Page 71 of Stolen Temptation

My stomach hits the ground beneath my feet, heavy as a damn bowling ball.

My lack of foresight stuns me. I can’t believe I forgot everything and fell asleep down here with Kiara last night. I’m also shocked to realize that I don’t feel the least bit sorry about my actions.

Compared to last night when all the guilt in the world draped over my shoulders, my body feels light. Maybe a little panicked because I caused some chaos and need to figure outhow to explain things to Finn, but I don’t regret anything that happened.

In fact, I feel something else entirely.

Something I can’t think about right now.

Not with Finn breathing down my neck across the line.

“Call off the dogs.” I set my shoulders, bracing for the furious questions Finn’s about to flay me with. “The target didn’t escape. She’s here with me in the medical unit.”

Dead silence. I start counting in my head and get to ten before rage thunders full force into my ear. “Rory, you have five seconds to explain to me what the fuck is going on. Did she gethurt? Why didn’t you report back to me like we agreed?”

“I was analyzing the chatter like you told me to, but when I checked on the video feed in her room, I saw her trying to escape. She climbed out her window. I caught her at the bottom, but she didn’t make it easy. She did get hurt. Not too bad, but enough that I brought her down to the med unit?—”

“Where the hell did you take her?” Finn demands, causing my teeth to grind. I haven’t lied yet, but I’m about to. “The medical staff wasn’t even on duty last night.”

Proceeding with caution, I release a deep breath. “I forgot. But once we arrived and everything was dark, I knew there was nothing I could do except administer first aid.”

More silence. Followed by more of Finn’s clipped, irate syllables.

“And you had to administer first aidall night?”

“Of course not. I patched her up, and she fell asleep in my old office. I wanted to have a nurse check her out this morning, so I thought it was better not to move her. I monitored her overnight.”

What should scare me is what Finn’s going to do when he inevitably finds out that I’m lying. He has a way of sussing out when someone’s not telling the whole story.

Instead, what actually scares me is how easily my lie about last night slipped out.

Finn is one of the deadliest enforcers in the city. Interrogation is his specialty. Friend or not, pushing him too far is a bad idea. Deceiving him is an even worse one.

Yet my tongue refuses to confess.

The quiet between us drags on, which can only mean one thing.

He doesn’t believe me.

An angry exhale causes the line to frizz and snap in my ear. “Get up here.Now.”

The call drops, leaving me alone in the basement hallway.

I slide my phone into the pocket of my jeans, trepidation already rearing its ugly head.

I can’t believe I just did that.

What was I thinking, bringing Kiara down to my old office? Of course no one searched in there. The room has gone unused for years, ever since I got the security hub up and running in the main estate.

The space is underground and not subject to any surveillance cameras.

Even trackers go offline down here.

If I really stop and think about it, the whole thing feels a little predatory. Like I planned the seduction out perfectly so that we’d have the opportunity and privacy to get carried away last night.At least, that’s what Finn’s going to assume when I get upstairs to his office and he forces me to explain the story again in greater detail.

I wish I had something new to report. Something that would distract Finn and anyone else in the loop from the obvious spectacle of me being a jackass. But all I can tell him is the few new details I squeezed out of Kiara last night.

They’re the only bones I can throw Finn, Shane, and the others. The picture is bigger than we initially thought. Both Kiara and her mother have a history with the De Lucas, which triggers even more questions.