Page 55 of The Tower

His phone vibrated in his back pocket, and he pulled it free to read the message: Got eyes on her.

Relief poured through him like fine whiskey, but he couldn’t savor it. A visual was good news, but he wouldn’t relax until he’d gotten her safely back to the hotel without anyone tailing them.

In less than a heartbeat, he’d mapped Leo’s location and was sprinting in that direction. Just three blocks away but getting closer to a residential area. And she had no idea how much danger she was heading for.

Once he had eyes on her, too, he followed her for a block, with Leo repositioning himself ahead of her, just in case she decided to run.

When she reached an intersection and stopped to wait for the signal, he zipped up beside her and took her arm.

The moment he felt her skin beneath his fingers, relief crashed over him with such force he almost stumbled off the sidewalk. He told himself the relief flowed from the certainty that losing her would mean losing his power over Victor Reed.

But that was a goddamn lie.

“Do you honestly think I want you dead, you damn little fool?”

Her eyes went wide, and her lips parted, but she only shook her head. Not in negation, but in confusion. “I don’t—I don’t know.”

Tears clung to her lower lashes, and he wanted to kick his own ass. “Dammit,” he snapped, hating that she had it so wrong. “That would make me like your father. And other than my own, there is no one I less want to emulate. Do you believe me?”

She nodded.

“Then let’s move, because he’s close.”

“What?” She winced as she hurried to keep up with him in her bare feet. He scooped her up, ordering her to put her arms and legs around him so they were chest to chest, and he was carrying her like a curvaceous monkey.

“I don’t understand,” she said as he signaled to Leo to keep watch as they moved back toward the Renfort. “My father? How did he find me?”

“You left the damn room, Princess. I told you not to. The second you burst into the stairwell, you pinged for him.”

“Pinged,” she repeated, and he could practically hear the wheels churning in her head. “He’s tracking me?”

He saw the horror spread over her face, and his heart twisted. This woman deserved one hell of a lot better than Victor Reed.

When she looked up at him, her eyes were pleading. “Please tell me you’re lying. Making up stories so that I’ll hate my father even more.”

“I’m sorry, Sasha.”

She blinked, settling a bit in his arms as if the use of her real name was all the evidence she needed.

“Tell me how.”

“There’s a device embedded in your left shoulder. It emits a signal. He was locked on.”

“Was?”

He almost smiled. Even terrified, the woman was bright.

“The signal’s toast at the moment.”

Her brows drew together, creating an adorable crease above her nose. “Why’s it toast? That seems pretty convenient.”

“Not convenience or coincidence. Planning.”

He turned the corner onto the hotel’s street.

“I can walk. It’s just a few blocks.”

“Your feet have been through hell,” he said. “I should carry you the rest of the way.”