This did not feel like the moment to announce that she was guilty. “Let me go!” Then, to be polite, “Pretty please?” She’d try being polite first. If that didn’t work, she’d have to get physical.
Except she’d just seen him get physical with Alexei, and the end result of that very physical confrontation had been a dead Russian guard.
“I’m not letting you go.” And, again, Ryan whipped her around.
Whipped her around even as she was pretty sure that she could hear the distant growl of an engine. Was a car approaching? Frederick and more goons?
Ryan stared down into her face with his deep, dark, intense eyes, and he told her, “I’m arresting you.”
Chapter Six
She looked so beautiful and so confused and, yes, dammit, so scared. Ryan wanted to haul Simone into his arms and promise her that everything would be okay but…
Dead body.
Bad guys closing in.
Time was running out.
Things were not okay.
Simone sent him an uncertain smile. “I think I misheard.”
He was quite sure she had not.
“Did you just say that you were going to arrest me?”
He nodded. He also could hear the sound of an approaching vehicle, so they had to get moving, stat. It had taken him too long to break out of the ropes. Honestly, Simone’s idea of him hopping toward her had helped enormously. Once he’d started jerking and heaving his chair toward hers, the ropes around him had begun to loosen. They’d loosened enough that when the sonofabitch Alexei had been threatening her with his knife, Ryan had been able to break free.
Speaking of that knife…
Alexei could still see the faint line of blood on her neck. “He was dead the minute he put the knife against your skin.”
“Okay.” A brisk nod. Followed by a deep inhale. “There is a lot happening here. I strongly suspect that you might be disassociating. Is that what’s happening? Granted, I’m certainly no mental health expert, but you have been through a highly traumatic situation. I’m betting this was your first kidnapping.”
She’d said something before about it being his first kidnapping. Time to disabuse her of that notion. “It wasn’t.” His head angled to the left. To the upset horses. He began pulling her toward them.
“It…wasn’t your first kidnapping?” Surprise had her words rising. “Just how many times have you been kidnapped?”
He thought about her question even as he tried to find the calmest horse. The calmest one was actually the big, black stallion with the white spots who waited in the rear stall. “Four. No…Five times?” His hand moved down to her wrist.
She hissed out a breath. One that sounded painful. Just like that, his gaze was back on her face.
“What hurts?” Ryan demanded.
“I…nothing. I was just surprised that you had been kidnapped four—sorry, five—times. That’s quite a lot of kidnappings. A high, shocking number, in fact. I’m pretty certain that most people go through life and aren’t even kidnapped once, much less five times.”
“I’m not most people.”
“Obviously.” A disgruntled mutter. “Is that like, a billionaire thing? Have you been snatched and held for ransom again and again?”
Nope. He’d usually been taken by enemies who thought they could torture intel out of him. They’d been mistaken. Eventually, his abductors had also been dead. “I’m not a billionaire.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I was afraid you would say that.” A faint click as she swallowed. “Just what are you?”
“I’m the man who just killed to save your life.” He turned back for the horse. Opened the stall.
She dug in her heels as he tried to pull her forward.
