Chapter 43 · The Date Before My Birth

"Get your hand off my throat, Kane."

His fingers tightened.

Not enough to choke me. Enough to make his point.

He pinned me against the stone wall, his bare forearm braced beside my head. His face hovered inches from mine. Blood ran from the cut across my palm and vanished beneath the black mark spreading over his chest.

Our hearts slammed together.

One beat. Two bodies.

"Tell your squad to lower their weapons," he said.

"Tell them yourself. You're the one holding me down."

His eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second.

Then they went cold again. "You opened the blood signature."

"No. You hid it. Big difference."

Behind him, metal clicked.

The wardens raised their rifles. Every barrel pointed at me because the contract had decided my blood was a threat.

Kane turned his head. "If anyone fires, shoot me first."

The room froze.

I stared at him. "That's your plan? Die dramatically and leave me surrounded by armed idiots?"

"You got a better one?"

"Yeah. Start by telling me why Oscar Venn's mark is inside our marriage contract."

His jaw locked.

There it was.

The secret he'd been dragging behind him since the sealed gate.