Euan’s heart thumped. Could Nick be entering a room that he resided in on purpose?
But it wasn’t Nick who took the rungs of the ladder two at a time. It was Knight.
As Euan returned to his meal, the tension in the room morphed, expanded. It grew with every step Knight took down into the room, with every step he took closer to Lily.
His dark eyes were alight. His arm was outstretched as he walked. But when he touched Lily in gentle affection, her cringe and associated flinch had them all curling inwards. Knight removed his hand instantly, but his eyes dulled as he did so with obvious reluctance.
A forced grin was on his face. ‘Hey, pretty girl.’
Lily blinked before she turned and didn’t even attempt to match his fake smile with one of her own. She nodded in greeting.
They stared at each other. Each saying everything and nothing. Too many unspoken words, too many destroyed dreams, open wounds and broken promises.
Lily was the first to draw back. Her shoulders were tense and her joints popped as she moved out from under his attention. A tiny mouse in truth, who permanently attempted to hide in her hole.
Knight spoke no words as she fled. His focus always on her. He licked his lips as if in memory of a last kiss. His dark eyes were morose; a broken heart pumped silently behind them.
Euan swallowed, placed the fork back on his plate, his food lay uneaten, and waited.
Knight didn’t make him wait long. ‘Kira said that Nick …?’
The question died on his lips as he stared down the hallway that Lily had vanished into. A waif of a woman and clothing. A ghost, a skeleton. Lost to torture and suffering.
Euan’s focus was also on that hallway. He remembered Nick’s bloody and broken body hogtied on that rotten floor. He remembered the blood, the mud, the tears. There was a burn in his chest at the thought of Nick’s torture.
He remembered the weeks of watching Nick waste away before his eyes. The hollowed cheeks and the vacant expression. He remembered that he had risked Nirvana to see them escape what was left of humanity in the hope that it would heal Nicky’s soul, and stitch the rift between them back together.
If they could come back from that, they could come back from anything.
And maybe with the same dedication, so could Lily and Knight.
‘Yes,’ Euan replied, clearing his throat. ‘They had him for two days. Patience won out. And Kira. But it was time, and me getting my head out of my ass that brought him back. Don’t push it. She’ll return. Just love her until then.’
Knight’s attention remained on the dark portal. ‘She won’t let me love her.’
Euan picked up a roasted zucchini with his fingers, carefully brought it to his lips, almost cried out with elation when it went straight into his mouth. ‘Have you told her? That you still love her?’
‘Every day.’
Euan ate and chewed another vegetable before he stood, grimacing at the pain in his feet. ‘Then you’re doing a better job than I did.’ He clapped Knight on the shoulder, squeezed the hard muscle underneath. The man was large enough that it didn’t shudder through his whole body. ‘Time is what she needs. It will be worth it. But for you, it will be the hardest and longest of your life.’
***
Euan was surrounded by the smell of lavender once again. The sheets had been washed. The room was no longer engulfed with the stench of disinfectant and male sweat. Instead, he was engulfed by everything that was Kira, that made this bunker home, sweetness and perfection in this world.
But there was one glaring omission. ‘Where’s Nick?’ he asked.
Kira halted in her movements. Her shirt halfway over her head. Her fatigues were clinched tight around her waist with a belt that had been altered to allow for more holes. Her elbows and hair peeked over the hem of her top.
Euan stood from where he had been sitting on the edge of the bed and loomed over her. One quick jerk and the shirt was gone. Hair wild, eyes bright, her cheek indented where she bit the inside. His eyes narrowed. ‘I thought we were ready to sleep together again?’
‘We are! He, um …’ she mumbled, avoiding eye contact. She reached out to take her shirt back from him.
He didn’t fight her. His jaw cocked, and his attention turned to the open doorway. ‘He’s not coming,’ he guessed.
Kira twisted the garment in her hands. ‘He said that—’
‘I can imagine what he said,’ Euan interrupted. ‘Where is he?’
‘I don’t think—’ she started.
‘Kira.’
At his stern tone, she flinched. The apology was on Euan’s lips until a surprising smile stretched across her face. He blinked as she reached out and took his hand. She spread his fingers and held it over her heart. The beat was strong under his fingertips, the skin hot.
His focus centred. His gaze snagged on her smile. Bright, sunshine personified. ‘What?’
‘That tone,’ she whispered. ‘I missed it.’
‘Tone?’ he asked like an idiot.
Her smile grew. Euan smelt the lavender, the washing powder and his fingertips tingled.
‘You used to use it on me all the time, especially in the beginning. Do you remember?’
Humour tickled under his ribs. ‘I remember you never doing as you were told.’
She ignored his quip. ‘And you always said, “Kira” in that voice, and my heart would trip, just a little.’
A smile did form then, a tiny stretch of his scarred lips. Hers grew with its presence. ‘Just a little?’ he asked.
When she nodded impishly, he pulled his hand from under hers and brought the other towards her until he could hold her face in his palms. Guileless, yet determined. Naïve, yet principled. Kira had always been a dichotomy, the perfect contrast between warrior and submissive. She was the epitome of what this new world needed. An honourable guardian that worked
