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About two weeks ago, I’d stopped questioning everyone’s motives and just accepted the women’s quirky personalities and how they were vested in me.
On the flip side, they’d stopped trying to convince me that I’d change my mind about escaping. Instead, the more they got to know me, the more they understood my demons and why I had to take my family and disappear.
Unless a miracle happened, I’d use the escape plan I’d coordinated with my hacker mentor, who turned out to be Lilly.
What happened after I left? Who knew? It couldn’t be worse than all I’d endured in the last near five years.
I stepped into the pitch-black tunnel, closed the wall behind me, and let my years of navigating the paths direct me to my destination.
Once there, I felt for the latch that unlocked the opening into the library. From an early age, Papa taught us girls to keep all the pathways that gave access to our rooms locked from the inside of our bedrooms with a special key. This way, only we could get in and out.
Thank God, Andraius knew nothing about any of the passageways. Otherwise, he’d have kept me even more trapped than I’d already been. Plus, I’d drilled it into my sisters’ heads never use the hallways if anyone was around, so there wasn’t any risk of mistakes. If one of us forgot to close one panel tight, then everyone would learn our secrets.
The moment I pushed the deadbolt to the side, a whoosh of warm air surged into the passageway, and I tugged the wall on its hinge back only enough to fit my body.
The second I stepped through, a hand grabbed my arm, turned me, and pinned me to a bookcase.
“I knew it. You’re using the secret passageways to get through this house. That’s how you keep sneaking past the team and me.” Xander glowered at me, and then his gaze went to my neck, turning his features into a mask of rage. “What the fuck happened to your neck?”
Ten
Xander
I stared at Nerine’s neck, seeing the distinctive marks of what only came from fingers wrapped around a throat. And from the looks of it, someone had dug their nails so deep that she’d nearly lost consciousness.
No. Not someone. Andraius.
“I’m going to kill that bastard. What the hell was he thinking?”
I stepped back as a throbbing ignited in my temple. I had to pull back the temptation to call in a favor to put a hit on the fucker tonight as Andraius paraded around town with his entourage.
Her gaze held mine as she traced the skin down her throat. “Tell me again that you were keeping me safe.”
If she wanted to stab me right now, I’d lower myself to my knees and let her do it.
Would I always be too fucking late to protect her?
“Ang—”
“I told you never to call me that.” She dropped her hand and lifted her chin. “I don’t need your safe. I’m finding a way without the two of you.”
“We have a plan. We’re trying.”
“It’s not mine.”
“So that is it? Nothing we said to you matters? What about the fact that we love you?”
Our interactions over the last few weeks had been civil and almost pleasant—no more animosity or arguments. We continued giving each other space and rarely were alone with Nerine. The pressure of it pushed against all the emotions we’d kept at bay.
This whole time I believed she understood, even if she hadn’t forgiven us, that we’d left for a reason, that it was either she lived or died. We never stopped loving her and would wait for her in the end.
But now, I wasn’t sure.
She cocked her head to the side. “You want me, knowing another man is fucking me? That he is actively trying to get me pregnant?”
I hated the thought of that piece of shit touching her, doing anything with her.
“Why don’t you tell me if it is something you want? Is it something you choose? Is it something you desire and enjoy?”
