Adrenaline rushed through her and aided her in wiggling her wrists behind her back, which were starting to lose circulation. They used some kind of fabric that was cutting into her skin but was malleable enough to slowly unravel.
Just as the fabric began to loosen, the door in front of Emma broke open. She looked up, startled as a tall shadow blocked by the light. Benny had come to kill her for spite.
“Stay away from me!” she screamed. “You stay the fuck away from me! Do you hear me?”
Her eyes had become blurry with tears. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to live and thrive, to be with Ace and learn more about who she truly was.
She managed to get the bindings loose and did an awkward roll from her side, and landed on her back. She tried to scurry to her feet, but her hands were still numb from being tied so tight. So she moved backward before bumping into the wall.
“Stay away!” she yelled.
The shadow stepped toward her. Light cascading from the warehouse revealed Ace standing there glorious and naked, smiling down at her. He looked at her the way the sun shone on the gardens below.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, his voice raspy and tired.
He crouched and took Emma in his arms. She wrapped her hands around his head, loving the sensation of his skin and muscles on her. She wanted to crumble into him, to tell him how she really felt before it was too late.
“Ace,” she muttered. “You came for me.”
He pulled away and brought one hand to her cheek. She leaned against it, absorbing its warmth and letting her tears fall easily.
“Of course I did,” he said, smiling. “I even got a little help from your family.”
Emma smiled but judging from the sounds of screaming and shooting outside, that fight was far from over.
Ace’s expression of glee melted as if he had read her mind.
“I’m going to get you out of here.”
He held out his hand. Her wrists were still sore, but the sensation in her fingers had mostly returned. She took his, and he pulled her up gently into his body.
“I’m going to shield you until we get to the van,” he said sternly. “You keep behind me and go when I say to go, no hesitation, no questions. Got it?”
Emma nodded. “You’re not wearing any body armor,” she whispered, hands coming to his chest.
Ace took her hands, then kissed each palm before speaking.
“No. But as a shifter, I can absorb more than the average human,” he said, smirking slightly.
Emma knew there wasn’t any other way out. She had to be brave and trust that Ace knew what he was doing.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
Ace took her by the hand, and he led her out of the room.
The warehouse was big, with the garage door pulled open and revealing the dim night beyond. Emma spotted a few dead bodies around them, all of them Lombardis, thankfully. But they were far from being out of the woods.
Ace pulled her to crouch behind a big shipping container. He leaned out the side discreetly, watching and waiting for the right time to move forward.
“Okay,” Ace said. “On three, we are going to leg it over to that other shipping container. Once we’re beyond that, we will get to the van. If I get hit, you keep moving. Got it?”
Emma nodded, trying to appear as practical as he was being.
“One … two … three!”
Ace used himself as a shield without hesitation, easily covering Emma’s tiny frame as they sprinted the twelve feet that had been between them and the next shelter. It felt like miles to Emma, who began heaving as she crashed her back into the container.
“Ugh,” Emma exclaimed.