Page 115 of Falcon's Prey
The doors to the elevator opened, and Silas dragged me inside the house. He pulled me up the stairs to my room. As I walked through the corridors, I saw Ren everywhere: glaring at me by the kitchen, walking down the stairs shirtless, and it fucking killed me.
The pain—I wanted it gone.
Silas barged into my room, and the first thing I noticed was my father in a wheelchair. His eyes seemed to widen with the shock of seeing me here.
“I told you I would find her again, Michael.” Silas smiled triumphantly, coming behind me. “Get a good look at her, because this is the last time you’ll ever see her again.”
“You said that if I came here, you wouldn’t kill him.” I swung my head back, hitting him the mouth. The pain in my head was the least of my worries.
“You fucking bitch.” Silas gripped my hair and threw me across the room so I landed by my father’s feet.
Like a scared little girl, I hugged my father. A part of me broke because this was the only time I’d felt him close to me. He’d neglected me for years, and I wanted to protect him.
“Pack your shit, Ember, or I will kill him and make you watch.”
Before I could ask why, Silas was slamming the door shut, making me jump up. There’d always been something dark and alluring about Silas, until that allure went deadly, and it hurt me. After the last year I’d spent with him, I knew he would do it. I let go of my father’s legs. He may not have been able to move, but his eyes were alert.
“Did you miss me,Dad?” My voice cracked on the last word. “Or did you barely notice I wasn’t here?”
Going to my closet, I started to pack a bag, grabbing enough that I could survive on my own until I figured out my next step. I took the simplest of clothes, and all the jewelry I could fit in it. I needed money, and trading diamonds was easy.
As I raided my jewels, I came across a little bag full of pills from my party days. I looked at them and shook my head. It would be so easy to take one right now and let my life fall apart yet again in another man’s hands. I grabbed the bag too and brought it with me, putting the pills in my back pocket. I could make some cash from them also.
With the bag in my hand, I went to my father, who watched me with keen eyes.
“We don’t have a lot of time, but we have to go out now.” I went to the back of his chair to try to push him. “I have better chances if I escape on my own, but you see, Dad, I’m not like you. Despite everything, I love you. So either we both get out of here, or neither of us does.”
“I tried to do this the easy way.” Silas’s low voice had me snapping my head up.
I held on to my dad’s wheelchair as Silas came for me in a fit of rage. He dragged me out, throwing me at the foot of the bed, letting my father watch. When I looked at my father, I realized his eyes were moist. I closed my own, not wanting to look at them because my father didn’t get to cry for me, not when he’d never been there for me.
“What do you want?” I screeched, finally gathering enough air in my lungs. “Haven’t you taken enough from me?”
Silas laughed. “It will never be enough. Now grab your bag. We’re going home, back to where it all began.”
Nothing made sense anymore.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your family. They took everything from mine.”
“My family gave you everything!” I screamed.
Silas slapped me, making me fall to the side.
Pain radiated from my skin.
I was a diamond, and diamonds don’t break.
Rising to my feet, I looked at him. “You were a nobody. A poor little orphan boy! We gave you a name, we gave you money. We. Made. Y—”
Silas started to choke me.
* * *
Ren
“Before you ask it…” Ignacio sat a little straighter. “…let me tell you I’ve heard about your troubles, and my family, we care not for that organization, but we also won’t make enemies out of them. So, if what you came to ask was for protection, then you are on your own, boy.”