by C. Lymari
“I’m well aware you aren’t a little girl,” he chuckled.
I didn’t answer him; instead, I threw my phone across the room and lay awake until the early hours of the morning.
When dawn broke, I couldn’t take it anymore. I got up and headed to my closet. Ever since I was little, I knew we had money, but as I got older, I realized people didn’t build empires without bloodshed on the way. Remington’s diamonds weren’t clean, not when blood was spilled continuously for our products.
This building had gone through renovations before I moved in. You see, as absent as my father was, he knew he has enemies, and he put in a fail-safe. I didn’t bother with my phone and walked to my walk-in closet. I pushed my coats to the side and found the small door and opened it. Once I was inside the short tunnel, the sensory lights turned on, which made finding the door handle easier. I pushed the door to the side, and it opened to an undisclosed hallway.
The other side of my penthouse belonged to Ashton Hill, the heir to the hotel, and he was the only other person with access to this hallway. I sat there on the top stair just grateful that I was away from cameras. If I could, I’d make it to the bottom of the stairs where it would take me to the primary hotel elevators, but I didn’t want to go out. Instead I sat there thinking about my fucked-up life.
It was my seventeenth birthday, and my father was nowhere near our home. I didn’t know why I was surprised about it. There was always a deal, a new merger, the mines, a new line, everything, and everyone came before me. Our immediate family had shrunk once again. Grandma had passed away, and Grandpa was slowly losing his mind to Alzheimer’s. Why they adopted when they were old as shit was beyond me, but I was grateful.
Silas was the only person who gave a fuck about me. My dad’s room felt cold; he barely even lived here. I went to the back of his closet and found the velvet box, which he used to keep my mother’s things. I dug through her stuff, trying to find a connection to the mother I never knew. She was beautiful. I couldn’t deny that. Black hair, golden skin, and the darkest brown eyes, they almost looked black. I looked a bit like her except a shade lighter. I pulled all the stuff out when I found a diamond choker with intricate designs on the back rather than the front. Maybe it was a way to say, “Fuck you, Dad,” or maybe I just wanted something of my mother’s.
Silas was on the couch, drinking some scotch on the rocks. He had celebrated his twenty-third birthday a few months back, and I was sure he had better things to do with his time than spend it with me.
“He’s not coming, is he?” I asked him.
Silas turned his attention from the television toward me. He was handsome. I was sure he had a girl or two waiting at home for him. He was tall, lean, with hollowed cheekbones that made him look refined. Black hair, fair skin, and honey eyes that lacked warmth.
“I’m not leaving you alone on your birthday.”
He stood up, enveloping me in a tight hug. My skin prickled when his arm snaked around my waist a little lower than I was comfortable with.
“Happy Birthday, Ember,” he whispered against my ear.
With my hand in his, he led me up to the rooftop of our building. There were fairy lights all over, with a picnic set up and a fancy spread all around.
“Love you, Ember.” He kissed my cheek.
My heart thumped like a wild beast inside the confines of my ribs. I could taste the wrongness of it all in the air, breath in the vile, and I didn’t care. All my life, I had to share my life with the spotlight, my father to his work, and my mother to death. Silas was the one person who loved me, and I was holding on to that love like a crutch.
“What are you doing?” I said as soon as we both were sitting on the blankets. I was many things, but stupid was not one of them.
“I love you, Ember,” Silas said, his hand coming to my nape.
“I do too,” I said because that’s what you said to family.
Silas came closer, rising to his knees. “You’re not my blood, Ember, and you’re not my family—”
Hearing him say that hurt. It cracked pieces of my soul enough to make me angry, and with my anger came selfishness. I glared at Silas, ready to tell him he was nobody. A poor little orphan boy who got taken in to our dynasty. Before I could say more, Silas kissed me. His lips were cold and brutal. He kissed me with hunger and dominance.
“But you are mine.”
My lips trembled. It should have been intrusive, it should have felt wrong, but all I felt was the warmth I’d been denied all my life.
