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• Amir •

There were moments in Amir's life when he expected certain events to happen, and there were certain events in his life that made him feel anxiety coursing through his body. His blood pressure went through the roof as he overheard Chase speaking somewhere in the distance. 

He couldn't pinpoint where his sound was coming from, and the only thing he could focus on was staring him down face-to-face. He wanted to mess his life up just as he had with Luna, and he'd been anticipating this face-off for months. 

While stepping around a large SUV in the pitch-black parking lot, Amir quietly came across a tall shadow in what appeared to be an alley. He then heard Chase speaking instinctively on the phone in hushed tones.

"How did that happen?" Chase screamed, stomping his foot. Amir stood in the back and peered over at him, silently listening to Chase's conversation. "Okay. But what are you going to do about it?" 

His voice was grave and deep, and he sounded like he was ready to fight somebody. Amir knew someone he could fight with. Him. 

"Okay. Okay. I don't care what needs to be done, just clean it up!" Chase yelled. "And what's happening with Ellis? I need the progress report. Now!" 

"Chase?" a soft female voice muttered from the other side. Chase snapped his phone closed and looked up to meet the woman's eyes. "Is everything okay?" 

"Yeah. Just work stuff. What are you doing out here?" 

He walked up to her and hugged her waist.

"My father wanted to know if you were staying here for the night. He can get you a room set up," the woman told him. 

"No." Chase loosened his hold on her and stepped around her side. Amir could tell he moved on from Luna, but he shouldn't be paying for her to stay inside the hospital. The ex-fiancé should let her go. "I'm heading back to Phil and Lacey's house later." 

When the woman stepped under the bright light, Amir could see her bright red hair and slim figure. She looked to be in her early twenties and was the same woman from Luna's memories, the woman she caught him in bed with. 

"Sure." 

"Thank you for everything," he told her. "When I go to St. Matthew's tomorrow, I will see Luna. She won't see me, but I'll see her, and then somehow I'll get her alone. Wait for my signal and shoot the fireworks from the rooftop. Luna can see them from her room window. I made sure she had a good room." 

Amir saw a smug smile on his face, and Chase was damned if he will try to see Luna alone. Not while he was there. 

"Whatever you want, Chase." The woman leaned close to him and softly kissed his lips. Then the two engaged in a hot lip-lock, and Amir gagged in his hiding spot. 

Accidentally touching a car with his hand, an alarm blared, exposing him. Crap. 

Chase and the woman separated as he paced quickly through the alley and yelled, "Who's there? I know somebody is out there."

Amir gradually slid out of his spot and made it look like he was tying his shoelaces. Chase walked right in front of him, his eyes staring down as his face was devoid of any emotion; just a blank stare. 

"Sorry," Amir said. "I was going to the coke machine." 

The alarm stopped beeping once the owner fiddled with their keys from a window.

Chase cocked his head to the side and chuckled. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm surprised that someone like you, a foreigner, can understand English, let alone speak it." 

Excuse me?

Slightly cursing under his breath and shaking his head—holding himself back from slamming his fist into Chase's jaw—Amir brought his back up and straightened his body.

"I do. I'm from Earth, not Mars," he said, staring at his nemesis.

Chase chuckled under his breath like he wasn't trying to be insulting. 

Amir didn't have much of a choice, but to hold himself back from snapping his neck. Either fight him and land himself on a transport plane back to Pakistan, risking the chance to get his partner out of Purgatory, or stand in front of his mortal enemy and make small talk, while holding back his anger. He chose the latter. 

But that will all change once he releases Luna. Chase was getting every punishment known to man thrown at him. 

"I wasn't trying to offend you, sir," Chase said, his voice clipped. "I'm just surprised." 

Shut up, Amir said internally.

"Is everything okay over here?" the woman from before asked as she came around a white truck. 

Amir nodded, and Chase smiled back. 

"Everything is okay. We are heading that way." Chase grabbed the woman by her waist and began strolling toward the office. Then he stopped short for a moment and spun around on his heel. "Before I go," he said, looking Amir right in the eyes. "Welcome to our country. I hope we've made it as comfortable for you as we could." 

"Thanks. I'm not leaving anytime soon." 

"Well, my name is Chase . . ." I know who you are, you snake . . . "and you are —"

"Khan. Ibrahim Khan. From Pakistan." He said his name in a James Bond style.

Chase quietly chuckled. "Oh, right? The scientist who volunteered at the hospital up the road there." He knocked his chin forward, and Amir glanced back. 

