us.
I hear the thud of the door, locking us inside with our enemies. This is the moment to attack.
Before I can spring into action, a bright light draws my attention. A screen has been turned on in the center of the room.
On the screen, Liesel is standing in the center of a room, face to face with Corbin.
I should scan the room behind her to figure out where she might be. I need to figure out what danger she’s in and how to save her, but all I can focus on is her.
I can’t take my eyes off her.
Her face is pale as a ghost. Her pink lips are parted. Her hair is in a messy bun on top of her head.
I continue down her body that has somehow thinned in the hours since I’ve seen her. When I scan further down, I see why. Blood soaks through a bandage wrapped around her thigh.
A low growl escapes my throat at the sight of her in pain.
“What the hell happened?” I say out loud, but I get no answer.
I step forward, the hands gripping my biceps allowing me. I forget about the men in the room with me. I forget about Maxwell or a plan to escape.
Liesel is in danger. She’s been shot, and the wound is not properly closed. She’s slowly bleeding to death.
My time is running out.
Her father says something, drawing my attention away from her to the rest of the room. Her father sits at a table with a chessboard in the middle. I don’t have any doubt that this man is her real father. The man I met before had dark hair and soft eyes; this man has the same shade of blonde hair as Liesel and cold eyes.
There are a dozen men with guns surrounding every wall in the room. Any one of them could be the one who shot Liesel. Whoever it is, I’m going to find him and kill him, but not after spending weeks torturing him for hurting the woman I love.
Liesel moves, and my eyes cut back to her just in time to see her lips pressed against Corbin’s.
What.
The.
Hell.
My brain immediately replays the images of her sucking his cock, but seeing them kissing is worse.
It doesn’t make sense.
But when you’re in love with someone, your feelings never make any sense.
I’m sure she’s kissing him because it’s the only way to get Declan back. But it doesn’t stop my heart from seizing at the sight.
The kiss starts off simple, a tentative brush of their lips in the same way you might kiss a stranger for the first time, but it quickly evolves into so much more. She’s the one who initiates, her tongue sweeping over the seam of his lips, begging for entry.
Corbin hesitates for a moment like he doesn’t want this kiss any more than she does.
I narrow my eyes as I study him closer, trying to figure him out. His body is stiff and unmoving. His face isn’t flushed, he keeps his eyes open, not closed, and I see no signs of an erection.
As Liesel’s tongue pushes between his lips, he stills even more. He can’t stand to participate in the kiss.
She pulls back, realizing what she’s doing and regretting it.
I don’t know why they were told to kiss, but I suspect it has something to do with proving that she no longer loves me. Her father hates me. He wants me dead. He doesn’t want me as her husband or lover.
He thinks he can make them kiss, and somehow, her heart will simply start fluttering for another man. He thinks love can be controlled and changed simply by putting two people together and forcing them to hump.
He doesn’t know what love is. Love is like jumping off a bridge into the ocean with no idea if it will give you the greatest thrill of your life, kill you on impact, or drown you under the surface. It’s a beautiful, magical place that can carry you around the world or destroy you. There is no in-between.
I have no control over whom I love, neither does Liesel. If we did, we wouldn’t be together. We would have chosen someone else, someone whose life wouldn’t be at risk because we loved each other.
Just as Liesel is about to pull away and decide she can’t play this game, Corbin comes to his senses. I know he has to in order to satisfy Liesel’s father’s twisted demands, but it feels like a betrayal.
He grabs her