Page 53 of Never Bound

“Is Corey …” he trailed off.

Did the mention of Corey have to contaminate eventhisconversation? But he should know, even if it didn’t make any difference now. “He’s in surgery. Nobody is telling me anything, but I think it could still go either way.”

Whatever happened, there would be no further involvement from the authorities. My boy would be my father’s alone to deal with. The police were always happy to help subdue a violent slave or capture an escaping one, but then they’d immediately hand them back over to their owner, who would be trusted to take the appropriate actions. It was a system that had proved remarkably efficient—except for maybe the slaves, but nobody ever asked them.

“And what about—”

“They found your phone and gave it to Daddy.”

“Fuck. At least it was the new one, so he won’t find much.”

“I know. He took my phone, too. I was careful, though. No names or anything.”

“Will you—”

Even now, even while almost literally helpless, asking for help with Maeve seemed as painful for him as removing a vital organ.

“I just told you, this doesn’t change anything, including with Maeve. We’ll keep looking.”Even if you aren’t there,was my implication. What I didn’t add was that mere moments before my phone disappeared into my father’s hand, I’d already had a message from Erica (well, Emma Goldman, which was what I’d saved the number under), demanding I call her as soon as possible. It could be good or bad news, but one thing was certain: he didn’t need to be worrying about his sister more than himself right now. I could handle Maeve, and I couldalmosthandle the guilt of not telling him. I had no choice, anyway.

His next words were the exact ones I’d been dreading. “You should go.” Though the eagerness with which he’d responded to the sound of my voice indicated he might personally feel otherwise.

“I’m not leaving.”

“I know you think it can’t get much worse than this, but it can,” he said. “And it will if you get caught here.”

I groaned. “God, will you stop being so fucking noble for one second?! I want to put myself in danger on your behalf, dammit, and anyway, you’re locked in a fucking closet so it’s not like there’s anything you can do to stop me. Plus, the housekeeper and the valet have my back,” I said. “They’ll signal if Daddy comes.”

“They both know everything now, don’t they?”

“Yup.”

But like Corey being alive or dead, at this point, it was whatever.

“Maybe they could—” But he stopped himself as if realizing he couldn’t put a fellow slave in that position. It probably went against some kind of unwritten code, and anyway, nothing they could do would really help, unless they knew how to deactivate microchips. My dad had probably triggered his preemptively. Even if by some miracle he could escape the chains and then escape the room, he wouldn’t make it halfway up the stairs.

“They don’t have the keys, and they’re already risking a lot letting me be down here,” I said. “They want to help you. They know what happened. But there’s only so much they can do without putting their own asses on the line.”

“I know, Lou. Believe me, I get it. Can … can you tell them thank you? From me?”

“Of course. They’re not going to believe what they’re hearing, or at least that they’re hearing it fromme. But I think they’re going to be hearing a lot of things from me they’ve never heard before.” I paused. “All thanks to you.”

“No,” he said. “It wasn’t me. It was in you all along. You just needed a little nudge.”

“Oh,” I said with a little laugh. “Is that what you’re calling it?”

“I could call it something else, but this hardly feels like the time or the place for such language.” He was crackingjokes? I’d sensed a change in his voice, a lift, from when I’d arrived minutes ago until now. There was still a weak rattle of pain in it, and I didn’t want to think about what kinds of awful things must have been going through his head before I’d arrived. I just knew I needed to keep him this way as long as I could, so fuck if I was going anywhere, no matter what he said. Because I knew he didn’t mean it, anyway.

“Maybe we could—” We prided ourselves on figuring things out, but how? Force of will? Magic spells? Have me run upstairs and try yet again to make Daddy see reason, and cut short our time together? For fuck’s sake, we’d already vetoed every idea for a possible way out of this. “Tell me what you need me to do.”

“I need you to stop panicking. I don’t—” I don’t want to remember you that way, was what he meant.

I swallowed. In a minute, talking was going to be a lot harder, so I’d better get the words out now.

“And for you? What do I need to do for you?”

A pause. Not something he got asked very often. He’d once told me that, in this very basement.No one does anything for me, ever.

“Just—just talk to me?” There was a question in it. Why was there a question in it? Because he still didn’t believe that anyone would do anything for him? Well, fuck. In that case, I’d better find a way to talk.

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