Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

escape hinged on him believing her. When the man nodded, Jacqueline dropped her eyes and released the breath she had been holding. She had expected to have to put up a fight to convince him to trust her, but it seemed he wanted out just as much, if not more, than she did.
    “Okay. If we are leaving, then we need to go now. We have about an hour before my father is supposed to be back from his meeting and notices I’m gone. We need to be as far away from here as possible before that happens.”
    Jacqueline didn’t wait for him to answer. Instead, she cracked the door open. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw only one guard coming down the hall at the moment. Reaching into her pocket, she gripped the syringe she had hidden before calling him over.
    “Hey, you,” she called out to the guard to get his attention. Jacqueline ignored the growl coming from behind her. “Can you come help me with this guy? I gave him an injection, and he just dropped like a stone. The bastard is too heavy for me to lift to get him back in the bed.”
    She let out a laugh that she was far from feeling while motioning with her hand behind her for her partner in crime to get on the floor. She could only hope he was listening as she opened the door wider and stepped back into the room. She didn’t take her eyes off the guard for a second as he began walking toward her. Once he was in the room and stepped past her, she turned and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that the man had listened and was lying in the middle of the floor.
    Unfortunately, the guard obviously believed the man to be passed out and no harm to him so he turned his attention on Jacqueline. “Looks like I have you all alone.”
    Jacqueline backed up until she felt the wall behind her and hoped her face showed a bravery she was definitely not feeling at the moment. “You know you can’t touch me. My father will kill you if you do.”
    “I don’t see daddy or anyone else around right now,” the guard said as he leaned into her.
    She waited until she felt his breath on her neck before moving. Over the guard’s shoulder, Jacqueline saw the man getting up to come to her rescue, and she knew she had to move fast. The last thing she needed was for the two men to fight and draw attention their way. At the moment the halls were clear of guards, and she wanted to keep it that way. Lifting the syringe out of her pocket, she quickly jabbed it into the guard’s neck and pressed the plunger. The guard pulled back and stared at her, his eyes wide just before they rolled into the back of his head, and he fell, unconscious before he hit the floor.
    “What the hell was that?” the man whispered furiously as he pressed her back against the wall.
    Jacqueline was so caught off guard by the man moving so fast that it took her a moment to figure out that he was upset with her. “What did I do?”
    “You put yourself in danger. You will never do that again. Do you understand me?”
    “Yeah, but—” Her words were cut off when the man shook her.
    “No exception. You will never put yourself in danger again. You stay behind me from now on and let me handle it. It’s what I’m trained to do.”
    She was about to open her mouth and let the man know she was twenty-six years old and had been taking care of herself for most of her life. She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t a child until she felt him trembling and saw the look on his face. The man wasn’t angry with her. Instead, if she wasn’t mistaken, it was fear she saw on his face. He had been worried about her. No one had ever cared for her well-being, and Jacqueline didn’t know how to handle it. At the moment, she decided ignoring it was the best option. She needed to focus on what was important, and that was getting out of what she thought was hell in one piece.
    “We need to go.”
    The man nodded and headed to the door. He looked out before turning back to her. “Which way?”
    “We need to go left. There will be a hall on your right about twenty feet down. From there, the supply closet will be the third door on the left. Inside there should be a fuse box on the wall. Inside, there will be a switch marked Ostium .” Jacqueline paused and giggled when the man snorted. It was the exact response she expected. “I know. My father is a very conceited and arrogant man. Somewhere along the way he got it in his head there was no one smarter than him, hence the switch that opens the secret passage marked with the