Chapter 26
I hammer my fists against his back as he carries me across the clearing. He’s thrown me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing, his back impossibly hard against my fists. I try to squirm away from him. He sinks his hands deeper into my hips, but not in the way I like.
“Michael!” I yell. “I can’t let you leave me here.”
“I’m not risking you,” he says flatly, the same thing he’s said repeatedly in that calm, matter-of-fact tone. He’s doing it again, taking me, holding me against my will.
“That’s not your choice to make.”
Suddenly, he puts me down but keeps his hands on my hips. He’s breathing so hard. He wrecked half the kitchen and completely caved in one of the pillars. He looks ready for more violence. He pulls me close and kisses me like it might be the last time. I gasp, holding on, sinking into it for one heartbeat too long.
“You can’t—”
“You’re staying here. That’s not a question. The only question is, how much time are you going to make me waste?” He leans down and kisses me again. “You’re going to be the mother to my children, Amelia. You and I… We’re going to be a family. We’re going to have it all. Together. We’re going to do right by our children. That’s why you have to stay. That’swhy.”
I’m crying. He’s speaking earnestly, but this can’t be the moment it could have been. I wish he’d said this before Mom was missing. Now, I can’t leave her out there. Luka killed two women before. Even old men can be evil. “What if I say I don’t feel the same? What if I don’t want kids with you? Will you let me come then?”
He looks wounded, but then this cold look comes over him. He’s in business mode. Soldier mode. Killer mode. “No,” he grunts, then picks me up again, marching across the clearing. “I’ll set the bunker to unlock automatically in twenty-four hours. If I’m not back by then, go into the house. Open the false bottom in the jewelry box in the master bedroom.”
“Wait, Michael—”
“Listen,”he roars, his whole body trembling. “Where is the false bottom?”
“In the jewelry box.”
“Where?”
“The master bedroom.”
“There’s a phone in there. It has a friend’s number. David. Explain what happened to me. I would if I had time, but I have to go.”
“Please, just let me come…”
He leans down, holding me all the while, and then pulls on something heavy and metal. He grunts, his shoulder digging into me.
“It’s okay. You can put me down.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Amelia.”
“It’s fine.”
He slowly puts me down, and I do something stupid. I turn and run, but it’s like Lion tries to stop me. Maybe it’s just poor timing. He yelps and dashes in my way. I trip and grunt, seeing stars.
Michael quickly rushes to me. I wave a hand at him. “I’m staying right here. Just open the bunker. We’re wasting time.”
“I’ll be back soon with your mother.” He wrenches open a metal shaft. “Give me your hand. It’s slippery down here.”
I sit up, rubbing my head. He studies me with concern, lacing those deep blue eyes, but he’s staying focused, too. He sees me as a task. Kidnap her. Imprison her. Or he’d call it keeping me safe. Either way, he’s not going to argue.
Standing, I take his hand.
“In an hour,” he says, gently touching my shoulder. “Just one hour.''
“Why do you have to lock it, then.''
“Because they might search the area.”
And he doesn’t trust me not to run after him or run after Mom. We walk down the slick steps, deeper and deeper underground.
“I meant it,” he says, looking at a metal door lit with an electric light just above it. “I want a family with you. I need it. I felt it the first time I saw you standing in the doorway with that shy, tough look on your face. I wanted a family with youthen.”
“R-really?” I whisper.No time, no time.
“More than anything.''
I lick my lips. Wrong, again.Wrong. “I felt the same. I wanted you from day one.”
He groans, kisses me, and pulls me close. Then he pushes me away. “I need to enter the key code and set the timer. Then you can take Lion inside.”
I gesture to the dog, and he awkwardly wedges around Jamie. He has his head held high as if this is all beneath him.
“There’s a toilet, a bin for waste. Canned foods. It won’t be fun, but—”
“Just an hour,” I say, stroking Lion. “I get it. One hour, and you’ll be back with Mom.”
Then we can start our happily ever after, I almost say, but I don’t want to tempt fate. We’re almost at the end of all the craziness now. I know we are. We have to be.