AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m fine. Just a few scratches. But you need to answer me, baby. Are you hurt? Did anyone of them touch y?—”
I shake my head frantically and writhe against him, desperate to hold him even tighter, to absorb him into my very being. “I’m fine. Nothing happened to me but I…I was so scared. For you. I thought…I thought…”
“Shh, I’m fine, sweetheart. Nothing a few days won’t heal. And I promised nothing would happen to you, kitten. You’re fucking mine,” he growls into my ear. “I’ll kill anyone that lays a hand on you.”
A lump climbs into my throat. “Monroe?—”
“Minute’s up,” interrupts a clipped voice.
My head snaps up from the safety of Monroe’s neck.
The commander is standing a couple of feet away, cold disapproval stamped all over him.
I want to tell him to piss off. Take his men and leave us the hell alone. But whoever these guys were, they’re in charge in my father’s absence. And they saved us. For that alone, I keep my mouth shut.
Besides, there’s very little I can do to stop them from separating us, and that powerlessness makes me cling tighter. “No. I need?—”
“Look at me, Kitty,” Monroe orders me.
Stifling another spike of pain, I peer up at him.
Regret, fury and a hint of the same helplessness I feel swim in his eyes.
“Remember everything I told you?” he murmurs, his voice gruff as his gaze blazes into mine.
I nod. Our every moment is emblazoned in my heart. I sense I’ll need the tender ones in the days, weeks and months to come.
He presses his forehead against mine, his breath emerging in pants. “Good girl. No matter what, I’m coming back for you. You hear me?” he declares fiercely. “I’m?—”
“That’s enough. We’re leaving. Now,” the commander barks then snaps his fingers.
Around me, his men snap to attention.
Another brave soldier steps close, warily eyeing Monroe. “It’s time to go, miss.”
That earns him a deadly look that makes him shrivel as my fingers dig into Monroe’s shoulders.
But Monroe is slowly lowering his arms, deep regret and breath-snatching torture etched into his face as he takes a step back.
This time no one grabs me, but the minders take hold of him once more, pushing him out into the outer room and the corridor leading back to the prison.
Pain sears my chest, robbing me of breath. I’m not ready to let him go. I never will be. “No! Not yet. Wait!”
“We need to get you to safety, miss,” the soldier insists.
I shake my head. “Stop! You don’t understand.” But how can I explain that the only safe place for me is in the arms of a convicted criminal? “Please,” I cry, trying to stop the inevitable.
But I know my words are falling on deaf ears when hands lift me and carry me out of the jagged hole in the wall they’d evidently blasted through to get to me.
The last I see of Monroe is when I look over my shoulder and catch his rabid eyes fixed on me, deadly promise blazing in the hazel depths.
He unleashes an unhinged roar of pain and madness the moment I step out of sight.
9
Kitty
Three months later
