That makes my chest ache fiercely. He’s asking, not demanding. I swipe at the tears trailing down my cheeks.
“To be normal for just a moment.” My phone rings again on the desk. It pierces my ears. I step back from it. I can’t talk to Jensen right now and I know it’s him. Of course it is. He’s watching all of this on the cameras. “Don’t follow me.”
Theo doesn’t take his eyes off me. Not even when I slip through the door to the back rooms. I don’t stop. I don’t think.
I’m out of the back entrance before I consider what I’m doing. The fresh air hits me like a punch, but I keep moving. I feel sick, lightheaded, and pissed.
I join the swell of people on the street, oblivious to the turmoil swirling inside me. I duck my head, walk faster, ignoring the rolling nausea as best I can. I don’t have a direction in mind. I’m just walking aimlessly, trying to ignore the knots in my stomach and the bile building in the back of my throat.
Somehow, I end up at Washington Square Park. I slip under the cascade of trees, following the curved paths behind a couple of dog walkers. The traffic feels distant even though the city still presses against the edge of the park. Just a little slice of stillness surrounded by concrete and bustle. It’s enough to allow me to expand my chest.
I find an empty bench and sink onto it like my legs no longer work. My eyes dart, expecting a masked man to leap out of the bushes and drag me away, but no one pays attention to me. Because despite what Jensen thinks, I’m not that important.
I take a slow, measured breath, filling my lungs for the first time all morning. The breeze is warm, but fall bites at the edges. It brushes over my skin like a balm.
I close my eyes, and I just…exist.
There’s no Jensen. No security.
Just me.
Here, I’m not married to a man who sees monsters looming around every corner. There are no assassins or men waiting to abduct me.
I’m just a nameless face in a crowd of tourists and New Yorkers.
And I didn’t realize how much I needed that until this moment.
The minutes crawl by, and the adrenaline seeps out of my bones. It leaves behind a deep exhaustion that presses down on my shoulders. I know Jensen loves me, that has never been in question, and I love him with every beat of my heart. But this gilded cage he’s locked me in is going to fucking kill me.
He’s afraid, and I know why, but his fear is going to ruin everything we’ve built.
And I don’t know how to pull us back from this.
TWELVE
JENSEN
My heart slamsin my throat the moment she walks out of the gallery alone. Neither Theo nor Mike goes after her and I could kill them both for that.
I’m glued to the camera feed, expecting her to return. She doesn’t. I try her phone again, even though I know she’s not going to answer.
On the monitor, Theo moves to the desk and his voice comes over the line. “Sir?”
Barbed wire tightens around my rib cage until I like I’m drowning.
“Where the fuck is my wife?” My voice is low and dangerous, threaded with pure violence.
I flex my fingers into a fist, my nails biting into my palm.
“She was upset.”
“About what?”
Mia still hasn’t come back, and a suffocating pressure is building in my chest. My sanity is hanging by a thread the longer she’s not on my screen.Come on, baby. Where are you?
I pull up the cameras for the back rooms and rewind the footage.
She appears on the monitor, and everything about the way she’s moving is wrong. It’s as if she’s folding in on herself. I track her on the footage until she slips out of the back door. Then she’s gone, disappearing up the street.
