Chapter 45

Her heartbeat knocked against mine, this moment forever etching itself into my psyche. “We don’t have to do this, Jade…Let’s just stop, let me just cut the zip ties—”

“Oh yes!” Her voice trembled and she sniffled against me, nodding into my chest. “The video. Let’s do it.”

“No, no, Jade, we don’t have to—let’s just stop.” I leaned down, her sad eyes an inch away from mine. And somehow, in the middle of this calamity…she smiled.

“We have to.” She nodded, encouraging me. “You know why? Because my father didn’t believe me when I told him everything.” She divulged, my blood turning cold at this new information. “He blamed me. He said I must have done something wrong.”

Everything halted in that moment.

“He said that?” I double-checked, truly refusing to understand everything Jade unleashed.

Jade licked her bottom lip and straightened out, putting her hands behind her back again. “Zip tie me.”

The change was so sudden, like on the roof. One moment, she was real and vulnerable, and the next, she was all business, the mastermind behind this fake video we were about to film for her father.

I wanted more. I wanted to stay just like that and absorb her sadness. Distract her mind and show her that it didn’t have to be like that—that it was all in the past. I wanted that fire inside her. I wanted to hold it, take it within me, and protect it from all the terror in her life.

“I don’t want to, Malyshka…” I reached out, swiping the last tear off her chin. “I don’t want to zip tie you, Jade. I want…”

But I couldn't tell her everything I wanted. Could barely admit it to myself.

“Finish it, Alex,” she spoke softly, her eyes red-rimmed and wet, but her determination stronger than ever. “Finish what you started. Come on. Zip tie my wrists.”

That request coming out of her mouth didn’t jive in my brain. I took a few seconds to think about it, but it was all ready and Jade had cried her eyes out for the perfect shot. I reached around her and collected both her wrists in one hand, pulling on the hard plastic.

Then I stepped back.

Picked up the burner phone.

And pressed play.

Who did this?

Jade

My eyes were made of sandpaper. I peeked them open to bright sunlight, a soft bed, and the smell of coffee. It was odd, but then I remembered—hewas here.

And then I remembered everything else that happened last night. The pasta, the coconut oil, the almostkiss. The zip ties.

My tears.

The video.

M-my name’s Jade Moretti. I’ve been kidnapped and I…I haven’t been harmed. Yet.

I sank further into the sheets and shut my eyes tight, drowning in my disjointed thoughts.

I promised myself I’d never get involved with a man again after the nightmare I’d lived through. I didn’t want to see, hear, ortouchanother man, and yet…

He was in my eyes, his voice in my head, his warm touch…still lingered around my wrists.

It was all sowrong.Forbidden. Weird, fucked up, illicit—

Unstoppable.

My mind floated out of me, replaced by a delirious haze of desire.God,what waswrongwith me?!