Page 55 of Falcon's Prey

A guttural scream left my lips, the sound loud enough to pierce the air around me and leave me breathless. Pain burned through my body like a match setting ablaze. It burned slow, down in my back, until it got to the point where I burned all over. The pain was so immense that I opened my mouth and no words came out.

I thought I had lost the ability to cry, that my tear ducts had dried. Something else I had been wrong about.

* * *

Drugs were nowmy companions and my safe haven, something Silas allowed because it kept me numb and accessible. He knew that, either way, I didn’t want him, so I guessed he called that a win. Days blurred into one, and in the end, the less I complained, the faster Silas was done with me. I guess this was the downside of having no friends—no one gave a shit about you, and you became nonexistent.

“I don’t care what you do, just make her less pathetic.” Silas’s voice carried through my foggy brain, and I had barely enough strength to open my eyes.

“She’s lost a lot of weight.” Dr. Wozniak looked blurry.

He kept looking at me in shock or maybe horror. If I’d had the energy, I would have laughed. No wonder Silas had been careful not to leave bruises in the last few days.

“Doctor,” Silas warned.

“With all due respect, Mr. Remington, I have been in charge of Ember since she was a child. I was the one who pulled her out of her mother’s womb. She’s my patient, and I will ask the questions I deem necessary.”

If I wasn’t so weak, I might have been awake long enough to hear the rest.

Hours later, I woke feeling better than I had felt since I arrived at Silas house. I tried to move, but attached to my arm was a banana bag.

“Not only were you dehydrated, but also malnourished. Mixed with cocaine, you’re just asking to die.”

Was I that obvious?

I stayed quiet because I didn’t need him to judge me for something he didn’t understand. He didn’t say anything as he switched the bag and gave me all the vitamins and nutrition I’d lacked in the past months. The more time that passed, the more my hands started to get shaky, and my body jittered.

“You always used drugs, but you were never an addict,” he stated.

Hearing him confirm what I already knew wasn’t pleasant. If anything, it made me feel even more pathetic. He sat down and observed and looked away when I couldn’t take it anymore and reached for my joint paper. It wasn’t what my body craved, but it helped numb me a bit. It was sad to depend on something so minimal and unimportant to the point it became your whole world.

He looked down at his smartwatch, and something passed over his features.

“I have to go, but I will be back.” He unhooked me and started to put his stuff away. He was about to walk away, but instead, he looked me straight in the eyes. “Are you safe, Ember?”

Before I could answer, Gio was there. “Time to go.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling my throat constrict.

I looked away and bit my lip as moisture pooled around my eyes. I didn’t know what I thanked him for, whether it was for being here or for caring, and it was fucking weak on my part. Still, that act of kindness got me through the night.

“I don’t carehow you do it, but you find out who did this!” Silas shouted as I made my way to the kitchen.

His office was on the way, and I roamed carefully so I wouldn’t be seen and peeked into his office. I couldn’t see much, just two of his men and some pictures laid on his desk. Deciding it wasn’t my concern, I took two steps back and started to walk again. As I passed the office, Silas called for me.

“Get in here now!”

I rolled my eyes and did as he said. It was funny how some vitamins and human contact made a difference. Yes, I still depended on the drugs, but the fact that Dr. W had come five times already made me feel better.

Silas sat behind his expensive wooden desk. He was my master, and I was his helpless subject. He was angry, which was rare nowadays. He had the world at his fingertips, and nothing fazed him much, so it made me a bit worried.

When I got close enough, my stomach dropped at the sight of the pictures on the desk. It looked like me, but it wasn’t. It was the woman Silas had paid to impersonate me. As I kept scanning, there was one with a close-up of the girl’s face. In bold red Sharpie, it saidLiar.

I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was probably fear, but it could also be the withdrawal already.

“Stop with your stupid drugs. I need you to make an appearance before people get suspicious.”

My eyebrows raised as he expected me to do as he wanted. Go where? What was I even going to do? My eyes caught on the calendar on Silas’s desk. One week was more than enough time. I had one shot, and if I did it right, one shot was more than enough.

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