Singe (Guardian Protection #1)

“There he is!” I growled, pointing at Apollo, who was standing in an empty parking lot, smoking a cigarette.

My car hadn’t even come to a stop before Johnson slung his door open and jumped out, aggressive steps carrying him over to Rhion’s brother.

After throwing my car into park, I wasn’t but a second behind him.

My heart had been in my throat the entire drive over. I’d alternated between all-consuming fury and paralyzing panic. The two emotions had shifted so rapidly that they’d often overlapped. As we’d driven, Alex had been on the phone with the police while they mobilized local law enforcement in search of Pete’s car based on the description Leo had gotten off the security footage from the garage. Meanwhile, Lark had sat on the phone with Leo’s brother-in-law, Caleb Jones, a detective with the Chicago police department, and given him everything we knew about Apollo. We still had no idea whose side we were on, but none of us were willing to trust either party in this equation. All we knew was that neither Rhion nor Pete was answering their phones and Apollo had followed them to an empty building on the edge of the city.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” Apollo yelled as Johnson stormed toward him, every step heavier than the last.

“I will fucking kill you if this is one of your games,” he rumbled, snatching him by the front of his T-shirt and shoving a finger in his face.

Busting it up between the two of them, I pushed Johnson out of the way, but only so I could get my own hands on the kid.

“You got me here. Now, where is she?”

“They’re up there. If you give it a second, you can see her pacing the balcony. Top corner office used to be my dad’s. A bike messenger just left. It appears the building isn’t locked.”

I gave him a hard shake before releasing him to look up at the building.

Using my hand to shield my eyes from the sun, I stared up, desperately searching for a single glance of the fiery tips on her blond hair.

But it wasn’t the sight of her that made time stop.

“No!” Her shrill voice echoed off the building and the pavement.

I sucked in a deep breath, and it felt like acid was coating the inside of my throat when I caught sight of her folded backwards over the railing, her hair whipping in the wind behind her.

There was no smoke.

No burning house.

No fire at all.

But the sight of my Butterfly teetering on the edge, barely clinging to life, was more than enough to send me up in flames.

Every muscle in my body began to hum as something inside me exploded.

All at once, we took off. Johnson and I were shoulder-to-shoulder at the front of the pack, Lark and Alex behind us, Apollo bringing up the rear.

“We’ll take the stairs,” Johnson barked at me. “Alex, Lark, take Apollo and hit the elevator.”

My legs never slowed as I snatched the emergency stairwell open, taking the steps two by two.

My heart was racing and my lungs began protesting the higher we got, but I would have had to drop dead before I gave them any respite.

I pushed myself harder. Faster. Visions of fiery butterflies flashed behind my lids, fueling me with every step.

When we finally reached the tenth floor, I stopped as Johnson shoved through the final door.

Pete wasn’t stupid. The door was going to be locked and we’d have no way in. It was going to take precious moments to get through it. Kicking a door down wasn’t as easy as they made it look in the movies. I had faith that the five of us could do it—eventually.

But, much like the first time I’d tried to save Rhion, I didn’t have time to wait for eventually.

For reasons I’d never be able to explain, my mind drifted back to that night of the fire.



Drawing in a smoke-filled breath, I made a decision that would haunt me for the rest of my life. “You need to climb up to the roof.”

“I can’t!” she shrieked.

My stomach twisted, but I gentled my voice. “Look, I know you’re scared. But I’m right here. I’ll help guide you up, but, sweetheart, it’s bearing down on you. You gotta move, and I mean now.”



Rhion would probably claim it was fate.

And, as long as she was alive, I’d let her call it whatever she wanted.

“Keep him distracted,” I said to Johnson as I rounded the corner to the very last flight of stairs.





And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.

I was barely holding on to the man I considered a father, who was apparently trying to kill me for the second time, when I heard his voice.

Not Jude.

Not Johnson.

Not the police.

Not even Tight Pants McGee.

My brother.

My. Fucking. Brother.

Probably there on standby to light my body on fire when Pete had finished with me.

“Get your fucking hands off her!” Apollo screamed, pounding at the door.

My heart was already working overtime. Adrenaline was burning through the mental effects of whatever Pete had used to drug me, but my sluggish body was slower to snap out of it.

Either that or the fifty-seven-year-old man had been putting in some serious time at the gym, because no matter how hard I fought, I couldn’t get out of his grasp. And slowly, inch by inch, he was overpowering me.

However, I refused to give up. And not just because a human’s natural instinct was to fight for survival. But because I wanted to live.

I wanted the life I’d been promised I’d have only hours earlier.

A ring on my finger.

Little green-eyed babies.

Rocking chairs.

Jude.

No one. Not some expensive arsonist. Not Pete. Not Apollo. Was going to take that away from me.

Though, as my toes started slipping and my center of gravity came closer and closer to being forced over the railing, I feared that it was no longer in my control.

I needed a hero.

I needed Jude.

But this wasn’t like the last time. There was no silent alarm going off. Jude probably didn’t know I was missing. And, even if he had figured out what had happened in the garage, he’d assume I was safe with Pete.

No, this time, I was on my own.

Pete growled as I clawed at his face, giving it all I had left in me.

“Let. Me. Go!” I choked out as the ground disappeared below my feet and the edge of the railing bit into my butt.

Only a few more inches and I wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer.

My brother’s voice screamed in the background, the sound of the wood splintering on the door scaring me almost as much as the cool, empty air at my back.

I gave up on my fight and frantically began clinging to Pete’s shirt and shoulders. I did my best to hook my legs around him for leverage, but I was going down. Fast.

With the cold wind whipping all around me, more air than railing, I screwed my eyes shut and sent up one last plea to the universe.

I’d been saved from the claws of death once. Maybe…

“Butterfly.”

Hope exploded in my chest as I popped my eyes open.

Jude. Standing like a goddamn superhero on the edge of the roof only one floor above us staring down. His eyes blazing with primal rage.

I blinked.

He wasn’t real.