by Riley Storm
He almost asked her if she was sure about this move. Almost. But Kincaid knew his Queen, and he knew how she would respond to having her judgment questioned. This was her decision, and her decision alone to make. He would not do her injustice by hesitating.
Getting up, he reluctantly let go of Haley’s hand. Kincaid had been holding it, assuming he was helping keep her calm, that she would need his support. Now though, he couldn’t help but realize that he’d taken comfort from it as well. A lot of comfort.
There would be time for that later though. For now, he had to do as his Queen ordered, and free himself from the jail. It was time to track down whoever was after him and expose their plot so that proper justice could be done.
“Even if the prisoners did escape,” the Queen said as he took the key. “It wouldn’t be long before someone noticed. I would assume the Assassin of the House would be on their trail before long. Perhaps twenty-four hours at most.”
He nodded, inserting the key into the lock.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go yell at one of my guards for leaving his SUV parked in the northeast of the manor. The silly man got out and decided to test the perimeter security but left the vehicle with the keys in it on the other side of the fence. I just can’t believe he would be so careless and not return it.”
Kincaid exchanged smiles with his Queen, dipping his head low in thanks. He wasn’t going to fail her. Or himself. Not this time. She departed, leaving the two of them to effect their escape. He pushed the key in all the way and turned it. With a click, the bolts unlocked and he was a free man.
But for how long?
24
Getting to her feet, she met Kincaid at the cell door as he slipped out from his own. Coming over to her, he flashed a smile and went to put the key in the lock.
Haley’s hand beat him to it, her palm pressing against the smooth steel, blocking the keyhole.
“What are you doing?” Kincaid asked with a frown. “We need to go.”
“They’ll come after you if you do this,” she protested. “They won’t be as nice next time. You’re already hurt.”
Shaking his head, he motioned for her to move her hand, but she didn’t.
“I have to go, Haley. Can’t you see that? I need to clear my name. To prove to everyone that I’m not a traitor.” His voice dropped. “To prove to you.”
“Kincaid…”
He shook his head, cutting her off. “I know you might not understand. After everything my House has gone through though, they’re hurting. They need to know they can trust me. That I am loyal. More betrayals. The House will fracture if it keeps this up. I can’t let that happen. I just can’t.”
Haley sighed. She could hear the pain in his voice, but beneath that, also the need, the drive that kept him going. It was a powerful thing, and she felt bad fighting him on it, but they couldn’t keep breaking the rules. Not if they ever expected to come out clean from this whole thing.
The more you broke them, the easier it became in the future. Then, before you knew it, you’d be on the wrong side of everything, and you are the criminal, without even knowing it. She couldn’t let that happen. Not to her, and not to him. She didn’t want to see him hurt. Not again.
Kincaid seemed to slump as she still didn’t move her hand. “I…I understand. I won’t ask you to come with me. That’s fair. But you should still go. Don’t stay here. They’ll never let you go. Your life could be in danger. Go back home. You’ll lose your job, but you’ll still have your freedom. Your life. Let me take you back to the city at least, then we can go our separate ways.”
She thought about it. What he was saying did make some sense. Leaving probably would be her best bet, but the concept of breaking the law to escape was so fundamentally against who she was, that she didn’t think she could bring herself to do it.
“What will happen to you?”
Kincaid shrugged. “I’ll succeed. Or I won’t.”
Haley was silent. “I need my boring life back, Kincaid. I don’t think I can do this. You’re a nice person, and I wish this hadn’t happened to you, but I can’t live this life. I can’t be a part of your world. It’s too chaotic.” She screwed her eyes shut. “I just can’t.”
“You won’t get your life back by staying here, Haley. If they come to find me gone, they’ll take it out on you. Trust me, nobody will ever find you here. They’ll leave you alone if you go back to town, keep your mouth shut and try to forget about all this. That’s the only way.”
She couldn’t bring herself to do it. That would be too much like breaking the law and living on the run. Haley would live every day in fear that they would come after her. In the middle of the night, if she heard a sound, she’d never know if it was just the house creaking, or Kvoss coming to snatch her away and bring her back here.
Kincaid looked over his shoulder. “I can’t stay for much longer, Haley. At some point, someone will be back to check on us, and I need as much of a head start as possible before then. You need to make up your mind.”
She hung her head, resting it against the bars, hand still covering the lock. “Would it be easier if I came with you?”
“Honestly?” he said awkwardly. “No, probably not at first. Escaping with the two of us is going to be a lot tougher than just me doing it. I can move faster and quieter than you, and I know my way around. Plus, I have…senses, that you don’t.”
It wasn’t the answer she’d expected, but it made complete sense. “Why are you so adamant that I come with you then? It has to be more than just fear for my own life.”
Kincaid hesitated now. In fact, he looked away and shifted his weight from side to side. “I just don’t want to see you hurt for something you didn’t do. I forced you to come with me, and now you’re all caught up in this.”
“Actually, your Queen did that,” she pointed out. “Why, Kincaid? What do you want with me coming with you?”
