Page 131 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

“I can do that,” I assured him.

“You go first,” he said, getting a gun out from a holster under his arm that was concealed inside his jacket. I hadn’t even known he was wearing it. I let out a little squeak at the sight of it. He touched my face with his other hand, soothing. “Don’t worry.”

“You just have guns lying around?” I said.

“Pretty much,” he said. “I used to need to carry one everywhere to feel safe, but I got better about that. You go, stay low, and I’ll cover you.”

Oh, wow, it was like one of those action-adventure movies. He was covering me. I drew in a breath, trying to calm myself. I could do this. Then I nodded. “Okay. Now?”

“Now,” he confirmed.

I darted out from behind the trees, bent down, running while in a half-crouch. I scurried all the way to the shack and crouched down in the spot where Nikolai had told me to crouch.

He joined me in moments. “Good,” he breathed. “Very good.” Brandishing the gun, he carefully raised up and peered in one of the windows. Then he ducked back down. “It’s not Corentin.”

“What?” I said.

“There’s someone in there, and fuck knows what they’re doing to him, but it’s not Corentin.”

I raised up to look in the window.

“Careful, Aurelie,” he breathed urgently.

Inside the shack, there was a man—totally naked—lying on a table. His penis was attached to something that descended from the ceiling, a strange contraption with an array of needles and glass jars, like some kind of medieval machine. It was made of wood and metal, but it looked ancient. There were three needles inside the man’s dick, injecting liquid from little glass bulbs into the shaft of him.

He was groaning and writhing, his expression a mask of agony, and there were two other men sitting on metal chairs, both on their phones, as if they were bored.

I dropped back down. “What the hell?”

Nikolai shrugged. “Right?”

Suddenly, my phone rang.

Nikolai went stiff.

I scrambled to get it out and silence it.

He snatched it from me before I could. He answered it, moving away from the shack, still in a crouch.

I winced. Had the people inside heard? I needed to look. I raised up to look in the window again.

“Down,” came Nikolai’s voice.

And I got down, but not before I realized the men sitting on the chairs in there were not on their phones anymore.

“…ready for the rendezvous point, yes,” Nikolai was saying into the phone. He listened, tucked his gun into its holster and then beckoned to me.

I hurried over to him and got behind him.

The door of the shack burst open and the men inside came out.

“I have to go,” said Nikolai into the phone. “Something’s come up.” He tossed me the phone and drew his gun, bracing it with both hands.

The men who’d come out of the shack raised their guns.

Oh, fuck. This wasn’t good.

24

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