Page 54 of Falcon's Prey

Silas smirked at me as he dried his hair, and I turned my face. I was too drained even to move. I didn’t have to look at my beat-up body to know how it looked. I could feel the bruises, reminding me of the mistakes I’d made.

“Be a good girl while I’m away,” he mocked before he left for work.

My hand shook as I reached for my drugs and numbed myself the only way I could now. Inside my mind, all I knew now was pain and hurt. As I lay stuck deep in my mind where there was no pain, the thought always lingered—to take things further. To go to sleep and never wake up. Either I was a fighter that couldn’t give up or a coward that couldn’t take her own life.

Once he left, I laid back in bed and stared at the ceiling for a few hours. What would have happened if I’d told Ren the truth?

It was hard to get up when my sore body begged me to keep seated. Step by step, I made my way to the kitchen. There were no servants here, at least none that I could see or who could see me. Only Silas’s private security. The world-tough Ember had gone into mourning, and then she went off the grid to a private island and grieved. Silas had a look-alike post on my social media. It was easy to believe a lie when no one got close enough to know you. My father’s plan B was of no use to me now that I wasn’t in the same building. I was trapped and fucked in more ways than one.

As I made my way to the sink, I saw Gio standing there. If the bruises on my skin repulsed him, he didn’t show it. When our eyes met, I mustered all the energy I had in me and smirked at his scar. It went from the top corner of his lip down to his neck.

Truly a miracle that he was alive. I didn’t know much because Silas despised Ren, but I’d overheard enough. Ren had killed one of the guards who had captured him, snapped his neck, and then gave Gio a little parting gift. If he survived or not, it wasn’t known. I wanted to think he was alive somewhere. I was sure that if his body ever showed up decayed, Silas would find pleasure in rubbing it in my face.

The cold water was like metal down my throat. It was raw from screaming, and with no time to heal, things were not pleasant. As soon as the water hit my belly, I felt queasy. I tried to remember the last time I’d eaten. I was either too strung out, or it had been that long.

After making my way to the room, my prison, I laid in bed and waited to do it all over again.

* * *

There waschaos all around us. The guests didn’t know whether to look at my battered and dirty body or focus on the gun that had just gone off. Everyone started to run, and I was in shock that I didn’t run right away. I was half-naked with not a penny to my name. By the time I decided life was still better that way than with Silas, he was already dragging me to our limo.

“Get every fucking reporter out of here. If they post those pictures, we will end them. I want every camera confiscated,” Silas yelled at whoever was next to him. I clutched Ren’s jacket, inhaling his smell.

Please don’t let him be dead.

Please let him live.

Please have him come back to me.

Why would he, though? I was a bitch to him.

“You fucked him.” Silas seethed once we were alone in the limo.

Tilting my chin up, I mustered my defiance against him. “And I enjoyed every wicked seco—”

Smack.

My cheek turned from the hit he gave me. I’d seen his real face before, and it had scared me, and maybe right now, I was feeling so much that I couldn’t feel any more because it made me reckless.

“What are you going to do now? Threaten me? The whole world sees me like a whore right now. You can keep this contained, but leaks happen, and when it does, I will be there, striking the match to watch you burn.”

Silas fixed his tie and gave me a smile. “No one tells you anything, do they? I’m in control. The board took a vote and removed your father. It’s all mine now. And I won’t be giving you a cent. None of it it’s rightfully yours. The way I see it, I own everything you have.”

I sat still as he touched my cheek, stroking it lovingly.

“I don’t care what anyone says anymore. Release the tapes. I. Am. Done.”

His jaw went slack, and I saw his eyes darken to the point they looked as black as a starless night. “Because of him?”

His finger came down slowly, and he looked in disgust at the dirt. His cold hand moved open a lapel, and his lips curled at the sight of my neck.

“I own you now,” he stated calmly as he pushed up the sleeves on his shirt.

Before I could give a response, he yanked my arms, throwing me down on the floor of the limousine.

“All you had to say was that you like it rough and dirty,” he whispered in my ear as he held my face down from my neck.

“You want to see blood…” His purr chilled my skin. His hand came to my bodice and pulled it up, baring my ass for him. The thump of my heart was so loud, the sound pounded in my ears. “I’ll make you bleed.”

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