Page 58 of The Forbidden Secret

If I was the only one he wasn’t going to risk killing…

I stepped forward and placed my body in front of Jaimie’s, using myself as a human shield. But I couldn’t do that for Zeke, too. Not from across the garage. It had felt so unnecessarily large my entire life, especially since my father never parked vehicles in it. But with so many people holding weapons in here, the space now felt cramped.

I didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t know how we could possibly get out of this situation.

“I’m not going with you unless you let them go,” I told him.

“You don’t have much of a choice.”

I looked over my shoulder, seeing only one possibility for escape—one narrow possibility that was likely too good to be true. We were only one step from the garage door, and if Jaimie found an advantage somewhere else in the house, maybe we’d stand a chance.

If we stayed here, we would die.

“Go,” I mouthed. She gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

I tried to relay my thoughts through eye movements, glancing toward the door and nodding once. Then, I looked back at Clide.

“You seem to think you have the upper hand here,” I said, showing more bravado than I felt.

Jaimie seemed to connect the dots and realize the same thing as I had. She passed me back the knife as I heard her shoes scuff, and then I felt her presence behind me vanish.

Clide looked entirely unaffected as he released a suffering sigh. He snapped at four of the men.Four.“Go and find her. Dead or alive.”

I saw the way she effortlessly took out two men at once, and as they stormed past me, I prayed she could handle this, too.

Because now, I only had three men to contend with, and none of them wanted to kill me.

They stood between Zeke and me, and though I never would have considered myself a killer, I knew I would do what needed to be done for the sake of Zeke’s life.

“While they handle her—”

I didn’t give him a chance to prepare himself as I lunged.

I held the hilt of Jaimie’s knife tightly as I went for the first guard. I thrust my arm hard toward his throat, partially expecting the man to deflect. But hedidn’t.The blade went straight through his neck, lodging in something hard and sending reverberations down my entire arm. He gasped, making a wet noise as he reached for his throat, and I turned to the other man.

I took one step before Clide shouted. “Stop, or he fucking dies.”

I had never frozen in place so quickly.

His guard took the opportunity to wrap an arm around both of my arms and hug me to his chest. I didn’t even dare to thrash as I met Zeke’s eyes. I could see the resolve and love there. I could see so many things that reminded me why I was here. I was here to get him out, and the position we found ourselves in was anopportunity.

I was in a room with Clide Newton, holding a knife, and I could make a difference here.

I could end all of this if I played my cards right.

Buthow?

“If anything happens to him, I will never follow you willingly. I will run and fight. I have nothing else to lose, and I don’t care if you kill me. Do you really want to waste all that money on someone who won’t cooperate?”

He looked between me and then the empty doorway.

It seemed that he was just now recalling that he sent most of his guards to hunt a woman who was, for all intents and purposes, a predator herself.

He realized that once she took out his guards, he would be defenseless.

His expression soured. “Fine, we’ll leave him if you give yourself up and drop the fucking knife.”

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