Page 58 of Where Angels Fall

I can’t breathe.

There’s no warmth in his eyes. No softness. Just something dark and simmering beneath the smile, like he’s holding back with sheer will. His eyes take in everything... my position on the floor, my shaking hands, the Senator’s shirt still slightly untucked from his pants.

Shame burns hot and vicious in my chest as my eyes fall to the ground, unable to look him in the eye. I feel so small. So exposed. Dirty. Like I’ve disappointed him in some way.

“Remarkable,” Ash repeats lightly. “Is that what you call it?”

Hargrove clears his throat. “I should... get back to my wife.”

Ash’s smile sharpens by a fraction, and Malcolm’s shoulders seem to untense, mistaking the expression as pardon. But he doesn’t see what I see, what is so clear on the man’s face. Danger sparkles in his blue eyes, in a way I’ve yet to see.

Malcolm finally turns and leaves, not looking back as he re - enters the event. The moment he’s gone, Ash’s expression changes. The amusement drops away.

What’s left is terrifying.

“Stand up,” he says quietly.

I scramble to my feet, knees trembling so badly I almost stumble. I won’t meet his eyes. I can’t. My throat feels tight, my face burning with humiliation.

“I...” My voice cracks, the words not forming properly.

“Look at me,” he grits out through clenched teeth, but I shake my head. I can’t. This just seems to make him angrier. “I said, fucking look at me.”

I do. And I wish I hadn’t. His eyes churn with darkness, his face twisted with fury that’s barely unkempt. He looks every bit the leader of the Devils right now.

“Angel,” he whispers, chest heaving once with a deep breath. “I’m going to give you three seconds. Three seconds to get the fuck out of here, before I make a scene in front of every cunt here.”

My stomach drops. “No... Y... you can’t.”

“One,” he growls, hands closing into fists.

“Ash,” I sob, the tears finally blurring my vision.

“Two.”

“Please!”

“Three...,” his low voice murmurs. “Run, Angel. Fucking run.”

Chapter 22

Ash

My angel dashes, leaving the corridor in a blur of blonde hair and light blue silk. The crowd of people absorb her, just after her head turns in my direction.

Real, palpable fear shines in her wide eyes, along with something else... something primal.

My heart thunders viciously as I watch her make her way to the huge, open glass doors that lead out to the gardens. Cracking my neck, I stride after her, hands aching to grab her.

The crowd swallows us whole, bodies and laughter and champagne flutes closing around her like nothing happened. Like one of them didn’t just touch what was mine. Like she wasn’t just on her knees in a hallway with a fucking creature of a human being.

My jaw tightens until it aches.

She should be fucking scared

I see it all at once. Zeke’s smug smile when he threatened her and then showing up at this event with her on his arm. The way she didn’t fight when the Senator pushed her to her knees. The fear in her eyes when she saw me.

I breathe slowly, my chest expanding.