“I love you, Ember.”
He kissed me again, and I let him. I basked in the sin of his love. In the dark, I let him do to me things I might not have done in the light. I wasn’t a virgin, far from it, but I let Silas have my innocence—and he did.
He did me sweet, with peppered kisses on my skin.
On my knees, telling me it was always going to be him and me.
Licked the wrongness of my release while he smiled at me.
We fucked, him and me, and all I could think was finally, someone loved me.
My dick was rock fucking hard.
I couldn’t remember a time where I’d lost control of my body like I did last night. I was used to keeping all my feelings in check; it came with the job. I’d learned to anticipate people’s moves before they even knew it themselves.
All that didn’t matter with Ember. Not since I’d started to develop some sort of sick obsession with her. When I watched her, I thought she was going to be one thing, but the reality of her had a stench. She reeked of desperation and loneliness, submerged in darkness and covered in selfishness.
Ember Remington was beauty wrapped in sadness and sealed with hatred. Yet it was all the ugly in her that called to me. Something so pretty and refined was one breath away from shattering.
Now that was something I wouldn’t mind seeing. I liked seeing people when they got to their breaking point—the delirious line between life, death, and fantasy.
I reached for my phone and checked the cameras. There was no sign of Ember. She must have still been sleeping. The first thing I did was hit the gym and work out, then shower.
When I came out, I noticed that Ember still had yet to leave her room. It wasn’t that I was worried, but if she’d overdosed on my watch, well, shit would get hard to explain to her daddy.
“Are you dead?” I shouted as I knocked.
There wasn’t an answer, so I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Well, I guessed that meant she was in her room. She was probably still pissed about yesterday. Shaking my head, I made my way to the control room. I absently watched the cameras as I thought of the way her little satin shorts were wet. It would have been easy to fuck her yesterday, if I’d wanted to. But, then again, easy was never my style.
I looked at the clock again, then went to my room and grabbed my lock-picking kit. It took a minute to open her door. The pit of my stomach sank when I saw she wasn’t in her bed.
Son of a bitch.
I ran to the bathroom, not giving a fuck if she was there naked and wet. The place was empty. I brought my phone up and started to scan all the cameras, and there was no trace of her in the apartment.
There was probably a protocol of what I should do, but I’d be dammed if the spoiled little bitch made a fool out of me. I was ready to go out and search for her when the lobby door opened.
“Well, don’t you look happy to see me?” Marcus joked as he walked into the penthouse.
“What do you want?” I barked.
“Sam sent me here. Protocol for when the family meets. We usually send Ember with two guards.”
“What meet?”
“With her father and her Uncle Silas,” Marcus explained. “Didn’t she tell you?”
I said nothing.
“Of course she didn’t,” Marcus mumbled.
“I need to run an errand real quick. Stay in the control room,” I said before I started to track Ember’s phone.
It made no sense because it showed
her in the building. So the little bitch left her phone. Frustrated, I grabbed a smoke and made my way outside so I wouldn’t be here feeling more useless and stupid than I already was.
To say I was pissed was putting it mildly. I was fucking furious. The blood in my veins boiled, and I wanted to throttle Ember. It would give me sick satisfaction to watch her face pale by the lack of oxygen.
When my phone rang, I debated letting it go to voicemail.
“You can stop looking for her. She was at Lilah’s place. She’s making her way up now,” Marcus said on the other end of the line.
“Do. Not. Let. Her. In,” I gritted out, then hung up. It made no fucking sense. I’d checked the feed, and it never showed her going anywhere. I was in a fucked-up mood by the time I made it back to the building.
The ride back up to the penthouse was excruciatingly slow. The only pleasure I got was watching Ember on my phone screen as she flicked off the camera because no one came to let her in her own house.
It was about time someone showed her that harsh reality of life. By the looks of things, that someone was going to have to be me. There was a sarcastic smile on my face when the elevator door pinged. Ember turned around, pissed as hell, and that made my grin grow.
