again. More strangled than before.

“You were supposed to be Raif’s best friend, but in reality, you were mine. Always. Always mine. And I knew, Gage. I knew I couldn’t leave you alone.” Her tears fall harder. God damn, there’re fucking prickles at the backs of my eyes. “Who else would know what crackers you like for snack dinner? Or where to lock her arms and rest her chin while you ride, her on the back of your bike? Who else would know you like the skin under your balls massaged when her mouth is on you?”

“Nobody, baby.” I feel every word she’s said. “Nobody else would know that, and they never will.”

“Always mine,” she repeats.

“Alwaysyours, Liv.” Though my words sound guttural, they come from the heart. I hear her breathing even out and look down to see she’s fallen asleep in my arms. “Always yours,” I promise her again as I kiss her temple.

The tower sways gently from the breeze. It’s an open space with half walls of raw particle board and tall beams at the corners to hold the roof in place; a full beam centers on each wall for additional support and framing out what looks like was supposed to have windows but had never been finished.

Whoever erected this place took the time to make the tower legs blend in with the tree trunks, and the lookout to mix with the treetops and sky. We should be far enough away for Houdini not to find us yet, but if by chance he gets close, hopefully, his eyes will move right past our location.

I set my gun close enough to grab if need be and spend the next several hours relishing the feel of the woman I love in my arms. There’s a future before us, I can see it. Feel it.

So comfortable, I kiss her head once more, then I fucking, fucking fall asleep.

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