And he wasn’ t alone. Over Bear’s shoulder , the Dog-Mobile raced toward us. Relief made my knees wobble. My friends were here, and they were okay . “Good boy,” I cooed to Bear, blinking back tears. Davian finally loosened his hold enough to let Bear paw at me excitedly . The Dog-Mobile screeched to a stop in front of us, with both Ryan and Gladys popping out seconds later . “Sadie Marie Morris!” my elderly friend belted, marching up to us with a scowl. “I should call your mother on you, you foolish girl.” “Gladys, you’re okay!” I urged Bear down and pulled her into a hug before giving Ryan one, too. Bear whined, so I crouched and wrapped him in another hug, which he gladly acc epted. “I was so worried about you three.” “ You were worried? We weren’t the ones who got abducted.” Her scowl de epened, and she wiggled a boney finger in my face. “Don’t you ever sacrifice yourself like that again. You hear me?” A throat cleared, and I froze with my arms around Bear before risking a peek at Davian. With his hands in the pockets of his slacks, he raised a dark brow at me. “This is news to me. What does she mean you sacrificed yourself?” Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I shrugged and patted Bear’s head. “Well, Zain threatened to hurt Bear, and no way could I let that happen. So, I went with them. But it wasn’ t a sacrifice! I knew you would help me.” “Of course I would.” The look he gave me said we would be talking about this later. His lips pressed into a thin line, and he sent a flat look at Gladys and Ryan. “You were supposed to wait around the corner on the next street until we came to get you.” Gladys blinked innocently . “We were just making sure you didn’t bungle getting Sadie back.” Uh-oh. I forced out a nervous laugh at Gladys’ s sudden bravery . What had happened to the woman who was shaking in her boots when she saw Davian? I almost missed her . “She doesn’ t mean that,” I told Davian. “Of course I do,” Gladys snapped, frowning at him. “And can you blame us? After you missed me and Ryan busting Sadie out of your dark
lair, we had some doubts about your r eputation.” “ Gladys, ” I hissed when a scary look crossed Davian’ s face. “Please stop baiting him. There’s no need for that.” This was turning into a nightma re. Why couldn’ t my friends and Davian just get along? Gladys rounded on me instead. “You’re right. I should be checking on you. What happened? What’d that dirty scoundrel do to you? Should we take you to the hospital?” “Oh, I’m fine. Nothing a nice bubble bath and baking maratho n won’t fix,” I assured her. But Davian was quiet behind me, and I could feel a heavy, uncomfortable tension that hadn’t been there earlier. The need to break it was overwhelming, and I tried to think of anything funny to share. “And it wasn’t all bad. I even learned something new about myself today— I don’t hold up very well under torture.” I laughed, but it quickly trailed of f when no one else joined in. And I didn’t need to see Gladys gaping over my shoulder to know Davian had gone deathly still behind me. “Torture?” he echoed softly . ... Oops . Heat cr ept up my cheeks at how badly I’d misjudged this going. “Oh. Well, I mean, not literal torture.” I faced him, and any ill-timed nervous laughter died when his eyes darkened. I gulped. “Zain threatened to chop of f my nipples, but it was all talk. He didn’ t actually do it. Clearly .” If the way his eyes iced over was anything to go by, that did nothing to reassure Davian. “That’s what he said? I thought I misheard.” He looked toward the house with that predatory chill that made me shake in my boots. “I’ll kill him.” He said it so casually my jaw dropped. “What?” I straightened in alarm, just as Bear sneezed. “No, you won’ t.” Davian’ s voice was the epitome of calm. “I will.” I was less calm. “No. You won’ t.” He faced me, raising a brow . If the tension was uncomfortabl e before, now it turned suffocating, and Ryan cleared his throat. “Maybe we should give you two a minute —” Gladys cut him off as her nostrils flared. “We’re not going anywhere. I want to see this Zain characte r. If he thinks he can take our friend and
