Page 33 of Raze
I swallow roughly, and fortunately, his grip allows it.
“I can’t keep the others safe if everyone is running off in different directions because of you.”
“I have nothing to do with what the others—”
Aiden’s fingers squeeze to cut me off. “You are either blind or willfully ignorant. I know you’re not stupid. Jackson has been off doing his own thing for you since you showed up. Dane snuck out after Vera with you in tow after you agreed to free him. I’m sure he hasn’t given up, and he’s planning something else. Then you’re sneaking out and poking around my Guild with no explanation.”
His lips move to my ear, and he whispers in that velvety tone of his. Like he’s telling me a dark, dirty secret. “If I could tie you up at the firehouse to keep you from causing trouble right now, I would. You’re lucky you have the gift you do, or else that’s exactly where you’d find yourself right now.” The smell of cinnamon floods my senses as I breathe him in, and my shameful body reacts to all of it.
His voice. His scent. Even the threat of him tying me up in his attempt to control me has my heart fluttering.
More evidence there’s something wrong with me.
His grip loosens, as if he thinks that’s the end of it, but I take that opportunity to fight back his fire with my own. “You’re never going to control me, Aiden. You and I both know it, and I can see how it tortures you so.”
His eyes flare with heat. He pushes me back down with his body, the air between us sweltering as he presses into me and sets my heart racing frantically in my chest. Aiden’s hand twitches around my neck, and I can see the battle warring in his face of what hewantsto do and what heshoulddo. We stay in that position for what feels like ages.Long enough that my body tingles and trembles from my unhinged heartbeat and not enough oxygen.
Finally, he releases me. “We’ll see,” he answers slowly, and it sounds like a dark promise. He steps back, straightens his jacket, and fixes his tie. I cringe at the twinge of pain from the awkward angle I’d been in, but it passes quickly.
“Get up. You’re coming with me while I run my errand, and then we’ll both return to Old Red.”
I’m tempted to be a brat and ask him why—he just really seems to bring that side out of me—but I’d rather not waste any more time if Kellan’s going to be training me tonight. I know Aiden doesn’t want to let me out of his sight, and I’m also curious to see what he was up to coming here. If I’m to believe he wasn’t actually following me.
He leads us to the kitchen through the bar area, and then to the pantry or stock room. He moves some empty shelves aside and inserts a small piece of metal into what appears to be the gap between two concrete slabs. After a click, the floor pops up by two inches. Aiden presses the floor down and slides it to the side, creating enough space for a body to fit.
“There’s a ladder. Climb down, and I’ll meet you at the bottom.” His face is unreadable when I stare at him. His threat of tying me up haunts me, and I’m getting the distinct feeling that this might be his alternative. Lock me away in a concrete box somewhere in the middle of a fifty-ish story building?
“Uh, I think I’ll just head back.”
“Don’t you want to learn my secrets?” Aiden purrs, and a trickle of fear slides down my spine at his threatening undertone.
“Not if you’re keeping them in a dark pit of hell. You can havethem.” I turn on my heel and walk out because. Fuck. That. It reminds me a little too much of solitary on the island, and I’d rather not go through that again, thank you very much.
Aiden takes my arm to stop me. “You’re going down there, Raegan. Either on your own or with my help. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
Oh, fuck no. I yank my arm from him, but his grip doesn’t budge, and then his other hand takes my other arm so he’s between me and my escape. He pushes me toward the hole in the floor, and my feet push and kick at the floor in an effort to stop moving.
“Aiden, wait. Wait. Wait!” I scream in panic when my foot slips just a little over the edge.
“Are you going to tell me your secrets now?” he murmurs softly in my ear.
I bite my lip as I wrack my brain for something,anything, I can think of giving him.
“I didn’t think so,” he says way too soon, and then he pushes me into the hole.
I scream as I fall into darkness, my voice echoing around the concrete walls until my body crashes into something soft. I feel around me, and whatever I’m on shifts and sounds like rice when it moves. Is this…a fucking bean bag?
The entire room goes pitch black, and I gasp when my memories shove to the forefront. The cold, dark room. Alone for hours,days, with just me and my thoughts.
Then light bursts over me, and it snaps me out of it before my memories can fully sink their claws in. I squint up and find Aidenwatching me with a pinched brow and a frown before he quickly covers it up with the clearing of his throat. “You ready yet?” he casually asks like he didn’t just throw me into a terrifying hole and then trap us in complete darkness. He moves to another wall, shining the flashlight from his phone over it, and does something that makes it slide open like some Batman shit. Then he turns expectantly to me.
He really made me think he was going to lock me in here. I thought I was going todieor break something, at the very least from that fall, without knowing how far down it was. It wasn’t far at all, considering how his hair is almost touching the ceiling.
Fury twists in my chest at his deception. Did he think that wasfun? Or was it just a fucking power move against me?
As if reading my rage, he responds tightly, “I gave you a chance to go down the ladder, and you refused. Remember that the next time you think to go against my instructions.”
“You’re a sadisticbastard,” I snap, pushing myself upright from the oversized bean bags. “I fucking hate you.”
