Page 57 of Silence and Surrender

A sound ahead made us both freeze. Boots on concrete. Multiple sets, moving with cadence.

“Problem,” Colton said softly, pulling me back against him. “They’ve cut off the exit.”

I forced myself to focus past the lingering haze of pleasure, past the feeling of his body pressed against mine. “Options?”

“Three exits still viable.” His hand tightened on my waist. “But they’ll be watching all of them.”

The footsteps grew closer.

“We need to split up,” I said, already knowing his response and mentally preparing a counter argument.

“No.” Just one word, but filled with everything we couldn’t say. Everything that had changed in that heated moment against the wall.

“Colton—”

“I’m not leaving you.” His voice was hard now, all traces of recent passion replaced with resolve. “We do this together.”

The thumb drive felt heavy where I’d tucked it into my bodice. Heavy with horror and proof that could bring down an empire. Heavy with the weight of what they’d do to us if they caught us with it.

A door opened somewhere ahead. More footsteps. More shadows moving in the dark.

“Well,” Rodger’s voice drifted through the darkness. “This is disappointingly predictable.”

Colton pushed me behind him, but I could see figures moving in the shadows. Surrounding us. Boxing us in.

“The lawyer and the art expert,” Rodger continued, stepping into view. “Just like her father, always trying to play hero.”

My vision started to blur at the edges. The walls seemed to tilt slightly, and I realized with distant horror that they must have already exposed us to something. Some colorless gas in these old tunnels. Some tasteless compound in the air. It hit me, why they hadn’t come after us. Let us escape.

“You really should have learned from his example.” Rodger’s voice seemed to come from very far away. “And left Rotterdam alone.”

I tried to warn Colton, but my tongue felt heavy. Useless. Through darkening vision, I saw guards grab him from behind. Saw him fighting even as more converged. Saw blood bright against stone as someone struck him.

“Colton—” His name was barely a breath as my knees gave out.

The last thing I felt was Rodger catching me as I fell. The last thing I saw was Colton struggling to reach me, his suit stained with blood, his eyes wild with fury and fear. The same eyes that had looked at me with such unbridled lust moments before, now filled with helpless rage as they dragged him back.

Then darkness took me completely, and I surrendered to it. Let it swallow the lingering warmth between my thighs, the memory of Colton’s touch. The man who had finally let me in.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Colton

Blood dripped down from my nose into my mouth, tasting of copper and utter failure.

I staggered to my feet in the dim tunnel, the emergency lights casting everything in shades of scarlet and shadow.

Isabella was gone. Taken. The space where she’d been was now empty except for the lingering scent of her perfume mixed with the smell of my own blood. The image burned into my mind—her graceful body crumpling, eyes wide with betrayal as the drug took hold. The way she’d reached for me as darkness claimed her.

And I hadn’t reached her in time.

My body still hummed with the memory of her—how she’d felt wrapped around me, the sounds she’d made, the way she’d trusted me completely. Now the tunnel felt colder than the marble floors above, empty of everything except echoes and regret.

Stumbling forward, I touched the wall where we’d made love, where I’d lost myself in her so completely I’d forgone protection, forgotten about anything except the need to be as close to her as possible. The stone was still warm. Or maybe that was just my memory playing tricks, like the phantom feel of her dress against my fingertips.

They’d taken her and left me behind. Assumed that she was the greater threat to their operation, and that I was still the weakling and corporate watchdog I’d been before. I tried to make sense of Rodger’s intent, but the only thing I could think of was that not all the board must be in on his schemes. My disappearance would be looked into and perhaps traced back to him. He wouldn’t dispose of me until he absolutely had to.

Isabella, though…the board wouldn’t worry about her.

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