Page 158 of Double Bucked

My heart is pounding. But—finally—we’re slowing.

Those gray eyes look clearer. She blinks, as though seeing me for the first time, and slips her hand through my hair.

“You have a tag on your ear,” she says curiously.

I pet her messy hair. “You have a crown on your head.”

Her eyes fall to something over my shoulder. “Is he dead?”

Oh. The security guard. Forgot about him.

I shake my head. “No. I don’t think so.”

There’s a shouting coming from the bathroom. Has she been throwing a fit this whole time? The locked door rattles.

Claire lifts her eyebrows. “Is that Mary-Kate?”

“Unfortunately.”

I lift the bottom of her dress. I rub my thumb over the red stain. “Is this Loren?”

She looks at me. Her eyes look far away. “I had to,” she says. Her voice shakes. “He killed Daddy. I wanted to kill him. But I…I couldn’t…”

I take her perfect, precious face. I kiss her, and I kiss her, and when I taste the salt of her tears on our lips, I use my thumb to push them from her eyes.

“It’s okay,” I tell her. “You’re okay. That’s all that matters.”

She sniffs and then rubs her hand over her face. She pulls herself together, a sudden urgency in her voice. “Ransom. Is he?—?”

“They had him in the stables, last I saw him.”

“We need to get him and get the fuck out of here.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

I start to pull back, but Claire grabs my face. “Wait…”

She pulls me in and kisses me. Her kiss ripples through me. I feel it down to my toes.

“Okay,” she says, her breath hitting my lips. “Now I’m ready.”

54

CLAIRE

Everett and I pull ourselves together and get out of there.

My heart is thundering in my chest. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.

Is it the drugs? The violence? The high of the crown?

Something has been unleashed within me—something with teeth, and claws, and, apparently, an insatiable sex drive.

But also something that loves. Very hard. And now that I have Everett beside me, I’m not letting him out of my sight.

Everett takes his gun, and I clutch my knife. Together, we sneak through the halls, down the staircase, and run?—

Right into Ransom.

---