But outside the closet door, his voice sounds cold and fatal, like she’s some other biker gang guy he’s willing to shoot straight in the face for breaking Rule #4: Don’t piss off Waylon.

I didn’t think I had much courage left in me after my time in Louisiana, but I brace to run out there—to defend her from his wrath. Even if it means having to go back to Hades.

But then, Amira begins talking….

“I know what you said, and I know he's your cousin. But you told me to start listening to myself. So, I did,” she tells him. She speaks to him like she’s a lawyer explaining a clear and reasonable argument. Like he’s not a psychopath. “I want to be with you, but she doesn’t want to be with him. And people can't be kept like that. I had to help her. I didn’t want to go against you. I didn’t want to betray you. But I had to help her.”

“He is my brother. And she is a debt,” Waylon growls outside the door. “A debt Hades was owed. She doesn't get a say in it.”

“Yes, she does, Waylon,” Amira insists. “Yes, she does. I had to help her. She's a human being, and I had to help her just like I had to help you in Delaware. But me helping her doesn't mean I don't love you. It just means that I couldn't let her continue suffering. I had to help her. But I was going to come back. That’s what I was trying to tell you when we had sex without protection last night—that I was going to come back, no matter what it looked like when you woke up.”

He goes quiet in that Fairgood way. The kind of way that makes you feel like their silence is ticking like a bomb.

Then he says, “You were going to come back?”

His voice isn’t any less hard, but it’s quieter.

And Amira sounds hopeful when she answers, “Yes! Yes, I was. I know it’s hard for you to trust. But I need you to look at me and listen to your heart. I love you. I love you so much. But I’m still a walking contradiction. I needed to help her, but I also want to be with you. I need to be with you. Even if you don’t give me a phone for the rest of my life because you don’t trust me after this, I need to be with you. I was always going to come back.”

More silence. But this one is much shorter. And when he speaks again, his voice sounds weary. “Tell me which bus you put her on.”