Amir peered his way and contained his overzealous emotions to knock him every which way from Sunday. He grit his teeth and smiled back. His mission was to save his girl, even though he wanted to beat this man's ass. There was so much he could say to him, but he couldn't.

"Yes. That's me." 

"Cool. Hopefully, you like what Louisiana offers. If you need anything, talk to Dr. Kim. He can contact me and we can make sure you like your stay." 

Was this his pathetic way of showing me his Southern hospitality? Amir couldn't understand what Chase was trying to do. He just wanted him to go away.

"Sure." That was all he could say, all that his lips would utter. And uttering that one word was all Chase was getting from him.

"Well, see you around and I hope you have a pleasant evening, Mr. Khan." 

"Okay." 

He stepped backward and watched as he saw Chase holding the woman's hand, continuing his route. 

Amir's stomach twisted at the thought of smashing his head against the wall. Chase kept Luna prisoner after taking advantage of her. He donated millions to that sick facility and ordered them to do unethical treatments on her, then he was seen with another woman while making plans to surprise Luna the following night. 

Chase was a nutcase, especially in person, he thought.

After pacing back into his room, Amir shut the door behind him and took a breath. "Well, see you around and I hope you have a pleasant evening." 

Chase's casual tone replayed repeatedly in Amir's mind. He looked at him square in the face, and he desperately wanted to run his fist in between his eyes. He had never felt this kind of rage before for anyone until now. Now he knew how it felt for other people when they saw someone they despised. He'd never despised anyone, and Chase was the exception. He despised him with a passion.

"Everything okay?" Faisal's voice broke through Amir's racing thoughts. 

"What did you ask?" He almost forgot he was in the same room. 

Faisal chuckled and sat down on the bed after washing his hands. "I asked if you were okay. You came in here looking pale and rattled." 

Amir exhaled a deep breath. "Yeah, I am. No. You know what? I'm not. I just saw Chase . . . in person." 

Faisal hopped up from the bed and made his way toward Amir. "What?" 

Amir glanced at him and shook his head. Faisal hadn't had much sleep because of the time difference, but he could feel the rage coursing in his veins to find Chase and choke the life out of him. Holding back was the hardest decision he had ever made, and he had a low tolerance for him to hold himself back again. 

"We spoke to each other." 

"I'm surprised you didn't tie him up, bro. What happened?" 

Amir groaned. "I'll tell you tomorrow. I need to relax."

"Okay. But if you want to talk about it, I'm here. We can come up with strategies to kidnap him and do something with his body." 

Amir smiled and chuckled. "You have a sick mind, you know. You do realize I was thinking the same thing, too, right?" 

"To torture him?" 

"Yeah. When we get our girls free, we'll hunt Chase down. The Khan family are not ones to mess with." 

"That, cousin, is a fact. We'll make sure Chase knows not to cross us." 

Amir laughed. "I can't wait to nail him to a tree."

"I'll help you. Then we can find a place to bury him."

"Do you know what he did to Luna after they met?"

Faisal's eyebrows raised. "Do I want to know?"

"Luna and I saw each other . . . physically. I didn't just see her, but I had kissed her."

Faisal's mouth dropped. "Really? And nothing happened to either of you?"

"I'm standing here, aren't I?" Amir said, and Faisal nodded. "Chase erased a memory of ours."

"What?"

"Yeah! Chase gave Luna some type of drug six years ago and her memory of meeting me before him had vanished."

"But your powers didn't become active until last year. I remember that, Amir."

"That's right. But apparently when you meet the person you're paired with beforehand, what happens to your partner can happen to you too. It's the same thing as our life functions being connected."

Faisal sat down on his bed, looking puzzled. "When did you two meet?"

"Twelve days after Sarah was born. Luna let me hold her."

"And you've never remembered that moment until now?"

Amir shook his head. "Nope. It was whipped from my memory like it never happened. Until I connected my lips to hers, our lost memory resurfaced."

"What did Luna say?"

"We spoke about our kiss and we discovered we're immune to each other."

Keeping his gaze on Amir, Faisal asked, "So, you two are now . . .  together?"

"I'm devoted to her. I love Sarah like she is my own. Luna knows where I stand, and she told me she loved me, too. But she's still in a fragile place. I'm not going to push her to be with me. Right now, I just want to concentrate on getting her out of that facility."

"You and me both," Faisal said. "Our girls have been in there too long."

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Amir and Chase will have their big showdown in due time. They didn't have their epic fight this time, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Our boy has bigger things on his mind, and his girl to rescue, which was not expected to happen. They didn't know they were immune. #tetheredsouls 💫