“Motherfucker!” she screeched as she ran toward me. Her arms started to pound on my chest with more force than I expected her to have. “Learn your place, you piece of shit!”
Grabbing one of her wrists, I twisted until her back was pressed to my front. I walked us to straight to the wall underneath the lobby camera. It wasn’t a blind spot, but Marcus wouldn’t exactly see what we were doing.
“I’m already sick and tired of you,” I greeted her.
Ember kept trying to move, but I wasn’t letting her. “Then find another job, asshole!”
“I don’t think so, darling,” I growled in her ear.
“Wait until I tell Sammy about this!”
“You could,” I said casually, aware that she could call my bluff. “The thing is, I’m sure you won’t. How many times does Sammy have to hire a new guard, huh? Don’t you think he’s disappointed every time you act like a spoiled little bitch?”
She stayed silent, her body going taut. However, I didn’t stop.
“One thing you should know about me, darling, is that I’m not a pussy. I’m going to give it to you straight because you’re a fucking idiot who thinks nothing is ever going to go wrong with their life.”
I pressed closer to her, inhaling the scent of her mint shampoo. It wasn’t fruity and annoying like most women I knew.
“The next time you get a wild hair and run around loose might as well be your last. I’d rather report to your father that you are safe and sound than telling him I’m waiting for 911 to get your splattered brains off an alley. So from now on, you are going to do what I say.” I pressed into her more until our bodies were flush. “Are we clear?”
“I can feel how hard you are.” Her voice came out hushed and gravelly.
This only made me smile. When was the last time I did that? Who the fuck knew? I brought my right hand down next to her waist and trailed it up her body, careful so that only my knuckles grazed her. Ember’s breathing stopped. When I reached the top of my abdomen, I pulled out my Glock. I didn’t give a fuck if that touched her, and I glided it between her body. I let the object trace down the curve of her ass down to where the hem of those skimpy shorts started. I wedged the Glock between her legs, causing her to shiver and her back to arch. My piece was between her legs, and I’d bet that if I wanted, I could have moved it back and forth and made Daddy’s little diamond come all over it. I pulled my hand higher, making her shorts pull up, knowing it only added to the sensation she was feeling in her pussy. I pushed my hand as high as it went, my knuckles touching her ass, and the neck of my Glock aligning with her pussy lips.
“Don’t flatter yourself, darling. I’ve seen teenagers with more tits and ass than you,” I hissed in her ear.
Just like I knew it would, those words pissed Ember off. She brought her head back, ready to slam it against my nose.
“Careful, Ember. I’m not Zeke,” I warned her.
Because I was an asshole, I moved my piece back and then forward again, not missing the inhale of breath from her.
“I bet your pussy is as wet as it was last night,” I mocked before I let her go.
She walked up to the door and raised her middle finger to the camera. We heard the buzzing sound of the locks being disarmed. Ember walked in, not acknowledging anyone, and went straight to her room.
I walked to the kitchen and found Karen cooking. She looked at me apprehensively. Must have been the grin I was sporting.
“Is everything all right, Mr. Falcon?”
“Everything is perfect,” I replied, heading for a water bottle. “I don’t think she ate, so take that for her.”
I left the water bottle on the counter for Karen, then walked out to the control room. Marcus opened the door as soon as I got to the door.
“I told you. No one can handle her,” Marcus mocked.
“You don’t know what I can or can’t handle.”
Marcus rolled his eyes at me. “You think you have her under control?”
I didn’t bother answering Marcus. I’d show them that I was better than all of them.
“I need a quick smoke break. I’ll be back,” Marcus said as he walked out. Before he left, he turned to me. “Ember will always do what’s best for her. She doesn’t give a fuck who she hurts in the process.”
Closing the door in Marcus’s face, I didn’t bother to answer him. The difference was, I wasn’t a pussy. I was lethal, and if I had to make Ember kneel before me to keep my job, I wouldn’t hesitate.
