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She laughed. And he had a feeling she only laughed because she hadn’t read it, so she didn’t actually know what he was talking about.
“Here’s one I haven’t read,” he said. He pulled out a battered copy of a book that had a man with a gun on the cover. One of those spy novels, he imagined. He did not mind those.
It looked like a series, and he took several of them, because he read very quickly, and now there were all these books. And he could choose whatever he liked. He was not bound to whatever he was brought.
He could choose whatever he wanted to, change his mind on a whim. For the first time, the excess of choice seemed like a good thing.
Next to him, Brianna began to climb up the ladder.
He watched her, and he could not deny that he... Felt slightly compelled to look and see if he could catch more of a sight of her legs as she went up.
But then the doors to the library opened with a loud slam, and Brianna gasped, her foot slipping. She tumbled down, and he grabbed hold of her, catching her in his arms as she fell.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide with terror. Frozen. And suddenly, he wasn’t there anymore.
Suddenly, it wasn’t Brianna’s terrified face that he saw. It was his mother.
He pushed her behind him, and rounded on the threat.
His heart was hammering. There was a man there in the doorway. And he growled. Moving forward with extreme swiftness and violence.
“Sheikh Riyaz,” the man said, holding his hands up in terror, but Riyaz was not moved.
“How dare you?” he asked.
“My Sheikh,” the man said.
He heard another noise, and turned. He saw nothing there.
When he turned again, the cowardly man who had startled... Who had... He had done something. People were dying. It was pandemonium. It was the end of everything. That man had done it. And there were more of them.
Raging, he grabbed a piece of furniture and flung it to the side. Grabbed a chair and smashed it against the wall.
There would be nowhere for them left to hide when he was through.
He couldn’t see clearly. His vision blocked by fury.
He saw a chair, and turned it over. There was no one under there. There was a table, and he flipped that as well.
“Riyaz.”
Dimly, he heard a voice. A woman’s voice. And he turned toward it, taking her into his arms once more and shielding her. “Riyaz,” she said. Slowly. Calmly. “It’s me. It’s Brianna. And I’m okay. I was startled. But it was an accident.”
He growled.
“No,” she said. “It’s okay. It’s okay. This is the library. And you are safe.”
“You...”
“I’m safe,” she said. “I’m safe.”
She put her hands flat on his chest, and it was as if it was a movie, and she had attempted to bring his heart back into motion with a defibrillator. Like he had been electrocuted.
It was Brianna. And he could see her face. Her eyes wide with fear...
She was afraid of him.
“I thought... I saw...”
