Siren's Mark

Chapter 26

ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖

"Hello, Michael," I say into the phone.

Ava stares at me with wide eyes, gesturing to me to hang up as she mouths the word NO over and over.

"Give me the phone!" she whispers. She makes a quick reach for the phone, forgetting that my reflexes are substantially faster than hers.

"I... I... Who... Who is this?" Mike stammers on the other end of the line.

"Oh, Michael, you don't remember me? I'm hurt!" I say as I turn my body so that Ava can't grab the phone from my hand.

"What the fuck are you doing answering Ava's phone?" he spits. His voice is rough and he seems to be putting on his best 'intimidating' tone.

"Oh, so you do remember me! Here's a better question for you, mate: why the fuck are you calling Ava's phone?"

"None of your business. Let me talk to Ava."

That's not happening. I look at Ava who's glaring at me with her lips pursed.

"Sorry, Michael," I say with a wink to Ava. "She's otherwise occupied at the moment."

Ava's eyes go wide and her mouth falls open. She reaches over and smacks me hard on the arm.

"You son of a bitch," Mike growls in response. "You're disgusting."

This is fun.

"I knew you two were lying about fucking around behind my back," he spits.

"Funny thing about that—I wasn't lying," I say, "but I figured if I was already doing the time, might as well be doing the crime, eh?"

"I guess you have a thing for whores then."

This prick has a death wish.

"Your best insult is insinuating she has sex at a professional level?" I say with a laugh. "Do you think I'm the Virgin fucking Mary?"

Ava crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at me, hopefully in response to what Mike said and not at me.

"You two deserve each other," Mike snaps. "You can have her."

"But the point here, Michael, is that I do have her. But you don't quite seem to get that, because I keep seeing your name on her bloody mobile."

My voice gets louder as my ability to mask my anger begins to falter.

"So you're not going to contact her again," I say. "You're not going to so much as look at her if you see her on the street. Do you understand me?"

There's silence on the other end, but the faint sound of his breathing tells me he's still there.

"I'll take that as a yes," I say. "And if I hear you've said even one word to my girl, the next thing to come out of that mouth will be your fucking tongue."

I end the call and pass the phone back to Ava.

"Really, Zane?" she says with one eyebrow raised.

Okay, I might be in a little bit of trouble.

"I was perfectly fine ignoring his calls and messages," she continued. "But you gotta get all alpha male on him?"

"You honestly think I was going to let that shit go, baby? You do realize who I am, don't you?"

She rolls her eyes and sighs.

"You're an idiot," she says, cracking a slight smile. "Wait... Did you say you've seen his name on my phone before?"

"I uh," I mumble. "What?"

Did I let that slip? Shit.

"I wasn't spying," I say. "I just happened to see some texts once."

She seems to be mulling it all over in her mind.

"You're right," she says, narrowing her eyes.

Why does that seem like a very bad thing right now?

"I do know you," she continues.

What is she getting at?

"You wouldn't let this go, just like there's no way in hell you let Mike get away with saying whatever sexual things about me he said when you had that run in at Pike's."

Oh.

"I uh," I try to explain but I don't know where to begin.

"Did you beat him up?" she asks.

"No... but I may have been involved in that a bit more than I told you at the time."

She crosses her arms and purses her lips.

"Involved?" she asks. "You told me he got into a fight with anoth-... Oh my god, you didn't!"

I'm so busted right now.

"I may have," I mutter with a shrug.

"You charmed him?"

"Yeah."

She smacks me on the arm with a high pitched squeak.

"Zane!" she exclaims. "He had to get surgery to fix his face! Yes, Mike can be a douche, but you could have gotten him killed!"

"I..." I sigh and my shoulders drop. "I'm sorry, baby. I don't always get this human shit. And with you, it's like my brain gets bypassed and I just go full animal."

The tension in her face seems to calm.

"I shouldn't have done what I did at the bar," I say with another sigh. "But you should know that I only think that because it could have hurt you. I would kill him if it came to it and I wouldn't have remorse. I have no problem killing anyone who puts you in danger and I've killed before, when I had to."

Her expression shifts to one of shock, and maybe sadness.

The look in her eyes shatters my heart. I think I've just watched her fall out of love with me.

"Okay," she says, her expression surprisingly stoic.

"Okay?" I ask, the shock clear in my voice. "You're okay with me killing people?"

"You kill bad people, right?" she asks. "You kill for a reason?"

"Yes." I can't believe what she's saying.

"Zane, I'm not perfect. A lot of parts of my life that you don't know about have been fucked up. And some of those fucked-up things have made me think that, yeah, there are some people that the world would be better off without. It's not all black and white."

She's not leaving? My chest finally relaxes as I release my breath.

"I trust you," she says, walking over to me and resting her head on my chest.

I never want to let her go.