Twisted Metal Heart - Eve Langlais Page 0,56

bridge.” She aimed her finger. “That way. I think.”

“You think?”

“It’s hard to tell. We were running and then climbing. I lost my sense of a direction a bit, but I’m fairly certain that’s where I came in.” She paused. “Maybe.”

He chuckled. “If we get lost, I will blame you.”

“How can we get lost? Don’t you have a superior sense of direction?”

“Are you challenging me?” he asked as he moved along the edge of the water in the direction she suggested.

“Just wondering at your skills. Wastelanders are renowned for their survival skills.”

“And what are your skills, princess?” He turned to look at her.

“I make things.” The simple truth. “What do you do?”

“I kill things.”

As the hump heaved from the water, he spun from her and ran for the long snout that emerged from the water, opening into a dark maw lined with teeth.

“Titan!” What was the idiot doing?

“This is what I’m good at.” He jumped into the air using his bionic leg as a springing point, rising high, higher than an ordinary human could have. As he dropped back down, he extended his bionic arm, its fingers straight and forming a spear point.

How? She could only gape as he slammed down, his arm going into the eye of the monster.

Which, needless to say, didn’t go over well.

The monster uttered a bellow, and then it was going under, taking Titan with it.

Oh no.

The water swallowed them, and she stared for a moment before cursing. She ran to the edge and could see nothing, although there was a bit of a ripple. The scum shivered as if a battle went on below.

The bridge crossed over the most active section. She ran for it and clutched the rotted wooden railing. She didn’t have much light to see anything.

“Titan!” she hissed. The water was still. She leaned over the side, peering down. The rotted sides cracked, and she fell forward.

“I wouldn’t recommend a dip.” Titan grabbed hold of her and pulled her back.

She whirled, nose wrinkling at the awful stench. But rather than remark on it or the fact he was wet, she said, “How did you make your hand into a spear?”

He stared at her. “That’s what you want to say? Not ‘good job killing the monster.’”

She smiled. “Do you need to be congratulated every time you do something?”

The glower on his face went with his snarled, “Let’s go.”

She took a step just as something smashed through the floor of the bridge.

Riella barely managed a scream before she fell through. Her head rapped off the hard edge, dropping her senseless below.

Fourteen

It took a moment before Titan realized he was huffing and running, his body slicing through the night, barefoot, outside. Not just outside the dungeon but in the marshlands themselves. A body was slung over his shoulder—with a familiar scent, if kind of rancid at the same time.

Fuck me. What had he done?

He halted his run and rolled the body from his shoulder. He lay it on the ground, and in the cresting dawn, he could have groaned as he saw her.

Riella with her flaming red hair, freckled skin, and lying lips.

Why the fuck had he stolen this woman? Why the fuck had he complicated his escape? If freedom was his goal, he could have slipped away, and given he’d won his freedom before, none would have probably followed.

He could have run and found a new place to live.

But he’d kidnapped Riella.

And despite knowing her mother would come after him with everything she had, he wasn’t giving her back. He needed her. Needed to protect her and the child she carried.

His child. The memories of their conversation filtered back, as well as snatches of their run through the city. But after they scaled the wall…things got murky. What happened?

Not much. We just saved our child. The other voice teased around him. “Our.”

Separate and yet not.

He knelt by Riella and touched her cheek. She breathed, yet her eyes remained closed. She didn’t appear harmed but for a knot he felt when he palpated her head. She’d wake sore. Possibly concussed.

How did it happen?

Please don’t tell me I hurt her. He’d rather die than be that kind of man.

Wasn’t us. We rescued her.

Show me.

For a moment, his mind opened up and he remembered seeing her falling through the bridge, unconscious before hitting the water. He dove through after her, his lungs tight, his determination to not lose her driving him deep enough to catch a fistful of her hair. He grabbed hold of her and dragged