Page 52 of Falcon's Prey

Marcus

Watchinganother man run after the woman I was in love with was hard, and I had to remind myself that it wasn’t my job to protect her anymore. Hell, at one point, I would have done it for free. Ember was so much more than what she showed the world. She was all the ugly things everyone knew, but under that, she was also beautiful, and I wasn’t talking skin-deep. I meant actions-speak-louder-than-words beautiful.

So yeah, it sucked watching the new guy run after her. I wasn’t stupid; I saw the way he looked at her. Just like all of us that got too close to her, he wanted her.

I checked my watch for the tenth time, and neither of them had come out. They’d been gone for long enough, people would begin to wonder where Ember had taken off to, mainly because she carried her family’s jewel. Just as I was going to take a step toward the maze, Silas stepped out of the door, looking like death himself.

“Where the fuck is she?”

“She’s in there, sir.”

Silas’s jaw ticked. I didn’t like him much—hell, no one really did. He had his own guards. Something about his adoptive trust issues and creating his own family. Except the men he had in his employment all had questionable morals.

“Why the fuck would you leave her alone?”

“I didn’t. She’s with Ren.”

“With whom?” His voice dropped an octave, sounding dangerous.

I stood straighter before I answered. “Her bodyguard.”

Rage seemed to come off Silas in waves, and I bit back my tongue to stop myself from saying something inappropriate.

“Take me to them.”

Nodding, I did as he asked. I walked ahead of him, scanning the maze in case there was danger.

Silas’s phone started ringing, and he fell back a bit.

“Are you sure?” he said. “Don’t let the media get a hold of this yet. And start making all the preparations. I want to start making arrangements for the funeral as soon as possible.”

My stomach sank from the news that could only mean that Michael Remington had died. Ember would be devastated. Before I could think of ways to be there for her, my blood ran cold when I turned the corner.

Ember was on the floor, her dress ripped off and blood between her legs as Ren lay on top of her with a blade to her neck. I didn’t think—I pulled my gun out and aimed.

* * *

Ember

They say you see life flash before your eyes before you die. That somehow hanging in the balance of life and death makes time still, as if time would wait for us mere mortals, but it was true.

I was mesmerized, ready to hand over my soul to Ren freaking Falcon, when I heard a guttural shout. My head turned to the side. I saw Marcus angry, but most of all hurt, and even as his gun was aimed toward where Ren and I lay on the floor, my eyes were on Silas.

Angry didn’t begin to cover it. Whatever pleasure I was feeling moments before was now replaced with fear that clung to my skin and clawed at my bones. Looking into Silas’s dark eyes, there was no hiding from the truth that Ren was different. Something he knew from the start and I’d tried to deny.

The blast from the gun made my ears ring, and for a moment, I wished it had pierced me, and maybe I’d be free.

I couldn’t breathe.

“Are. You. Okay?” Ren breathed in a barely controlled voice.

That was when I noticed he had pressed his weight on top of me. When I turned back toward Marcus and Silas, I saw Marcus was thrown to the side and Silas a few feet away from him. I didn’t need them to tell me Silas had stopped Marcus from shooting Ren. One, because he didn’t want him to hurt me accidentally. And two, because Silas would want to kill him.Get rid of him, or I will.Those words he had said came back to haunt me.

Before I could get myself together and find the words to deny or beg, security rushed into our hidden corner.

“What’s going on here?” someone said, but I didn’t pay attention.

“This man was raping my niece when we got here,” Silas said through gritted teeth. His rage was not in concern for me, but because someone else had touched me.

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