Page 31 of Unlocking Ruin

Plane. I’m still on a plane.

“You want me to hack for you. That’s why you took me,” I state, having figured it out. “I won’t do it.”

Raising his hand, he rubs his jaw. “I have a team of hackers that would make even you blush.”

“Doubtful.”

He bites his lip again, eyes tracing every detail of my face. Whatever he’s scheming, it stretches his smirk wide.

The cockpit door swings open.

I flinch as Hulk steps out. “We’re starting the descent.”

My captor nods, and I realize I still don’t know his name.

Hulk leaves me alone with my dark knight again.

“We’re landing,” I announce, voice shaky. “That’s a dangerous time,” I mumble, clutching my seatbelt and eyeing the pills.

“We’ll take a helicopter next, so I would suggest swallowing both the pain reliever and the Xanax.”

“Excuse me?” Blood rushes to my face. “I’m not getting into a helicopter,” I declare.

He arches a dark brow. “Wanna bet?”

“I’ll fight.”

He shrugs one shoulder so lazily I want to smack him.

I look away sharply, fixing my eyes on the cockpit door.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I ask, failing to suppress the trembling in my limbs.

“Eventually.”

“What’s your name?”

He shakes his head. “Not yet.”

“Why?”

“There is power in hearing your name leave another’s lips,” he answers softly; it’s almost lost over the hum of the engines. “I’m not sure I want to give you that power over me yet.”

Our eyes clash.

For the first time since I met him, I see a vulnerability. He keeps telling me he’s not the villain; now I realize he’s desperate for me to believe that.

“You want me to like you,” I blurt out as the engines rumble, and an odd noise of gears sounds. A symphony of metal, wind, and chaos.

He takes his seatbelt and buckles it. His large hands give it a good tug, a deliberate show to assure me we’re safe.

It’s as comical as a killer sharpening a knife in front of his victim.

“I want you to trust me,” he says, his voice soothing yet firm. “Affection will hopefully come later.”

“Usually it’s the other way around. You like someone, then in time you learn to trust them,” I correct him.

“We don’t have time for all that.”