Page 5 of Gold Mine (The Diamond Trilogy 2)
“No.” Her gaze moves behind me, and I know Adam has followed us. “He found me first. He told me to keep dancing, to keep moving, that they wouldn’t touch me as long as I was with someone else.”
Relief fills me. “Thank God for that.”
“But then it took so long, and the men here are jacked on more than just alcohol, so it took so much effort to keep them from being grabby. Did you make the exchange?”
I glance back at Adam. “No.”
Something stops me from blaming him in front of my sister. Some niggling suspicion that maybe this needed to happen. That he really did save us tonight.
“You’re thinking of Elijah North,” he says. “Wishing I were him.”
“No,” I lie.
“You shouldn’t trust him.”
“God, you’ve said that to me already. But you know, he isn’t the one who put a black hood over my head. He isn’t the one who threw me into a white van.”
“No. I did that.”
There’s regret in his eyes. Or maybe that’s just a trick of the flickering candles. Either way I can’t believe it. I learned not to trust Elijah, but I also learned not to trust Adam. It’s a dark game they play. One I don’t want to be in the middle of.
“Enough,” he says, his voice low. “They might come back. We need to be gone.”
“Where are we going?”
He gives me a small smile, almost bittersweet. “Oh, we’re not going anywhere. You’re going somewhere you’ll be safe. Only I won’t be joining you.”
I don’t have time to ask what he means. He’s pushing through the crowd, creating a small river for us to follow him. I grab my sister by the wrist and take off after him.
Maybe it’s insanity. Or a suicide wish. This man hurt me once, badly. In the worst way a man can a woman, but he feels like a lifeline here.
In a sea of monsters, he’s the most dangerous.
We reach the outside, where the gondolas ferry people back and forth over the moat. Something has already gone wrong here. A single gondola floats aimlessly, empty, its oar a couple yards away. The men in white dress shirts manning the valet station have disappeared. Worry rises in my throat. How could I have made it out of here alive? My sister squeezes my hand, and I resolve that we’ll make it. It’s a pure force of will.
A loud bang comes from around the side of the mansion, and we jump. Adam puts his body in front of mine, his hand on my arm, keeping me back. Keeping me safe.
Shadows split apart. A man appears. It must be my imagination. He can’t really be here, after so many months of running. Then again, it feels inevitable. Every day I ran away from him, I was also running toward him.
“Elijah,” I manage to say, relieved my voice doesn’t waver.
“Did he hurt you?” he asks. Even in the moonlight his eyes glint a beautiful, brilliant green. He’s an otherworld creature, all the more powerful in the night.
“No. He protected me, actually. He—”
“Don’t touch her,” he says, his eyes flashing to the man in front of me. After a brief moment of tension, Adam steps aside. “He wasn’t protecting you.”
“No, really. He—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Adam murmurs to me. “I do have a way of bringing the two of you together, don’t I? Perhaps one of these days you’ll thank me for it.”
“Don’t touch her,” Elijah says again. “Don’t talk to her.”
“Then I’ll take myself someplace else.” A small bow. “North. Until we meet again.”
A growl sound escapes Elijah, and I realize he isn’t dressed like Adam. He’s not wearing a tux. Not attired for the gala. Instead he’s wearing all black. A T-shirt and combat pants. Boots. He looks like he’s going into battle. “He’s only after the diamonds.”
I roll my eyes. “You think I don’t know that? You think I’m confused, and that he came all the way to Italy to tell me my eyes are pretty?”
“He said that to you?”
“He was lying,” I say, my voice flat. “The same way you are.”
“I’m lying to you,” he says, soft and dangerous. “I’ve barely even said anything.”
“Even you being here is a lie. Pretending you care who touches me, who hurts me. The black SUV you drove was a lot nicer than the white van, but the result was the same.”
“You were never my prisoner.”
“Then you shouldn’t be upset that I left.”
He makes that growl sound again, and my sister moves to stand in front of me. “You don’t want Adam to talk to her?” she says. “You don’t want him to touch her? That’s fine with me. Then you don’t get to touch her, either. Both of you are fucked up. Both of you are dangerous.”
I tense, expecting Elijah to say something sharp.
