Page 138 of Depths of Destruction

His limbs quickly embrace me, and his finger finds an area between my bandages and strokes my skin.

"Yes," I breathe, closing my eyes, inhaling the delicious scent of his sweat, relieved to feel only him and the desire and need he always bestows upon me. "I've missed you. Oh God...so much."

"I've missed you, baby."

Our tongues collide, and the earth-shattering, toe-curling, body-throbbing sensations his kisses create light me up even more.

Breath, flesh, and bones from his body save me from my darkness, making me whole, pulling me out of the emptiness and confusion now residing in my soul.

A groan vibrates across his lips at the same time my back arches and body convulses from the force of his climax.

Besides our lungs that desperately search for air, we don't move and cling to each other tightly.

He quietly says, "I love you, Naomi. Whatever I need to do to save you from the depths of destruction, I will."

"It's too late," I whisper.

"No, baby. For you, it's not."

"How can you love me? I'm not the woman you met," I claim.

"You are. And time will prove she's still inside you. But good or bad, whatever you're going through, I love you. It isn't going to change."

"I love you too, Andre. So much," I say and tears well in my eyes.

He kisses me again. When I finally lay down in his arms to sleep, I have hope he can save me, and everything is going to return to normal again.

But then, I dream. It's about Ezra. Like a record that has a stuck needle, he keeps repeating, "Behind closed doors."

Andre tries to wake me up for over twenty minutes, but I can't get Ezra's apparition and voice out of my head.

I see him at work, then tied to the tree with his bloody face swollen, and he won't stop saying it.

Andre's voice doesn't break through my nightmare. His shouts and barks and growls don't work. I ask Ezra what he means, but he never says anything, except the same thing, "Behind closed doors."

When Andre finally gets through to me, I am in his arms, sweating, shaking, and clueless as to what Ezra meant.

It's the first time I realize Ezra chose his last words purposefully. He was sending me a message. Until now, I haven't been able to dissect any parts of what happened on that tree, nor do I know if I want to.

But that phrase isn't one a dying man would normally say using his final breath. Ezra taught me years ago something is always going on behind closed doors. The fact he chose that statement to be his last can't be a coincidence. And the career I’ve built by digging to get to the truth isn't going to let me be able to forget about it. I need to figure out why he said it and what it meant.

24

Andre

"Belize,"Naomi cries out and flings her eyes open.

I've been staring at her since it was dark out and she had her last nightmare. The sun rose hours ago, but she's slept peacefully, so I haven't woken her. Throughout the night and early morning, all I could think about is getting to Bermuda. I need to get her as far away from Central America as possible. Until she's in a safer place, I won't be able to rest.

She sits up. Her blue eyes finally look rested, but the fire of determination I first saw in them when I watched her on video is back.

My gut flips. I should be excited the emptiness no longer lingers in her eyes, but dread creeps into my bones.

"I have to go to Belize."

"Absolutely not."

"Ezra was telling me something. I know him. He wouldn't have told me unless he discovered something."