Page 4 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

“That church up ahead.” He raises his chin to a building maybe half a mile away. I’m finally admitting my internal compass is broken. “There’s a path behind it down to the sea and an empty crypt my family has been using for generations to store things. A bit more back to basics compared to the Drakoses’ luxury penthouse, but it works.”

“How quaint.” It sounds horrible, like I’m one of the posh girls who used to drive me nuts as an undergrad.

Eros stops. His jokester persona drops, and his face stills from his ever-present smile. “Hey? I get it. I’m just another asshole tricking you into something. So you know what? Forget it. You don’t want me in your pod. It’s fine. I’m not the kind of male that wants to be somewhere he’s not wanted. But you should know this about me, Sunshine: I don’t hide what I want. You will always know where I stand. And that would be with you.” His smile returns. “I also don’t force females to do things they don’t know the consequences for. And I’m not afraid to admit what I want. I want you, Sunshine. I will tell you that over and over until you believe me. Okay?”

“Okay.” It’s hard to swallow, but I can’t blame it on the dust—we’re on a paved road. There’s just something irresistible about Eros.

He grabs my hand again, and we take a cow path across the scraggly church lawn to the back of the building. There, a path switchbacks to the sea.

He stops at an old crypt and waves his ring over the edge of it, and a force-field shield vanishes. “Come in. It’s quaint.”

I hate how it sounds on his lips. When I step inside, the field shuts behind me. The rectangular room is clean. It has a small bed on one side. A little area on the edge of the wall is set up with dry goods, and by the door is a motorcycle.

“You come here often?”

“Often enough.” He moves around the room with efficiency, opening little drawers and typing on a tablet. “Do you need anything to eat? It will be a few hours before we get back to my place.”

“Your apartment?”

“It’s a mini dome, but yes, my apartment. For now, you’ll need to stay with me.” Eros doesn’t stop moving. He’s gathering things from a chest of drawers, like those in my dad’s workshop. He turns and kneels by the diver propulsion unit. It’s bright yellow, and on the side of it I recognize some words in Dorian—caution, hot—but nothing else.

“But I have an apartment in the Glyden dome.” My stomach sinks, and I think of my sharks and my guys waiting for me at home in Glyden.

“Yes. But your mate isn’t there right now. And I’m not going to just drop you off at the front door like I’m delivering a pizza. I know it feels like the Veiled City is a safe place, Sunshine.” He stands and comes over to me, brushing a lock of my hair away from my face and tucking it behind my ear. A shiver rakes over me; it steals my breath away. I’ve never been an overly superstitious person, but it feels like when Nico and Holter touch me. The same sense of belonging.

We stay that way for a moment, and when my senses come back, I open my mouth. “But...” Two things cross my mind at the same time. The first is that the Veiled City has pizza delivery, and the second is that this feels a lot like being kidnapped again. Yes, Eros has expressed his intentions. Yes, I’m attracted to him. But rocks fill my stomach. He’s taking me to his dome and not letting me go anywhere else. I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of kidnapping.

“But?” He drops his bag on a bench behind him and comes behind me. “Do you want me to braid your hair?”

I shake my head. “It’s fine. I’ll do it when we get back there.” I yank my hair around and wind it into a bun, using the hair elastic I found at Castor’s apartment. A hair elastic. I’m trying not to think about where it came from, who left it at Castor’s place.

“You’re sure that’s how you want to wear your hair when you get in thesolo?” Eros raises his eyebrows at me. A set of quizzical creases in his forehead appear.

“Yeah, it will be fine.” So odd. Why would it matter how I wear my hair in thesolo?

He purses his lips. “Ready to go, then?”

“Yes, the sooner we go, the sooner you can help Nico.” Anxiety pulses in my knuckles. I want to get moving.

“I’m telling you we have at least a day, if not more.” His charming smirk is gone with a firm nod.

“How do you know?” I wring my hands together.

He rubs his hand along his chin. “Because I do. Now, let’s move. This stretch of beach is empty this time of day, but it gets crowded at night with people walking their animals.”

“Their dogs?”

“Yes, whatever they’re keeping.” He takes a step toward me, and his height hits me again. He tucks a piece of my hair back and holds out his hand. “You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t you want a suit?” He pulls one from the top of his bag. It’s a full-coverage black suit with a flouncy little skirt, just the opposite sort of thing I would have imagined Eros picking out.

I laugh. “The propulsion unit, a swimsuit. You came prepared. What were you going to do if you couldn’t find me at the airport?”

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