Page 69

Her throat bobs beneath my palm, her lips closing.

“You’re a dangerous man,” she whispers like it’s finally dawned on her.

I incline my head, my eyes never leaving hers. She seems to contemplate for a few seconds. Her hands fist in her restraints, clenching and unclenching repeatedly.

“And I’m damaged,” she confesses. I shake my head.

There’s no possible way this embodiment of a divine being thinks she’s anything but perfect.

She counteracts my movement and nods.

If anyone is damaged, it’s me.

“I’m the damaged one, Angel. Just look at what I’ve done to you.”

My chest squeezes with guilt. Even after my stunt, she looks at me with that soft look in her emerald eyes—the one that makes me feel like maybe I might be worthy of love.

“Then we can be damaged together.” She nods—more to herself than me.

The chains clink against the metal bedframe, her eyebrows pulling upwards in the centre as she gives me a soft, pleading look. I reluctantly unwind the chains from around her wrists, cautiously looking to make sure she’s not about to make a run for it. But she’s not, because I’m literally sitting on top of her.

Taking her wrist in my hand, I bring it to my lips, placing a gentle kiss there.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble.

“I don’t know what this thing is between us, Xander,” she sighs. “But I’ve been through worse. And you don’t frighten me as much as you should.”

There’s that pit of fire starting in my chest again. What could possibly be worse than me?

My hands start to tremble with slowly building rage as I squeeze both of her hands in mine.

“What are you hiding from me?” I’m practically begging.

“I—”

Loud pounding from downstairs interrupts her. She snaps herself out of her slouched position from beneath me, and I slip off her, padding towards my phone on the chair I slept in all night.

“It’s probably just Jac looking for me after the storm,” I reassure.

Tapping on the CCTV camera app on my phone, I wait for it to load up all the club cameras.

Another set of bangs.

The cameras finally load, and my heart almost falls out of my ass. There are three police officers outside the front door of the club. I spring towards my jumper jumbled on the floor and throw it over myself.

“What’s wrong?” Camila asks, her voice now a higher octave.

My mind works to make a quick decision of what to do about Camila. If she comes down with me, the police will question her. If I tell her to hide, she’ll probably do the opposite and come down anyway.

So, I’m only left with one choice in this situation.

“The police are here.”

I don’t want to panic her, but this is an urgent situation. One I sure as hell hope Jac knows about.

“What?” she shrieks and jumps out of bed, throwing the pillows off and frantically searching for something. I stalk towards her, grabbing her gently by the shoulders. My eyes flick to the chains hanging from the frame.

That’s not a good fucking look for a search.