Conceited (Crimson Elite 3)

She walks over to me.

“Stalking is low, even for you.”

She looks past me, her eyes going everywhere before they find me again. “Did you know I was following you, is that why you stopped at an old shit warehouse?”

If only she knew. But she doesn’t, and I have to keep it that way.

“Go, Ariel, and don’t come back.” I wait for her to leave, but she crosses her arms over her chest.

“You would kill me if I talked?” I groan. “If I published it for the world to see?” I look behind her and hope and pray to fucking God that Darby’s not in the surveillance room right now with Echo, because I know Echo is as he rang me earlier.

“Go, home.”

Her hands touch my chest and it takes everything in me to react to her, to not grab her to me and kiss those pissed-off lips right now.

“You aren’t the boss of me, and soon I’ll find out what you do exactly, and how you do it. I’ll expose the whole fucking thing,” she screams. Her eyes dilate, her lips thin. I turn knowing she won’t leave until I open the car door. She stops it with her hip to prevent me from closing it.

“If this…” I point between us, “… meant anything, you would drop it.”

She coughs, it’s fake. “You didn’t care about this…” she says waving her hand between us, “… you’re the one that didn’t want this.” She waves her hand again between us.

“Ariel, I’m not in the mood. And as sexy as you are angry, I don’t want to deal with it today.”

“You’re a real asshole, you know that, right?”

I bow at her before getting into my car. “Thank you, now, please… go home.”

My cell rings as I drive away. I see her in the rear-view mirror and hope to fucking God she leaves before anyone else sees her standing there.

“He knows she’s out the front,” Creed says then hangs up.

I hang up and ring Darby. He doesn’t answer, so I ring again.

“You didn’t handle it, Falcon. I asked you to handle it.”

“Don’t do anything.”

“You aren’t in charge here, Falcon.”

“We know that, Darby, every fucking person knows who’s in charge. But you forget… you don’t solely fucking own it. We all do. Now, I’m asking you as your friend to leave it alone.”

“I did, as your friend, leave her alone. You were meant to handle it, tell me again why you haven’t?”

“I did.”

Well, I thought I did. Fucking hell! Maybe I just hoped she would forget.

“Now, I’m taking over.” He hangs up before I can say another word.

I swing the car around and floor it back to the parking lot.

Creed answers on my first call to him.

“If you hurt her…”

He doesn’t say anything. My heart beats hard as I get closer and closer and hope to God she’s okay. Because no matter how much I thought I could lose her, I can’t. She doesn’t deserve to be with someone like me, she needs better. And I am far from that for her.24Ariel ‘Raven’I watch as he gets into his car. His strides are long and he’s so devastatingly handsome. Why did I have to fall for someone who’s so far out of my reach? Because that’s what he is. He just proved that and to say it didn’t sting would be a complete and utter understatement. It fucking stung all right. Standing tall and not letting what just happened completely ruin me, I walk back to my car, but just as I get to it, a door behind me opens in the warehouse. Music floats out and I turn fast, but as I do, something hits my head and my world goes black.My hands and legs are bound, I can’t move. My eyes are heavy and something’s in my mouth making it next to impossible for me to open it. The room is dark and I can hear someone breathing. My eyes search frantically, not understanding what’s happening or where I am or why I’m bound. I try to scream but nothing comes out, it’s just muffled noise. I try moving my hands, hoping I can attempt to untie myself, but whatever’s holding my wrists together has them held down tight. I can feel a panic attack coming, I haven’t had one of those since I was a teenager and right now is not the time to have one. Closing my eyes, I take deep breaths trying to tell myself I’m not in some dungeon about to get sliced and diced by some fuckwit. No, I’m in Tracey’s house and she’s playing tricks with me.

It doesn’t work, though, as sweat starts dripping down my forehead and my breathing becomes rapid. My hands which are struggling to get free and are becoming sore from rubbing on whatever has them tied. My feet have pins and needles and there’s not a thing I can do about it—they’re locked tight.