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“But until you do, I still have to account for the fact that you’re frightened, angry, and very likely to bolt the second you see a chance.”
“You make me sound like a dog.”
“A dog probably would’ve bitten me by now.”
“I tried…”
“That you did.” The corner of his mouth twitches. “If I unlock that cuff, open the door, and let you walk out of this house, you’re going to call the police. They’ll ask where you were, who took you, why you were taken, what happened to Wade, what you witnessed, and who you saw. The second those questions start getting asked in the wrong places, the people who believe this problem is already over learn that you’re still alive.”
“You told people I’m dead?”
He shrugs. “I told my boss the witness was taken care of and let him decide what that meant.”
“But… what if he finds out?”
Adrien doesn’t give me the reassuring lie I expect. “He’ll have questions.”
“That sounds bad,” I whisper, my voice thin.
“It could be.”
A tremor of fear snakes down my spine. “Would he kill me?”
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“If you’re under my protection, he won’t. And if he tries, I’ll take care of it. But that’s only if you’re with me, Kamden. Without me, you become nothing but an inconvenience.”
I digest that, sick with the knowledge that I really have no control here.
Adrien’s face changes then—not dramatically, but enough for me to glimpse the other version of him again. The one who held a drug to my face until I passed out.
“I can live with forcing you into safety,” he says, voice low and unflinching. His gaze locks onto mine. “I can’t live with you dead.”
He says things like that too easily.
Not sweetly enough to sound rehearsed, and not dramatically enough to dismiss as manipulation.
“So what happens now?” I ask nervously.
He tilts his head, eyes never leaving mine. “You stay here until I can make this situation safer.”
I lift my chin. “How long will that be?”
Adrien shrugs again, the motion stiff. “I don’t know.”
I shudder at the uncertainty. “A day? A week?”
“Longer than a day. Definitely a week, probably a few. I’m hoping not much longer than that in this house.”
I frown. “In this house?”
“The safe house is temporary.”
A new uneasiness moves through me. “Where am I supposed to go after?”
“With me.”
