Pain had become my language, and this basement spoke it fluently.
I pressed my swollen cheek against the concrete floor, tasting copper and dirt. Three days. Three days of metal pipes kissing my ribs, cigarettes painting constellations of burns across my arms, and voices that promised worse to come. My captors had grown creative this time—waterboarding between the beatings, electric shocks that made my teeth chatter long after they stopped.
But Dylan would come. He always came.
My fingers fumbled for the phone I'd managed to steal during their last shift change, the screen cracked but still glowing. Speed dial one. Always speed dial one.
The call went straight to voicemail.
I stared at the phone, my vision blurring. In ten years, through ninety-nine kidnappings, Dylan had never—never—let my calls go unanswered. Even when bullets were flying, even when his empire demanded his attention, he picked up. Because I was his woman. Because he loved me.
Didn't he?
The basement door creaked open above, heavy footsteps descending. I shoved the phone behind a loose brick, my heart hammering against my broken ribs. Two more days. Two more days of fists and fire and the slow realization that something had changed.
When they brought out the car battery and jumper cables, I almost laughed. Almost. Because somewhere in the haze of electricity coursing through my body, I understood that Dylan's silence wasn't circumstantial. It was deliberate.
The escape came during their carelessness—a unlocked door, guards drunk on cheap whiskey and overconfidence. I crawled through broken glass, each shard a small mercy compared to what I'd endured. My dress, once white, now painted abstract patterns in blood and grime. The alley outside was a maze of shadows and garbage, but it led away from that basement, and away was all that mattered.
The payphone stood like a beacon under a flickering streetlight. My hands shook as I fed coins into the slot, each movement sending lightning through my shoulders. Dylan's number was muscle memory, fingers moving without conscious thought.
This time, he answered.
"Dylan?" My voice cracked, relief flooding through me like warm honey. "Dylan, thank God. I thought—"
"Hold on." His voice was distracted, distant. "I've got another call."
Another call. I pressed the receiver closer to my ear, and somehow—maybe the old payphone, maybe fate—the speakerphone activated. Dylan's voice became crystal clear, but he wasn't talking to me.
"Which one do you think looks better, baby?" A woman's voice, sultry and playful. Familiar in a way that made my stomach clench. "The black lace with the ribbons, or the one with the pearls?"
My sister's voice. Vivienne's voice.
"You look beautiful in anything, sweetheart." Dylan's tone was warm, affectionate—the way he used to talk to me in the beginning, before kidnappings became routine and love became obligation. "But I prefer the pearls. They bring out your eyes."
Vivienne giggled, the sound like glass breaking in my chest. "You're such a charmer. No wonder your little shield fell so hard for you."
"Lila?" Dylan's laugh was cold, dismissive. "She's just a worn-out old woman I'm tired of. A useful shield, nothing more. She takes the bullets, the kidnappings, all the messy parts of this life, while I focus on what actually matters."
"Like me?" Vivienne's voice was honey and poison.
"Like you."
The phone slipped from my numb fingers, clattering against the metal booth. The dial tone buzzed in the sudden silence, but I couldn't hear it over the roaring in my ears. Ten years. Ten years of believing I was his woman, his love, his everything. Ten years of taking bullets—literally taking bullets—for a man who saw me as nothing more than human armor.
A shield.
Worn-out.
Tired of.
I slumped against the payphone booth, my body finally registering the full extent of my injuries. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the hollow ache spreading through my chest. The scar on my shoulder—where I'd stepped in front of a assassin's bullet meant for Dylan—suddenly felt like a brand of stupidity rather than love.
All those times he'd rescued me, all those times I'd thought he was proving his devotion... I was just protecting his investment. His useful, expendable shield.
And my sister—my own sister—had been there all along, waiting in the wings, ready to step into the life I'd bled for.
The streetlight above flickered and died, plunging me into darkness. But for the first time in ten years, I could see everything clearly.
