Conceited (Crimson Elite 3)

“You wouldn’t answer,” I say.

“Maybe it’s because I thought it was in your best interests.”

“Mine?” I ask confused.

“Yes, you, Ariel. Remember last time you got too close.” I still at his words. He doesn’t bother looking at me, just points to the door. “Door’s over there. You can leave anytime.”

“Why are you acting like this?”

He sits up now and sighs. “Do you want to see what I did, Ariel? Do you want to know what business I owned? The people I worked with? Do you? Do you?” he yells. He stands, reaches for his keys and walks to the door. “Last chance to get your damn story, Ariel. I’ll show you, I’ll show you it all. That way you can have more reason to hate me. Now… move.” He walks out of his door, leaving me sitting there confused. I can either sit here and hope he comes back, or I can find out what it is he really does and why he quit. I get up and follow him out. He’s in his car with the passenger door open waiting for me. I get in, buckle up, and he doesn’t speak as he drives off. Not even when we arrive at the same warehouse where I was taken does he speak. My body locks tight, and Falcon notices and looks over to me.

“Nothing will happen to you here, I’d kill them.” He says it like it’s something I should know as he gets out and walks to the building.

It’s like a rabbit hole, you want to know what’s inside, so I go in and he follows closely behind me.

Darkness is the first thing I notice, then he pulls a curtain back with his hand, revealing something like out of the movies. It’s beautiful. Stunning, even. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Beds line the walls, a bar sits at the back, men and women are walking around, some with trays, some naked, and some just chatting. On one bed to my left a man is choking a woman as he fucks her missionary style, and on the bed next to them a woman is riding a man holding a cowboy hat.

“This… this is what you own?” I manage to ask.

He doesn’t answer, and when I look to him his eyes are staring up at a bank of black windows.

“Falcon?”

He looks back to me. “I recruit, Ariel, all these men… they are here because of me,” he says then walks off toward a door which I’m guessing leads to the windows above it.

“Falcon…”

He doesn’t stop when he pulls the door open, or even when he reaches the top of the stairs. A woman sits at the desk and I remember her, El I think her name was. She smiles when she sees me, but it drops when she looks back to Falcon.

“Am I going to have to call security?” she asks as we follow him. He kicks open a door, and Darby sits behind a desk. Darby looks to Falcon then to me then back to Falcon.

“You’ve come to your senses and are back then?” he asks. “But I see you brought someone who shouldn’t be here,” Darby says looking back to me. I stare at the ground, not wanting to be part of this conversation.

“Fuck,” I hear El say.

When I look back up, Falcon’s running into the room and charges Darby. He barrels him over, and they slam into the back wall. Fists fly and a scream tears from my mouth. Creed runs past me and gets in-between them separating them.

“For fuck’s sake.”

Two guns are pulled and held up to both of them.

Where the fuck did they come from?

“Creed,” El says from behind me.

“No. Sort your shit out, now,” he says not dropping them.

“Where the fuck did they come from?” Falcon asks him.

“Your office, dick.”

Falcon smiles and nods his head. Like he knew they were there to begin with. “Now… sort your fucking shit out before I start shooting.”

“You wouldn’t,” Darby dares.

Creed looks to him and raises his eyebrows. “Try me.” He pulls the safety off and both sets of eyes go wide. El stands next to me, her hand gripping my arm as we wait and watch. Darby crosses his arms over his chest as he looks up to Falcon.

“You didn’t even care that she could have ruined us, not just you but all of us,” Darby says.

I look at him, shocked as he points at me.

Falcon looks to me as he answers, “I had it under control, she wouldn’t have.”

He’s lying, I would have. If I weren’t threatened with my life, I would have within a heartbeat.

“You didn’t, you were thinking with your dick.”

“Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t, but it was still my fucking right to handle the situation.”

Darby throws up his hands. “I gave you time to handle it. Heaps of time. It’s not my fault you couldn’t fucking put a lid on her.”