“You need to make it tighter.”
“Cassie—”
“No, don’t ‘Cassie’ me.” She shoved her hands under Aidan’s nose. “You need to make it tighter. Elijah’s lapdogs need to see bruises on my wrists.” They both knew it was the small details that would get them through this.
He growled. “I am not bruising you.”
Her voice gentled. “The alternative is worse, and you know it. If Elijah figures out I’m lying…”
Truthfully, she had no idea what he’d do. She didn’t think he’d kill her. Lock her inside the compound, though? Probably. “Please.”
There was another vibration of his chest, then he tightened the rope.
Relief filtered through her limbs. Good. The man had been picking fights with her since yesterday. Throughout the drive to this campsite, then on the walk from his car. He’d carried her most of the way, muttering profanities about letting her go back home with every step.
She studied the tent. “When exactly did your team set this up?”
“This morning.” His fingers brushed her wrist as he worked the rope. “It’ll be gone by the time Elijah’s guys search here, but if they’re as thorough as they should be, they’ll check for indents in the ground from the stakes.”
Her gaze scanned the saturated ground. There was a light mist of rain now, but nothing like earlier. It was early. Like six a.m. kind of early. She wished she was still in bed. She’d spent most of her thirtieth birthday there with the man in front of her, and it had been bliss.
“There,” he finally said.
She gave her hands a tug. She couldn’t get free. Aidan had tied it perfectly so that escape was impossible, but it wasn’t tight enough to hurt her. Fine. She’d just work the ropes to create the marks she needed.
She rubbed her wrists against the rough material, quickly feeling the burn. That lasted for only a second before Aidan grabbed her wrists.
“Stop.”
“Aidan—”
“It’ll rub your wrists enough while you’re running out of the woods.” There was an edge to his voice. He clearly hated this.
She touched his chest. “I’ll be okay.”
He glanced down, first at her face, then her hands on him, and it was as if the sight of her bound wrists only put gas on the fire of his anger.
She dropped her hands. “Okay, so you need to tackle me, right? Make it look like I fought my attackers at some point while they held me. You also said it will be good training if I end up in a precarious position with Elijah or any of his men. Like a self-defense refresher.”
His eyes tightened at the mention of her getting in a precarious position.
She leaned up onto her toes and pecked a kiss to his cheek. “Come on. This could even be fun. You’ll get to roll around in the mud with me.”
His lips twitched. That’s what she wanted. The old Aidan back. The guy who smiled and laughed and was open with his emotions.
She walked over and stopped beside the tent. The story was that she snuck away while they slept, but Elijah knew she wasn’t a doormat. He knew she’d have fought as hard as possible to get away. She wore the black dress and stockings again. She’d already rubbed them in dirt, but she needed to look even dirtier. And there had to be signs of a struggle.
She turned. “Okay, I’m ready. Tackle me.”
She was sure she heard another quiet growl from the burly man. Then he lunged.
Her eyes widened. She expected a big hit. But his arms went around her waist, and when they dropped, she hit the ground so lightly she barely felt it.
Then he was caging her to the ground.
“Your turn. Fight me,” he whispered.
She pushed at his chest and tried to turn them over, but he didn’t move an inch.
His head lowered and he nipped her neck. “Come on, princess. You can do better than that.”
Princess?
When his hand grazed her breast, she gasped and began pushing in earnest. She hit his big chest and tried to knee him. No movement. None.
Now he nipped a spot behind her ear. “Forgotten what I’ve taught you already?”
Aidan had taught her a lot about self-defense, but she hadn’t used it in years.
Another nip.
With a low growl, she wrapped her bound hands around his neck and tugged him to the side. At the same time, she wrapped a leg around his hip and put all her weight into rolling them over. She was fully aware the man allowed it all to happen, but she still ended up on top. She pressed another kiss to his cheek. “Done.”
Almost immediately, he rolled them back over. “Again.”
They continued to grapple, with Cassie fighting her way out of various positions while Aidan teased and nipped. She didn’t know how much time had passed before he finally stood.
“Good job.” He pulled her up from the ground.
“Maybe we should do more?” She was covered in mud, and there were light impressions in the ground, but was it enough?
He shook his head. “No. You still need to run out of here. I don’t want you getting too tired.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. He was right. She was already getting tired, and she’d have to be on her feet the entire run out of the woods. “How long’s the run?”
They’d chosen this location specifically because it was close enough to run to the house of a Paragons of Hope member, but far enough that it was believable the kidnappers might stop here. She didn’t want police brought into this, and she knew if she ran to a member’s house, they’d call Elijah instead.
