Uncovering You 10: The Finale (20 page)

His limbs start to jerk in crude, short motions.

Then the fit passes. For half a second, he lies there, absolutely still, on the cold, unforgiving floor. The next he’s pushing himself up again, jaw set, determination clear on his face. He’s again speeding toward me.

He doesn’t even get two steps closer before staggering down again. This time, the jerking overtakes his whole body. He fights it. I can see him fighting it, trying to resist. But what…

My eyes widen in sudden, horrifying alarm. There’s only one thing I know that can do that to someone—

My heart freezes when I see it: A thin black strip around Jeremy’s neck.

He’s been fitted with another collar!

I thrash against my bonds wildly, desperately needing to get free, desperately needing to speak, to scream, to call for Jeremy.

The second shock passes. Jeremy’s body loosens. His head drops. His back rises and falls in deep, heavy, steadying breaths.
One, two, three
and he’s up again. Coming towards me…

He does not run this time. He walks, each stride as determined and powerful as any I’ve seen him take. His eyes zero in on me. Even with the vast space between us, I can feel his intensity.

These damned fucking ventilation fans! Why are they fucking running?

Jeremy comes closer. Every step he takes makes me feel more like this can’t be real. Every step he takes brings him closer to me. Every step he takes lets me see him that much better.

I can scarcely believe this is happening.

I stop breathing. I go still watching him, waiting for him to close the final gap and rescue me from this nightmare. Whereas before, escape never registers anywhere on my radar, now, with Jeremy here, I feel like somehow, I might already be rescued.

Hope blooms inside me. It’s been suppressed for so long that it startles me with its intensity. It washes through me like a cleansing waterfall, purging all the negative emotions filling my brain. It parts the darkened clouds of my mind and gives me something solid, something real that I can hold on to. It makes the last awful moments of my existence somehow less. It nearly extinguishes all the scars and memories of the abuse I’ve suffered…

Jeremy stops. Twenty feet away from me, he stops.

His mouth opens, and he speaks. But—damn these fans!—I can’t hear a thing.

He reaches into his pocket and takes out his cell phone. He punches something into the screen. He puts the phone away. Looks at me.
Stares
at me, like a man lost in the desert who has just topped a crest and come upon a hidden, blue oasis.

The fans shutter off.

My head jerks up. I look at the slowing, rotating blades. The silence makes me feel, for the first time, the tears welling in my eyes.

“Lilly.”

Jeremy’s voice brings me instantly to him. The way he says my name breaks my heart. It’s full of longing and desperation and even unbridled love.

I stare back at him. I have no words. Even if the gag was not in my mouth, I’d have no words.

I see him there, before me, for real, in the flesh. So much happiness fills me that it makes me want to weep. My mind flashes through all the things we have shared. And I’m filled with sadness for everything that cannot be.

I’m no fool. I know I’ve been poisoned. I know that I’ve been tainted. Ruined. Broken. Damaged beyond repair.

Jeremy is here now. He can save me. He can be my rescuer. He can pull me from this hole.

But he can never make me whole again.

The love that swells inside me is reflected in his eyes. But I know it for a false love. It’s a love that can never last. It’s a love that can never be, because of all the things that have been done to me.

I think of Paul. Like him, there is no recovery for me. There is no going back. And Jeremy Stonehart, whatever he thinks now, whatever he has planned, cannot love a woman who is insane.

Sadness cuts through me. It’s a knife through my heart.

I turn away.

“Lilly,” Jeremy says my name again. It sounds like a prayer, an exclamation of grave sorrow and disbelief. “I can’t…come any closer.”

I shake my head. I close my eyes and shake my head.

I don’t want him to.

Tears fall. They swell from behind my eyelids and run down my cheeks.

I do nothing to stop them. Jeremy cannot love me. I cannot be selfish enough to hope for that.

I have to be strong enough to push him away.

A sob rises from the depths of my chest and makes my body feel despairingly hollow.

“Lilly, what’s wrong?” Jeremy asks. “Lilly, look at me! I’m here. I’m here for you. Don’t you understand? I’m here to get you out of this hell!”

I screw my eyes shut tighter, refusing to look at him. I keep shaking my head, repeating the word
No
over and over again in my mind.
No, no, no, no, no
.

“Lilly!” A barked command. “God damn you! Lilly, look at me!”

Something in his voice…something that I feel coming from the depths of his soul…something that holds the key to that control that Jeremy Stonehart exhibits over everyone and everything…something in there rips past my defenses and makes me comply.

When my eyes fall upon him once more, I see that he too is crying.

I feel a sudden, sickening stab of pain pierce my gut.

He’s dressed well, as always. But his irises are lost in a sea of red. There’s a raw hollowness to his cheeks that I’ve never seen before. He looks gaunt, fallen. His eyes stare at me from dark, pitted depths. Then I see the collar around his neck, that horrible thing. A new wave of revulsion pulses through me.

“I cannot come any closer…” He extends one hand toward me in despair. “…because of what they would do to you, my love. My Lilly-Flower.”

I close my eyes again and shake my head.
No
, I want to say.
No. Jeremy. Turn around and leave me be. No, don’t sacrifice everything you have for a broken woman. No, don’t give up everything for one not worthy of your love.

But I cannot speak. The damned rag between my teeth prevents all but the feeblest whimpers.

