Page 57 of Shai

The line went dead. I stared at the phone for a few seconds before pocketing it, my feet carrying me along the corridor to Elijah’s room. He didn’t look to have moved since I’d left the bed. He was still sprawled face down, his ass tipped up in a way that made me want to fuck him again. It amazed me that I hadn’t grown bored with him yet.

The phone rang on the stroke of five minutes having passed. I answered it before the first ring had even finished, McIntyre responding to my silence with one word. “Well?”

“You’ve got a deal.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” I could hear the smile in his voice, my muscles going rigid in response. “Tomorrow, midday, on the bridge. You bring Elijah. I’ll bring Taylor. Tell Elijah that I’ve missed him and I can’t wait to see him again, that we can pick up where we left off.”

I hung up. There was nothing else to say. Meanwhile, Elijah slept on. I studied him for a moment before turning away.

Elijah

SHAI’S LIPS WERE MOVING, but I was having a hard time understanding the words coming out of them, and for once it had absolutely nothing to do with Void. “Say that again, would you?”

He let out a weary sigh. “McIntyre has Taylor. He’s willing to return

him in exchange for you.”

A strange numbness enveloped my body. “How does he know I’m

alive?” I answered my own question before Shai could. “It was when you took me out to dinner, right? I told you we needed to be careful. He has spies everywhere.”

Shai acknowledged the point with a slight inclination of his head, but

didn’t say anything.

“And I assume you told him what he could do with the idea?” Shai’s gaze fastened on mine, the look in his eyes all the answer I

needed. “Taylor has been with me a long time. He’s very useful to the smooth running of my organization.”

The ice encasing my chest gripped hold of my heart and squeezed it

tightly. This couldn’t be fucking happening. “You can’t give me back to McIntyre. If you do, I’m a dead man. You know that.”

Shai got to his feet, his body language oozing impatience. “There is no

other option, not that ensures Taylor’s safe return.”

“Then let him rot. How the fuck did he manage to get himself captured

by McIntyre anyway?” I knew my words were a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I could hardly put myself on a pedestal when the exact same thing had happened to me. Twice, if you counted Shai as well. But then, I was nothing but a petty crook. Taylor was meant to have a lot more fucking sense than I did, given his position in Shai’s operation.

“I’ll be having words with him to that effect once I get him back.”

“Once you get him back.” My echo of Shai’s words was tinged with hysteria. “And what about me? I thought…” that you cared, that I was something more than a commodity to you. I couldn’t say it aloud. I couldn’t bear to see the amusement on Shai’s face, for him to laugh at my delusions of grandeur.

“You thought what?”

I stared at him for a moment, searching for some sort of emotion on his face besides boredom or amusement. As usual, there was none. “Never mind.” I picked at the edges of the bandage on my arm, the fibers starting to fray. “When?” The word came out sounding dull and flat, a startling contrast to the rapid pounding of my heart.

Shai tilted his wrist so that he could see the expensive watch he always wore. “Midday. In four hours.”

“Four hours!” How many hours would I live after that? Knowing McIntyre, he’d want to torment me first, want to extract his pound of flesh for yet again failing to do as I was told and die at the bottom of the river. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. That was for sure. I expected he’d handle my murder personally this time.

Shai came to stand in front of me, forcing me to look up at him. “You’re a survivor, Elijah. You’ve proved that more than once.”

If they were meant to be words of comfort, they missed their mark. “Once I’m dead, you probably won’t even give me a passing thought, will you?”

He dropped to his haunches, bringing his face on a level with mine, his gaze intense. “You’ve been very special to me in the time that we’ve spent together.”