Page 74 of While She Sleeps

His arms are steadfast as I fall apart, and he never says a word, never complains, never so much as questions what I need, always seeming to know.

Killian and a couple of other men, who I assume work for Orion, clean up the mess in the kitchen once the police are done with it. But it’s no use. Even if fifty men walked through that door, they wouldn’t be able to put my home back together again.

The only home that’s ever been just mine.

The place I healed from the accident, where I mourned my brother, where I promised myself not to give up despite the pain.

But it’s all gone.

“Ember?” Orion murmurs, his breath whispering against my shoulder. “I’d like to take you back to my penthouse. Would that be okay?”

He doesn’t much strike me as the kind of man who asks for permission, but the consideration tugs me out of my daze.

I look up into his obsidian gaze and find worry staring back at me. He’s probably not used to not being able to just throw money at a problem, and suddenly it’s solved.

I try to think of a reason to turn him down, but we both know I can’t stay here tonight. There’s nowhere for me to sleep, for one, and even if there was, I wouldn’t be able to rest, because they could come back. They could come to finish the job.

The police only confirmed what I suspected. This is personal. It’s not just someone I’ve stolen from, not that I told the cops about what I do for a living, but someone with a vested interest in me and my life.

They floated the idea that I may have a stalker, but I dismissed the idea immediately. I would know if I was being followed. After living on the streets for years, you get very good at always being aware of your surroundings.

But they weren’t willing to let it go, especially given I was followed by that van just an hour before I got back to the apartment.

“Little Flame?”

I look up at him again, not realizing I’d allowed my eyes to close to warn off the tears that try to surface again.

A few hours ago, I was trying to convince myself I could walk away from Orion, but now I’m realizing he’s all I have.

“Okay.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

ORION

Ember is quiet as I lead her to the elevator of my building.

Thankfully, it’s only a twenty-minute walk, but with the way her body wavers, it feels much longer. She’s trying so hard to be strong, something she’s had to be far too much in her life, but that just means I have to be strong enough for the both of us.

Killian is bringing my car back with him, along with the few items we could salvage from Ember’s apartment, but it’s not going to do her much good. The single pair of pajama shorts and an old dress that she’d forgotten she even owned, paired with a pair of running shoes, don’t even make a complete outfit.

But she already has a wardrobe of clothes in the penthouse, something I’m going to have to explain shortly.

There are a lot of things I’m going to have to come clean about, but most of it can wait until she recovers from this setback.

Ember slumps against me as soon as the doors slide shut behind us, and I revel in her surrender. She didn’t want to need me, but the fact that she’s allowing herself to has my chest aching. Who knew the organ that keeps me alive could beat for someone the way it beats for my little flame.

“Why would someone do that?” she whispers.

“I don’t know,” I admit. But I will. I had Killian pull out all the cameras I installed before the police arrived, and I’ll be checking the footage as soon as I can leave her alone for a few minutes, but I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

And it can wait.

The dead man walking will still be there once Ember is strong enough to stand by herself again.

Lucas is another problem I need to deal with. I don’t give a fuck how valuable he is. He’s been blowing up Ember’s phone ever since I took it from her, and the things he’s saying to her cannot be allowed to go unchecked.

But again, it’ll have to wait.

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