Page 5 of Falcon's Prey

“To have people cater to your every whim?”

I smiled at him. “It actually takes me a bit to get off.”

Ren gave me a disgusted look. “Listen,darling,I’m here to protect your body and nothing more. I’m not your maid. Next time you want something, get off your ass.”

“Wow,” I said in amusement. “The help has jokes.” Then I got serious. “You are nothing. You got hired to protect me because, unlike you,I amsomebody. So let this be the last time you speak to me like you and I are on the same level.”

My headache was still there, and this asshole was making it worse. The damn bag in my hand was making its way through my system painfully slowly.

“Don’t bite off the hand that feeds you.”

He sneered at me. “Listen, diamondprincess. Your daddy signs my checks, not you.”

“Out. Of. My. Sight.”

“With pleasure.” He rose to his feet and left me alone.

For the first time, there was someone who didn’t drop to their knees for my so-called beauty.

I gotout of the living room like it was on fire. It was either that or blow this job before I even had a chance to start. This was on me—I’d wanted to take the job. I wanted more for myself for the first time in my life. I just didn’t know that more entailedher.

Ember Remington.

Her name was at the top of my file description. She wasn’t supposed to be my job, but the security guy had last night fucked up. I had stellar references and was a no-bullshit type of guy. Sam took one look at me and told me he had the perfect job for me. And here I thought that my long-term plans were coming together much quicker than I had expected. The universe must have laughed at me today.

My first week was spent in what Sam liked to call “headquarters.” That was where the Remington offices were located. It was where they keptthe vault. The Remingtons came from a long line of South African heirs to the diamond trade. Some of their familial ties were in their homeland, while others were in Rome, France, London, and New York. Michael Remington was a visionary and deviated from the norm. So far off the norm that he’d married a Mexican oil heiress. I’d researched the Remingtons, and there wasn’t much on Michael and Maria’s relationship. From the few paparazzi shots I’d found, they seemed like a happy couple.

Maria Sofia Escalante was a beautiful woman who’d loved her husband. Too bad that love got her killed. There were complications during birth, and when it came down to a choice between her life or her daughter’s, Maria decided to save her daughter’s.

This was the only public knowledge of Ember until after she went to college, where she pulled a little stunt and set a building on fire. Her dad did an interview and talked about how hard it was to raise a girl on his own. Honestly, I thought it was all bullshit; the girl could have used a good dose of discipline. I bet her father left her to her nannies, and he went away doing business as usual.

So to go back to earlier today, I was not expecting to be standing around the penthouse and watching Ember Remington walking down the hall in a dress too small for her frame, looking like shit, yet at the same time completely alluring. She didn’t notice me, and that gave me the advantage of watching her. Sam obviously adored her; it was clear in the way he looked at her and talked about her, but also when he told me I had an important job.

“You can’t keep all your treasures in one spot,” he’d said.

Now here I was, babysitting a spoiled brat. This was not what I had signed up for at all. I was rounding the corner, trying to get to the control room to make myself familiar with the place, when the maid came out, holding a long black velvet box.

“Hey,” I told her.

She stopped and gave me a wry look. Looks of fear or contempt, I was used to. I wasn’t an approachable type of guy. I didn’t wear a smile on my face. I wanted people to stay out of my way, but I did have compassion, somewhat. Sometimes.

Karen looked at me and gave a nod for me to keep going.

“I’m sorry for the way she treats you.”

“Miss Ember is hard as a diamond, sure, but the more you stare at her, you’ll see all the different angles, and all of them are beautiful because even a defective diamond still shines.”

“If you say so,” I said as I kept walking to the control room.

Once inside, I made myself familiar with the cameras. The whole place was covered, even her room, but the cameras went all around, leaving her bed hidden. I sat down on a chair and found the camera I was looking for. Ember was in the living room, the television was on, but she was texting, and she still had the IV in her arm.

“Is she okay?” I had asked Sam before he left.

Maybe, just maybe, the diamond princess had a reason to be mad at the world.

“It’s a banana bag. It makes her hangover disappear.” He clapped my shoulder and left.

Of course; rich people had the means to solve all their problems. Money gave you doctors at your beck and call, and with that, they didn’t have to suffer like the rest of us poor fuckers.