Page 10 of Temptation
“Get EMTs over here!” Atlas thundered. “She needs help!”
He was used to barking orders and having them instantly obeyed. When Atlas said jump, people flew. That was the benefit of being super ridiculously wealthy.
Two EMTs—one holding a bag—rushed toward Sloane. A man and a woman. Lily started to step back, but Sloane tightened her grip, just for a moment. She wasn’t ready to let Lily go. Not yet. “Knew you’d find me,” Sloane told her friend. “Have I told you that the bracelet you gave me is my favorite gift ever?”
But then she realized that…the bracelet was gone. She didn’t see it on the ground around her. Not in all that deep, dark dirt.
The EMTs were pulling her away from Lily, but Sloane jerked from their grip. She whipped around, staring at the looming hole in the ground. Shovels everywhere. Mounds of dirt. While she and Preston had been trying to get out, Lily and Atlas and their rescue group had been trying to get in. She looked at all that dirt, and for a moment, her body swayed.
Buried alive.
Okay, yes, she’d tried to fight the terror. The rising claustrophobia. The body-numbing desperation as she’d realized that if she didn’t get out in time, there wouldn’t be enough air. She’d die in that coffin.
Die with Preston.
Sloane tried to take a step, and she tripped on something. Her feet were bare. Sloane had no idea where her shoes had gone. Maybe they were still in the coffin? But she tripped—or perhaps her weak knees wobbled too much—and she started to go down. Pinpricks of heat filled her face, and with dawning horror, Sloane realized that she might be fainting.
Strong arms caught her. She was scooped up against a powerful chest. A powerful, dirt-covered chest. “Got you.” A dark, hard rumble.
She blinked. She still had damn dirt on her eyelashes. The dirt fluttered to her cheeks as she found herself looking up at Preston. He’d caught her. He held her in a fierce grip, and he was spinning away from a gaping Lily and a glaring Atlas and hurrying with Sloane toward a waiting ambulance even as the two attendants scrambled to keep up with them.
One of Sloane’s arms looped behind Preston’s neck. “Told you…” Her lips felt too dry so she wet them and just tasted more freaking dirt. “People would come for us. I wouldn’t just disappear.”
The lights from the ambulance swirled. He jumped into the back of the vehicle without letting her go. A pretty impressive feat. One of those mobile stretchers waited, and he put her on top of it. The white sheet quickly became covered in dirt as the earth fell from her clothes. “You won’t disappear.” A vow from Preston. Then… “How the fuck are you involved with Atlas Bennett?”
The EMTs scurried around him. Her. They were asking Sloane a flurry of questions even as they checked her out. Tried to check out Preston.
She wasn’t particularly surprised that he had recognized Atlas. The two men swam in the same giant shark pools—the pools with too much money and power. While Atlas controlled the largest research and development company in the US, Preston sat on a ton of cash and property due to his real estate empire.
“Sir, sir, you need to let her go so that we can fully examine you both.” Words that came from the female EMT. A woman with tattoos on each hand, determined blue eyes, and a worried expression.
Preston had locked his fingers around one of Sloane’s wrists. Her left wrist. She stared at his hand. Like hers, it was covered in dirt. But…
There was blood on his hand. On his forearm. Her gaze jerked to his other hand—same thing. Bloody fingers. Bloody forearms. “You’re hurt!”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Ahem, sir, it does matter.” Determined words from the female EMT. “We need to examine you. You’re bleeding, and you could need stitches. We need to see if you have any broken bones and check your oxygen levels and?—”
“He was drugged,” Sloane blurted. “I don’t know what he was given. He needs to get to the hospital, now.”
The male EMT rushed for the front of the ambulance. Probably to go and tell the driver to haul ass.
“Atlas Bennett found you.” Preston did not move. “How in the hell did he do that?”
Her gaze remained on his damaged hands. “You broke us out of that coffin.” That was why he was bleeding. She eased her hand from his grasp, but just so she could then catch his fingers. She carefully turned over his hand. “You pounded until you got us out.”
“How did Atlas find you?”
Her stare lifted. She got caught by his stare. Green eyes. Glittering, intent, green eyes. Dark hair. With all the dirt, it was hard to tell the color of his hair for certain, but…
Brown. She knew his hair was brown. Because she’d seen him before this night.
Because she’d been stalking him…
Long before this terrible night.
She’d been planning to finally approach him. And then… She’d watched him get kidnapped right in front of her.
