POV ESMERAY
The silence of the coastal cabin was a trap. I sat on the edge of the small bed, my ears ringing with the phantom roar of the highway. Every creak of the wooden floorboards made my heart leap into my throat. Outside, the Pacific Ocean continued its relentless assault on the cliffs, but all I could focus on was the fact that Ruan Montague was out there, prowling the darkness to protect a woman who should have been his enemy.
I looked down at my hands. They were steady now, but the skin still felt electric where he had touched me. It was a terrifying realization: I was starting to rely on the man who had kidn*pped me. In the world of Blackridge, I was a nurse, a daughter, a citizen. Here, in the shadows of the Steel Phantoms, I was a ghost defined only by his protection.
