Page 33 of Dangerous Exile

His mouth pulled to the side as he tried to figure her. “Ness, this doesn’t have anything to do with who you think I am. You’re only here because this is where I need you to be.”

With the softest of motions, his fingers sank into the side of her hair. Far too gentle, like his own hand disagreed with his words, battling them. “This is how I keep you safe.”

He wasn’t listening to her. Not hearing her. Her fingers curled into a death grip on his coat. “But no. You don’t understand. You cannot leave me here. You cannot.”

His hand pulled away from her hair, his voice going gruff. “No, I have to leave now. I can’t afford any more time here. Someone may see me that shouldn’t. I’ll be back once I’ve found those men searching for you, I swear it.”

He grabbed her right hand and had to peel back her fingers, one by one, to disengage her clamp on his coat. Free from her, he took a step toward the door.

Her heart thundering in her chest, she crumpled in that instant, defeat overtaking her voice, sobs starting. “Don’t leave me here, Talen. Please. Please, not like my mother, please.” Her sight blurry with tears, she reached out, grabbing furiously at his retreating feet. Black boots moving out of her grasp. “Please, Talen. Please don’t do this. Please.”

The boots stopped for a long second at the door and she looked up, searching for his face through the shield of tears clouding her eyes.

“We covered this.” He stared down at her, his face hard as granite. “I’m not your hero, Ness.”

Before she could blink, he was out the door.

The clink of the lock set in place.

{ Chapter 12 }

It was what needed to be done.

He’d panicked, true. And this had been the first place he could think of where Ness would be free from harm. The last place anyone would look for her.

Above everything else, she needed to be safe.

Leaning forward, Talen pulled aside the curtain in the carriage and watched the retreating large, pale pink monstrosity of a building. A giant rectangle, pink stone. Even the outside of the place looked like it was trying to pretend everything was fine.

When it wasn’t.

That had been clear the moment Ness had figured out where he’d brought her.

Her reaction? That wasn’t fine. Not in the slightest.

And it had him staring at the building quickly shifting out of view.

Everything that he knew of Ness had just been flipped. She had inhuman ability to withstand the worst pain. She was strong. Or wanted to be. That she’d even admitted to wanting to be strong had taken courage he hadn’t thought she possessed.

And he’d seen, day after day, what she was willing to do to make that happen—doing everything he asked of her.

Lift books to strengthen her muscles? He’d walked into her room several times a day, only to find her stretched out on the floor, doing that very thing.

Come directly at a blade instead of cowering from it? Again and again she’d lurched toward him, hitting his arm from the side before he could take a swing.

Smash every movable item in his office across his head? That…that she probably actually enjoyed.

All of it was against her nature, but she did it. Did it because she’d discovered a well of courage deep within. Did it because she refused to ever be a victim to her own inaction again.

Her fight against the two fops cornering her in the hallway at the Alabaster was testament to the fierce spirit within her that had been unleashed.

But there—in that retreating building, she wasn’t fine. All of her courage had deserted her, turning her into a blubbering mess, begging on the floor.

The asylum slipped out of view and he let the curtain fall back into place.

Ness would be safe in the madhouse. Her arm would finish healing. No one would find her. It was the best place for her at the moment. The room had been simple, but private, far from the sounds of the other patients. And he’d paid handsomely to have her taken care of well, her every need more than met. He only needed a few days, a week at most, to find the men that had been looking for her and either turn them against her husband, or have them removed from England, or dispose of them, if that’s what it took.

Above all else, Ness would be protected.