Page 113 of Rescued Heart

“Nathan,” she whispered as she pressed her back up against his. “Come here.”

“Now you want me.” He moaned. “It seems you’ll have to wait your turn.”

Bianca bit back her own growl and reached her fingers out. Metal. Then Nathan’s suit. Finally, rope. She scooted closer to his tied hands. “Turn to the side so I can?—”

The engine stopped. So did Nathan’s and Bianca’s movements toward each other.

She rested against the hard, cool metal, and the stocking hat serving as a blindfold seemed to lift a bit from the back of her head. She sank farther into the makeshift scoop of their confined space.

The stocking cap lifted higher. The ends rolled up until she could breathe in unfiltered air. Only a bit more and she could actually see where they were.

“What are you doing?” Nathan murmured.

She moved back toward him and rubbed her head against the curve of his shoulder. The stocking cap rolled all the way and uncovered one of her eyes.

The darkening sky stretched above them. Smooth metal formed some kind of bucket around her and Nathan. “I think we’re in some kind of construction bucket?—”

“Where is he?” a familiar woman’s voice yelled.

Bianca blinked at the stocking hat covering Nathan.

“You said he’d be here by now.” The gunman spoke a little quieter.

Bianca leaned toward Nathan and bit the top of the stocking cap to pull it up with her teeth.

She spat out the coarse material, and a wide-eyed Nathan stared at her. The right side of his head had a gash, and blood had caked into his eyebrow.

Bianca wiggled her shoulders. “Now turn around so we can untie each other and figure out how to get out?—”

“No, if he’s late, he doesn’t get half of the ransom money.”

Nathan’s brows lowered. “All this for a ransom?”

Bianca rotated and put her back against Nathan. “I don’t have any money to get me out of this because you stole it.”

“I didn’t exactly steal it. Just put it in a safe place. You’ll thank me later.” Nathan shoved his rope against Bianca’s fingers. “Here. Untie me.”

“You liar. You said you didn’t know what happened to my money.” Bianca fumbled a bit, but Nathan’s ropes weren’t as tight as her own. She sank her thumbnail into one of the knots, then pulled with her fingers. Nathan shimmied his wrists, and unlike her own try, the movement loosened the ropes more, and Bianca found the last knotted loop.

“I think that’s it.”

“We’re so not done talking about this, Nathan.”

Nathan brought his hands in front of him. Instead of reaching over to untie Bianca’s ropes, he stood up in the metal construction bucket.

He grabbed the side of the bucket. “Whoa. You’re going to hate them even more, LB. We’re not exactly on the ground.” He pulled out his wallet from inside his suit jacket. “Hey! I’ve got your ransom money right here. You don’t know who you’re messing with. Now let me down.”

Me.Not both of them.

“Nathan, what are you doing?” Bianca rubbed the rope back against the metal. Maybe the knot would snag on a rusted section.

He held his wallet over the side of the bucket. “If you had allowed me to make a deal, you wouldn’t have had to call anyone and wait. Time is money.”

“You were offered a deal,” the familiar woman’s voice said. “Are you going to do what the Duke asked you to do or not?”

Nathan swallowed. “I already took the fall once. It’s not my turn.”

“I don’t like it when people don’t follow the rules,” the woman gritted out.

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