“God, please don’t cry,” Sully whispered brokenly. “I’ll lose it if you cry.”

I laughed weakly as I rubbed tickling droplets from my jaw with my shoulder. “You can hear me?”

He shrugged helplessly, his lungs exhaling our fight and making him soft, gentle...kind. “I’ve always been aware of you. Now that I can’t see...I’m hyper attuned to your every breath.”

I wanted to say something.

Something profound and promising. Something that would give him back his pride, his power, his hope.

But...I had nothing.

All I wanted to do was crawl into his arms and kiss him until we both either died or help arrived.

Help.

“Sully...” I glanced at the exit, my tears drying. Still no guards. Still alone. I lowered my voice for good measure. “I told the captain who dropped me off to call for help. His granddaughter works on Lebah. I think he accepted Drake’s bribe to bring me here but regrets it. He might call on our behalf...I hope anyway. I also installed a tracker app on a burner phone and told my dad to call the police, the consulate—anyone in a position to help us with the coordinates. I don’t know if I have reception out here...but I tried.”

He froze.

I added quickly, “I told him your name. I...I hope you don’t mind.”

I was almost grateful he couldn’t see me just yet. I didn’t have to hide my worry or pretend to be stronger than I was. I’d done my best...but it might not be good enough.

Silence fell for a second before he chuckled darkly. “You told your father about me?”

“I told him you needed help.”

“Did you also tell him I bought you? That I paid money for your body and ended up stealing your heart?”

I shook my head, my hair catching on the bars behind me. “No...but he’ll hear in my voice that you’re special to me. That you’re...the one.”

He groaned. His body stiffened and face twisted. He sniffed as if he couldn’t believe what I’d told him before clearing his throat and murmuring, “If we survive this, Eleanor Grace...I’m going to fucking marry you.”

Goosebumps shot over every inch of me. I shivered. I smiled. “Is that a proposal?”

“It’s a vow. You’ve somehow claimed my entire useless heart. I let you go, Jinx. I watched you fly away like so many of my rescues...but you came back. You came back despite impossible odds...therefore, I’m keeping you. You don’t get a choice anymore.”

Overwhelming heat and need licked through my veins as he lugged himself into a better position and reached through the bars for me. The cotton on his eyes hid his penetrating stare. His lips were cracked from lack of hydration and abuse, and his five o’clock shadow bordered a beard. He looked as wild as the animals that would’ve inhabited the cage before him.

His fingers moved hesitantly as if afraid to hurt me in his quest to find me.

I moaned as he cupped my cheek.

He let out a heavy sigh, caressing me with a shaking touch. “It’s killing me that I can’t see you.” His forehead pressed against the bars. “I’m sorry I’m the cause of so much misery.” Curling his fingers against my jaw, he pulled me toward him, kissing me through the metal, running away from our entrapment and the colossal unknown in our future.

His tongue licked my bottom lip.

I parted for him.

He dipped inside my mouth, his breath hitching as I welcomed.

We gave each other the sweetest kiss we’d ever shared. A kiss of hellos and goodbyes, apologies and arguments. We kissed like lovers, all while we were lab rats trapped at the mercy of a mad scientist.

How long until the police arrived?

Would they come by boat or helicopter?

Will they get here before it’s too late?

Pulling away, Sully’s touch dropped to the rope looping around the bars and tethering me tight. “Are we still alone?”

I licked his taste from my lips, nodding. “Yes.”

“Can you see anything we can use as a weapon?”

I scanned the villa, empty apart from towers of cages and horrible history. “No.”

His fingers worked the rope, tugging on different areas, attempting to free me. He was just as capable missing a sense as he was at full power. He’d endured so, so much, yet he wasn’t complaining or giving up. In fact, his skin flushed with a healthy colour beneath his bruises, the swelling in his leg looked less angry, and the rawness of his skin around his wrists, ankles, and chest were all—

“Oh, my God.” I gawked closer. “Your injuries...they’re—”

“Better?” His lips twitched. “Yeah, they’re not hurting nearly as much either.”

“How...how is that possible?”

His forehead furrowed as he continued to fumble with my rope. Up close, I noticed the skin around his wrists still oozed, but the flesh was a healthy pink. Tissue had already begun covering with new cells and blood supply.

He cursed under his breath, tugging the twine harder. “A hazard of my line of work.” Bending in half, he attempted to gnaw at the cord around my hands. “We stumble upon miracles as well as disasters.”

“And you happen to create a cream that heals in a few hours?”

“A few days for full granulation, but yes, substantially faster than anything else on the market.” He cursed again, his fingers brushing my hands as he continued to work the rope. “I’m assuming Jim gave me Tritec-87 while I was out. Did he inject me with something?”

“Yeah, a few jabs in your leg and one giant syringe of golden liquid in your arm.”

“The ones in my leg will help stitch my inner muscles together. The golden one we cooked completely by accident...well, not entirely by accident.” He sniffed with satisfaction as my left hand slipped free.

“What does it do?”

“We found a substitute for morphine from a rare plant in Borneo. We blended it with adrenaline and low-level opiates. The results are muted pain, improved stamina, and strength to survive if you’d say...fallen down a cliff or gotten hurt on a trail.”

I stretched my arm, wincing against the tightness in my shoulders. “And you didn’t sell it? Sounds wonderful. A second lease on life when you’re so close to death.”

He sucked in a breath, his voice switching from informative to cagey. “It never got approved...for legitimate reasons.”

“What reasons?” My right hand fell from the rope as he freed me. I twisted to face him fully. My heart bucked as he bowed his head, his jaw working. “What reasons, Sully?”

He swallowed. “The side effects were...complicated.”

I grabbed the bars, wrapping my hands so tight my knuckles went white. “What side effects?” An awful forewarning clouded over me. I wanted to reverse time and snatch the injection right from the doctor’s hands.

“Heart failure in some. Stroke in others. Coma for a few days in the majority.”

“Holy God.” I leaped to my feet, stumbling as blood shot down my legs, granting pins and needles. “How long? How long until that might happen to you?”

He spread his hands and his eyebrows tugged so low the tape over the cotton stuck outward. “A typical dose lasts about forty-eight to seventy-two hours before the host’s system overloads.”