Page 46 of While She Sleeps (The Hunter and The Thief #1)

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

EMBER

W ho would do this?

Who would break into my apartment and ruin…everything?

As far as I can tell, there’s nothing that hasn’t been destroyed. Not a piece of clothing or a single glass. Everything is beyond saving, which means I have nothing.

Not a single thing.

Tears roll against my cheeks as Orion guides me to the bathroom, where the destruction is slightly less severe, but only because I don’t have that much in here.

He sits me on the closed toilet seat and drops down into a crouch in front of me. “Stay here for me, Little Flame. I’m going to have another look around to see if they left any other messages.”

“I should come with you.” I move to stand, but his strong hands clamp down on my knees.

“No, baby. Stay here. I won’t be long.”

“We should call the police.”

His face tightens for a moment before nodding. “I’ll call them now. But I need you to stay here. I don’t want you cutting yourself on any of the broken glass or coming across any traps they’ve set for you.”

The blood drains from my face. Is that possible? Would someone really set a trap to harm me?

I mean, I guess it makes sense. They did break into my apartment and tear it apart, so why would that surprise me?

Orion doesn’t wait around for a response, instead moving back into the bedroom and beyond while I try to figure out who could be behind this.

Was it the same person who followed me this afternoon?

Did they do this while I was in the diner trying to calm down?

This feels like a more personal attack. The destruction indicates there are emotions involved, which makes me think it’s probably separate from the van, or at the very least, not the same people.

Plus, the message over my bed is kind of unmistakably emotional.

I’m sure it’s no coincidence this happened after the night I lost my virginity, but I try not to think too hard about that.

Because if that’s the case, if that’s what set whoever this is off, that means they knew Orion was here, that he stayed the night, and that means someone’s following me.

I swallow heavily as my phone starts vibrating in my purse. I can’t believe I didn’t drop it in my shock, but on muscle memory alone, I pull my phone out and answer the call, not bothering to check the ID.

“Yeah?” I murmur softly.

“I need you at the club tonight.” Lucas’s voice is cold and indifferent, but I guess he likely doesn’t know my entire world has been destroyed.

“I can’t.”

“You’ll do as you’re fucking told, Ember,” he snaps.

“Someone broke into my apartment and destroyed everything. I’m going to be stuck here with the police for…hours, probably. And then I have to find somewhere to sleep tonight.” God. Where the hell am I going to stay? Because I sure as hell can’t stay here. Not when whoever did this could come back.

I kick at my spilled bottle of body wash, the soft pink liquid leaking across the tiled floor. Is there anything that wasn’t touched? Is there a single item in this apartment that wasn’t tainted by them?

“That sounds like a personal problem, Ember, and I don’t give a fuck. You’ll come in tonight.”

I’m about to argue when my phone is pulled away from my ear, and I look up at a furious Orion.

“Lucas,” he snaps out. “Ember will not be coming in tonight, or for the foreseeable future. If you want to take it up with someone, you have my number.”

He ends the call and slips my phone in his back pocket, presumably so I don’t have to deal with Lucas’s inevitable temper tantrum.

“The cops will be here soon,” he tells me as a blanket of calm moves over his features.

“Holy fuck.” A voice in the living room drags our attention to the door, and Orion doesn’t hesitate to put his body between me and the door, tugging his gun from under his jacket again.

I have questions about why he’s carrying, but I can’t really bring myself to care right now. Not when it means he can protect me.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Orion growls, and I peek around his body to find Killian standing in the middle of my ruined bedroom.

“I heard her scream even through the phone. I thought you guys might need backup.”

That makes sense, I guess, seeing as he’s on Orion’s security team, but I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to do here other than stare at my ruined possessions.

It’s a good thing I don’t have much of an emotional attachment to things, because I hate to think how heartbroken I would be if I did.

A thought tears through me, and I slip under Orion’s arm and past Killian, not pausing until I reach the closet.

My clothes are strewn across the floor, torn and tattered, but I don’t care about any of that.

I drop to my knees and reach into the back corner of the closet, but when my fingers don’t touch the small shoebox I stashed there, panic slams into me so hard I can barely breathe.

“Ember?” Orion’s voice seems far away, even though I’m sure he’s standing at the door.

I don’t bother responding, instead tearing through the remains of my clothes, searching, and coming up empty.

All the cash I’ve saved over the years for my new life—the life without Lucas holding the reins—is gone. The only photos I have of Travis and me from our childhood are gone. Everything I cared about was in that box, and now it’s gone.

A ragged sob tears from my throat. The agony in my chest is so familiar, I almost greet it as an old friend.

I’m no stranger to loss, but this just feels like losing Travis all over again, and I don’t know if I’ll survive this time.

T ime passes in a blur.

Orion carries me out of the closet and holds me in his lap as police take my statement. I have no idea what I tell them, but they seem satisfied enough with my responses, and all the while, Orion lends me his strength.

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.”