Walking down the hallway, Jacob only noticed that Iris had stopped following him when he neared the corner that would take them to the elevator. He turned around with an impatient frown, prepared to tell her to keep moving if she was having second thoughts. Now that he’d found her, she had no other option anyway. It was his duty to make sure that her involvement with the king came to an end, and he was going to do that one of two ways: either by returning her to the districts or by dragging her off to a prison cell. The choice was hers, but he did hope she would choose the former, if only because he didn’t think she deserved to go through more questioning and torture.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to say anything before she kept walking, and they made their way to the elevator lobby. He didn’t bother responding to her apology either. Knowing that it was difficult for her to leave Caspian, he didn’t feel entitled to any of her specific thoughts on the matter. As long as she went with him, that was all he cared about. She could open up to him if she wished, and he would listen and perhaps hare a word of advice, but he wouldn’t probe her to start that conversation.

Being the middle of the day, most of the other people staying in the hotel were already busy exploring the recreational activities on the other floors, so they didn’t run into anyone on their way down to the ground level. Jacob preferred it that way as he led Iris out into the parking lot and to his waiting car. The less people around to question who he was with or what he was doing with a criminal, the better.

He unlocked the doors and made sure she climbed inside first before he sat down behind the wheel and put the car in drive. The silence between them continued to drag on as he headed out toward the highway that would take them to the border. Unlike Caspian who always listened to music on the road, the guard left his stereo off in order to pay full attention to his surroundings. It was easier that way for him to drive safely as well as listen for alerts on his phone, in case anyone at the palace tried to reach him while he was out. He was still the head of security, after all, so his job was his priority even above the favor he was doing for Iris.

As they neared the wall that curtained the capital off from the rest of the kingdom, he began to slow his speed. “Let me doing the talking when we pull up to the checkpoint,” he told Iris without looking away from the back of the car in front of him. He had brought them to a crawl as they joined a short line of other vehicles that were on their way out of the city. Most of the others were military transportation and delivery trucks that were going to be picking up goods and supplies that were produced in factories in the districts.