Page 64 of Faith
Samuel whistled low and long. “She’s one tough cookie, isn’t she? I can understand why you fell for her.”
“I fell for her before. When she was too young and I wasn’t allowed to be in love with her.”
Samuel shrugged. “She’s still strong. Sounds like she was pretty strong to walk away when she did, back then and now, even if it was bad. Only problem is now you’re involved with her and haven’t told Mont and can’t think like you need to because you’re too in love with her to see what makes sense.”
Zeke scrubbed a hand down his face, relieved to finally talk to someone about Nina. “Yeah.”
“The hard part is you loving her doesn’t change anything.”
“The fuck it doesn’t.”
Samuel shook his head. “It doesn’t. And if it was any of the rest of us, you would be saying that. Yeah, you love her. Yeah, you’re sleeping together. Maybe she loves you. But there’s still a threat out there. A very real one that’s coming for her. She’s in the crosshairs every day. She will be until this is over.”
“So she should just stand out in the open and pretend there isn’t a mark on her?”
“No, but she has to handle it. And if she wants to, you telling her no is not going to win you any favors.”
“Fuck favors. I need her alive.”
“Even if she never speaks to you again?”
Zeke felt that same slice of fear as before. Like he was gutted with one swipe of the monster’s claws. “Fuck.”
“It’s not easy. None of this is easy. But you trying to control everything and standing in her way of doing what she thinks is right isn’t going to make things easier. All it’s going to do is drive you apart.”
“But she’ll be alive.”
“You don’t know that. I wish I could agree, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Gwendolyn Lennox, it’s that she’s evil. She’s not stopping until she gets what she wants. And right now, it seems she wants your woman. So you have to decide if you’re willing to trust Nina or if you’re going to be the big bad hero and lock her up in your basement and not let her out until you’ve scorched the earth to protect her.”
Zeke didn’t like those options. Why wasn’t there another one?
“Think about it.” Samuel clapped Zeke on the shoulder and left the bathroom.
The sound outside the door reached Zeke for a moment before silence returned.
Zeke sank to the floor, put his face in his hands, and tried to decide which outcome he could live with.
14
Nina nibbledon her nail and listened to the plan Lorelei and Adam had in mind. Clearly, they weren’t just coming up with this. They’d been thinking about it for a while.
“Do you really think she’ll show up?” Nina asked.
Lorelei shrugged. “We don’t know. She’s smart, so it’s possible she won’t. But even if she sends someone else, it’ll be another person we can take into custody and get information out of. We don’t think she’d send anyone in her place unless they were someone she trusted.”
“She doesn’t trust anyone,” Nina said.
“Except you and Frannie. You two are the only ones we think she ever trusted,” Adam said.
“That’s why you want us together. At a coffee shop. In broad daylight, where she can come and capture us,” Nina said. She was liking the plan less and less. Yeah, she wanted to take down Gwendolyn. Yeah, she knew others would get hurt. But she was just starting to figure out what life could look like. Giving it all up was not appealing.
But it was necessary.
Nina made her choice. She knew it was the right thing. She just hoped she would walk away and be back in Zeke’s arms. If he’d still have her.
“You don’t have to do this, Nina,” Monty said. He hadn’t left her side, a solid wall of strength beside her.
Nina looked up at her brother. She missed so much with him. She wasn’t ready to miss more. “They’re not going to let anything happen to me.”