After talking to Marcus, I changed into a black suit just like the rest of the security team, something I hadn’t bothered doing before. Everything was black, and before I left my room, I grabbed a pair of black leather gloves for later.
Marcus and I were in the living room, waiting for Ember to grace us with her presence. I knew she’d walked out of her room the moment Marcus sucked in a breath, and I wanted to punch him in the face the moment I noticed the way he looked at her.
There was heat in his eyes and longing but also hurt. My jaw felt rigid because I was pretty sure at one point, Ember had fucked him. With anger coursing through my veins, I turned to look at Ember, and I had never felt bloodlust like I did at this moment.
Her raven hair shone, and her eyelashes looked fitted for a whore, but they worked for her. Her lips were blood-red, and I could picture the red smeared all over her mouth after choking her with my cock. Then I got angry at the thought. Her dress was burnt red like dried blood, with a plunging V that barely covered her nipples, and a slit on the side that went below her hipbone. On her neck was the choker she seemed so fond of, and on her middle finger, she wore a ring that had the outline of a heart with a barb of thorns in the middle and a small cross. The dress was made up of a bunch of little jewels and beads, and there was no doubt in my mind they were Remington gems.
“Let’s go,” she said after she swallowed.
“A little early, isn’t it?”
“Silas doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” Marcus mumbled.
Silas Remington was the poor orphan boy who got adopted into the family. Ember’s grandfather had taken him in when the boy’s parents passed away. It seemed odd that an older couple would adopt a kid a few years older than their granddaughter, but as was the way with rich people, no one questioned it.
The ride down to the elevator was quiet, and I could feel the unease that was rolling off Ember in waves. Her posture was stiff, she kept fidgeting, and I bet that if I touched that delicate vein in the arch of her nape, it would be strumming.
Interesting.
“Excited to see your father?” I asked once we made our way to the car.
“Sure.” She shrugged as she walked ahead faster.
She stopped by the door of the car, waiting for me to
open it. Once I did, I touched her naked back and nudged her in. Since Marcus was with us, I let him drive.
As we made our way to the restaurant, both Marcus’s and my cell phones pinged. We looked at each other and then at Ember, who was oblivious to the change in atmosphere.
I pulled my phone out while Marcus kept driving.
“Change of plans,” I said as Ember turned to face me. “Your father and uncle have been in an accident.”
There was a ninety-nine percent chance I was going to hell. Why, might you ask? Well, the first thought running through my mind should have been worry or sadness, not fear of who the hell was going to run Remington Enterprises since I was a fuckup, and the only thing I was good at was being a billboard on legs.
“Are they dead?” I asked.
Ren looked at me quizzically. His brows furrowed like he was trying to figure something out. I didn’t look at him; instead, I looked at Marcus through the mirror.
“Sam didn’t say,” Ren replied.
I nodded my head and closed my eyes as I let the guys take me to whichever hospital my father and Silas resided at. The city lights passed in a blur, and I kept my mind blank, not wanting to think about what was happening. Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
“Stay calm,” Ren’s deep baritone voice whispered in my ear soothingly, easing me a little, while his hand went to my knee that kept bouncing up and down.
I felt his cold palm like a million small nerve endings finding current and igniting me. I turned to look at him, and for the first time since I met him, I got lost in his eyes. They were like an endless abyss full of secrets that I wanted to reveal. Ren Falcon wasn’t a great guy—hell, he wasn’t even a good guy. He was an asshole, but he was worried about me.
I could count on one hand the number of times people had worried about me. I wasn’t a girl everyone liked; I knew that. I was an acquired taste, and that was my own doing.
“I’m fine,” I told Ren after I blinked back tears.
Marcus kept driving, and Ren kept his hand on my knee. I wanted to feel something other than the dread that had crept up on me. Slowly, without looking at him, I started to lift my leg, causing his hand to glide down lower. I felt Ren’s hot gaze on me, but I kept looking straight. I rested my leg in the middle, aware that if Marcus fixed his mirror, he would be seeing a lot more of me.