Page 59 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The tug on my hand pulls me to the left. Apparently, that’s the direction we’re supposed to take. Oh, and the sun feels so good after spending all that time in the cold shade. Bathing, basking in the rays. Soaking in the UV rays.

Once again he pulls the sat phone and dials. He gives the coordinates, then hangs up. “We keep walking, they’ll meet us. Leaving now.”

I could be manic, as giddy as I feel at the thought of the brothers coming to our rescue.

And I begin to laugh. Gage pins me with a ‘what?’ look.

“I want to go home. When this is done, I want to go home, Gage.”

“Okay. We’ll go home.”

“No, you don’t understand, not to Smithfield, but home. With you and Raif, Elise, Boss, Trish and Maryanne. I want to go back to our family.”

Despite walking down the center of the road in the middle of nowhere, Gage stops us to turn me in his arms and kiss the shit out of me. Though he wraps one arm high and one low, both pushing on the lash marks still marring my back. I wince but hold in the verbal reaction because I don’t want him to stop kissing me.

Well, as long as I’m in the sharing mood, when we begin moving again, holding his hand, swinging our arms and growing somewhat nervous for no real reason, I put it out there for him. “Babe?”

He smiles his response.

“You wouldn’t want to marry me, would you?”

We’re never finding civilization at this point. Not when he stops midstride to turn to me again. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”

“Yes?”

“Fucking hell, Liv. I’ve wanted to marry you my whole life.”

“So to be clear, that’s ayes?”

“For fuck’s sake, woman. Yes, it’s a yes!”

I slowly let out the breath I’d had no reason to hold. “Good. That’s good. I don’t want to wait. Do you…want to wait?”

“Baby, if a pastor popped out of the woods, I’d marry you right now just the three of us in attendance.”

My heart feels lighter, freer.

Gradually, our steps eat away at the pavement until we come up on a crossroads. There’s a white van heading our way. Gage sighs and gives another one of his gorgeous Gage smiles. “Finally,” he says, which I guess means they’re with us.

It rolls to a complete stop and the side door slides open.

Raif, my brother, spills out and immediately begins stalking over to us. He ignores Gage completely, which isn’t an action I’m used to. He used to ignoreme.

But now, he reaches me and picks me up in his large arms, crushing me as he swings me back and forth. My legs dangle uselessly and my back screams from the pressure. For a hug from my brother, I’ll ignore the black and gold pops behind my closed eyes.

I mean, we’re in the midst of a mark-your-calendar occasion. I’d swear in a court of law this man, who never even cried when our father died, has tears in his eyes. “Jesus, Liv. Don’t you ever leave us again.”

“I… won’t,” I choke out, then cough.

“You’re crushing her.” Gage rips me from my brother’s arms.

Don’t you ever leave us again.

He’d said it.

I’d heard it.

If anyone had asked me ten minutes ago if my brother cared for me, I’d have answered with a resoundingno. Then I would have quietly followed it with one word: indifference.

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