Chapter Thirteen

Safiya

W ith crushing dread pushing down on my body like the weight of a thousand hardened lifetimes, I managed to enter my code into the blinking panel by the front door before any alarms sounded. Flipping a wall switch near the panel, I stupidly fought more tears as an overhead light came on. Then I dropped a bag with contents I no longer wanted to care about and tried to mentally brace myself to look around and take in my new surroundings.

Inhaling, I started to turn.

The lights went off, a hand clamped over my mouth, I was yanked back into a wall of hardness, and cold steel pressed to my throat as an arm locked around my torso.

"What's his pattern?" a dark male voice demanded. "Is he coming back in? Nod once for yes, twice for no."

Sheer panic stealing my breath more than his crushing hand, the knife digging into my flesh, I did not even think of my own life.

I shook my head twice.

His arm locked me in tighter, and the blade pressed harder. "I don't fucking believe you." We whipped around so I could see a sliver of the driveway through the front plantation shutters. "He's still there."

Drive , I silently chanted, tears now falling. Drive away .

The SUV idle, the figure in the front seat motionless, I uselessly held my breath.

"You've got two fucking seconds for him to make the right call," the sinister voice rasped as movement to my left filled the shadows of the darkened, unfamiliar house. "Otherwise, I move to plan B, and trust me, bitch, he's already in my sniper's sights."

His hand pressing over my mouth, unable to reply even if I had wanted to, I knew it did not matter, because my mind, my body, my soul, they had already heard his last two words, and for once, every part of me was in complete sync.

Eight years flew through my conscience, and there was no question.

Sniper's sights.

This was it.

I would die for the man waiting in the driveway.

I would sacrifice every breath of my existence for him even though I knew, without doubt, what he would want me to do. What he would demand I do.

Save myself.

Give the attacker what he wanted. Sacrifice him.

But I could not. I would not.

My arms locked, my movements restricted, I tapped my aggressor's thigh, then pointed at a lamp across the room.

Following my movement, the man holding me captive dug his fingers into my flesh until my cheek bled from inside my mouth. "The lamp?"

I nodded once.

"That's his fucking signal? A light turning on?"

I hesitated.

The blade pressed so hard, searing pain struck before heat dripped down my throat. " The light's the fucking signal? "

Torn, I nodded twice.

The tip of the blade left my throat and moved to the soft flesh at the corner of my eye. "I'm removing my hand. You scream, you both die." His fingers left my mouth. "Speak, bitch."

"It is not a signal, but he is waiting."

"Why?" he demanded.

Tears slid down my face. "He knows I do not prefer the dark."

The hand clamped over my mouth again, the knife returned to my throat, and my captor barked out whispered orders as he jerked us back a full pace. "Hit that light, lay low, maintain sights."

The lamp turned on, and a faint glow puddled in a small circle at the opposite end of the large living room, but I did not look for more than the second it took to see what I already knew.

No intruders were visible.

My aggressor rasped a warning in my ear. "You better hope that was the right fucking move."

I did not nod.

I stared. Willing the man who had saved me to do what he had always done.

Leave.

Please leave .

An impossible beat of my torn heart later, the car turned over and the headlights came on.

Beams of light sliced into the still-darkened living room.

My captor's arm crushed my ribs.

A single moment of dread hung in the stale smell of a house that had been closed up. Then the cut of light slanted as the SUV backed up, and the blade left my throat.

Sheathing his weapon at his waist, my captor reached into a pocket and muttered, "Lucky bitch. Take a fucking nap."

A sharp stab jabbed into my neck.

The SUV drove off.

My vision blurred.