Page 94 of Faith
“What if they don’t?” Nina whispered. “What if she finds somewhere to go and just never comes back?”
“Then we move on.”
Nina chewed her lip, clearly not satisfied with the answer.
“Listen,” Zeke said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the couch, “she’s going to be found. She’ll slip up. At some point in time, it will all be over.”
“It took years for Damon to be caught, even though Frannie saw him murder someone.”
Zeke nodded. “And Gwendolyn manipulated that situation. She made sure the police couldn’t count on Frannie’s statement. If Frannie had been able to tell the truth, it would have been different.”
“Would it, though?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I have to believe in the good of people. We all have darkness in us, but I think we all have light, too. We want good things. The darkness comes out when we believe someone else is unfairly getting what we believe to be ours. That’s not the way life should be, but it’s reality.”
“After everything I’ve been through, I’m not sure I can find the good as easily as you do.”
“Then we find it together.”
Nina’s smile was soft and tentative, like she was debating whether to believe Zeke or not. When she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder, he sighed.
“Good is holding you in my arms. It’s sliding into you at night. It’s listening to you laugh and hearing you shout my name. It’s showers together and lunches and dinner with Mont. It’s putting away the people who want to hurt others and knowing my team is always there to have my back.”
“I don’t have any of that.”
Zeke kissed the top of her head. “Yes, you do, angel. You have me and Mont and Frannie and the Curvy Vigilantes. You might not feel like it right now, but you are loved by so many people.”
“Thank you.”
Zeke held her for a few more minutes, loving the quiet of the morning and the softness of her next to him. He closed his eyes and let his imagination run to the future, Nina laughing at something he said, a baby in her arms, another running around the living room. The vision was so vivid he almost expected it to be real when he opened his eyes again.
“I don’t think I could have handled all of this without you,” Nina said. “I can never repay you for everything you’ve done for me.”
“If there’s ever a psycho who wants to kill me, I’ll let you protect me. How about that?” Zeke teased.
Nina laughed and nodded. “Okay. Sounds good.”
He kissed her slowly, taking his time sweeping his tongue through her mouth. When she moaned softly and leaned against him, Zeke was done. He was gone. He was so in love with her, he wasn’t sure he’d survive when she left.
If she left.
He had to keep telling himself she could want the same thing, but the little voice in the back of his mind said there was no way. She was with him because she was scared. One day, she would feel safe on her own. And when that day came, he would just be her brother’s best friend again.
But until that day, Zeke was going to love her with every piece of himself and not think about what would happen when his happiness was taken from him.
Nearly every week,Monty asked Nina if she wanted to move in with him. And every week, her answer grew more and more certain that she was in the right place at Zeke’s.
She was happy. For years, she didn’t think that was possible. She didn’t dare to dream it could be. But Zeke was perfect. He was kind and attentive and loving and a dream in bed. The level of pleasure he gave her was mind-blowing. The kind of thing she thought was fictional until she experienced it for herself.
A month after the drawings went out to the public, Nina was starting to wonder if Gwendolyn really did leave the area. Packed up and bolted, saving herself from the FBI.
It was hard to believe, but with each passing day and no sign of her, Nina hoped it was true. She hoped she was safe, that Monty and Zeke and Monica and Star and all the others were safe. That they could move on with their lives and not ever think about Gwendolyn Lennox again.
It was a weird feeling for Nina. She wanted Gwendolyn dead. The night she left, she thought about how good it would feel to watch her die. To be the one who did it.
