The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood #13) - J. R. Ward Page 0,121

trek back to the exit. He’d gone about fifteen feet when he realized he hadn’t dropped his hold on her yet.

He had to force himself to let her hand go.

When they came to the hidden door, he stepped aside and let her open things up in case there was some kind of tracer or security check in play.

Out in the hall, she said, “Crouch down, remember? You’re very tall and very big.”

iAm got with the program. “Thanks.”

Letting her assume the lead, he found himself watching the way she walked, the shift of her body under the robing camouflaged nearly completely. What was she like under there? What was her face like?

As soon as the thoughts hit him, he dropped them. Now was hardly the time to waste even a split second on anything like that.

They had gone about twenty-five miles, as far as he could tell, when a set of prison guards came at them. From underneath the mesh that covered his face, iAm tracked their approach, bracing himself for a fight to get away. Typical of s’Ex’s security team, they were in black, they were built like bouncers, and their weapons were obvious around their waists, the long-bladed daggers at their hips in ready reach. Their faces were uncovered, and he couldn’t remember—did that mean that they were on the warpath?

Shit, had they been discovered?

Ahead of him, maichen didn’t blink. She stopped, put both her hands in front of her heart in a steeple, and bowed her head in supplication. Staying in her lee, iAm copied her pose exactly, his thigh muscles tight as he forced his legs to remain at half-mast.

The guards looked the pair of them over, and iAm prayed that that lavender scenting trick did the job. If they caught a whiff of anything close to the aggression pumping through his veins …

But nope, they just nodded and kept going.

Thank fuck.

Another hundred yards or so later, she came to an abrupt halt—and he nearly plowed into her. “We’re here,” she said, looking up and down the hall.

He waited for her to trigger the door to his cell. When she didn’t, he leaned into her and said softly, “It’s not your fault. And thank you.”

Her head lowered, and the voice that came out from behind her masking seemed choked. “I’m so sorry. About all of this.”

“You don’t worry about it. And I don’t want you to come see me anymore. Trade off the duties, but don’t get involved in this. We got enough people in this nightmare already.”

That mesh panel shifted as she looked up at him. “I want to do more. Let me help you get free—”

“No.”

“I don’t want you to be a gerbil.”

“What?”

“I don’t want you to be kept in there forever.”

“It won’t be that long, I promise you.” Although he did need to get out of here ASAP. “Now, will you please go?”

When she continued to hesitate, he was the one who triggered the prison door to open by taking her hand and placing it on the wall—

The lights were on inside, not off. And s’Ex was on the bedding platform, his back against the headboard, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles.

In one hand, he had a whetstone. In the other, he had a dagger.

With slow, sure strokes, he was sharpening the blade.

He didn’t bother to look up. “Imagine my surprise when I came to personally check on you.”

iAm put his body in front of maichen’s, blocking her completely. “This is not her fault. I forced her.”

“That is a lie.” The executioner glanced up, his black eyes glittering. “But whether you did or didn’t is the least of your problems.”

As Fritz pulled up in front of the Brotherhood’s mansion, Selena burst out of the back of the Mercedes before the car even rolled to a halt. The sudden lunge was an expression of her excitement, something she had been holding in, and it felt good to—

Except she was in high heels, and the landing went badly: As the tiny pinpoint back ends of her shoes skipped over the cobblestones, gravity grabbed hold of her and she threw out her arms, her weight shifting off-kilter—

Trez caught her in his arms with a powerful surge, capturing her before she could fall and sweeping her up against his massive chest.

He held her as if she didn’t weigh a thing.

Putting her arms around his neck, she leaned back and smiled so widely, she probably looked like a lunatic. She didn’t care.

“That was incredible!”

Trez grinned as