“Why them and not me?” I look from Trace to Ares.
The God of War presses on my neck, touching the mark. “Respect. Fear. Who knows?”
“Where are the chips?” I ask.
“Gone,” Ares says, stepping back with arms crossed. “That’s all they wanted.”
I grit my teeth because moving my head will make me pass out, “Just perfect.”
“I called Cormac in for this one.” Trace mentioning his best friend Dr. O’Rourke to patch me up brings my blood pressure down somewhat. “I don’t trust your skull to anyone else.”
“I need…” I struggle to speak.
“What do you need, brother?”
I only imagine, one name, one word comes to mind.
“Fallon.” I swallow, and even that fucking hurts, too. “I need her. Get her for me.Now.”
Chapter 40
Fallon
Abanging on my apartment door yanks me out of sleep like someone is shaking me awake. My eyes snap open, and I immediately realize that I’m alone, and it’s still dark outside.
‘I’m heading to work, love,’Rhys’s voice whispers in my memory.
Silly man. He forgot to take a key. But another round of hard, steady pounding rattles the door.
Impatientman. But I see his key is gone. He has it. Who is at my door?
Fear grips me, and I want to hide until it stops. But no one banging on a door at four a.m. goes away.
“Be strong, Fal, you got this.”
I got this. I got this.
Heart tripping, I swing my legs off the bed and pad across the floor. Tugging Rhys’s T-shirt down over my bare thighs, I ignore the ache between my legs. He takes me so hard, so rough, and I love it. Love being called his dirty elf.
Through the peephole, I see a long blonde braid, a black leather jacket, and the chiseled jawline of Raina. She borrowed my favorite pink dress and heels a while back. Relief rushes at me that it’s her and not someone looking to hurt me. Or Rhys. But that comfort only lasts a breath. I doubt she came all this way in the middle of the night to return a dress.
Something is wrong.
I fumble with the locks and don’t even need my routine of flipping them three times. I just open the door. “Hi,” I say stupidly.
Raina, the Albanian Brotherhood Princess with eyesheavy from the cold predawn, looks shaken to her bones. Her voice is even when she blurts, “Rhys is hurt.”
My whole body goes rigid. “Oh God.”
“He needs you.”
Something snaps taut inside me. No one has ever needed me before.
“I, um, okay.” I nod fast, already turning, already moving to change my clothes. Not even paying attention, I grab what I wore before I fell into bed with Rhys.
Raina gives me a kind of once-over. “Do those red and white striped leggings do it for Rhys?”
I stop short and look down, remembering his grin when he peels them off me. “You have no idea.”
