Page 93 of Hot for Hostage

“Are you okay? Any injuries?”

“No, I’m fine.” I absently rubbed my bruised elbow. They didn’t need to know about the minor incident with the patio chair. Or the shed’s lock earlier. Or that my butt had broken my falls twice now. “Where did you get those fireworks from?”

“Leftovers from Happy Tails’ Fourth of July party. Pretty explosive, right?”

Explosive, indeed.

“Did any of them see you?” Ryan asked as Gladys’s sharp turn lifted two of the van’s wheels off the road for a heart-stopping second. Bear leaned into me, and I rubbed his neck.

“Not a chance. I hid in the trees. The igniter had a nice range, and those men didn’t know what hit ’em,” Gladys said, bursting with pride. “See any tails?”

I looked over my shoulder, but I was no help without windows back here.

“No one behind us,” Ryan reported. “What’s the plan? We should probably regroup and switch cars when we get to the shelter.”

The shelter.

Uh-oh.

I cleared my throat, keeping ahold of Bear’s collar as we zoomed down the dirt road. “About that. There’s something I maybe should’ve mentioned before we did this. It might change our destination.”

“Spit it out, Sadie,” Gladys ordered.

I hunched my shoulders, bracing myself. “It’s just… I don’t think Davian will react very well to me escaping again.”

“Again?” she squawked, loud enough to make me wince. The van lurched forward with renewed gusto, and Ryan fumbled with his seat belt. “What do you mean ‘again’?”

A nervous laugh bubbled up. “Well, you see, I might’ve snuck out yesterday, too.”

Gladys rattled off an impressive string of curses that made me blush, and I covered Bear’s ears until she pulled herself together.

“Say no more, child,” she said through clenched teeth as her hands tightened on the wheel. “We’ll make sure that scoundrel doesn’t find you.”

Ryan finally got his seat belt to buckle. “Does that mean we can’t go back to the shelter?”

I chewed on my lip and glanced anxiously at the rear doors. “Probably not. I have a feeling Dav’s men will just take me back to his place if we show up there.”

Gladys muttered a prayer under her breath, and the van sped up even more.

I clung to Bear to keep us both steady on the bumpy ride, putting him close enough to sniff out the icing still caked to my cheek. His tongue gave it a big lick.

“Bear!” I laughed as another lick quickly followed, but his determination to clean every last trace of icing off my cheek was a comfort I really needed right now. Another laugh broke free as he knocked me over in his enthusiasm. “You’re such a goofball.”

I rubbed his neck and embraced his affection, because it turned out escaping Davian’s compound didn’t feel quite as freeing as I’d thought it would.

Instead, a hole formed in my chest and stretched wider with each mile we drove away.

again?

. . .

Davian

Earlier…

Today would go down in history as the day Davian Reed—infamous heir to Westport’s underground—died of blue balls. What a way to go. I could already hear my father making fun of me for it during my eulogy.

If I didn’t strangle him first for interrupting my time with Sadie in the kitchen.

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