“Don’t play stupid with me. I know she’s staying with you, and you’re going to take me to her right now.” Jordin shakes her head, fear evident in her eyes. Ezra spilled everything to her.
“Look, she doesn’t want to see you,” She replies gravely. “In all the years I have known that girl, I have never seen her so utterly broken and confused. God only knows what the hell have you done to her. You’re not good for her, Damien.” She frowns and looks me over her nose, wrinkling in distaste. “Actually, you don’t look so great either.”
I roll my eyes and sigh; I pull out my gun, and she presses herself back against the wall. “Jesus Christ. What the fuck! You really are a fucking psycho.”
“I’m going to keep it real with you because I know you genuinely care about her. I’m in love with her, all right? And yes, I’ve made one mistake after another with her, but these last few days I have had to live without her has been unbearable. So, would you please take me to her so I can talk to her?”
Jordin looks up at me skeptically and sighs. “Okay, fine. She’s staying with me, but she’s not home right now.”
I frown. “Where is she?”
“She’s gone out to clear her head.” When I frown, she widens her brown eyes and sighs.
I clench my jaw tight. “She’s gone out alone?” I question, glowering at her. “Where?”
“Green Acre Park. She goes there when she wants to isolate herself from everything.” She tells me and looks at the gun fretfully. I tuck the gun back into the hem of my jeans and push the ground floor button.
“Don’t go after her if you’re only going to hurt her again. She’s been through enough.” I look at Jordin and swallow the enormous lump forming in my throat.
“Thank you,” I tell her and turn to walk out of the elevator but stop between the doors. “If you breathe a word of what I do for a living. I will kill you.”
“I won’t say a word.” She tells me austerely, and I nod before I walk out of the elevator back to my car.
The time was eight o clock in the evening. The streets were bustling with people. I drive as fast as I could, one eye on the time as I weave in and out of traffic. I pull up at the park Jordin said she was at. I walk through, my eyes scanning the area, and sure enough, there she was…sitting there staring at the waterfall, lost in a daze.
I walk over to her. “Ezra.”
She looks at me, her eyes wide, rimmed red and puffy from crying and lack of sleep. They almost immediately fill with tears as soon as she sees me. Jordin was right; she looks so utterly broken. I walk over to her, and her gaze drops to her hands, sitting in her lap. “What do you want.” She whispers, looking at the waterfall in front of her.
“You shouldn’t have run off like that, Ezra. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
Ezra sighs deeply, licking her lips. “I don’t care anymore. I’m done running and hiding.”
I watch her as she stands from the bench she was sitting on. I reach out and touch her arm, “Ezra—”
“Why are you here, Damien?” She asks, scowling up at me, her tired blue eyes watering. I stare down into her face. “What? Why are you looking at me like a wounded puppy?” She rips her arm from my hold and shakes her head. “You wake up this morning and grow a sudden conscience? You wanted this. You were the one that insisted we have no future and did everything in your power to push me away. Well, you got what you wanted. I’m done.” I swallow hard and gaze into her eyes. It was all I could do. I felt as though my mouth was glued shut.
“I didn’t want it to be like this, but you were right. You can’t give me what I want, and I need more than what you’re capable of offering. I will not be just another sexual object to you.” She claims, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. “You’ll be served with divorce papers soon. You’re free to be whoever you need to be now, Damien Wolfe.” She whispers, her voice quivering, and turns to walk away, but I catch her arm and pull her, so her back was pressed against my chest.
“Don’t go,” I whisper in her ear. Pressing my nose into her hair, I inhale her scent and my insides quake. “I love you.” I feel Ezra’s shoulders shake as she sobs quietly, and I pull her closer and kiss the nape of her neck. “I’ve been fighting my feelings for you for a while now Ezra, I did everything I could to stop myself from falling in love with you, but I couldn’t fight it. I needed you to hate me because it would have been easier to walk away from you when all this came to an end.” I explain, pressing my forehead to the back of her head.
“I’ve hurt you a lot, I know, but you have to know the truth because it’s killing me, even if I do lose you for good. You were nothing but a job to me initially but then...” I close my eyes and bite my lip hard. “Ezra, you’re the daughter of the man who put the hit out on my parents.” Ezra stiffens in my arms. “Hugo Quintero—your father is the one responsible for my parent's death. He’s my mark, and you were just a pawn in the whole thing to get me close enough to kill him.” Ezra turns and faces me.
The look of betrayal in her eyes would haunt me for the rest of my life.
She shakes her head and looks at me, completely distraught. “What are you talking about?”
“It was your father who sent Zane and Aaron to kill my parents,” I tell her, and she frowns, taking a couple of steps back. “They were the first on my list. Then it was your Dad.”
Ezra shakes her head and stares at me, stunned. “You mean, you planned this whole thing? The kidnapping, the ransom, that was all you?” I shake my head.
“No, that was real,” I tell her. “I was hired to kidnap a girl for ransom, but I didn’t find out your father was the one responsible until after we got married.”
Ezra blinks, and tears roll down her cheeks, “So the part about me marrying you to stay alive… was that a lie too?”
“No, that was true. The agency can’t hurt a family member or a spouse of one of their own. I could have easily killed you that day and moved on, but I couldn’t do it. And later on, when I found out about your father, I came up with the plan to use you to get close to him. I wanted him to pay for everything I went through growing up. I was blinded by my hate and the need for revenge that I didn’t care if you got caught in the crossfire.” I explain and take a step closer to her, but she retreats. “I have enough incriminating evidence to destroy your father and have him incarcerated for everything he’s done.”
Ezra just looks at me, taken aback. “Oh my God, that’s why you accepted his offer to stay at his place? So that you can gather dirt on him?”