Page 77 of Hidden Raphael
"Oh, good. We'll finally match." She swallowed. A jolt rushed through her body. With luck, the coast guard would arrive in a few hours, and his sister would get her medicine. The bad guys would be arrested, if they weren’t dead already, and no one would ever seek to kill her again. Her lips parted as they walked down a dark hall as this thought held her together. "Where are we going?"
"There is a secret passage." He took her hand in hers, and she had a sense of floating beside him. "Your shining face will be a beacon to Roger and Harry Hellsworth. School your expressions, Kimberly."
She covered her face with her hands and stopped. Michaela’s life was on the line.
He stopped at a door and opened it.
She stepped back. "Is this the way out?"
"No, it's a closet." He stepped aside and let her see. "Take a jacket."
She stepped into his massive frame and inhaled the salty pine essence that made up Raphael. It was better than the moldy, wet stones of the castle passageway. She sighed and chose a coat, slipping it on with a shrug.
He reached down and zipped her up. His hands on her waist made her recall how she had loved his hands on her naked body. She shifted on her feet. "Raphael, we'll get her medicine without a confrontation. Have faith."
"Faith is for people like you, Kimberly. I haven’t spent my life on a beach taking classes." He pressed his lips together. "We're not alike."
"No, we're not." She smoothed back the jacket on her body to appear neat. Then she tried to keep her face blank. "You take life too seriously, and internalize. Face it."
His eyebrows shot up. "Face what?"
Kimberly pressed her palms down at her sides. She didn’t want to scare him too much, but she told him the truth. "You need me."
She backed out of the closet then held out her hand for him. He didn't stir. She sighed. "Let's go."
"Stay at my side and do everything I say."
She swallowed.
He took out a key from his pocket and unlocked a lever she hadn't noticed. She rubbed her arms together. He then pocketed his key and turned down the lever.
Metal gears ground together. She turned around and saw a barbed-wire fence in front of the door lift into the air, straight. This must be the start of his secret passage.
If everything played out right, maybe she and Raphael could patch together some sort of relationship. He needed to want her in his life.
At the last second, she hung the medallion around her neck instead of keeping it in her pocket, where she might lose it. Under her clothes and jacket, no one would see the precious family heirloom. He'd given away this heirloom far easier than his heart.