threaten her goodies, then I need to set him straight.” “No, no, no! There’s no need for that. It turned out to be a misunderstanding,” I said, not wanting to start anything. Zain had been bluffing about any nipple-chopping, after all. But, from a glance at Davian’ s lethal expressio n, it would be better to stop talking about my nipples altogether . “ Regardless , I was just trying to lighten the mood. It didn’t work. Can we talk about something else now?” “Smooth save,” Ryan muttered under his breath, earning a sharp look from me. “Don’t sell yourself short, Sadie.” Gladys frowned. “I’m sure you held your own and told him where he could shove his threats.” Oh boy . I wished I deserved even a smidgen of the faith she had in me. “Actually , I couldn’ t spill my secrets fast enough,” I admitted with a wince. Pursing my lips, I forced myself to face Davian. It was important for him to hear this. “Everything poured out. I would’ve told Zain anything he asked. All my secrets, and yours, too. So, maybe Vince had a point. This makes me a liability to you.” The curve to Davian’ s lips surprised me, and I could swear he looked amused when he closed the distance between us and raised a hand to cup my cheek. “How about you let me worry about liabilities?” “But—” His thumb pressed against my lips, cutting of f any protest. “I’ve always liked a challenge,” he murmured, lips twitching. “So, if anyone is stupid enough to try to take you from me again—which I won’t allow to happen—tell them anything they want to know . All my secrets.” Well, then. His thumb stopped me from biting my lip, so I pressed my lips against the pad of his thumb instead, giving it a little kiss. Something in Davian’ s gaze flashed, and he pulled his thumb away just in time to r eplace it with his lips. It wasn’t a sweet kiss like his touch had been, but it wasn’t hot and passionate like when he pinned me against the SUV either. This one was hard and fast—earning a snort of displeasure from Bear— but it lingered long after it ended. It was a kiss that tingled all the way down to the tips of my toes. A claiming kiss. I blinked in surprise when he ended it, but Davian didn’t go far. In fact, he pulled me into his arms, and I gladly made myself at home.
Gladys let out a low whistle. “I heard every word he said with my own ears, and I still don’t believe it happened. Who knew Davian Reed was sappy as hell?” “ Gladys, ” Ryan hissed. “Give them some privacy .” My shoulders shook with sudden laughter when I saw Ryan had turned his back to us, and I scratched between Bear’s ears where he’d glued himself to my hip. A faint wailing drew my attention, and I looked around Davian. More of his men were leaving the house and making their way to different SUVs. They moved like a well-oiled machine, working together and packing up the vehicles. But the sound wasn’ t coming from them. It grew louder— much louder, and my heart skipped a beat. Sirens. I glanced over my shoulder . A dozen cop cars took a sharp turn and sped down the street toward us with their sirens blaring. Bear leaned against my hip, growling low at the oncoming motorcade. I went utterly still in Davian’ s arms, all sorts of horrible scenarios running rampant in my imagination. “... Dav?” But he didn’t look the least bit bothered or concerned about the police swarming us. He only unwrappe d an arm from my waist to check his watch. “It’s about time they showed up.”
D a v i a n The cops arrived six minutes later than Vince and I had estimated they would. Good thing we hadn’ t counted on their help. An ambulance followed the convoy of squad cars, and my father’s Bentley pulled in behind them. That wasn’t surprising. He had a habit of showing up as soon as the action died down. “Lord above.” Gladys gave a low whistle as the squad cars all swerved into the cul-de-sac and parked haphazardly . “That’ s a lot of coppers.” Sadie slowly lifted her arms into the air and started to lower herself to the ground. I grabbed her waist to stop her . “What the hell are you doing?” “Surrendering,” she answered while trying to wiggle out of my grasp, but I wasn’ t letting her go anywhere. ... Surr endering? “For what?” I asked, genuinel y confused. “You were the one taken captive.” “Today, sure. But what about yesterday? I stole a gun and took you hostage,” she whispered urgently, glancing at the cops jumping out of their cars and heading toward us. Her arms trembled. “I don’t think I’ll do well in jail, Dav. They use cigarettes as currency in the movies, and my school had a police officer come talk to us about how bad drugs are. He made all the fifth-graders sign little cards promising we’d never even touch them. Plus,