Page 81 of Faithless
“Fuck,” the guy whispered. “You’re him. Did she escape?”
Footsteps rushed at me, and I felt the presence of a big, muscular guy right in my face. “Whoa! Hold on, I’m right here.” My hands stretched out to put space between us, and they landed on a wide set of shoulders only inches in front of me.
“Rori. Aurora,” the guy said, leaning into my palms. “Did she get out? She said she was getting out. If you’re in here, did she make it?”
Oh shit. I knew exactly who this was.
“You’re Santos.”
I heard a hiss of surprise and then felt two arms swiftly break the contact of my hands on his shoulders. “How do you know my real name?”
“Rori told me. And…I dunno.” I shook my head even though he couldn’t see. “We were right at the elevator, and they separated us. I got knocked out before I saw what they did to her.”
“Fuck!”
I felt Santos’ presence back away and heard the shuffling of pacing steps a moment later. I wanted to do the same, but I knew Rori better than he did and felt the overwhelming sense to reassure him.
“She’ll figure something out, man. We won’t be in here too long.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” he grumbled. “If she finds out we’re both in here, she’ll want to spring us so bad, she won’t stop to consider all the pitmasters in the resort coming after her.” The pacing stopped. “What did she tell you about me?”
“Well, she likes you. A lot. And…she told me what happened last time she saw you.”
The pause that followed was the longest one yet. “Why would she tell you what we did?” He sounded a touch possessive, which I couldn’t blame him for, but not angry. It seemed more like he was curious, which made me wonder how much Rori had told him about us.
I took a deep breath. This felt like a horrible idea, considering I would be stuck with him in this pitch black cell for who knew how long. But he was someone Rori cared about, and he deserved to know the truth. If he couldn’t handle her being with both of us, well, then he wasn’t right for her anyway.
“When she came back from seeing you, we talked and…well, aired out a lot of things that had been unsaid for too long and kind of…turned over a new leaf.”
This next pause was brief, and then soft laughter filled the air. It slowly grew louder, unconstrained, and nearly hysterical. “Iknewit.”
“Knew what?”
“That the fool she came here with would finally wise up before she slipped through his fingers.”
Okay, I deserved that. “Yeah, you’re right,” I sighed. “I was that fool, but not anymore.”
“And now she’s your girl. Congratulations.”
“Well, she’s yours too.”
I didn’t have to wait long for a reaction. The gladiator shuffled over to me until his shoes gently bumped into mine. He touched my shoulder and followed down the length of my arm until he found my hand. Then he clasped his hand against mine.
“Guess we might as well get to know each other.”
29
RORI
“Torr! Torr! Fucking wake up! Torr!” I struggled hard, fueled by fury, but the armed guards barely budged as they restrained me between them. I could only scream my throat raw as the four other guards dragged Torr’s limp body away.
Straight to the colosseum.
When I realized we were in the elevator heading up, I called on every technique my fathers had taught me to get out of a hold. But because there were two of them and we were in an enclosed space, I couldn’t get any leverage. I couldn’t even kick my feet out because my legs had nowhere to go. My guards each had a leg braced in front of mine with both hands clasped tightly to my arms.
There was no fucking escape.
It still didn’t keep me from fighting. Once we reached the top and the glass door opened, they took me a few steps forward, then released me. I spun around, ready to throw punches and kicks so hard they’d need kidney transplants, only to find two gun barrels pointed at my chest.
