Page 46 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

“The entrance is over here.” He pulls the Gorsca into the airlock and parks it. I would have thought the time it took to get over here would have calmed me down. But it hasn’t. My throat is swelling shut, and I’ve got acid swimming in my stomach. If he has Belle, I will tear down all of Zaffiro. I will be the name the city remembers for an eternity. But if he has Belle, he’s also keeping her safe. Safe from whoever attacked us.

I take long steps into their lobby. I’ve been here, but it’s been a long time. So long I barely even remember it. The walls are the same weird green-blue color; the floor twinkles with sapphires. Lucky us, their main source of income is the production of gems. That and modified dumbed-down computer chips they sell to the humans. Castor smiles at a mermaid and her mother, and the young female turns pink.

I shoot him a look, one he doesn’t respond to. He’s acting like nothing is wrong. While I can contain myself in battle, I can’t here. Belle has changed the wiring in my head. Thinking she could be in danger and not being able to do anything about it is making me crazy.

I turn left.

“It’s this way.” Castor points down a long hallway.

“No.” I keep going to the spot where M32 is hanging out.

“This way. Eros lives in the tower with his family.”

“I don’t care where he is right now. I care where the damn shark is. That’s where Belle will be.” I cross my arms. It’s a standoff.

“Fine, but I’ll have to pay a visit to his mother before we leave.” He follows me past an elevator and down a corridor. There are side corridors along the way, but I’m following the positioning on my block in front of me like a homing beacon. The corridor goes on for a long way.

When we get there, there’s no bell but rather a brass and sapphire knocker.

“That’s ugly.” But then Glyden always feels that way about brass objects.

I reach out and knock with my hand. There’s no answer and no denotation that this is actually Eros’s apartment.

“Are you sure?” Castor looks back at the corridor. This section was made quite a while ago. One of the reasons Glyden is always building is the ocean is hard on our domes. And this one, while not run down, is not pristine anymore.

I hold up the block and show him the circling shark.

“Put it away. We don’t want him to know.” Castor pulls a package out of his bag on his shoulder.

“And that is?”

“A gift. He gave her a book. I took one from my parents’ library and added something extra special into it just for him.” Castor eyes brighten with mischief.

We ran out of Ophelia’s apartment quickly after Nico’s incident. My block buzzes, and I ignore it. Castor’s right. Letting him know we’re watching the shark is the last thing he needs to know.

I bang on the door again.

22

EROS

The door vibrates with a knock. It’s Holter and Castor. Through one of the cameras I’ve hacked, I watched them leave Glyden, piloting away in Castor’s Gorsca. An alarm sends a message to my block every time it picks them up leaving Glyden. It works most of the time. The shiny goldensolois easy enough to spot. I don’t need to have a citywide tracer on it.

“Sunshine. I need you to go into the library. Please don’t come out, no matter what. We have to get things straightened out before we can get you back to your mates.”

Hands on her hips, she tilts her head at me. “Who’s at the door, Eros?” She doesn’t whisper. But then my uncle was a paranoid old fool, and the entire place is soundproof—except for, apparently, the windows when a great white shark decides to ram them.

I want to say it doesn’t matter, but she’s not going to agree to that. She’s not Marina; I can’t bend her to my will. “No one can know you’re here.”

“Exactly who is no one?” She points to the door, taking a step.

Fuck. I rush her and throw her over my shoulder. I can’t have her going back to Glyden now. Mating her was the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a lot of impulsive things. She’s kicking at my stomach, but I’ve got my arm clamped around her waist. The door to the library is open, and I drop her. Not carefully, either. She lands on her butt, and I have just enough time to slam the door to the library shut, locking it. I move the secret panel back into place.

I do a quick glance around the room, but there’s nothing of Annabelle’s because, as she reminded me before, she doesn’t have anything here. I hit the scent blaster next to the door. Another gadget my uncle added to keep the scents of any conquests or pods he had in his dome away from the other pods he was playing with. Damn, at one time I thought I wanted to be like him. But not anymore.

No. Now I need to deal with Sunshine’s admirer. Damn Castor and the damn fool who is keeping her at bay, when we all know he wants her.

I yank the door open. “If it isn’t the golden prince.”

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