“I enjoy and value your company,” he said tightly, glancing at her, then away, then back at her. “I…I don’t want to leave you. I want you with me. To come with me, I mean.”
Now Haley was truly torn. She’d felt something when he’d kissed her, and now she had confirmation that he had too. Somehow, the big jerk was showing a side of himself he hadn’t before, and she was becoming interested in him.
This isn’t good.
“Haley,” he pressed. “I need you to move your hand now.”
But she didn’t. She couldn’t. There had to be another way. A way that didn’t involve them breaking the rules yet again. It was doing that which had landed them in their spot, and if she—
“I need to go,” he repeated, his voice more pained than ever. “I’m sorry.”
He laid the key on the horizontal bar. “I’m so sorry Haley. I never wanted this. I should have listened to you, and never let you get involved at all. This is all my fault, and I can never make that up to you. I…”
Haunted blue eyes stared at her, filling with emotions that she could barely process. One above them all won out, and her heart nearly shattered as she saw the hurt in them. The hurt from her rejection of him. That was what she was doing, essentially, saying no to him on every level by staying there.
There was the ghost of a whisper. “I’m sorry.”
Then he was gone, disappearing into the darkness as well, moving so quietly she didn’t hear him go as he fled down the tunnel to the right.
Almost immediately, the silence closed in around her. Haley retreated to the back of her cell, sitting on the edge of the bed. Her eyes, however, were still locked on to the key that Kincaid had left. It wouldn’t do her much good on her own. There was no way she could escape the maze of Ursidae Manor alone.
If she was going to go, if she was going to make a break for it, it would have to be now, before Kincaid got too far ahead of her. It might even be too late already.
Pulling her knees to her chest, she stayed huddled there, trying to figure out what to do. Did she stick with what year
s of her life were screaming at her to do?
Or did she take a risk?
25
He crept down the hallway, trying to keep his mind there in the moment with him, and not back in his cell.
Not once had Kincaid expected that Haley would refuse to come with him. In his mind, he’d seen the two of them together, making good their escape from the manor and racing off into the night to prove their innocence. Then, when nobody was after them, and only then, could he figure out just what the hell he’d been thinking when he’d kissed her.
Approaching an intersection of hallways, he slowed his pace, so he wasn’t even making the slightest of sounds. The first step would be getting out of the building itself. Then he would have to get across the nearby grounds, and finally the outer perimeter of forest and bush.
Not for the first time he cursed himself, wishing he’d been born as anything but a polar bear. They weren’t all that uncommon, but they were enough in number that if one was seen wandering around at night, they would probably be stopped and questioned. If he’d been born with black or brown fur, in all likelihood he could simply waltz out into the darkness of the night without being stopped.
Assuming he got that far before the alarms went up. The Queen had stayed for a long time, and then his chat with Haley on top of that had created quite a length of time without a guard coming by.
Perhaps Kaelyn saw to that as well?
It didn’t matter. He had an opening, and he had to make it. Any second now, someone could come chasing down the hallway after him, and then Kincaid would have to make a decision. If he could stop them quietly, without alerting anyone, he would be forced to do so.
He desperately hoped he wouldn’t be put into the position of having to fight one of his own.
Peeking around the corner, Kincaid scanned the corridor beyond. It was much more well-lit, and if anyone saw him, he’d be toast, but it appeared to be empty, much to his relief. At this hour, most of the House would be in bed, which meant he could hopefully get to the hidden passages before anyone saw him.
Guards monitored the passages as well as the main hallway, but few of them were monitoring for people trying to escape. Their primary purpose was to prevent anyone from getting in to Ursidae Manor. Kincaid was going to use that against them. Hopefully.
He darted across the intersection and into a darkened alcove, pressing softly against the bottom corner of the picture frame mounted to the wall. He held his breath as the wall panel clicked open. It wasn’t a loud noise, but it was very telltale, and this close to the prison area it would certainly arouse suspicion.
He was just about to close the panel behind him when he heard someone approaching.
Shit.
He’d been so close, but there was no way it could close now without alerting anyone. Cursing in frustration, Kincaid slipped back out of the hidden passage and pushed the panel until it was almost closed. Then he waited in the alcove for the guard to catch up with him.
He would have to be swift about it. There wasn’t time for niceties. This would be dirty and ugly. Any noise would bring more guards in a hurry. Kincaid couldn’t afford to get bogged down in a protracted fight. He had to go for an ending-strike immediately.
Regretting what he was about to do, he readied his leg for a hard kick directly into the guard’s most vulnerable region. Shifters were tough, but every man had the same weak spot.
He spied someone coming down the corridor from the prison area, only their shadow visible as they moved quickly. Counting down two more seconds, he raced across the larger hallway and drove his knee upward even as his forearm went for where he expected the neck to be.
“Kincaid?”
“Haley?” he hissed, turning himself to the side as the light from the hallway revealed her much more diminutive form. Kincaid went down hard, bouncing off the wall and rolling over his head before coming to a halt.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, bending over him, her chestnut hair falling past her shoulder as she looked at him with concern.
