Page 120 of Falcon's Prey

Shots rang through the penthouse. They were quick, aimed to kill. Silas’s men dropped. Footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs, and I wanted to shout for them to hurry. My girl was now on the floor; her eyes rolled back. If I died tonight, that image would follow me to hell where I would relive it for eternity.

“I don’t care what you do to them…but Silas? He’s mine.” The voice was harsh, unyielding, and lethal.

My late wife was religious; she prayed and did it often. I never bothered, but today I did.

The man came into view. He was tall, fair-skinned, and he looked desperate. His eyes met mine, and they were cold. They slid to the floor, and just like that, I watched that coldness crack and break. He breathed heavily as he dropped to his knees. His hands came to Ember’s before he cradled her head.

“Ember,”he croaked. “Fuck, princess, stay with me.”

He pressed his mouth to my daughter’s lips and breathed into her mouth. He kept repeating the action every five seconds, keeping her alive.

“Someone get me a fucking ambulance!”He screamed the words, and it felt like the floor quaked.

I watched him repeat the action again and again until someone else said help was on the way.

“Damn you, Ember,” the man hissed. “I told you no one would take you away from me.”

I watched the man press a kiss on her forehead as help came for her. I didn’t know anything about him, and I didn’t care about the things Silas told me. This man loved my daughter, and that was more than enough for me.

Three months later

Haveyou stopped and smelled the flowers?

That’s one of the first questions my therapist had asked me, but I ignored it. Now, as I sat here in the garden of the rehab center, I couldn’t remember the last time I had done it. To stop and marvel at Earth’s beauty just for the hell of it. For the first time, the unknown didn’t sound so bad.

I sat with my legs crossed on the bench and inhaled. You couldn’t have it all in life, and even though I was at peace, I was broken. My life had been lies after lies, making it easy to be manipulated. When I woke up in the hospital, Ren was at my bedside. The words Pam had said to me lingered. He had been honest, or so I thought. I didn’t want him anywhere near me. I wanted no one here.

I wanted to be alone.

I had been ready to die.

Ren went still when our eyes met. Everything Pam said came crashing back, everything Silas did was glaring, but all the half-truths and pretty white lies killed me.

“Ember,” he breathed my name.

“I told you I loved you and you didn’t say it back.”

He stayed silent, just staring at me. “I told you, it’s just words.”

“Words that meant everything to me,” I gritted out. “You knew that, and you took that from me.”

“Listen—”

“You can’t even say it back!”I shouted back, a small part praying, wishing he told me he loved me, and he didn’t.

My chest was rising and falling, and the machines I was hooked on started to beep like crazy.

“It was never about me. It was always about the fucking diamond.”

“Miss. Miss, you need to calm down.”

“Ember,” Ren warned, looking at me much like he had the first time I met him. He was mad, and I didn’t care.

“Get. Him. Out,” I shouted. The nurses were telling me to keep calm, and Ren looked at me, walked out the door, and never returned.

It was for the best; my life was now at peace without him. Except when it wasn’t, because Ren was like a damn tornado. Pure chaos, dark, twisted, beautiful, and destructive. I was too mesmerized. I got caught up in his path, and now that he was gone, I was not the same.

A part of me felt stronger, like I could conquer the world. I survived what Silas did to me, and I was surviving with a broken heart. Other parts of me felt weaker. There was a need that wasn’t getting fed, and I ignored it, pretending it wasn’t at the back of my mind calling his name.