Prisoned - Marni Mann Page 0,28

there was no decision to be made. There was no guilt. No fear. Whatever Garin wanted to do to me, wherever he wanted to touch me, I wouldn’t deny him. I couldn’t. We’d gone through too much. We had survived The Heart. I had been pulled away from him, and we’d been brought back together and put in this cell. That all had to mean something.

“Let’s get some sleep,” he said.

He didn’t wait for me to answer before he slipped his body away from mine and sat me on the blanket. Then, he moved in behind me, his head resting on the makeshift pillow. “Come here.”

I kept my back to him and cuddled into his chest. He was so warm, his grip so strong in the way he held me. The scent of the soap was different on him than it was on my hands. It turned so masculine on his skin, tasty and almost erotic.

He slid me further back, our bodies now pressed together. He didn’t ask if I wanted to be moved. He just read me and gave me what I needed.

But he hadn’t given me everything.

Everything would have been his mouth on mine.

Maybe it wasn’t time for that just yet. Maybe this wasn’t the right place for it. Maybe I was losing focus and should have been concentrating on how we were going to get out of here instead of how good Garin’s arms felt. But he had said he was going to work on an escape plan, and he promised he was going to get us out of here.

And, in the meantime, his embrace and his presence were the only two things that made this feel good. Without one, there was no other.

“I think they’re going to give us some answers soon.”

His voice startled me.

“How do you know?”

“I know the game.”

The whiskers from his chin brushed across the back of my neck. It reminded me of the nights I had stayed in his bedroom, how the sound of his breathing was enough to put me to sleep.

“I just wanted to warn you. You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

You’ll be fine.

I closed my eyes as the light above us hummed and flickered. I blocked it out and focused on sleep.

Focused on his breathing.

Focused on the way he rubbed my hand.

Sleep well, Kyle.

Nine

Kyle

“¡Despierten!” Beard barked.

I flew into a seated position while Garin still lay behind me, his hand protectively resting on my hip.

“¡A comer!” He slid both trays into the room and ran his fingers through his beard. “Vendré por ustedes más tarde.”

Then, the door slammed shut, and he was gone.

“What did he say?”

Garin sat up and leaned his back against the wall. “He wants us to eat and says he’ll be back for us later.”

“Back for us?”

His hand moved to my thigh. “If we’re going to get answers, he has to come back. And, every time he opens that door, he makes himself more vulnerable for an attack. I’m learning his habits. I’ve got this, so stop worrying.”

The dampness in our cell wasn’t the reason I was shaking. Beard made me nervous. Not just his size, the guns he wore, the attitude he had, or my inability to communicate with him, but the fact that there wasn’t even the tiniest bit of tenderness in his eyes. I could never win against someone who had no heart. My tears would go unnoticed; my pleas would go unheard.

I would confess, and then I would be dead.

That meant I couldn’t tell the truth. The second I did, my life would be over.

Garin didn’t seem affected by Beard’s threat. Maybe that was because, as a kid, he had run drugs for the mob and now managed their casino and was used to the way gangsters thought, how they threatened, what they carried through on, and what was meant to just scare. Maybe he was trying to stay strong for me.

The panic in my throat was making it hard to breathe again. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and swayed, trying to ease the air in and out of me. I felt the heat spread over my cheeks and the gripping around my throat. It was tight.

Everything was so tight.

“Have you been to Vegas?” he asked.

I continued to rock, trying to find the breath to grunt out a response. “Huh?”

“Get your mind off what you’re fearing and concentrate on what I’m asking you.”

“Yes,” I panted. “I’ve been to Vegas.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

“It was fun.” The pounding in my chest started to subside.