Chapter 2
LiamBrownfoldedhislast shirt into the suitcase, eager to return home to Middlemarch.He’d enjoyed Scotland, but he missed the farm—the cattle, sheep, and dogs that depended on him.Most of all, he missed Emily’s cheese scones and the familiar routine that anchored his days.
He had picked up thank-you gifts for Saber and London: a Mitchell tartan tie and a Drummond scarf.They’d been amazing when he’d arrived in Middlemarch with no references and a family who’d disowned him.
A bang on the door jerked his head upward.
“Scott, did you forget your key again?”Liam approached the door, reaching for the handle.
The door exploded inward, slamming into his shoulder and hurling him backward.His skull cracked against the wooden dresser with a sickening, branchlike snap.Pain bloomed outward in nauseating waves, and darkness rushed in at the edges of his vision.
Before he could even process what was happening, a dark-clothed figure loomed over him, their face obscured by a mask.A chemical tang hit him an instant before a cloth pressed against his nose and mouth, stealing his breath.
Liam lashed out instinctively, landing a weak punch as he kicked, twisted, and fought, his muscles screaming in protest while his attacker held fast.
“Get off me!”He tried to wrench free.
The chemical stink overwhelmed him—sharp, cloying, and wrong—burning his lungs with each breath.He turned his head, desperate for clean air, but the cloth followed.Panic surged.His arms flailed, and his movements slowed.
Liam gasped.The fumes seared his nostrils.His vision tunneled, narrowing to a pinpoint of light.
His body went slack.The world tilted, then everything went dark.
Minutes earlier…
Sienna pressed against the corridor wall, heart hammering as she listened to footsteps fade down the stairs.The crude mask itched her face, but she couldn’t risk being recognized.
She’d watched Scott and Liam return from the Great Hall and noted which room they’d entered.
Now, staring down at his unconscious form, reality crashed over her.She’d done it.She’d knocked out a stranger and drugged him.
But there was no time for second thoughts.Her family’s survival depended on this working, and she was so far past the point of no return.
Through the rough fabric of her mask, she studied his face—the pronounced scar cutting across his cheek, the dark hair falling across his forehead.
Her blood turned to ice.
This wasn’t Scott.
The carefully constructed plan, the desperate gamble she’d risked everything on, had failed.She’d grabbed the wrong man.Every calculation, every rationalization crumbled.Scott was the one she’d researched, the one who’d seemed approachable.Liam was just there.
But his chest rose and fell steadily, and voices echoed from the corridor outside.It was too late to fix this.Too late for anything but moving forward.
She crouched beside him and worked her arms under his shoulders, hauling him into a fireman’s carry the way her father had taught her.Her legs shook under his bulk of solid muscle and dead weight.
The corridor stretched endlessly ahead.Each step sent fire through her thighs, and sweat slicked her spine.She’d mapped out her route earlier: down the servants’ stairs, through the kitchens during the shift change, and out the delivery entrance where she’d left her hire car.
Her luck held.The kitchen staff was busy with dinner service, and the delivery area was empty.She bundled Liam into the trunk, her hands quivering as she slammed it shut.
With Liam safely concealed, she jogged to his room and grabbed the suitcase he’d partially packed.She tossed in his toiletry bag, an attempt to make everyone believe he’d found a mate and left.
Job done, she sneaked down the passage and out of the castle.Fortune was with her, and she didn’t pass a single person.
Despite ending up with the wrong man, everything else had fallen into place.Besides, perhaps it was best she’d abducted Liam.His scars suggested he’d faced challenges with judgment and acceptance.He might understand their situation better than most.
Sienna settled in the vehicle, and only then did she allow herself a moment to let the tension drain from her shoulders.
Liam’s eyes fluttered open to a blurry ceiling and the taste of copper in his mouth.His head thumped in a relentlessbang, bang, bang, and when he struggled to sit up, nausea rolled through him in waves.