“I thought you were a guard,” he hissed, too worried about someone having heard him to be excited over her arrival and her decision to come with him. There would be time for that later if they made it out. “Come on!”
He glanced around the corner for what felt like the hundredth time, but it was still clear. Luck was still on their side. Showing Haley the open wall panel, he had her go first. Slowly. If someone was out there, they wouldn’t immediately raise an alarm for her. Hopefully.
Nobody shouted or made any sort of commotion, however, and Haley pulled open the wall and disappeared, motioning frantically for him to follow. Kincaid took a deep breath, and then in three long strides crossed the hallway, not breathing until the panel clicked shut behind them.
“Kincaid, listen,” Haley began, stopping when his finger pressed against her lips.
“No time. Need to move and move now. Once we’re out of danger, then you can say everything. Let’s go.”
He wasn’t trying to be harsh, but speed and silence were of the essence now. The secret passages weren’t really secret to anyone who lived there. Anyone of a certain age knew of them, and the guards even monitored them from time to time as well. Just because the two of them had made it out of the main hallways didn’t preclude them from running face-first into a guard.
Taking the lead, Kincaid guided them through a maze of passageways that he knew would have left Haley lost in seconds if she had to find her own way out. His memory was rusty, and they got turned around several times due to bad errors, but the more he walked it, the more the layout came back to him. Eventually, he took them down a side route, barely used even for the hidden passages.
“This next part is going to be the riskiest,” he said. “If we run into anyone, I’m going to have to fight them. I need you to be ready for that, and not to scream or make any noise.”
The lighting in the hallway was dimmer than even their jail cells, but his vision revealed the look of distaste he was receiving.
“If there was another way, I would do it,” he said, not happy to have a decision he was already unimpressed with questioned. “But if we can’t make it at least to the outer forests without being spotted, we’re doomed.”
Haley bit her lip but then nodded. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Kincaid thought quickly. “Maybe. If there isn’t a guard nearby, or if there is, then after I deal with him, if we can head across the open lawns hand in hand, acting all in love with one another, it would throw off anyone who happens to see us walking. Can you stomach that?”
“Is this like the restaurant all over again? Are you just looking for an excuse to hold my hand and kiss me?”
Something came over him in the moment, and before Kincaid could stop himself, he was stepping forward. Closer to Haley. His hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her free of the ground, pinning her to the wall while he covered her mouth with his. Haley gasped in surprise, but she didn’t stop him, instead melting into the kiss, parting her lips for him.
Fingernails dug into the skin at the back of his neck, sending shivers down his spine as she grabbed at his head and pulled it in tight. For a second, his own eyes flew open in surprise at his actions, but he quickly shut them, not wanting to ruin the moment. The electricity between them was intense, and Kincaid doubted he was the only one caught off guard.
Eventually, he stepped back, lowering her to the floor. He hated having to do so, but they still had to escape from the house, and the raging bloodflow between his legs wasn’t going to make a nearly impossible task any easier. Kincaid needed to be able to think.
“Ready?” he asked hoarsely, still struggling for breath.
Haley could only nod, gesturing at the door. Her eyes never strayed from him, watching him closely, filled with…honestly, he wasn’t sure. A mixture of anger, shock, and arousal? He really couldn’t tell. Regardless, they had to go, now.
Easing open the door, cringing
at the squeaks that sounded like trumpets to his ears, Kincaid crept out into the evening. Behind him Haley hissed, and he cursed himself. The cold didn’t bother him of course, but she would be freezing. Anyone would notice that and realize she wasn’t a shifter, but a human. That wouldn’t immediately scrap their plans, but it would certainly bring more attention to them than he’d like.
Nearby ground crunched underfoot.
Kincaid froze, halfway out the doorway. The old passageway was no longer in use, and mostly covered over with hedges, while also being slightly recessed into the ground. It had been the best option he’d had for actually exiting the house, but now it appeared his luck had run out. He was going to have to right someone.
“Kincaid?”
Fuck. Someone had spotted him.
Gesturing frantically at Haley, he prepared to have her make a run for it, while he pounced on the unsuspecting guard. Then the voice associated itself with a face in his memory. He knew the guard.
Whoever it was, they were coming closer, the nearly frozen ground crunching underfoot.
“Kincaid is that you?” It was Kirell, Captain of House Ursa, and head of its guards.
Kincaid was good, but he wasn’t sure about his ability to sneak up on the man. Not on his home turf. Then he frowned to himself. What were the odds that Kirell was running the nightshift that night?
Not only that, but he was patrolling outside in the exact location that was perfect for Kincaid’s escape, based on the direction he had to go to get to the SUV.
“Here,” he said quietly, saying a silent prayer and hoping he was interpreting things right.
Crouched low, he eased back into a bush as Kirell came forward, emerging into the tiny little clearing between the doorway and the bushes. If they were going to be betrayed, this was it.
“Oh, get out of the bushes,” Kirell said, eyes spotting him immediately. “I’m here to help.”