Page 45 of Trust in the Fallen

“I mean, I can’t keep expecting you to do everything for me. At some point I’m going to have to face the music because there’s no way they’re going to let this drop.”

He sighs and gently tips my face up until I meet his eyes again. “You let us worry about that, pretty girl. We have it well in hand, and if at any point we don’t, you’ll be the first to know. Okay?”

“I can’t just let you take care of me. It’s not fair to you,” I argue.

A flash of something I haven’t seen since the gala crosses his face, and my breath hitches in my throat. Dominance. He may have been gentle with me for the last week while I’ve been healing, but the same ruthless man is still lurking in the shadows, waiting for his moment to take over again. “Do you know what I think you need, pretty girl?” he croons. “I think you need to be punished for running from us.”

The words send a cold wash of dread through my body, the automatic reaction of someone who has been hurt the way I have been, but it’s quickly replaced with heat. For the last week, they’ve done everything for me. They’ve helped me bathe, they’ve fed me, they’ve held me through nightmares, and they’ve taken care of my every need. But they haven’t touched me the way I want them to. A gentle kiss to the forehead here, and a light touch of my thigh while we watch television. But nothing like the first night we spent together, and I hadn’t realized how badly I've needed it.

“I’ll wait until Wyatt gets home. He’ll want a say in your punishment.”

I nod, and the most natural words I’ve ever spoken fall from my lips. “Yes, Sir.”

CHAPTERFORTY-THREE

WYATT

My outing today was only partially about getting more supplies for Leighton. If that was all it was, I would have had our personal assistant do the shopping like we did the first day, but I needed an excuse to leave the house that wouldn’t worry her.

As it is, Elias messaged me an hour after I left to let me know she’d been watching the door like a hawk since I walked out it. I don’t like that my absence is making her uneasy, but there’s something I have to do.

I stroll through the modern office building, past cubicles of interns who look like they haven’t slept in a week, and men in suits whose self-importance is higher than any man’s should be. I walk right past the pretty redhead behind the reception desk whose tits are sitting a little too high for the outfit she’s wearing to be considered work appropriate.

“You can’t go in there,” she rushes out but before she can even get around her desk, I’m pushing my way into Jason Collins’s office.

He looks up from behind his desk, startled by the intrusion, but when he notices who it is, anger crosses his face.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” He snaps, shoving himself to his feet as if it does anything to improve the obvious difference in power between us.

“I came to deliver a message. Stay away from Leighton. Forget about her. Tell your parents you love someone else. I don’t really give a fuck as long as you never breathe the same air as her again.”

“And if I don’t do that?” he challenges as he crosses his arms across his chest.

“Have you heard from the PI you hired to watch us lately?” I raise a brow as a smirk settles across my lips.

His face pales, but to his credit, he doesn’t flinch.

I toss my phone into the middle of the desk, the image of his PI’s dismembered body up for him to view. I didn’t get to do the dirty work myself, but Kaos and Kovu were more than happy to take that job off my hands.

Jason’s hand covers his mouth as he tries to hold in his reaction to the gruesome image, but his body jolts as he gags. “You’re fucking psychotic.”

I smile. “You’re right, I am. And imagine how psychotic I’ll be if you ever come near Leighton again.”

I pluck my phone off the desk and walk myself right back out the way I came. It’s not that I think Jason will drop this with one little threat, but he won’t be able to say I didn’t warn him when I finally tear him limb from fucking limb.

Elias’s famous spaghetti goes down too well, and Leighton seems to think so, too. She finishes her plate faster than she has anything else since we brought her into the house. I’m not sure if she was just extra hungry tonight, or if some of her hang-ups about her weight are starting to fade now she’s been away from the poison in her life for a little while.

I push my own plate away from me. “We should have moved a pretty girl into the house sooner if it meant you were going to cook so much.”

Elias glares at me, but when a small giggle fills the space we both turn our attention to our angel. She shakes her head as she wipes her face delicately with a napkin.

Her smile is as bright and unguarded as I’ve ever seen it. For the first time since we met Leighton, she’s not censoring herself. When she finds something funny, she laughs. When she’s upset or in pain, she cries. And the fact we’ve given her that makes my chest tighten.

“Oh you think that’s funny, brat?” Elias smirks. He rises to his feet slowly, never taking his eyes off her as he does.

“No.” She presses her lips together, but she can’t hide the amusement in her features.

He lunges for her before she can react, quickly throwing her over his shoulder. I’m about to snap at him to tell him to be careful when I notice how gently he actually did it, including how slowly she made contact with his shoulder, without resting any weight on her broken ribs.

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