Page 61 of While She Sleeps (The Hunter and The Thief #1)

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

ORION

I pace back and forth across my office, stopping to check my phone with each lap.

It’s been half an hour since Ember’s last update. She promised to check in every ten minutes while she was with Lucas, and it’s been three times as long.

To say I was hesitant to let her meet with him is an understatement. He’s been holed up somewhere for the last week, hiding like the weasel he is, and this is the first time we’ve had a credible lead on his location.

The plan is to let Ember meet with him at the club, and then as soon as she’s safely at her therapist’s office, he’ll meet his end with a bullet to the skull. Not nearly enough suffering considering all the pain he’s caused my girl, but to no longer have him as a threat is worth the quick death.

Her tracker is still locked on the club, which is the only ounce of comfort I have to cling to.

Maybe they confiscated her phone for the meeting, I reason with myself, but it does nothing to calm my worry.

I hover my thumb over Killian’s name, but he’ll get pissed if I call. It’s not that I don’t trust him with Ember’s life, because I do. But there’s no one I trust with her more than myself.

As if I’ve conjured the devil himself, my phone starts vibrating with his name across the screen.

“Killian.” I force my voice to remain even, but to my own ears it sounds strained.

“We have a problem.” He starts.

“What happened? Is Ember okay?” I rush out.

“Shut up for a minute so I can tell you,” he snaps. “Ember is hurt. I’m on my way back to the penthouse now. You need to get the doctor there as soon as possible.” His voice is too calm, too even, and it’s unnerving me.

A soft whimper comes down the line, and I tighten my hold on my phone so much I swear I hear it crack under the pressure.

“Killian.” I force out through gritted teeth.

“You need to calm down before we get there, Orion. She does not need to see you angry right now. Get the doctor, and I’ll have her to you as soon as I can.”

He ends the call, and I throw the phone against the wall so hard the entire thing shatters.

Well, fuck.

I reach into my desk and pull out a burner I use for some of my Hunter business, quickly dialing the doctor’s number.

He’s not really a doctor, at least not as far as the board is concerned, but he’s the only person I trust to patch me up when I’ve been injured, and it seems I’m going to have to extend that trust to treating the most important thing in my life.

T he five minutes Killian promised seems like a lifetime, but I make good use of the time.

Parker is on his way, promising to get across town as quickly as he can.

Without knowing what injuries Ember has, I couldn’t do much in the way of preparing the apartment, but I did lay out some towels and blankets in the living room as well as the bedroom.

Fuck.

I haven’t felt powerless in years.

So many years I forgot what it felt like to have the world falling down around you and no way of stopping it.

Each breath is a mixture of pure rage and fear, and the two emotions warring in my chest only seem to make the time go slower.

The elevator dings, and my feet are carrying me closer before I can stop myself. But the sight before me does just that.

I stop in my tracks, my chest constricting as the doors slide open and Killian holds Ember against his chest. She’s covered in blood and bruises, her face turned into his chest as she lets out small whimpers of agony.

“What the fuck happened?” I try to keep my voice soft. Really, I do. But it comes out harsh and abrupt, causing Ember to jolt in Killian’s arms.

He hits me with a glare before walking straight past me toward the couch. “I’m going to put you down on here so we can have a look at where you’re hurt. Okay?”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Killian sound so caring in all the years I’ve known him, but I can’t allow myself to think too much about that right now.

I have to make sure Ember is okay.

She gives a slight nod, and I wince as more of her bruised body is revealed.

Almost every inch of her is black and blue. Her face is covered in swelling and bruising, and I barely manage to contain the rumble of anger that tries to set itself free.

I’m going to fucking kill them all, and I’m going to do it slowly.

They’re going to feel every ounce of pain Ember has tenfold, and I’m going to enjoy every second.

I drop into a crouch beside the couch, brushing my fingers over Ember’s bruised cheek. “Tell me what happened, Little Flame,” I murmur, flicking a look at Killian.

“She went into the meeting with Lucas. He had another girl in the room, along with two of his guards. I thought she was safe, and there wasn’t enough room for me as well, and when I did try to stay, they promptly insisted I didn’t need to know what they were talking about,” he explains.

