Chapter 22
Scarlett
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Agentle caress ofenergy warms my skin before Malcolm’s soft touch, ensuring he doesn’t startle me awake. Kasen stirs beside me, but since I’m using his arm as a pillow, he’s trapped from going far.
“I was getting worried.” My voice is a bit rough, but more husky from sleep than tortured now.
Pressing a series of kisses to my neck and collar, Malcolm scoffs. “You? Fuck, love, I’ve been going out of my mind all night.”
Is it really that late?
Not that I tried to project it, but I haven’t had a chance to work on my mental shields, much less the emotional bandwidth to even attempt it yet. Kasen and I fell asleep after our bath, so our phones are still abandoned on the bathroom floor, likely dead, and I feel a stab of guilt.
“I think it’s around five, give or take,”he groggily murmurs.“Feels like the sun’s about to come up soon.”
“You have a much better internal clock than I do.”Arching my neck as Malcolm works his way down to the mark that’s far more sensitive than I was anticipating, my breath hitches.
Out loud, Kasen warns, “Careful of her ankle,” but internally, he chuckles.“That’s because you have the sleep schedule of a frat boy.”
Malcolm places a lingering kiss on the edge of my mark, sending a shiver down my spine. “I’m well aware of her injuries.” His voice drops to little more than a whisper. “I watched the security footage.” A flood of self-conscious embarrassment chases away the warm wake-up. “Hey, hey, hey.” Bracing one of his hands besides my head, he hovers above me, cupping my cheek and forcing me to look directly into his tumultuous hazel gaze. “None of that now, love. Do you have any idea how impressed I am by you? Proud?”
There’s no point going down the road of undeserved praise and flattery, or we’ll be here all day. “Anybody hear if Jack's brother is alright?”
Malcolm’s fingers tense against my jaw, sending off a hundred alarm bells that have me both gripping his shirt to hold him close, and retreating into Kasen’s embrace to run away from the facts that I’m not sure I’m ready to face.
“There was no accident, love,” Malcolm declares quietly. “Someone just wanted to get Fredrickson out of the office; one less person manning the cameras. They assumed he’d have taken the elevators closer, but there was enough of a crowd waiting that he jogged to the other side of the floor instead.”
I'm both relieved, and horribly sad at that fact. "I suppose I should be flattered that people would go through all of this effort for me rather than put that energy towards trying to rob a bank or something more beneficial of the risk. Yay for inspiring teamwork." Frowning, I add, “But they wouldn't know I'd try to climb out; hope maybe, but not know for sure. They were really willing to risk getting caught to lock me in an elevator? That's a hell of a bet that the fall would be enough to kill me.”
When he says nothing, Kasen stiffens, demanding, “What aren't you telling us?”
Malcolm dips his head, kissing my collar, but it’s clearly an excuse not to meet my eye. “There was a maintenance man waiting in the lobby despite no issues being submitted, already anticipating the wreckage. When he opened the doors and there was no one inside, he simply let go, turned around, and walked straight out of the building as if nothing had happened.”
He was waiting for me. He didn’t think I’d die, he expected me to be rattled enough that he could grab me.
Kasen has no problem hearing the stray thoughts. His heart begins pounding faster, a low rumble emanating from his chest as he pulls me against him, like he needs to assure himself that it didn't actually happen.
“Where's Beck?”
Malcolm continues to run his hands over me, confirming that I’m here. Tangible. Safe. He’s barely better than Kasen at the moment, fueled by possessive fear. Yesterday could have easily played out very differently, and it all happened right under their noses, while they were in the same building with me that they claimed as safe.
There's a flash of undiluted rage that shocks the hell out of me before Malcolm brings it back to a manageable level. "Dealing with the bastard and finding out if anyone else was involved, dragging out of him what exactly he planned to do. I-” he swallows “- I couldn't listen anymore; had to come home."
My stomach roils at the proclamation, because if it was bad enough that Malcolm had to leave the room so he didn’t kill the guy before they got the information they needed? I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know what this guy planned to do to me, could go my entire existence without understanding exactly what put those shadows under my mage’s eyes.
Kasen demands a name, and while it means nothing to me, it certainly does to him. Growling, he pushes himself upright, and I’m forced to follow his lead, growing increasingly unsettled in the face of his anger at whoever the hell Blake Jones is. “Where are they?” he spits, sounding nothing like the Kasen I know.
Malcolm continues touching me like he needs the contact to be able to form words, shaken up. “The docks.”
Kasen begins to leave, sending my heart into overdrive, but he hesitates when he reaches the edge of the mattress. “Fuck!” He slams a hand down on the night stand beside him, making me jump at the abrupt hostility, not expecting it from him of all people. Picking up on my anxiety instantly, he rakes a hand through his hair with a shaky breath, face stricken as he crawls back to steal me away from Malcolm and immediately apologize.
Pulling me onto his lap as he reclines on his heels, he explains, “Jones is close to Mark Roberts. I’ve heard Mark tell enough stories of the shit he and Blake have gotten up to on the weekends over the years that I’d bet my ass if Jones was involved? So was Roberts.”
Already gripping one of his shoulders for support, I slide my other hand over his bare chest to settle over his furiously pounding heart, his angry fear making me restless and uneasy. “So you could drag Mark down to the docks and join Beck,” I trail off, giving him the chance to work through wherever his mind went with the betrayal.
“But I’d be leaving you two here alone when we don’t know if it goes any deeper than them.” His words have Malcolm caging me in between them like that will be enough to keep the rest of the world at bay.
