Page 23 of Lock

And the worst part?

I wasn’t sure if I was terrified…

…or something else entirely.

The men in the van barely spoke. And the guy driving hadn’t looked back once. The one in the passenger seat, the dark-haired one who’d caught me earlier, checked a tablet every few seconds and spoke but I couldn’t hear what he was saying and no one in the van replied.

There was one in the seat in front of Lock and me and one behind. They both had guns in hand, and I caught the one in front watching me like he was trying to figure me out.

None of them looked scared.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be.

Idiot you definitely should be.

Lock finally released my wrist, but he didn’t move away. His thigh stayed right against mine…. warm and solid and just too much.

I stared at the floor. “Where… where are you taking me?”

“Someplace safe,” Lock said.

My head snapped toward him. “Safe? You just kidnapped me.”

His jaw flexed. “Safer than where you were.”

I didn’t know what to do with that. Or the way he said it. Like he genuinely believed it.

The van hit a bump and my shoulder bumped his; he steadied me without even thinking, his hand bracing lightly at my lower back. Heat shot up my spine so fast I forgot how to breathe for a second.

“Stop moving,” I muttered, even though I was the one who’d leaned.

“Stop falling,” he said quietly.

He wasn’t teasing. Annoyingly, he was right.

My chest felt too tight. The air felt wrong in my lungs. And Lock’s scent—clean, cold, sharp with something warm underneath—wrapped around me, filling the whole van. It made my skin prickle.

I didn’t know why I wasn’t screaming. I didn’t know why my body wasn’t panicking the way it should. Instead everything inside me felt too hot, too aware, like someone had flipped a switch I didn’t know existed.

“You’re too quiet,” Lock murmured.

“What do you want me to say?” My voice shook. “Thanks for the kidnapping?”

He didn’t answer. The van turned and I slid an inch; he caught my arm again, steadying me like he’d expected it.

“Just breathe,” he said. “You’re wound tight.”

“I wonder why,” I snapped.

The one in front of us turned around and studied me with sharp eyes. “Thought the Reaper prince would be fighting more. Didn’t expect you to go this easy.”

My face burned. “I didn’t go easy.”

One of his eyebrows lifted. “Sure about that?”

Lock shot him a look I couldn’t read. Whatever it was, it shut him up fast.

The van fell quiet again. Too quiet. My pulse thundered in my ears. The hoodie felt too warm. My breathing was wrong, too shallow.