“The HQ has already tried to infiltrate this business dozens of times. I’m the only one they don’t know, and I’m the only one my mother will trust. It’s not an option.”
Gideon huffed through his clenched teeth and closed his fists tight at his sides. “Then you leave me no other choice.”
He closed the distance between us in a flash. With one hand, he clasped a silver pair of handcuffs on my right wrist, and with the other, he dragged me into my bedroom. I struggled against his grip as he threw me on the bed and straddled my waist, pinning me down. In the blink of an eye, he wove the handcuffs through the headboard of my bed and cuffed my left wrist.
“You’re going to stay here,” he
said between heavy breaths. “No secret missions, no harpies, no nothing. You’d be safe.”
I wriggled underneath his weight, grunting at the bite of the metal against my wrists. “Let me go, Gideon. This isn’t funny.”
“I know it’s not,” he said, his breath tickling my ear. “And I’m not letting you go until you agree to stay put.”
I stopped struggling and glared into his eyes. Only two weeks ago, I’d joked about using his handcuffs for a similar position, but this wasn’t what I had in mind. Still, the heat of his body against mine made me quiver with a combination of rage and need. As much as I wanted him to release me, the short distance between our lips made me want him even more.
“Let. Me. Go.”
The burning need in my stomach was making it hard to talk. So I glared at him instead, daring him to leave me this way.
“Not a chance.”
His lips parted and he ran his eyes along my face and down to my lips. My chest rose and fell in heavy breaths as I waited for him to say or do something more. He could say screw the SI. He could throw caution to the wind and take me right there and then. He could even chew me out some more. It didn’t matter, as long as he was here, inches away from me.
He was about to speak when his phone beeped in his pocket, and the spell broke. His brow furrowed as he read the text and then hopped off the bed, leaving me feeling like I’d been drenched in cold water.
“I have to run,” he said, tucking his phone back in his pocket. “Remember that girl you saved from the manticore the other day? She’s got to testify against him, but she’s resisting. It’s the last thing I have to do before I can fully take over your brother’s case.”
I swallowed the disappointed lump in my throat. “That’s great. Now, can you let me go?”
He pressed his lips together and cocked his head. “No. You’re not going anywhere without me.”
The muscles in my jaw tensed as I fought against the urge to scream at him. Tonight was the meeting with Matt Rue. If I missed it, who knew when I’d have another chance to infiltrate Caro’s operation?
“I swear, Gideon, if you don’t let me go, we’re definitely over.”
Immediately, I wished that I hadn’t made that threat. Gideon winced and pulled on the front of his jacket, his eyes growing somber as he backed away toward the door.
“If that’s what you want. But I can’t let you go, knowing you’ll only get yourself killed. This is my only option.”
I swore and pulled at my wrists, succeeding only in bruising the tender flesh under the metal. “Come back! Don’t leave me here.”
The sound of the apartment door swinging shut and the deafening silence that followed it told me I was alone. With Johnny out, there was no telling how long I’d be tied to this bed. My cellphone was tucked away in my purse which I’d left in the kitchen. Thanks to my flawless ponytail this morning, I didn’t even have a bobby pin within easy reach. I was screwed.
“This is great,” I muttered. “Knew I shouldn’t have told him.”
I looked around for inspiration. The walls in the apartment were pretty thin, but even if I banged on the wall for an hour, no one would come running. Our neighbors on this floor were med students, and hardly ever home. The guy that lived below us was a vampire, and judging by the darkness creeping over the city, already out for a night of fun. I was alone and trapped. No one was coming to save me.
“Okay girl, now’s the time to think,” I told myself.
Wrenching my body to the side, I felt Athena’s Jewel slide across my chest and under the pink blouse I’d worn today. I hadn’t given it much thought or attention since I came back from HQ headquarters. Without visions, I hadn’t been able to test out my powers and see if they were improving.
Something about my conversation with Ruth was bugging me. She’d casually mentioned that with the jewel, I could maybe even move things with my mind. With two hours left before I needed to meet Matt, if there was ever a time when I needed to move things with my mind, now was it.
“Harpy powers, don’t fail me now.”
I closed my eyes and focused on a mental image of the handcuffs. Shiny and round, they appeared in front of my face. Zooming my concentration in on the keyhole, I pictured the mechanism inside the cuffs moving. All it would take was a little shove and the cuffs would come undone. The tiniest power was all I needed.
I yanked my wrist and gasped when the metal bit into my flesh. So much for that. This jewel was basically useless. It couldn’t even free me from these cuffs.