My knee is resting on top of his, that’s how far I’ve wrapped myself around him, and there’s a small damp patch on his dark shirt where my mouth was.
I drooled on him. I drooled all over one of my big, scary kidnappers, as I pet him like a dog, or a date I fell asleep draped over while watching movies.
Jerking upright so fast my head spins, my cheeks flame, and I pull back, putting as much distance between us as the backseat allows, which isn’t much, given how broad Bodhi is. My shoulder hits the cold window, jarring me after being cocooned in his heat, but I press against it anyway, needing the chill to bring me back to my senses.
“I—” The word catches in my throat. What am I supposed to say? Sorry? To the man who’s helping Kozlov sell me into slavery? I don’t think so.
Instead, I smooth out my dress carefully and put my feet back on the floor of the car where they belong before straightening my spine and pretending to still have my pride.
“You could have moved me.” It comes out sharper than I meant, almost accusatory, like somehow it’s his fault I tried to use him as a body pillow and was on the verge of climbing into his lap and straddling him.
He’s watching me with an expression I can’t read, carefully blank, and yet I could lose myself in the depths of his soulful brown eyes. It bothers me more than it should.
“You needed the rest.”
His dark eyes track my movements silently as I wipe at the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, trying to salvage some dignity. No mockery of my weakness or lack of survival skills. Just four kind words, delivered in that low rumble of a voice, and I don’t know what to do with that.
There’s something in his eyes right now that doesn’t quite fit with the cold mercenary act.
I turn away from him, confusion and irritation warring in my chest.
Through the window, a huge house looms beyond a set of wrought-iron gates, all sharp angles and dark stone set amongst perfectly manicured lawns. It’s isolated and imposing, meant to signal wealth and stature, but to me, it’s really just a prison dressed up as a palace.
The partition slides down, and the driver glances back at us, his scarred face impassive in the rearview mirror. “Welcome to Kozlov’s humble abode. Your new home. Until Saturday, at least.”
The partition rises again before I can respond, and his words echo in my mind.
Saturday.
I frown, narrowing my eyes at Bodhi. Something is nagging at me. Some detail I should have caught before, but was too exhausted to piece together.
The apprehension in Bodhi’s eyes tells me he knows I’ve missed something too.
Jake has until Sunday. That’s what Kozlov told him at my apartment, his stern voice dripping with false generosity. One week from the night they took me to come up with the money, that’s what he said.
But the auction is on Saturday.
The realization is sudden and devastating, driving all the air from my lungs as I grasp what I should have suspected all along.
Even if Jake gets the money, even if he sells everything he owns, begs, borrows, steals, and he shows upSundaymorning with a briefcase full of cash, I’ll already be gone.
I turn to Bodhi, my fingers curling into the leather seat so hard that my knuckles ache. “The auction is Saturday.”
Something shifts in his expression, and just for a second, his mask slips.
I’m right. He already knew.
“I’m never going home. No matter what.” My heart pounds, my hands growing clammy.
The second Kozlov piled me into his car; I was already a dead woman. A dead woman walking. Whoever buys me isn’t going to let me go home, and apparently, I’m worth enough to Kozlov in this auction that he’s not even concerned about my brother’s debt.
It’s a lose-lose.
“Emma, stay calm.” He reaches toward me and I flinch back, my spine hitting the door.
“That’s easy for you to say.” I snap, closing my eyes, fighting back panic.
“He was never going to let me leave.” Despite being on the verge of puking, I keep my voice flat and calm, because if I let myself feel any of it, I’ll shatter into a thousand pieces right here in this backseat. “Even if Jake gets the money, it won’t change anything. I’ll already be gone.And you knew.”
