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“With the crown on your head and me under your heel?” I retorted.
“I’m not your father. You won’t be a commodity; you’ll rule beside me. My queen and my equal.”
Sudden tears pricked at the back of my eyes. Why did he have to say thisnowafter he’d screwed me over in so many ways? It was even better than I’d dared to hope for with him—but I could never trust the man in front of me again. The thought of standing beside him, of letting him lay his hands on me, made me want to vomit.
If I ever touched him again, it’d only be to ram a knife right into his heart.
But as soon as he realized I wasn’t going along with his crazy plan, he’d need me out of the picture. My heart thudding, I took one final step and rested my hand on the bare window ledge.
“No thanks. Not if you were the last man on earth. Fuck you.”
His face hardened. He started toward me, his hand shooting out to snatch at my arm, but I was already launching myself out into the open air.
For a few tenths of a second, everything slowed down in the whoosh of air and adrenaline. My hands and toes planted against the concrete wall of the neighboring building just as they had so many times in so many less precarious situations.
My muscles responded on what was instinct after years of practice, shoving and spinning me at the same moment. I rebounded off the wall back toward Colt’s building, dropping a few feet at the same time. No looking down. Just bouncing back and forth like a rubber ball slowly ricocheting to the ground. I’d scaled three floors going up this way before. I’d just never done it letting my momentum carry me down toward the potentially deadly surface below.
Shouts echoed through the windows above. I ignored them, concentrating on the thrust of my limbs and the rhythm of my breath. Back and forth and back and—
The rough brick scraped the heel of my hand hard enough to draw blood. I sucked in a breath at the sting, my concentration wavering just for a second. But then my feet hit the asphalt of the alley.
I’d made it all the way down. I was free, completely through my own power.
Footsteps were pounding down the staircase inside so loud I could hear them through the wall next to me. Riding the rush of my success, I sprinted out of that alley and into another across the street. Turning here, swerving there, I wove through the streets toward the spot where I’d left Kaige’s car, until both my lungs and my calves were burning and I was sure Colt’s men hadn’t tracked me.
Even if they were still on my trail, I’d be long gone by the time they got here. I leapt into the Audi and tore onto the road heading into Paradise City, clenching the steering wheel tightly to stop my hands from shaking. The one I’d scraped was bleeding a little, dappling the surface of the wheel, but all things considered, I figured Kaige would forgive me.
By the time the bright lights on the hill came into view, dusk had settled over the county. I raced up the slope and sped into the driveway, parking outside the garage since I didn’t have the code to open it.
My pulse was still pounding double-time. I threw open the door, peeling off my sweaty hoodie as I went, and rushed toward the house.
Before I’d made it even halfway to the front door, five figures burst out.
“Mercy,” Rowan said, oddly short for breath. “Did you go back to the Bend?”
My hackles came up automatically. “What’s it to you? You’re not my keeper.”
Wylder pushed in front of him, Gideon, Kaige, and Anthea right behind him. One look at the fury etched on the Noble heir’s face stopped me in my tracks.
“No, but at the moment,Iam,” he said. “And from what I hear, you not just went scampering home, you’ve been cozying up to Colt Bryant behind our backs.”
