Page 68 of Most Eligible Billionaire

“Hey,” he says.

A grinding sound comes from below. Like the elevator didn’t get the message.

Stab stab stab.

“Don’t do that,” he catches my wrist. “You’ll burn out the winch starter.”

“Somebody is quite the micromanager,” I say.

He kisses my fingers.

The little cage arrives with a strange whirring sound and I get in, and then he gets in and hits the down button. The elevator lurches and begins to lower. It sounds funny. Different than before.

Just then, a motor below makes a grinding, screeching sound.

“Shit,” he says.

“What is that?” I ask.

“We’re okay,” he says, but the cage we’re in grinds to a stop. The motor falls silent. The light flickers out.

We’re in the darkness. Deep in a well.

“No!” I whisper, turning and clutching the cage side. “No…”

“We’re okay. There’re safety cables all up and down this.” A light flashes on—Henry’s phone. He’s talking to somebody, trying to work out what floor we’re near.

I slide to the cold, corrugated floor, arms around my legs, back against the chain-link cage. I’m in that well again, that well where I spent three lonely, terrified days.

Breathe. Breathe.

You’re not there.

“Vicky?”

Breathe. Breathe.

He squats next to me. Gently, he settles his hardhat onto my head.

“Okay, that just makes me think we’re going to crash headfirst,” I say. “Or something is going to crash on top of us.”

“None of the above,” he says, adjusting it to fit my head. “I’m only putting it on you because I know I’d lose points off the manliness portion of the New York’s Most Eligible Bastard competition if people knew I was hogging the only hardhat in a situation like this.”

I nod.

“Here’s my thinking.” He settles in next to me. “We know I can win the swimsuit part of the Most Eligible Bastard competition. And I have the name memorization bit nailed. But as you can imagine, the manliness portion is extremely important to me.”

Hammers and voices ring up from below.

“You can smell me if you want.”

“I’m so not smelling you.”

He checks his phone, then puts it down in a way that lights the area in front of us. That helps, too. “My guys are down there working on the machinery. It’s a simple winch starter issue…”

“A winch starter issue,” I say. “Like what? Tell me.”

“You want to hear about the winch issue?”

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