Beholden (The Belonging Duet, #2)(6)

“How long have you been standing there?” Mark questions.

“Just long enough to hear you threatening to kill him yourself. Which I’m sure if he can hear us, he’s ready to choke you for.” She gives a small half-hearted laugh.

“I’m sure, but at this point I don’t give a shit. Hopefully I pissed him off enough to wake up. I thought by now …”

“Mark, it’ll—” Catherine’s voice is low.

“Sorry, Kitty. Come here.”

She sighs and I imagine he has her wrapped in his arms. Holding her close while I lie here and get to picture it. Why the f*ck am I not waking up? The idea of Catherine in any other man’s arms is enough to make me want to tear my heart out. I know Mark would never cross that line, but I’m going out of my mind. I need to touch her, hold her, and let her know it’s all going to be okay.

“You know, I keep hoping I’ll wake up and be back in my apartment and all this will be a bad dream,” Catherine says with a shaky voice.

“He’s always been that guy in the group who wanted to prove everyone wrong. I hoped I could get him angry enough that his eyes would snap out and he’d be swinging at me.” He gives a short laugh, “Well, at least he could try.”

He’s not that far off. If I could’ve gotten my body to work I would’ve. Dickhead.

“But hope is for the weak—I have faith,” Mark tacks on.

“Each time you and I talk, I realize I don’t know him. We happened so fast, but everything was intense and felt right.”

She’s wrong. She knows me more than anyone. Catherine sees the things I don’t show anyone else. I let her in where it matters. Yet she thinks she knows nothing?



Shimmering lights all around, twinkling and growing brighter as the music plays. The sound of the bass reverberates through me as the drum solo plays in. My entire body vibrates with it.

Bam … bam … boom.

Standing at the beach with the sun shining upon my face. No one is here, just me as I wait for her. I close my eyes and breathe in the salt air. Allowing it to calm me, reminding me how I feel at home with the sea.

Slowly my eyes lift and I start to take her in as she walks toward me.

No shoes.

White dress.

As my eyes travel up to her face, I stand rooted in shock. Again she’s here.

“Jackson,” she whispers. “Come back to me.”

My heart stops beating as I gape at her. Six years she was my life and then she was gone. Taking all my hope, my love, and part of my heart when she left. I was empty and dead inside, but now she’s here again. Why? Why does she have to take from me over and over? Can’t she let me be?

I open my mouth to tell her … f*ck, I don’t know what I want to say. Each part of me wants to say something different. To yell, beg, scream, and punch my way through this f*cking nightmare. Tell her how she destroyed me, made me give up everything for her, only to have her take more.

“Why?” is the only word I’m capable of saying.

She stands unmoving letting my question hang in the air while my heart beats erratically.

“Why?” I ask again more forcefully. She needs to answer me. I step toward her and a smile crosses her perfect lips. “Goddammit, why?”

Her features soften, and as I get closer she finally says, “It wasn’t supposed to be.”

I stop moving and my eyes close in pain. Ice shoots through my veins leaving me frozen and void.

When I open them she’s gone.

All over again.



“Fox, what’s your view look like?” I ask trying to get the other half of the guys to give me a status update.

Nothing.

I try a different one. “Razor, do you copy?”

Silence.

“Bronzer, come in. What’s your status?” I look around trying to remain still since it’s daylight and I have no idea what the f*ck is going on.

I turn to Mark and signal him to try. “Fox, Razor, Bronzer, do you copy?”

“We copy. We need to move. Out.”

Their location must be compromised. There’s no other reason they’d move in daylight. I signal to Aaron and Mark that we need to move.

“If they’re on the move, something’s wrong. Let’s take to the other side and we’ll meet them when it’s safe,” I say as we prepare to head out.

Everything feels rushed. Every moment feels like it’s on fast forward. We make it to the edge of the village and try to find a place to wait it out. We’re out of range to talk to the other three now, but Razor’s in charge. We’ve done enough missions together to know each other’s moves. If I were him, I would wait until the time we selected. We have our extract in three hours. It gives us about two hours to get what we need and get the f*ck out of here.

I turn to Aaron, and before I can get a word out, the percussion of gunfire explodes in the air. We drop to the ground, ready to shoot back.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

Fast and steady, but it’s not close to us. We hear screaming and the continuous shooting on the other side of the village. Mark starts calling on the radio to the other half of our team, but we’re still out of range.

“Fuck this. We’re going in.” I grab my gun, and Mark and Aaron are on my heel.