“You’re not fucking leaving me, Sawyer. You’re not going to jail. You’re not going anywhere. You want to pay for your crimes? Good. I’m more than happy to make you pay. And if you think for one goddamn second that I’m letting you go, then I look forward to showing you just how trapped you are with me.
“There are many things you deserve, bella ladra, but the only prison you will be a captive in is one of my own making. If my love is a prison, so be it.”
I can only gape at him, my heart fluttering from his devilish words. They’re so wrong, yet so tempting.
“So be it,” I rasp.
Whatever fire began from beneath the floorboards has transferred to the depths of his eyes. Heat spreads throughout my bones, and I can only wonder if I’ve inhaled too much smoke, creating nothing more than a fever dream before I die. Is this my body’s way of telling me that I’m no longer amongst the living? My only response would be that I’ve never felt more alive.
Enzo’s lips softly brush against my own, and my eyelashes flutter closed, overcome with the remnants of his devotion.
“The day you stole from me was the best day of my life,” he whispers against my lips. “Because then you became my life, and I don’t want it back. I won’t fucking take it.”
I’m beginning to tremble, so he captures my bottom lip between his teeth, sensing the rising emotion in my throat. He pulls me into a kiss so powerful, it feels as if the fire did consume me, and I’m melting into the cracks of the wood beneath his palms.
I’m weightless as he gathers me closer, moving his lips over mine savagely.
But it’s over too soon, and he tears himself away from the vortex he so unapologetically pulled me into.
I chase after his mouth, but he directs my head down, and I slump against him as his lips press into my forehead.
The distinct voice of someone calling over the radio slices through the lingering tension between us.
“What are we supposed to do?” I ask, my voice still hoarse. “We can go to a different country that won’t turn me in to the authorities. But I could never ask that of you. Not with your whole life and career here.”
He turns his head to peer over his shoulder at Kacey and Sylvester, and he stays like that for several drawn-out moments. By the time he’s turning back to me, there’s a spark of determination in his eyes, accompanied by a note of regret.
“We don’t have to go anywhere.”
“What will we do then?”
“If you want to live free for the rest of your life, then you need to kill Sawyer Bennett.”
My mouth parts in surprise. That was the last thing I was expecting him to say.
“Oh, man. Please tell me this isn’t a fucked-up way of saying you’re going to kill me, too?”
His face drops with exasperation. “No, baby. I’m saying there is a girl here who has no real identity outside of Raven Isle. That could also be you. And Sawyer Bennett was an unfortunate soul who wrecked on this island years ago, only to take her own life.”
My brows pinch and I shake my head with bewilderment as I process what unhinged shit is coming out of his mouth. “So, you want me to pretend that I’m Trinity? And then say that a Sawyer Bennett was taken hostage and died?”
He nods slowly.
“You would have to lie, Enzo. For me,” I tack on.
The way he stares at me has my stomach fluttering, unleashing winged beasts inside. He looks as if he’s a tortured man who has been presented with freedom, and the only way to obtain it is by taking it from me.
“I would lie for you as easily as I would kill for you. If you getting the best of me requires the world getting the worst of me, you will want for nothing in life, bella ladra.”
I swallow, but the moisture in my mouth has dissipated. For the first time, I feel like Enzo is exactly who I deserve, and I’m determined to reciprocate that.
“I will do whatever I can to make sure you never have to lie for me again,” I vow, my voice hoarse with emotion.
“I know, baby,” he says. He glances back at the bodies, then refocuses on me. “Were you ever fingerprinted?”
“No,” I confirm, shaking my head. “I was never brought in.”
“Good, then they won’t be able to identify you. With two dead bodies, they’re going to investigate, and we need a story. Rather than telling them who you actually are, tell them you were born and raised on Raven Isle and were trapped here against your will alongside your sister, Kacey. No one knows you were with me that day, so I will say that I shipwrecked and swam here on my own. I found out what Sylvester was doing to you two, and it resulted in a confrontation where he tried to kill me and accidentally shot Kacey instead—that part is true, at least. So, I defended myself and killed him.”