Page 28 of Escaping the King
I couldn't let anything happen to me.I needed to stay calm, for Dani's sake.
She needed me to stick around and protect her.I was the only one who knew the dangers that lurked around us.
I was the only one who knew who and what were after us.
Only me.
I felt tears sting at the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them win.
Not yet.
Not until after we were safe.
I took a few deep breaths and concentrated on the task at hand.
Hand.
My eyes looked down at the shiny, gorgeous rings on my finger.
“Oh, crap,” I muttered to myself—hopefully low enough so that Dani wouldn't hear.I'd meant to remove my rings and leave them in a drawer for Carlo.Or in his luggage.
Somewhere he'd find them.But not right away.
I didn't want to leave it on my bedside table, or he'd know immediately that something was up.
And I didn't want him to know a thing until he absolutely had to.
But I loved these rings.
Loved them.
So much.
I'd never been given anything this nice in my life.But even more than the sheer extravagance of the rings—was the personal message behind it.
Carlo had wanted me to be his wife.
Me.
Out of all the women he'd been with in the past.And all the other possibilities in the future.
He'd stopped and decided I was the one.
Giving up these rings was going to suck.
Maybe that was why I neglected to take them off.Something greedy inside of me wanted to keep them.
I sighed.
It was too late now.
I couldn't even mail them back without giving away my location.
No, I'd have to keep them.And then eventually pawn them off for pennies on the dollar.
Yeah, that was going to suck a whole lot.
Up ahead, I spotted what just might be a truck stop.We were nearly in Iowa City.
