I freeze, nausea flooding me. The words hit harder than the sting of his hand. He knows exactly how to shut me up.
He chuckles darkly, patting the back of my leg like I’m a child throwing a tantrum. “That’s better.”
The house is chaos around us. Staff scatter through the halls, their polished composure fractured into panic. Harris—so stiff and proper at dinner—nearly collides with us, his silver hair dishevelled, eyes darting like a trapped animal. The cook grips the edge of the counter for support, his lips pressed together in terror. Mrs Dorsey clutches her apron, frozen, trembling.
I lift my head enough to look at them.Please.My lips move soundlessly, my wide, wet eyes begging them to do something, anything. To stop him.
But none of them move.
Harris bows his head as if ashamed, the cook turns away, and Mrs Dorsey wrings her hands until her knuckles are white. They can’t look at me for more than a second. And in that one second, I see it clearly—pity. Pity and fear.
They won’t help me. They can’t. Jackson owns them. I don’t know if it’s money, threats, or blood on their hands, but whatever it is, it’s enough to keep them silent.
The hopelessness burns through me hotter than the slap on my skin.
And all I can do is hang over his shoulder, helpless, as he carries me deeper into whatever nightmare he’s planned.
The sound cuts through me before I even know what it is—gunfire. Short, brutal cracks that rattle the air, followed by men’s screams. My blood freezes, then surges, and I know. Iknow.
Jacob is here.
A scream tears out of my throat, louder than I’ve ever screamed in my life. My lungs burn with it, my chest shakes with it. “Jacob!” I don’t even know if his name makes it past my lips or if it’s just sound, but I scream again, thrashing, fighting with everything I have left.
Jackson’s entire body jolts, a guttural snarl ripping from him. He jerks me higher on his shoulder, his arm tightening around my waist until it feels like my ribs will splinter. The pressure makes me gasp, spots pricking my vision. He squeezes harder, bruising me, as if he could strangle the fight out of me with just his grip.
But I keep screaming. Kicking. Clawing. Jacob ishere.
For a second, the chaos in the house fades—the alarm, the pounding of boots, the echo of gunshots—and all I hear is the drum of my own heartbeat hammering in time with his. He’s close. He’sso close.
And then I hear it.
A sound I can’t place at first—low, mechanical, growing louder, stronger. Then the whirring whips into a frenzy, blades cutting through the night air. My stomach plunges. A helicopter.
“No—” The word scrapes out of me, but Jackson doesn’t let me finish. He swings me off his shoulder and hurls me into the passenger seat of the machine with such force my body smacks against the cold plexiglass window. Pain explodes through my shoulder. I gasp, choking on it, tears flooding my vision.
I lift my head just in time to see him—Jacob.
He’s a blur of fury and desperation, running toward me like the earth itself might swallow him if he slows down. His eyes lock on mine even through the chaos, even through the night, and my soul claws to get to him.
My hands slam against the glass.
“Jacob!”
Jackson yanks me back hard, strapping me in with the belt so tight I can’t breathe. My arms thrash, nails tearing at his hands, but he shoves the heavy headset over my ears, clamping it down.
I rip it straight back off.
His hand clamps around my throat in a lightning-fast grip, his eyes searing into mine, cold and blazing all at once. His lips form the words slowly, deliberately, so there’s no mistaking them.
Put. It. On.
My lungs convulse under his grip. My fingers tremble. I do as he says, sliding the headset back on, hating myself for obeying, but terrified of what will happen if I don’t.
“Do you want to be deaf?” his voice snarls into my ears, like he thinks he’s doing me a favor. His hand releases my throat, leaving phantom bruises already pulsing beneath my skin.
The floor drops away as the helicopter lifts. The noise is deafening,even with the headset, the vibration shaking every bone in my body. The world tilts, and the house shrinks beneath me.
And Jacob—Jacob is still running.
