Page 13 of Innocent Intentions

A few beats of silence pass before she mutters through gritted teeth, “Fine. Can I at least walk? This is uncomfortable.”

Her voice strains. My shoulder digging into her stomach must be making it hard to breathe.

Letting her walk makes this a whole lot easier for me. Dragging a screaming, flailing woman to my car would have been a pain in the ass. But I’m not going to let her know that.

“Yes, but only if you promise to behave.” My sharp tone makes it sound like a concession, not a favor. “If you try to run, I will shoot you. If you so much as cause one person to look our way, I will shoot them. It’s their life in your hands. Do you understand me?”

She nods stiffly.

I nudge her and she takes the cue to start walking.

She behaves the few blocks to my car. Besides the tear stains down her cheeks, she looks normal enough. To anyone watching, we just look like a couple having a fight.

I like the sound of that.

Us, acouple.

Her, asmine.

Just the thought of having a claim to this spitfire makes me hard. The thought of her as mine makes something dark and possessive curl in my chest.

What the hell am I thinking?

This isnota date.

We arenota couple.

She is awitness. Ihaveto take her.

But a small part of me is excited to have her.

Chapter 6

Margot

We sit in silence as he navigates traffic.

I’m too busy trying to figure out how to escape to care about where we’re going. Jumping out of a moving car is out of the question. I’m far too clumsy to come through unscathed. I know they say your survival rate drastically drops once you get to a secondary location, but there’s just no way in hell I’m jumping.

If I can figure out where we’re going, then I can make a plan.

Think, Margot.

I still have my phone. He never took it. Rookie mistake. Very inept of him as a kidnapper.

Oh. Maybe he is a rookie. Maybe this is his first kidnapping.

Am I his first victim? How special. Honestly, it’s an honor to be chosen. My first time as a captive. His first time as a captor.

Aw. How romantic.

Wait. If he’s new at this, that means he’ll mess up again. He already messed up by leaving me with my phone. I just need to know where we’re going.

“Where are we going?” The question pops out before I can stop it.

Not very sleuth of me.Damn it.

It takes him a moment to answer, like he doesn’t know.

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