Page 26 of Wicked and Bound

She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly.

Thank fuck she trusted him at least that much. “Tonight has been awful. I’m so fucking sorry. Are you all right?”

She thrashed against him as if fighting the battle he’d already won on stage. “I don’t know.”

But she didn’t sound unsure at all. She sounded devastated.

“Did anything…happen to you before I got here?” he breathed against her neck. “Has anyone hurt you?”

She shook her head as if trying to ward him off. “Threatened. Leered. Made lewd remarks, but no one touched me.”

Thank god. He’d done enough damage tonight. He was glad someone else hadn’t compounded it.

“I’m scared.” Her voice cracked.

It nearly killed him. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so fucking worried, baby. I almost died when I realized you’d been taken. I got here as soon as I could.” He caressed his way down her side and pulled her leg over his hip, gliding his fingers to her ass for the cameras.

She shivered. “Why come undercover as a buyer? Why not…burst in the front door and take people down?”

He hoped like hell that, after tonight, she wasn’t afraid of him. “Too risky. We’re outnumbered. This place is a fortress.We need backup or inside intel.” His lips found her ear. “Kane’s here. Ethan came, too, but he’s taking Kaylee Wright home later today.”

“Thank god. But Amy,” she whispered. “The girl who was in my cell… We have to help her, too.”

“The plan is to save as many as we can.” He pressed Haisley against the tile, his hands wandering down her body. “But we have to be smart. Careful.”

She nodded. “D-did they tell you… They won’t let me leave with you until I’m pregnant.”

“We’ll be gone long before then.”

“But if we’re not.” She bit her lip, looking rattled. “Would you… Would we have to…”

The question gutted Nash. She seemed so rattled by that possibility. Part of him wanted to ask if having his baby would be the worst thing in the world, but she’d been through too much tonight. Too much in the last week. She was understandably emotional. And of course she didn’t want to conceive a child in this hellhole of rape and trauma.

“I’ll do everything I can to ensure it won’t come to that,” he vowed.

Some of the tension left her body. “And Jasper? Why did you choose that name?”

Nash winced. He’d known she would get to this question, but he’d hoped to have more time to win back her trust before he had to undermine it again. “I thought that name might set you at ease if you already ‘knew’ me from Crime Solvers International.”

Hurt filled her eyes. “So…when I was talking to you, telling you my feelings and secrets…that was you? You catfished me and pretended to be a stranger? Youliedto me?”

“You wouldn’t talk to me. I wanted to know where your head was. If there was still hope. If you still cared.”

“Let me get this straight: you hoped to rekindle things between us by deceiving me?” She tried to push him away.

Nash wasn’t having it. He couldn’t with all the cameras.

He pressed her wrists against the shower tiles and plastered her body with his. “I’m sorry.”

When he lowered his mouth to hers, she turned her head. “Don’t.”

Why was everything with Haisley one step forward and two steps back?

Normally, he’d let her cool down, but with cameras all over the place, he didn’t have that luxury. “We need to table this discussion until we’re safe. Or did you forget where we are?”

“Of course not,” she hissed. “But?—”

“Your ‘owner’ would never allow such defiance,” he reminded her sharply, swiping his tongue up her neck.

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