Page 112 of Stolen Temptation

“Ah.” I’m not sure I want to know. “Where are you taking me?”

To another Gallagher property? How do I even know they’re telling me the truth?

Sure, they saved me from that man, but they could be working for their family. What if the guy who tried to get me was working for Leo? And the only reason they rescued me is because Shane still wants to use me for some reason?

“A hotel downtown.” Riley gives me a little smile in the mirror. “One of my personal favorites.”

A hotel?I don’t know what to say to them, so I just nod and pretend I’m not in the middle of a quiet anxiety attack.

The little shred of calm I’ve been carrying around with me has vanished, and there’s nothing and no one who can save me from the panic.

Rory’s face materializes in my mind, but instead of feeling the warmth left by our connection earlier in the library, I only feel emptiness.

He might as well be ten thousand miles away.

I’m on my own.

The levels of panic in my system start to rise, so I roll down my tinted window and let the night breeze blow my hair away from my face. The burst of chilly autumn air grounds me.

When my eyes focus on the scene around me, I realize I’ve never seen the city after sunset.

And Manhattan is completely different at night.

Streetlights, neon signs, the glow of restaurants and clubs…people sitting out at late-night cafés, talking and laughing, like it’s a normal thing to do.

Outside my window are scenes from a movie I’ve never seen, where people just move about their lives, oblivious to the chaos that churns in the city’s dark underbelly.

Honestly? Despite the twins and their confidence in what they’re doing, I’m still spiraling through fear. The fresh air only crystallizes the terrible danger I’m in.

Rory said he would do everything in his power to protect me, but…

The noblest promise in the world means nothing if the one who’s promising doesn’t possess the power to keep it.

Though I try to ignore it, the worst question of all keeps drifting back and forth through my mind.

Was that guy one of Leo’s men?

Even with all the security, power, and weaponry the Kings have at their disposal, was Leo able to sneak one of his men onto the estate, right up to my room?

A shudder racks my shoulders.

I don’t know what to do.

Though I know it’s ridiculous to feel this way, I care about Rory.

But he despises me now. He made that obvious in the library. He’d probably like nothing better than for me to disappear from his life for good, so it would be pathetic for me to stick around. Or let my feelings for him override the truth of my life and who I am.

He doesn’t want me. I’m the blood of his enemy. The child of a vicious rape. A liar. On top of that, all the horrible things I’ve experienced and everything my mother suffered has deepened my own mistrust of men.

At the end of the day, though, it’s the thought of Rory’s eyes clouding with the same disgust as Leo’s and Enzo’s that wrecks me the most.

Ugh. I don’t know anything and it’s killing me, filling me with so much anxiety that I want to?—

Wait.

I recognize this intersection.

Even in the dark, I know the part of this vast city that I’ve been to the most.