No one said a word, and a second later, the SUV started to pull away.
We were leaving.
Looking over, I watched the other three SUVs go ahead of us, and as we returned to the road, our pace kicked up compared to the speed we’d been traveling before. The tension I’d sensed outside had come into the SUV with Tanner. He didn’t lounge now, or take his phone out. He sat almost as a guard, except those guys seemed to sit even taller, even straighter, and with their heads back another inch.
Both guards kept their fingers on their earpieces.
We drove for a complete hour like that, until it got dark.
When we slowed, it was pitch-black outside, except for the headlights.
We turned onto a gravel road, forest still all around us. We went over a metal grid in the road, then through a gate after that. Moving at a snail’s pace, it was as if we were waiting for something until suddenly, we began moving faster. We hurtled down this narrow gravel road, and I clocked it around two miles before we slowed again.
This time, we paused before another grand gate, and it opened to reveal a house. The word mansion couldn’t describe it. It was more of a compound. The driveway circled in front of the main house, but there was another house just as big to the right and more buildings behind them.
My people were out there, but I had no idea how they’d get to me. A hopeless feeling filtered in until, no. I wouldn’t have that. I’d just have to get to them.
Somehow.
Then the doors opened.
It was showtime.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I didn’t see where the Master of the Bennett Universe went, but Tanner went up the stairs, surrounded by guards. Another two waited for me, and as I started up after him, two more moved in behind me.
They led me into a grand entryway with white marble flooring. Flecks of gold nestled within the rock, which matched a fountain off to one side. The underside of the fountain shimmered gold as well. A large, white-carpeted staircase circled around, curving upward, and that’s where my guards seemed to be taking me.
Tanner ignored me, disappearing somewhere farther into the house.
My guards and I kept going, all the way to the fourth floor and down a long hallway, then up another set of stairs until I felt I was in a whole other wing. We passed through a glass-encased walkway that led us from the main home into the second building, and then up another set of stairs. I tried to keep track of where we were going, but it was getting harder the farther we went.
They led me into a back hallway that rounded the second home and up one last set of stairs. A granite wall stood in front of us, and a guard pressed his earpiece, saying, “Here.”
An unlocking sound clicked, and a door opened for us. We went inside, and I knew this was my prison.
Though, for a prison, it was a nice one.
It was an entire apartment, really. Sleek and modern with black countertops in the kitchen and a dark oak dining table. The couches in the living room were black leather, sitting on a white rug, in front of a television that looked more like a small movie screen. The bathroom had an oval drop-in sink of black glass, with the same hints of gold from the entrance. A chandelier hung high over the kitchen table.
A doorway led into a room past the living room, and I could see the corner of a bed there. A sheepskin had been laid across the edge, creating a scene that could’ve been photographed for an interior design magazine.
Two of my guards stood to the side of the door, and the other two positioned themselves outside.
I didn’t ask questions, and none of them said anything.
I felt it in my bones: I was waiting for Kai Bennett.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to find an escape route from the apartment. But I still looked around to get my bearings.
Inside the bedroom was a king-sized bed, and a wrap-around deck beyond two sliding glass doors. As I stepped out onto it, my heart sank.
There was nothing for me to climb onto if I wanted to make my way down. The fall could’ve fit a thirty-eight-floor hotel, and I could see rocky terrain at the bottom. It was a rock-climber’s