Camille puts her hand on mine.  “Please.  I know you care about Nora.  I know it because I can see it.  She didn’t leave you willingly. I feel it.  I know it.  William is an evil man.  Nora is… she feels trapped in her life, helpless to change it.  But I know things that can free her.  Please.  She won’t answer her phone. Can you help me get to her?  I have a feeling she’s planning something… dire.”

The wording of her text is strange.   Either way, everything is finally going to be ok.

Either way what?

I nod. “Okay. I’ll help.  But San Francisco is a big place.  We can’t possibly know where they’ll be until their plane takes off.”

Camille shakes her head.  “I know exactly where they’ll be.  San Francisco is thirty minutes from Nora’s apartment.  She kept it, even though her father told her to let it go.  She told me that she needed a place of her own, a place where she can be alone.  There is no good reason that she would take William to that apartment, but I know she is, even though she absolutely hates him.  Even though she fears him. Darleen told me that William is already in California, far ahead of their departure time.  So what in the world is going on between now and this evening?”

Camille’s voice is rushed and cold and afraid.

And I know she’s right.  We’ve got to get there.  Nora would never choose to be alone with William.

I know that as sure as I’m breathing.

She’s been hiding something this week.  Her attitude was fidgety, nervous, unsettled.  I didn’t know why.

A sense of urgency presses against me, and my instincts roar to life, even through the haze of the beer. Something is very wrong and all she’d said was it’s fine.

My instincts had been right.  She’s not fine.

She was lying.   

I pull out my phone and try to call her, but it goes instantly to voicemail.

“Nora, call me when you get this.  It’s important.”

I look at Camille.  “Let’s go.”

She nods and takes my arm.  “Greene Corp has a second jet at O’Hare.  We can use it.”

My heart pounds against my ribs as we tear down the road in Camille’s Mercedes.  Adrenaline pumps through me and I realize something with a start.

The reason I’m so devastated by Nora’s leaving… is because I love her.

When we get to her, whether she still wants to leave me or not, I have to tell her.  She needs to know, and I have to say the words.

I wanted to say them last night, and something held me back.  And if I can’t get to her today, she’ll never know.

I’ll have to live knowing that the beautiful, seemingly confident girl who secretly feels worthless doesn’t know I love her… she doesn’t know that she’s more valuable than anything on the face of the earth. 

William Greene had better pray to any God that will listen that he hasn’t harmed a hair on her head.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nora

My blood is chilled in my veins as I open the door to my apartment and look around.

Nothing is disturbed.  Everything is exactly the way I left it when I packed for Angel Bay a few weeks ago.

The apartment is still cozy and neat and clean.  Not fancy, but perfect for me.  It was all I needed when I went through law school.  I could’ve lived here forever.

Leaving my front door unlocked, I set my bag down by the kitchen table and sink into a chair, my head in my hands.  

How has everything changed in so short a time?

A few weeks ago, I knew what my life was going to be like and even though I hated it, I was resigned to doing it.  I’m a Greene, after all. I do what it f**king takes.

But then… there was Brand.  And everything changed.

I can’t keep doing this.

I can’t.

I square my shoulders.   My father has an iron-clad contract with my signature on it, tying me to him for the next twenty years.  William has information on Brand that could ruin him… and will ruin him if I don’t comply.

There’s only one thing that I can do to survive.

I have to take care of William and then run.

I’ll hide where my father can never find me.

It’s all I can do.

All of a sudden, I feel a strange calm come over me and I feel as though I’m watching from afar, from outside of my body.

This isn’t me, this isn’t my life.

It’ll all be over soon.

One way or another.

I get up and calmly walk to the bedroom.

Standing on my toes, I reach onto the top shelf of my closet and pull down a box.

Inside, a silver 9mm gleams in the light.

I never thought I’d have the balls to use it.  I never thought I could.

But oh, how things change.

I run my finger over the cold metal before I lift it from the box and load it.

Very, very calmly, I take off my clothes and sit on my bed in only my black bra and panties.  In the middle of the bed, I tuck my legs beneath me, and wait.

It’ll all be over soon.

One way or another.

Out the window, I watch the ocean.  It crashes against the shore, while sail boats and paddleboards ride the waves.  Everyone out there is carefree and happy.  Everyone out there is normal.

In here, I’m tainted and twisted and used.

But it all ends today. 

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Brand

I stare down at the wings of the plane, as we descend through the clouds and toward the ground.

I can’t focus on anything, other than Nora’s face the other night.

Her eyes had been so wide, as she’d looked at me in the dark.   As I’d entered her, she’d sighed so soft, and then whispered into my neck.

Make me good, Brand.

Her words were so quiet that I don’t even know that she meant to speak.

But the words twist and turn in my heart right now.

Make me good.

Because she thinks she’s not. She thinks she’s used.

Unworthy.

Because of whatever that f**king ass**le has done to her.

Make me good, Brand.

I grit my teeth and squirm in my seat.  I need to get to her.  Now.

She’s everything good in the world.  She just doesn’t know it.

And I will f**king annihilate him if he’s touched her.

He’ll beg for mercy.

And I will not give it to him.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nora