Page 74 of Faithless
“That’s not possible, paloma. I’m sorry.”
I started to rise from the couch, keeping our hands linked. “Come with me through the guest door. We can run. You can hide in our suite until—”
“There will be at least a dozen pitmasters between there and here,” he said. “It’ll never work.”
“We have to try!” I brought our joined hands to my chest. “I can’t lose you when I just found you.”
It was a dramatic, probably embarrassing thing to say. But it was how I honestly felt in that moment, and I had always been one to wear my heart on my sleeve.
Santos, thankfully, said nothing of it. He only slowly untangled our hands to hold me against his chest. “Go, and bring the cavalry when you come back,” he said, lips against my forehead. “I’ll…hold on and do what I can here. I have a friend who might be able to unite the gladiators while I’m isolated.”
“That’ll help,” I admitted. “If we have a united front on the inside while we come from the outside, we can’t lose.”
“It won’t be easy. Gladiators only look out for themselves.”
My hands went to his face, and our mouths met in a kiss that had me simultaneously burning and melting from passion. Fuck, it was all I could do to not drag him from that room and start runningnow,but I knew logistically it would be insanely difficult. It would be easier for me and Torr to go, gather support, and come back.
But fuck, it killed me to leave him.
“I’ll come back as soon as I can,” I promised in a hurried whisper, knowing our time was running out. “You stay strong in there for me, okay? Not just for me but for you. For the life you’re going to have after this.”
Santos’ smile was easy and almost infuriatingly calm. “Don’t be scared for me, paloma. Surviving’s what I’m best at, remember?”
“Entering in twenty seconds!” called the guards from the door.
Shit, shit, shit. That was no time at all. What could I do besides kiss him some more? So I did just that, and he kissed me back with a bone-crushing embrace.
“Entering now!”
“I refused to fuck a guest,” Santos whispered before he was abruptly pulled away from me.
“What?” I was dazed from kissing him, heartbroken at the sight of three guards leading him toward the door. One of them had spiked brass knuckles hanging from a loop on his belt, and it hit me right then. These were the ones that ‘punished’ him, and he was telling me why.
“Because I only wanted to be with you.” Santos’ eyes were dark and intense as he was walked across the room.
“Excuse me, gentlemen!” I called out. “Can I ask you three something?”
The three guards paused and all whipped their heads toward me. “Yes, ma’am?”
I smiled sweetly. “I just wanted to see your faces. Thank you for your service.”
27
RORI
My bravado ended the moment I stepped out of that room, but my mind latched onto the faces of those guards, burning them into my memory. I headed back to the suite, fighting every impulse to turn around and wrestle Santos free of those men. He needed me. Torr didn’t.
I didn’t know what to expect when I returned. The chances of Torr being there or not were fifty-fifty in my mind. With a shaky breath, I opened the door to find him stretched out on the longest couch with only a single lamplight illuminating the whole space. Night was creeping in quickly, filling spaces with darkness and shadows.
Torr swung upright as soon as he heard me, pinning me with a hard expression. “You okay?”
No, I wasn’t. My heart wanted to crack open at the question, but I kept it together, pulling in another breath, which unfortunately made my nose sniffle. “You ready to go?”
Torr stood, approaching me with long strides. “Have you been crying?” Again, he completely ignored what I said and reached for my face.
I jerked away from his hand, well past my limit with him. “No. Let’s just go.”
“Rori, what happened?” He would not get out of my way and succeeded in cupping his palm against my cheek. Such a different feel to Santos’ hands, and it seemed so incredibly cruel that he’d be affectionate and caring with me now. Too little, too fucking late.