“But then I heard Ember cry out. The walls in that place are thick as fuck, so the second I heard it, I knew she was in pain. I got her out of there and told Lucas he can expect to be dealing with you from now on.”

“Damn fucking right,” I mutter. “Why did he do this, Ember?”

Tears fall against her bruised cheeks, and she hisses out a breath when they hit the cut at the corner of her mouth.

“He said I was slacking off on a job he gave me. He said I was his until I paid off my debt to him, and that if I didn’t start working faster, then he would start selling my body.” She chokes on her words, and my vision flashes with vibrant red.

Oh, this motherfucker is going to regret the day he was born for making a threat like that to my woman.

“What debt, baby?” I force my words to remain low and even despite the storm raging inside me.

She presses her eyes closed, and a violent tremble racks through her body.

“Can’t this wait?” Killian snaps, causing her to jolt, and his eyes flash with regret. “I’m sorry, Ember. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay,” she whispers. “Travis got us involved with Lucas when I was sixteen. We were in a really bad position, living on the streets, sometimes going days without food. Travis couldn’t get any steady work, and the money I made washing dishes at a diner a couple of nights a week didn’t even come close to being enough to feed us, let alone put a roof over our head.

” She winces as she shifts slightly. I ache to help her, but anything I do right now is only going to bring her more pain.

“One night, we were sleeping in an abandoned building with a bunch of other transients, and these men came in, raiding everyone’s belongings.

They were looking for someone, I guess, but then they caught sight of me.

Travis tried to hide me, but it was too late.

They tried to take me, saying I could get them a pretty penny on the black market. ”

“Let me guess, it was the Lounders?” Killian asks dryly.

She nods slightly. “Yeah. They said if we could gather the money to pay what I was worth, they would leave me be. They gave us twenty-four hours to get half a million in cash together. An impossible task.”

“But Lucas stepped in and helped?”

“He and Travis knew each other. I don’t know how.

I never bothered to ask. I was just so relieved when he agreed to help us.

But the provision was that we would each take half the debt plus interest and work it off over time.

We’d both gotten good at stealing, and I guess Lucas saw us, particularly me, as a potential asset.

A pretty girl who could manipulate and steal from the most powerful men in the city.

“I did a lot of big-money jobs early on. Turns out there are a lot of politicians who prefer their women underage. I never let them touch me. That was my line, and up until recently, Lucas was happy to abide by it. But after Travis died, Lucas tacked his debt on top of mine, and I was basically back to square one. All those years I spent hustling, never truly living, were for nothing, and on top of that, I was left with no one.”

I press my eyes closed to contain my anger.

Part of me wants to tell her what Lucas and Travis had planned for her, how they were planning to use her, to force her into all the things she swore she never wanted to do.

But I don’t. I can’t bear to bring her more pain right now. Not when she looks so fragile.

“How much do you owe now, Ember?” I ask through clenched teeth, trying and failing to sound calm and collected.

“I’m not sure.” She sighs. “The numbers never really added up, but I didn’t have a leg to stand on. It’s not like the deal was legal or anything. But I think it’s at least two hundred grand, probably more.”

I run my hand over my face at the same time the elevator doors slide open, and Parker steps out.

The ex-military doctor doesn’t hesitate to cross to us, his hand running through his dark salt and pepper hair as he looks over Ember’s injuries on his approach before flicking rage-filled eyes up at me. “Who the fuck did this to her?”

“Obviously it wasn’t me, you asshole,” I snap.

“Her boss did it.” It’s more information than I likely need to give him, but Parker has never taken it well when women or children are hurt.

He was always our first call when we helped take down shipments the Lounders were making, and he would drop everything to help out.

It probably doesn’t hurt that I pay him a pretty penny to be on call for me anytime I need him.

“You gonna take care of that problem?” he asks as he drops his bag on the table.

“Well, he’s certainly not going to be allowed to breathe after putting hands on my woman.”

“Your woman?” he asks, his brows raised in surprise.

“You’re not here to question my relationship status,” I growl, and a smirk plays on his lips before he moves past me to Ember.

“I’m Parker. I was an army medic and should be able to get you patched up in no time.”

Ember watches him with wary eyes for a moment before she allows her body to relax slightly. “Thank you for coming. I’m sure it’s just a few cuts and bruises. Probably a waste of your time.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”