They’d set up tents in two other places, each a bit farther away from the outskirts of town than the last, to make it look like they’d been making their way somewhere. Her story was that, forced to walk under increasingly high stress, she’d slowed down her captors by frequently fainting due to her NMH. It was the best they had, and it would be up to Cassie to sell it.
“At least an hour.” By the clenching of his jaw, he didn’t like that. “I’ll be with you right up until the end.”
She frowned. “Won’t they see your prints?”
“It’ll be worse if they don’t. They’ll expect someone to have followed your tracks.”
She nodded, turning toward the woods. “Okay. Point me in the right direction.”
When Aidan didn’t respond, she turned to glance at him, only to find him looking pained.
A sinking feeling churned in her gut. Nope. No. No. No. “We are not changing course, Aidan.” She crossed to him, pressing her hands to his chest. Man, having bound wrists was annoying. All she wanted to do was hold him.
He gripped her hips tightly. “I just got you back, Cass.”
“And once this is over, you’ll get me back again. Not to mention, you’ll be surrounding the house, and you’ll hear everything.”
“There are still too many risks.”
Her voice softened. “We’ve been through this. I’ll be okay. Having him not locked up is an even greater risk.” And not just to her.
When footsteps sounded from behind her, Cassie started to step back, but Aidan didn’t let her move an inch. She looked over her shoulder and recognized the guy immediately. Callum.
He stopped a few feet away. “Am I interrupting?”
“No.” She tried to pull away again but, damn, Aidan’s hold was like iron.
Callum’s lips quirked. “Good to finally meet you in person, Cassie.”
Her cheeks reddened. “You too, Callum.”
“You got it?” Aidan asked, only looking away from her for a second.
Callum nodded and stepped forward, holding out his hand.
She frowned, squinting. “What’s that?” It was so small, she almost couldn’t see it.
Aidan grabbed it and pressed it behind her ear, close to her hairline. “This is the listening device. It’s waterproof, so you never have to take it off. I’ll hear everything.” Once it was in place, he cupped her cheek. “You remember my number?”
“I do.” It helped that the man had made her repeat it a hundred and one times in the last couple hours. “And as soon as I’m home and have access to my burner phone, I’ll text you.”
He lowered his head, his mouth hovering over hers. “Doesn’t matter. Either way, I’ll be watching, and I’ll be close. At the slightest hint of danger, I’m tearing down walls to get to you.”
He kissed her, and even though Callum was watching, she couldn’t pull away.
When they separated, his teammate stepped forward. “All right, let’s get this show on the road.”
“We’re going to run behind you,” Aidan said. “If you get tired—”
“Stop and rest. I know.” She turned to Callum. “Which way?” She was more likely to get the information from him faster.
He pointed to a break in the trees. When she stepped out of Aidan’s arms, there was a sudden trickle of doubt. The last time she’d walked away from him, she hadn’t seen him again in close to three years.
No. She couldn’t think like that. She needed to focus.
“Be careful,” he said quietly.
The intensity in his gaze almost had her calling the whole thing off. “Always.”
“I hate this. I fucking hate this!”
They’d trailed Cassie all the way through the woods and right up until she reached a street. It was a quiet area, and the house she needed to get to wasn’t much farther. But sending her back there… Every part of Aidan rebelled against it.
He listened to her breathing through the earpiece.
Callum squeezed his shoulder. “She’ll be okay. We’ll make sure of it.”
Of course they would. They had to. Losing her wasn’t an option.
In the distance, he could see Tyler. He’d be keeping eyes on her until Aidan and Callum were done at the campsite. It needed to be foolproof. It needed to be so well staged that if the best damn tracker in the world were to traipse through the area, they wouldn’t see a single red flag.
Callum tilted his head back toward the direction they’d come. “Come on. We need to pack everything up and make it look like we left in a mad rush.”
“We are going to leave in a mad rush, because I want her in my sights.” The second everything was packed away, he was returning to wherever she was. He trusted his team with his life, but it wasn’t the same. He needed to know she was okay. He needed to see her with his own eyes.
They raced back toward the campground. They were fast, and it wouldn’t take them long to pack. When they reached the site and started on the tent, Aidan felt Callum’s eyes on him before he spoke.
“What exactly happened between you two?”
Wasn’t that obvious? “Everything happened. She’s mine. And you sure as hell better bet that if anyone harms a hair on her head, I’ll burn that fucking compound to the ground.”
