Page 105 of While He Breathes

I swallow past any argument that tries to form. We need to leave. I can’t have her getting caught up with the police, not after everything she’s been through.

Max meets my eye, and the worry in his hazel pools makes my chest tighten. He gives me a quick nod and carefully pushes to his feet, with Ember firmly held against his chest.

He doesn’t hesitate as he steps out onto the street with my entire world in his arms and heads in the direction of the car.

I sling Lucas’s battered body over my shoulder, grunting as his heavy weight settles over me.

Killian does the same with Cain, and we follow Max toward the cars.

My best friend heads the opposite way down the street, and I follow him, deciding he can take both these assholes to the warehouse to string them up while I head back to the penthouse to look after my girl.

It’ll give Lucas and Cain a chance to stew over the torture they’re both about to receive.

Once I’ve shoved the heavy asshole on my shoulder into the back seat and Killian is standing in front of me, he grasps both my shoulders and levels me with a hard stare.

“You need to calm down before you get back to your car.”

I open my mouth to argue, but he cuts me off.

“No. She’s just been through an incredibly traumatic ordeal. By the looks of her, she’s been starved, and she has only just found out you’re not dead. You need to go over there calmly, and you need to not lose your shit where she can see it. It could trigger her, and we have no idea what she’s been through.”

I force a shaky nod and swallow past the rage that’s wedged in my throat. “I can do that.”

“Good. I’ll take care of these guys and then meet you at the penthouse.”

“Thank you,” I say. “For everything.”

“I’ve got your back, O. You know that.”

He turns and gets into the front seat after a quick look at the street around us. We lucked out not having anyone around as everything went to hell, and the hacker we’re paying an obscene amount of money to has already looped the video feeds in the area to make sure none of us are implicated.

I stride back to the pickup truck and find Max in the passenger seat with Ember in his lap.

He murmurs to her softly, but from the way her body shakes, I know she’s still crying.

I open the door carefully and climb behind the wheel, trying not to jostle the car too much as I close the door behind me.

Her tear-filled eyes flick up to meet mine, and my heart cracks in my chest at the utter despair staring back at me.

“You’re alive,” she whispers on a broken sob.

“Yeah, baby. Not even Satan himself could take me away from you.” I press my palm to her cheek, wiping away the tears that stain it.

Even though it goes against everything my body screams at me to do, I pull my hand back and put the car in drive, heading back to the penthouse where nothing and no one will ever hurt her again.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

EMBER

Ican’t stop crying.

It doesn’t matter what I do, how hard I try, the tears won’t stop.

Rough sobs make my chest and throat hurt, and no amount of soothing from Max or Orion seems to help.

Everything feels like too much right now. The sun. The stupid dress. Every bump in the road. It’s overwhelming, and instead of vocalizing it, I just cry.

“It’s okay, Em. We’re almost there. Almost home,” Max says soothingly.