Instead, as much as it breaks my heart to do so, all I can do is shake my head, over and over again, and hope—pray!—that Jeremy gets my message.

“Look what they’ve done to you,” Jeremy says. “I’ll make them pay for it. I swear it. But first, first I have to get you safe. I—
ARRHH!
”

He breaks out in a blood-curdling scream and staggers to the floor.

My eyes pop open and I scream into the rag.

The current stops. Jeremy goes still. Then he holds a hand up, toward me. “I’m okay,” he whispers. He shakes his head, meets my eyes, and nods one time. “I’m okay. Our conversation is being recorded. I have to watch my words.”

With a gargantuan effort, he pushes himself to his knees.

I cannot look away. Not when the love of my life is putting himself through this for me.

He takes a moment to steady himself, and then rises. I stare, wide-eyed, around the room, wondering what can come next.

The current’s been doubled
. Esteban’s words come back to me.
The next shock will kill you
.

And yet—somehow—Jeremy withstood three?

“I had to see you were safe,” he tells me. “I had to know you were still alive. Now that I do…” He tightens his fists. “…I know what I have to do next.”

He looks at me with a new determination in his face. “The collars were never meant to kill,” he mutters, half under his breath, so softly I barely hear. “No matter how Hugh or Esteban may have tweaked them, the battery inside, the power it gives out…”

He trails off. Jeremy Stonehart squares his shoulders to me. “Do you trust me?” he asks.

I look down. I
do
. But I don’t want him to risk anything for me. I need him to walk away.

Walk away from me Jeremy
, I silently beg.
Walk away and never come back. Live your life without me ruining it
.

“Lilly!” There’s urgency in his voice. “We’re running out of time, Lilly! I have to know. I need to know: Do you still trust me?”

I start to cry again, the sadness filling me. I cry and I nod my head.
Yes.

“Look into my eyes, Lilly.” Desperation fills Jeremy’s plea. “Look into my eyes, my sweet, precious Lilly-Flower. I love you. Do you hear me? I, Jeremy Stonehart, love you with every fiber of my being. I will bring you back. But first, I have to know: Do you trust me? Look at me! Look at me when you answer, Lilly!”

It takes all the strength I have left. Somehow, through some forgotten power of will, I turn my head up. Through tear-filled eyes, I look Jeremy Stonehart right in the face.

“Do you trust me?” he whispers.

I feel numb. But I still manage to give one slow, solemn, heartfelt nod.

“Yes,” I mumble through the rag.

His eyes focus on me. “I love you,” he says. He takes out his phone. “No matter what happens, I’ll bring you back. Do you hear me, Lilly? I’ll bring you back.” He brings the phone to his lips.

“
Now
,” he says.

An explosion from outside rocks the foundation of the warehouse. I scream as Jeremy surges across the space separating us.

The current hits him halfway. He crashes down, writhing. Yet, somehow, fighting through the full electrical onslaught, he manages to keep moving forward.

The walls shake. The floor trembles like there’s an earthquake. I hear screaming, yelling. More explosions. Gunfire. From outside.

Another explosion. This one is closer and rocks everything. The far, high windows shatter and are blow inward. Glass flies everywhere.

And yet, through all this mayhem, Jeremy is there, spastically jerking, struggling toward me.

His hand reaches my foot. He grabs onto my leg as the current continues to pour into him. I struggle back and forth, absolutely terrified by what’s happening, completely lost in the explosions, the screaming, the gunshots, the walls shaking around us and earthquake-like tremors…

Amidst all the noise, amidst all the confusion, Jeremy finds me. Somehow, he manages to speak. “I’ll bring you back!” he screams, his words mingling with his pained screams. “I’ll bring you back, Lilly! I…”

Without warning my collar turns on. I don’t even get half a second of consciousness as the current consumes my body…

And stops my heart.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I gasp into myself. My eyes shoot open. Strong hands compress my chest up and down.

Commotion surrounds me. In the background, I see flames. A fire. Roaring heat warms my body.

But I’m not in the chair. I’m on the floor. Jeremy is leaning over me. He’s thrusting his hands into my chest. The collar still around his neck…

I see him. He sees me. The moment he does, he stops CPR. He drops down to embrace me.

There’s still yelling, crashing, loud sounds of explosives and guns and a battle in the background. Through all that, I pick out Jeremy’s voice.

“You’re safe now,” he says. “You came back to me. Now you’re safe.” His body shakes as he cries. “You’re safe,” he sobs. “Don’t worry. I’m bringing you home.”

Only half aware of what I’m doing, I bring one hand up and brush my scalp. Short, prickly hairs greet my fingers.

This is real
, I think.

I release everything I’ve been holding on to.

A peaceful black washes over my body. I willingly fade away.

Chapter Thirty

The next time I feel myself rising from the depths of unconsciousness, I savor the calm that envelopes my mind.

I feel at ease. Any worries I harbored before have been eliminated. I do not feel fear or uncertainty. I know only peace.

Slowly, languidly, I take stock of my body. Things feel…smooth. The graininess that defined my existence for so long is missing.

That alone could be enough to make me open my eyes and start laughing. But I do not. Not yet. I want to extract every last bit of joy from the bliss I currently feel. It’s so precious. So very welcome, after all that I’ve suffered.