Chapter 2 - The Crimson Secret and the Broken Cable
""Breathe, Norah,"" Declan commanded, his dark eyes locked onto mine with fierce, unyielding intensity. When he reached out and gently tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind my ear, his thumb brushed lightly against my racing pulse beneath my jaw. The sheer unexpected tenderness of the gesture from a man feared across the entire city was more terrifying than any weapon. ""Nothing is going to happen to you,"" he murmured, his voice laced with an absolute authority that defied the creaking metal cables groaning above our heads. But before I could process his words, a spasm of intense pain crossed his features. His arm dropped, his knees buckled slightly, and he stumbled backward, clutching his bleeding side as his breath hitched sharply.
Panic surged through me. Despite everything I knew about his ruthless reputation—despite the fact that I spent fourteen months managing his terrifying corporate empire while secretly using a portion of my salary to pay $7,800 a month for my mother’s assisted-living facility—I couldn't just stand there and let him bleed to death. I dropped to my knees beside him on the cold floor, tearing the hem of my silk blouse to fashion a makeshift compress. ""Hold still,"" I snapped, channeling all my administrative bossiness to mask my sheer terror as I pressed the fabric firmly against the jagged wound on his shoulder. Declan let out a sharp hiss of pain, his hand closing over my wrist with a grip like iron. ""What are you doing, Norah? You shouldn't be getting this close to me. If whoever cut those cables is waiting at the bottom...""
""If whoever cut those cables is waiting at the bottom, they're going to have to deal with a very pissed-off executive assistant who refuses to die before her mother's care is paid for next month,"" I retorted fiercely, tying the fabric tight. Declan stared down at me in the dim light, a ghost of a genuine smile touching his battered lips for the first time all night. But the moment was abruptly shattered as the elevator cables gave a terrifying screech, snapping violently overhead. The car dropped three floors in a single, heart-stopping second before the emergency magnetic brakes caught us with a bone-jarring slam. The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs, throwing me directly into Declan’s arms as total darkness swallowed us whole.
