breathing ragged because it was really happening. Freedom was so close, but I was also terrified because I still had to go back out there…and survive. The darkness, the cold, the fear of the guards behind me…it was traumatizing.
“Ride hard. Don’t look back.” He pulled out a paper from his pocket and unfolded it. “Here’s the map.” It wasn’t a professional one created with a computer. It was hand-drawn, showing the camp, the forest, the path to the river, and then beyond. He turned it over and showed me the individual steps I could take to figure it out. “Keep the forest on your right. As long as you do that, you’ll hit the river. When you cross it, the chateau is farther to the left, so you’ll have to look at these landmarks to help you.”
I took the paper from him, studying his notes to see if I had any questions.
It was detailed enough that I didn’t have any. “Will I have a gun?”
He shook his head. “The only way to retrieve those is with a code, so if they notice it’s missing, they’ll know I took it. I didn’t give you any weapons—because that would be too obvious. But you shouldn’t need them because all you have to do is get there as quickly as possible. If they did catch you, a weapon wouldn’t help you.”
Probably not.
I folded the paper and stuffed it into my pocket.
Now we sat together in silence because there was nothing left to say. A part of me thought he would have a change of heart because everyone would assume he’d orchestrated my escape. But he didn’t.
I stared at him, looking at a face I would never forget, even if I was fortunate enough to grow old. My memory of my young life would fade, but the memory of this man never would. I shouldn’t regard him as a hero for saving me, because he worked there in the first place. But he was definitely my hero.
A few minutes passed before he spoke again. “I’m not doing this out of the goodness of my heart.” His brown eyes drilled into mine with invisible force, burning into me, digging deep past my eyes and further down into my soul.
My breathing immediately slowed because I could feel the tension in the air, the sudden increase in heat, the implication of his words. Not once had he asked me for anything. Not once had he expected something in exchange for his kindness.
But he’d been keeping receipts…and he wanted to collect.
“I want you.” He was unapologetic about it, extremely candid. Now there was no misunderstanding, not there really had been since he’d first admitted it. There had never been a time when he looked at me like he wanted anything more than a conversation. His eyes didn’t roam over my body the way the other guards did. Most of the time, he didn’t even act like he liked me. But he had a remarkable poker face. Maybe this had been his plan all along, the extended buildup to this moment.
“No.”
His eyes immediately lost their confidence, slowly filling with disappointment.
“I refuse to believe you’ll only help me if I sleep with you. You’ll help me because I deserve to be free. You’ll help me because you know it’s the right thing to do. My answer is no.”
His eyes slowly dropped, resignation coming over his face. It was one of the rare times when he showed something other than his stonelike stoicism or his anger. There was no response to my decision. He didn’t force himself on me. He didn’t leverage my freedom to coerce me. He accepted my answer.
I watched him glide his palms past each other, his head bowed slightly to the floor. “But I’ll sleep with you…because I want to.”
His hands stilled, and his body went rigid. Seconds later, he lifted his chin to look me in the eye again.
It was impossible not to feel a connection to this man. I’d spent my life taking care of other people, and it was the first time I had someone to take care of me, to clean up my messes, to fix all my mistakes. The second his hood had dropped and I saw his face, I had been stunned by what I saw, because he was beautiful. He was the kind of man I could never have in the real world, because he could have someone much more beautiful than me. He would chase after Melanie or someone