Chapter 5 · One Heartbeat, Two Prisoners

"The true what?" Carson's fingers locked around my wrist before I could reach for the dead terminal. "What did your brother mean?"

"Let go of me."

"Not until you answer."

His grip tightened. The contract mark burned between our skin, hot enough to make my knees dip. Carson caught my elbow with his other hand and pulled me against him before I hit the console.

His blood was still running over his palm from the knife wound. It streaked my wrist. Our joined mark pulsed once.

Pain ripped through my hand.

I shoved at his chest. "You felt that. Don't pretend you didn't."

"I felt you try to break the contract."

"I tried to get my hand back. There's a difference."

"Not to the contract."

Around us, the ballroom had gone quiet. Every officer, councilor, and rich guest was watching the city warden hold his new wife against a military terminal. The public spouse clause still glowed above us in thin blue lines, making the whole scene impossible to deny.

My husband.