Page 89 of Keeping Sarah

“I will be here for you when you return. Just make sure to stay behind the green line on the floor, so he can’t reach you, alright? Promise me.”

I exhaled a deep breath. “I promise.”

“And put another robe on. It’s very cold down there.”

I took one of his and put it on over mine, then I ordered one of the guards to take me to the dungeon, but he checked with Rex first. After he got the go-ahead, we went down to the scariest level of the manor. Every step felt colder than the last.

“It’s so dark and wet down here,” I murmured, pulling the edges of Rex’s robe tighter around my body.

The guard chuckled. “It’s a prison, princess, what did you expect?”

“I’m aqueenand you will mind your tone,” I reminded him haughtily.

He cleared his throat. “Of course. My apologies, highness.”

He flipped a switch at the bottom of the stairs and illuminated a long line of cells with barred doors on both sides of the hall. “He’s back there, fifth one on the left.”

I glanced at the guard. “Why so far back, if there’s no one else here?”

“It’s the nastiest cell we have,” he said, sounding pleased about that. “Hasn’t been cleaned in years.”

My stomach rolled and I rubbed my arms for warmth as I walked down the middle of the corridor between parallel green lines. It seemed to be the safety zone from either side of the cells. The fifth cell was in a shadowy space between the scant overhead lights, so I couldn’t quite see him in the back of the cell, but I saw a lump back there.

"Jac?" I asked quietly.

The lump moved, uncurling from what appeared to be a fetal position. “Sarah, is that you?”

A knot formed in my throat at seeing Jac like this. I wanted to run to him, but I fought the urge. “Yes, it’s me.”

He ran to the barred door, reaching out for me. When I didn’t come to him, his hands slowly dropped back to his sides. He looked gutted and miserable.

It broke my heart, but I stayed where I was. I wasn’t afraid of him, but I knew the guard would report everything I did to Rex. In the shadows, I realized something. “Are you naked?”

“Yeah.” He visibly shivered and his teeth chattered lightly as he tried to shrug off my concern. “I was naked when they took me.”

“Get him some clothes!” I barked at the guard.

“Not allowed,” the man said without a care. “I’ve got orders.”

“Asshole,” I growled at him, then shrugged off Rex’s robe and tossed it to Jac through the bars. He caught it and put it on. The cold seeped into me fast, and I could only imagine what Jac had been through.

“Tell me what happened back in Rex’s bedroom,” I said to him, crossing my arms over my chest to keep as much warmth in as I could. “All of it. I’ve seen Rex’s memory of it—"

“Allof his memory?” Jac asked pointedly.

“What do you mean?”

Jac came up to the bars again, his gaze meeting and holding mine. “Did Rex show you when he held a knife to your throat to get me to not attack him? Or when he threw that knife next to me as he called the guards and woke you up, to make me look like I was trying to attack him?”

I swallowed and it was loud in my head.That makes much more sense.But I had to play like I didn’t believe him, or the guard would report my doubt. And until I could figure a way to get Jac out of this situation, I had to play along.

“Why should I believe any of that?” I asked him. “You tried to poison me.”

A pained look flashed through his eyes. “The vial…it’s not a poison, just a strong sedative. It would have knocked you out long enough for us to get Rex out of you by force. Omen found some way to do it—"

“Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place? Why do it behind my back?”

Anger and frustration distorted Jac’s normally handsome features. “I didn’t know if I could trust you to take the drug of your own volition, because that bastard has you so twisted up!”

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