Page 50 of The Forbidden Secret

He stopped immediately. “Why the fuck didn’t you say anything?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Probably because we’re running for ourlivesdown here. Lay off.”

His brows rose up his forehead as he whistled. “Temperamental, little Princess.”

If he called me a princess one more time…

“Let’s just staunch the bleeding and keep going a little bit longer. I want to get as far away from this situation as possible.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but he seemed to consider the merits of stopping here, too. It was a risk. One that we couldn’t take when I was weak and he was out of bullets.

He took off his shirt before a loud rip filled the space. He tore the entire sleeve from it before grabbing my arm and tying it tightly around the wound. “I will find a way out of here. If you need to wait here while I keep looking—”

“It’s too dangerous. I’ll let you know if I need to stop.”

I could push through this, at least for another few minutes. I didn’t feel on the verge of passing out, and if it got to that point… Well, I really hoped it didn’t.

The further we went, the more helpless it felt. Until a loud, almost unbearable screech filled the tunnels, and Zeke pulled us to a stop. The groaning of what sounded like breaks and then a loud mechanical grinding came from the distance.

“Of course,” Zeke scoffed. “There would be underground access points to the subway station.”

If I weren’t growing more lightheaded by the moment, I may have considered that.

We walked a little further before finding a door with broken locks, stating: “Employees Only.” Hope budded to life in my chest, and as we pushed through the door and found functioning emergency lights and a room full of thick wires, I exhaled a loud sigh of relief.

Zeke closed the door behind us, and I immediately dropped and lay on the floor. I didn’t care about the dirt and grime as my heart finally began stabilizing. The clouds in my vision vanished, and I felt clearer than I had in the past few hours.

I felt Zeke standing over me, and when I opened my eyes, I saw him smirking.

“I don’t know what’s funny about this situation. We’re being chased through underground tunnels by madmen who are likely to kill you, and I’m bleeding to death. Oh, and no matter where we go, we’re not going to be safe. So, we have that going for us.”

His smirk vanished as he squatted beside me. “Can I see your arm?”

I lifted it from the floor dramatically, and he snorted as he looked over the wound. “It looks like staunching the bleeding helped it clot. It’s going to be fine as long as we get some antibiotic ointment on it.”

His fingers remained on my arm, though. He tickled them gently enough to send goosebumps down my spine, andimmediatelymy body reacted. I felt hopeless and sad and a little bit frustrated that we were being forced into this situation together. I wouldn’t have wished it on my worst enemy.

“Have you really just sat and considered how messed up this whole thing is?” I asked, shaking my head and looking at one of the blinking security lights. “How could a man expend this many resources into buying ahuman?We’re not in the nineteenth century anymore. It’s not legal. It’s not common practice. It’s so messed up. But to go to these lengths… he has to want the leverage over my father. It’s the only reason he would do this. I don’t think he realizes that thereisno leverage. Hell, Dad was happy to sell me into slavery.”

“Fuck Alonzo. He’s next on my list.”

“If we get out of this,” I reminded him.

He reached down and wrapped an arm around the small of my back, pulling me up into a sitting position. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel any of the lightheadedness that had previously consumed me. “Can you not talk about that?”

“I think I need a distraction,” I admitted.

All of this was too much to think about, especially without a foreseeable way out of it.

“Just a distraction?” he asked.

I pursed my lips as he pulled my face a little closer. The smell of him filled my nostrils, and the sweat and metal mixed and made him appear even sexier than I could put into words. The way his arms pulled me upright just enough to show his power over me. The strength that had kept me safe time and time again.

“With you, it’s neverjusta distraction.”

I loved the way the corners of his mouth pulled up at the ends, offering a genuine smile. I had only ever seen that smile directed at me, and something about that realization melted me.

I arched into him and wrapped an arm around the back of his neck. “I don’t think this is the most sanitary place,” I teased.

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