I grabbed the thickest hoodie I owned from the chair—the gray one with the frayed cuffs—and shoved it over my head. For a second the world went dark as the fabric dragged over my face, my breath hot and shallow inside the cotton.
When I pushed it down, Lock was closer.
Close enough that I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. Close enough that my chest brushed his arm when I tried to step around him. The hoodie didn’t help as much as I’d hoped; my nipples were still hard, traitorous and obvious against the thin tank under the fabric, and I prayed he couldn’t see.
His gaze dipped once, lower than my face.
Heat crawled across my skin.
“Shoes,” he said, voice rougher than before. “Then we go.”
Right. Shoes. Running. Kidnapping. This wasn’t just some weird, intense dream I’d wake up from and laugh about.
I grabbed a pair of gym shoes from under the bed and dropped onto the edge of the mattress to yank them on. My fingers fumbled with the laces enough that I had to start over twice.
Lock stood by the balcony door now, one hand on the handle, his shoulders tense, watching me.
“You’re really doing this,” I said quietly, not sure if I was talking to him or myself.
His eyes met mine across the room.
“I told you,” he said. “I’m not leaving without you.”
I tied the last knot in my laces with trembling fingers. My stomach was a hot, tight knot of fear and… something else I couldn’t name yet. Something I definitely didn’t want to look at too closely.
Lock didn’t move from the balcony door. He stood there like a wall—broad, tense, waiting. Every time his eyes slid to me, heat crawled up my neck.
This was really happening.
I stood, my legs unsteady. Not from fear. At least not only fear. My body felt wired, jittery under my skin. My palms were damp.
Lock opened the sliding door just enough for cold night air to sweep in. “Stay quiet,” he said. “And stay behind me.”
Right. Sure. Like I had any other plan.
I crossed the room, my heart pounding, my breath shallow against the inside of my hoodie. I kept trying not to look at him, but my eyes kept pulling back anyway. The size of him. The certainty in the way he moved. The way his scent curled around the back of my throat even from a few feet away.
I hated that my body reacted to it.
I stepped out onto the balcony, and the cold air slapped my face awake. The yard below was darker than usual, the security lights dimmer—cut, I realized. Someone had killed the power to this side of the compound.
“You climbed up here,” I whispered, glancing at the drop.
Lock didn’t even look winded. “Yeah.”
“How?”
He pointed at the stone wall beneath the balcony. “Jumped. Grabbed the overhang. Pulled myself up.”
My mouth fell open a little. “That’s— that’s like ten feet.”
“More like twelve.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
He huffed out something that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Come on.”
He hopped over the railing first and landed on the narrow support beam below, silent, balanced like it was nothing. He looked up at me. “Your turn.”
