Page 7 of The Prize

“Go back,” I screamed. “Jade, go back!” Dread caused me to freeze and I clutched my aching belly as I watched on unable to do anything.

Drifting toward Central Park in this suffocating pod, I cupped my hand over my mouth when I saw Tobias clamber back onto his feet. He broke from their grip and sprinted toward the edge of the roof with them closing in behind him and he took a running jump onto the parapet and teetered peering down at the sheer drop.

Trapped.

He threw a quick glance toward my pod as though confirming it was carrying me away from danger—

Wilder dived off the six-hundred-foot-high roof and plummeted out of view.

When my constricted throat finally allowed air to pass, my scream echoed around me, and everything went black.

CHAPTER TWO

MYRAGGEDBREATHSechoed within this upside-down drone that was hanging twenty feet in the air, caught in an enormous tree somewhere in Central Park. Shaking violently, I stared out at the branches holding me up. They were going to snap under the weight at some point and I was going to bloody well break something.

If I did manage by some miracle to remain suspended up here, once morning shone a glint of sun off this glass drone it would attract attention.

Oh, God... Tobias.

That dreadful memory—

As tears soaked my face I knew I’d never recover from this nightmare. I lied to myself by thinking I was shaking because of the cold and not because hell had unleashed around me.

Wait.

They’d find the fingerprints on Tobias if they looked closer at the strip of tape in his pocket and perhaps that might help point where the blame lay. Though the chance of Elliot Burell ever having had his fingerprints taken was unlikely. A sob burst from me as I tried to budge open the door with my shoulder.

If Burell or his son thought this was over, they were wrong. Their final mistake was hurting Tobias, my beautiful, sweet Wilder. All he’d done was try to make right some of the cruelest acts in history. One day the world would hear his story and come to comprehend the profoundness of his achievements.

A shudder of dread made me freeze when I squinted through the window and made out a sporty-looking motorcycle driving along the pathway toward me. It stopped directly before the tree line and a tall man wearing a silver helmet and black leathers extended the kickstand and looked in my direction.

He made his way down the bank toward my tree. I held my breath as though such madness would make me invisible. Crooking his neck upward, he peered through his black visor and folded his arms across his chest as though contemplating how I’d gotten up here in the first place. And probably wondered what kind of contraption I was in.

My heart raced as I considered what I was going to say. What did you say when caught in one of these? I had a vision of me running off and leaving my hell box behind me.

He removed his helmet—

I sucked in a deep breath and yelled, “You’re out of your fucking mind!”

“I gave you one job, Leighton.”

“I thought you were...” I couldn’t say it.

“Clearly, I’m not.”

I half hoped this pod would land on the bastard’s head;oh, the irony. “Get me out.”

He arched a seductive brow. “If you promise to behave.”

“Wilder!”

“Jade,” he ordered. “Out of the tree.” He took a few steps back and arched an amused brow as he waved the drone down.

Seriously? It was this easy?

I knelt so not to hit my head again as thepod shuddered and then lifted away from the branches and ascended with a rocky start. It landed with a thump and I tipped forward as it settled, my palms splayed on the glass for balance.

The door sprung open.