Page 109 of Bittersweet & Strange

“Shh. Come on, Boone. Let’s get you out of here.”

He drags me completely from my hiding place, and the moment I realize what he’s doing, I fight him with everything I have. I plant my heels against the floor and throw my weight in the opposite direction, forcing him to drag me instead of helping him take a single step. Lucien laughs under his breath, treating my struggling as little more than an inconvenience. His arm tightens around my chest until drawing a full breath becomes impossible.

“Rhy—”

His hand clamps over my mouth before I can finish his name, swallowing the scream that tears out of me.

“None of that, Boone.”

I bite down on his palm.

Lucien curses and jerks his hand away, giving me enough time to suck in a breath, but he catches me around the jaw before I can scream again and forces my head back against his shoulder. I kick backward, catching his shin hard enough to make him stumble. His grip loosens for one hopeful second, and I wrench an arm free.

I barely make it two steps.

His hand closes around the back of my shirt and hauls me into him again.

“RHYS!”

The name explodes out of me, loud enough to echo through the corridor. Lucien immediately clamps his hand over my mouth again and drags me toward the nearest exit. I claw at his forearm, twist, kick at his legs and throw my weight against every doorway we pass, trying to catch my shoulder or foot against anything that might slow him down. Lucien is larger than I am and prepared for every attempt now, keeping himself behind me where I can’t get enough leverage to strike him properly.

By the time he gets me outside, we’re both breathing hard. The cold night air hits my face when he drags me into the alley behind the building, and a horse waits there already saddled, its reins looped loosely around a post.

The sight of it terrifies me. Lucien didn’t stumble across me by accident. He had to have seen us entering the magistrate’s hall. He knew I was here. Which means he knows I came with another man.

He planned this.

I throw myself sideways before he can reach the horse, taking both of us off balance. His hand finally slips away from my mouth.

“RHYS!” I scream as loudly as my lungs will allow. “RHYS!”

Lucien grabs me around the waist and hauls me upright. “Enough!”

“No!”

I drive my elbow backward and catch something solid enough to make him grunt. Instead of releasing me, he shoves me against the horse’s side and traps me there with his body. I kick at him blindly, fighting to keep my hands apart when he grabs for them, but he catches one wrist, then the other. He forces them together and loops a leather strap around them. I wrench against him with enough force that he has to start twice before he manages to cinch it tight.

“Get the fuck off me!”

I twist toward him, but Lucien grabs the binding between my wrists and secures it to the saddle horn with another length of leather, keeping it short enough that I can’t pull my hands free without dragging the saddle with me. I yank backward anyway. Once, twice, hard enough that the leather tears at the already damaged skin around my wrists.

Lucien takes advantage of my position. He plants one boot in the stirrup and swings into the saddle, then leans down and reaches for me.

“No!” I drop my weight and brace my boots against the ground. “RHYS!”

Lucien pulls.

I kick against the horse’s side, making the animal sidestep nervously and forcing Lucien to stop long enough to bring it back under control. I use the opportunity to twist away, but my wrists are still tethered to the saddle. There’s nowhere for me to go.

“Stop fighting me.”

“Fuck you!”

He reaches down again and catches me under the arms, hauling upward. I scramble for footing, but the saddle horn drags my bound hands with it until I have no choice but to rise or let my shoulders take my entire weight. I manage to hook one leg awkwardly over the horse’s back, and Lucien uses the opportunity to drag the rest of me across the saddle. I’m turned around and forced to sit in front of him.

I immediately try to throw myself off the animal.

His arm locks around my waist.