Page 58 of Saint

Grendel and Salinger each grabbed an arm, forcing Saint to step inside and then shoved him down onto his back, while Mia struggled against Carlisle’s firm grip.

“Put the lid on!” Carlisle ordered, and Mia cried out as he dug the metal barrel deeper into her skin.

“Leave her alone,” Saint growled.

“Nik!” she cried.

The flat wooden lid slammed down above him and all the air rushed from Saint’s lungs. The overwhelming and horrific feeling of being trapped, of knowing he was going to linger in this box until he died, sent a wave of panic through him.

A hammer started to pound nails along the edges, securing the lid which was barely two inches in front of his face. Breathing hard, losing himself to the anxiety attacking his body, Saint roared like a wounded animal in the tight, dark confines of what would turn out to be his tomb.

Chapter Nineteen

“Nik!” Mia screamed. “Let me go!”

The moment Chadwick loosened his grip, she jerked free and ran over to the wooden box. Dropping to her knees, Mia placed her hands on the rough lid and tears fell from her lashes.

“Nik, please hold on,” she cried. She knew the panic must be consuming him, and she was near her wit’s end, but she steadied her voice for his benefit. “I’ll find a way to get you out.”

“Mia,” he rasped. The desperation, the raw terror she heard, made her heart break.

“Focus on my voice, Nikolai,” she ordered firmly. “Remember what I told you.”

“Don’t leave me,” he whispered raggedly.

Emotion made her throat tighten.

“Never,” she whispered. A strong set of arms yanked her backward and onto her feet. “You can’t do this to him!” she screamed at Chadwick, twisting and turning in Salinger’s iron grip.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he informed her coldly. “Let’s go. We need to make contact with Anton Petrov and set up a swap.”

She glared at Chadwick, wishing the most horrible things on him, but too upset to find the words.

There would be no bargaining or exchanging her for Zaitsev. Petrov was dead and she wanted to yell the truth, rub his smug face in it, but she didn’t dare. As long as he didn’t find out Nadia had the chemist, Chadwick wouldn’t get his grimy hands on the man.

“It’s too bad we can’t bury him,” Grendel murmured in that too-soft voice of his, eyeing the coffin like a cat watching a canary. “Imagine the screams we’d hear as the dirt buried him alive.”

Mia’s stomach revolted at the thought. “You’re a sick fuck,” she hissed.

“Let’s do it.” Salinger grinned, his voice taking on a terrifying tone of excitement.

She wanted to punch him in the face. Maybe knock a couple of his crooked teeth out.

“The ground is too hard,” Grendel said, the admission laced with regret. “We’d need some kind of digger to break through it.”

“We don’t have time,” Chadwick interrupted brusquely.

Thank God for that.

As Salinger roughly escorted her out the door, she swore to herself she’d find a way back there so she could release Nik. She knew his team was on the way. Back at the cabin, she’d discreetly grabbed the burner phone, hiding it beneath her T-shirt, and then called Pharaoh while she was supposed to be getting dressed in the bedroom.

But would they make it in time? She had no idea, and it tore her up inside.

Mia remembered how frantic Nik had become while they’d been crawling through that narrow ice cave. But being locked in that box might be his undoing, his breaking point.

Her man was in his own personal hell right now and there was nothing she could do to help him.

It absolutely killed her.

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