Page 77 of Falcon's Prey

After my shower, I took a small nap. My body was weak, but getting stronger each day. Ren was right; I couldn’t even take a good fucking without knocking out. Not that I’d called that a fucking. It was more like a freaking possession. I’d heard that bullshit of bodies becoming one. Something romantic, but Ren wanted to steal my soul, not have it given freely. My body was sore, and I bet if I looked at my hips, there would be small bruises shaped like Ren’s fingerprints.

Once I was properly rested, I snooped around. He said not to kill Pam, but he never said anything about not going through his stuff. That’s how I found a bag of weed and a bowl along with a lighter hidden under layers of clothes.

Jackpot.

When Ren walked in the door, I was in bed wearing one of his long-sleeves and boxers with the bowl to my mouth, and I was about to light it. He stopped at the door, his eyes trailing over my head down to my bare legs. His icy eyes glinted as he took off a pair of black leather gloves.

“You went through my shit,” he said.

“If you didn’t want me snooping, you should have let me go.”

“Never,” he said without missing a beat.

I looked away from him because his words didn’t sound like a threat, but more like a vow. Instead, I focused on the inhale and exhale, something other than him. Ren was a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes it felt like I could take him in small doses, but the real him—the one he hid—was intense, and I was sure if he gave me all of him at once, I would suffocate.

He was raw power. He exuded confidence, and he knew what he wanted and how to get it. The problem was that I was what he wanted. I had already been the object of a madman’s affection; I wasn’t too keen on round two. Except Silas was nothing like Ren. He acquired by brute force while Ren waited patiently, and when he struck, he made me bend.

Violence changed us. For some, it made them cower, fear shadows and loud noises. To others like me, it made us crave violent things. It made us get sucked into other dark things so they hid where you’d already been. I gave my body to Ren so his possessive touch could overshadow Silas’s.

I was about to exhale the smoke when Ren put his hands on either side of my head. He didn’t say a word as he slowly brought his head down to mine. I thought he was going to kiss me, but he stopped just before our lips touched. His lips parted, and his head inclined a bit. As I looked at him, I exhaled the smoke into his mouth. Ren took the hit, and when he exhaled, he did it in my face, gently covering me in a cloud of smoke.

“How much do you know about your family’s empire?” Ren asked.

Out of all the things I expected him to ask, this was not one of them. He extended his palm so I could give him the bowl. I did as he asked while I sat back, putting my knees to my chest. Remington’s empire was something I didn’t talk about often.

“I already told you my great-great—”

“I know about that and the struggles. What I want to know is why when I search your name, no mention of the scandal surrounding the Ember shows unless you look it up under the deep web. Someone wanted those files buried.”

Like all empires, Remington Diamonds was also built on bloodshed.

“Those stories never made it out of South Africa.” I gave him a look. “The locals still whisper amongst themselves, our history passed down like some legend. Our real last name is Redelinghuys, which is public knowledge. What is not public knowledge, or people don’t like to talk about it, is the fact that when the company was founded, we had a business partner.”

Ren sat on the bed. He then reached for me, turning me to face him, and made me straddle him. There was something about the way he commanded my body I found hard to resist.

“What happened to that partner?”

“He tried to claim the Ember as his own.”

Ren’s hand came to my face, grabbing a tendril of hair and twirling it in his fingers.

“What really happened?”

“My great-grandfather owned most of the machinery, the workers. He was funding everything when his business partner tried to claim ownership to a jewel he got from one of our mines.”

“He killed him?”

“No, he stripped everything from him. He took back his company and made it into what it is today…his old business partner, he attempted to kill my great-grandfather.”

“So, your great-grandfather killed him.”

I shook my head. “Arrested. He later committed suicide.”

Ren just looked at me.

“How does it feel to know your castles are built on pillars of lies and glass stained with blood?”

“It’s all I’ve ever known,” I said.

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