Page 38 of Who's Saving You
The silence between us stretches, and my heart is hammering, not just from fear, but from the way he looks at me, like this is something he won’t bend on.
I don’t say a word.
And neither does he.
Because we both know the moment we leave this place, nothing will ever be the same again.
15
Nik
We step out of the elevator and into the hallway. I’m in the penthouse on this floor, which means no one is getting to the top without permission. We cross the hall and stop at the door, entering the code before walking inside. She hesitates on the threshold and doesn’t say anything, but then enters like she owns the place.
The balls on this chick.I close the door behind us and lock it. That softclickechoes louder than it should.
She looks around like she’s seeing me for the first time. “Expensive place for a rookie,” she mutters. “Come with secrets or do you provide your own?”
I don’t bite. I don’t have the energy to. I walk past her, toss my keys on the island, and pull off my hoodie, shrugging off the weight of the last hour. I loosen my collar and watch her pace toward the floor-to-ceiling windows likeshe’s trying to put as much distance between us as the room will allow.
“What now?” she says, turning. “I’m just supposed to crash here like this is some kind of field trip into your double life?”
“It’s not a frat house to crash at. For tonight, it’s the only safe place for you.” I look her in the eyes, and she flinches like I slapped her. Good. She needs to take this seriously.
“Real comforting,” she spits.
I step forward a little. Not enough to crowd her, but enough to make sure she hears every word. “This is the safest place I can offer you. No one gets in unless I let them. No back doors and no weak points,” I breathe. “I've had to take my own measures of safety, so I can assure you, it’s fine here. Your place? Not so safe. So let Dante's guy check on it, and since you think you're such a big girl, you can go home tomorrow.”
“Great, the hunter is now the hunted.” She studies me before turning back to the window, the city lights twinkling in the distance. “It’s hard to wrap my head around,” she says quietly. “I’ve no idea how I ended up in your world.”
“I didn’t want you in it.”
She spins to face me. “Well, you failed.”
“I was going to do the article, give you the basics. You went digging. You wanted to make an example of me.” I narrow my eyes.
She lets out a sharp, bitter laugh and turns away again. That sound slices through something in me. “So it’s my fault now? My fault Rhett turned up. My fault you did some shady shit, and it’s about to hit the fan?”
“It wasn’t supposed to ever come up again! You started that!”
The silence that follows is heavy. “I shouldn’t be here,” she says, softer this time, almost like she means it.
“But you are,” I say. “And I need you to listen to me.”
“No.” She rounds on me again. “You don’t get to decide what I need.”
“I’m not trying to control you. I’m trying to keep you breathing.”
“Why?” Her eyes lock on mine. “Why do you even care?”
And there it is. The question I’ve been tryingnotto answer since the day we met.
Because I like your fire. Because the second I realized you were in this, I knew I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you.
“Because saving people is a specialty of mine.”
“Yeah? And who’s saving you?”
I stare at her.
