Page 37 of The King's Maiden

But he didn’t.

And the longer I sat there alone, the heavier the weight of his reaction grew.

I needed to get the fuck out of there.

Except when my hand wrapped around the doorknob, twisting as hard as I could, nothing happened. A slightly manic laugh escaped me, my hand running through my hair more thanonce to ease the insidious feeling creeping up my body, but it wrapped around my throat, anyway.

It squeezed, and my hand jerked the doorknob, rattling it over and over.

I tried again and again.

No. There was no way he’d locked me in here. This was—I was imagining this. I was trapped in a fucking nightmare.

My heart thrashed in my chest while I beat on the door. “Let me out! Please, somebody! Let me out!”

I couldn’t breathe.

A low, pained moan came out as I sank to my knees. For a second, I thought I heard the slow creak of another door. I thought I heard footsteps, but as quickly as they sounded outside my room, they retreated and disappeared. My mouth opened to call out, but the cry lodged in my throat.

I dug through my clutch.

My inhaler—I needed my inhaler.

When my lungs finally expanded, I yelled the only thing in my mind.

“I yield!” I sobbed, dragging in another deep breath as I dropped my head to the floor. “I yield. Please! I yield.”

This time, I didn’t lift my head at the sound of footsteps—sure they would disappear. But the doorknob rattled, and a key turned in the lock. I pushed up onto shaking arms, waiting to see who was on the other side.

The furious voice booming through the wood was the last one I expected.

“Touch her again and you’re dead, Golden Boy.”

I scoot-crawled backwards to make space as an angry and shirtless Max Dread eased open the door. He didn’t even look at me before shouting into the dark room.

“Where the fuck are you, Landon?”

I sat curled up on the ground beneath his feet. Still wearing my lingerie with tears streaming down my face, I seriously ate my words from earlier. He could’ve rubbed it in my face, but instead, he lifted me off the floor.

Hauling me up and into his arms, his voice was a dark, low growl. “Where is he?”

“He’s not here.” My body trembled in his hold, but that only made him pull me tighter against his chest. “He left. I—I don’t?—”

His eye twitched, fingers flexing and digging into my skin. “Did he lock you in here?”

My whole face screwed up as pain, embarrassment, confusion, and anger coursed through me. I tucked my chin into my chest, hiding my face from him. But I kept the maelstrom of emotions at bay and thought through the way Landon had fled from the room.

The door had swung shut behind him—it hit the wall.

I managed to draw in a shaky breath. “I don’t think so. He just left all of a sudden and I…I think it locked behind him.”

Lifting my head, I searched his face. I didn’t want him to use the truth against me. But I couldn’t stir up shit between him and Landon when it wasn’t warranted.

I looked away. “I panicked.”

“Of course, you fucking panicked,” he snapped, drawing my eyes back up. “We have a code for a reason, and that piece of shit knows it.” His jaw clenched when my body shuddered, and he dragged in a breath, his nostrils flaring. “But you’re safe now. You’re not trapped.”

My head turned into him, one hand resting on his chest. Dangerously close to where his heart felt like it might beat right through the solid wall of muscle separating us. I didn’t know what to make of that, but I liked the way it felt.

---