Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1), Paige Orr [new books to read .TXT] 📗

captive, and when he looks down at our own prisoner, his eyes widen in recognition. I watch him closely as his eyes flick to Morpheus in question, who just gives him a nod of his head, before he turns to Melissa with suspicion in his eyes.

My spine stiffens, as I try to work out their reaction to the man, but before I can ask anything, Melissa is rising to her feet. She wipes her eyes on the back of her hands, smearing blood across her face, as she takes a fortifying breath before making her way towards us. She stops in front of me, refusing to meet my eyes, as she slowly drops to her knees, head bowed towards the floor. Her voice is barely a whisper as she says to me.

“I’m so fucking sorry, I swear I didn’t know”

“Didn’t know what, Melissa?”

“I didn’t know that he was a cult member. This is all my fucking fault?”

I stiffen once more, confused at her words and trying to make sense of them. How does she know this man? Thankfully, she doesn’t leave me long before filling in the blanks. My eyes widen in surprise as she spits her story out, almost too fast for anyone to keep up with, and I feel my hands fisting at my sides.

She doesn’t leave anything out as she tells me how Marcus came to her to hire her to find the necklace, and how she snuck into my party so she could steal it. I can feel tension radiating from Zaphyr the more she explains, and I look at him out of the side of my eye.

Melissa tells me how she left with the necklace, not knowing that she was about to hand it over to the leader of the cult, and how she bumped into Zaphyr, which is when she gave him her card. I can stop my anger flaring, knowing that he helped someone to steal from me, but I don’t let it get the best of me, knowing that I would have probably done the same thing to needle at him.

She tells us about how she was hit over the head while searching the house that Annika led us to and waking up in one of the rooms with Marcus telling her how she was all part of his plan. More tears spring from her eyes, as she confesses her part in this story, looking as though she’s ready to be punished.

I don’t know what has given her the impression that I would ever hurt her for unknowingly being involved in this shit, but it’s something that really needs cleared up. I can’t have an innocent woman be weighed down with grief and guilt over something that isn’t her fault. Crouching down so that I’m eye level with her, I reach out taking her hand in mine, ignoring how she flinches before relaxing.

“Melissa, this shit isn’t your fault. Even if you didn’t agree to take the job, he would have just found someone else who would have. You are not responsible for this monster's actions.”

She warily turns her beautiful mismatched eyes up to look at me with disbelief shining from their depth. I understand why she feels guilty, but we can’t control other people's actions, and she shouldn’t let this dick for brains be the cause of all this self-doubt.

“But, it’s my fault that you and Zaphyr almost lost so many of your people.”

“No, it's this pathetic bastard Marcus’s fault. He had already taken almost every Fae in this room before he even reached out to you with the job, remember. Which means he had been planning this for a lot longer. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and were unlucky enough to be the person he chose. That doesn’t make any of this your fault.”

Her shoulders slump with cautious relief, as she gives me a small smile of thanks, and reminding me just how lovely she truly is. This woman has such a strong heart, even if she doesn’t realize it herself.

“Thanks Cailean, but I don’t really understand how you could forgive me for my part in this, I sure as hell can’t forgive myself.”

“You will come to terms with all of this in time. Anyway, we can talk later about how you stole from me, it seems we have a lot to work out, which means we will be seeing a lot more of each other.”

The shock on her face causes a grin to spread across mine as I give her a wink to show that I’m not truly angry at her. I’m actually looking forward to talking to her about how she managed to pull it off. She could probably help us bolster security so something like this doesn’t happen again. So maybe it’s a good thing that all of this happened the way that it did, I sure as fuck ain’t going to complain.

Zaphyr comes up the other side of us, causing Melissa to stiffen all over again, and I send him a scathing look that does nothing but make him roll his eyes at me. I can’t stop the chuckle that slips out of me, glad that we took this opportunity to work together. Maybe this could be good for all of us.

Melissa only took the job that Marcus gave her because she was short on money. But we are never out of mysteries that need solved, so this could be a very lucrative relationship for us. She has shown just how good she is at this job, so now it's just time for us to let her know that. Zaphyr takes his turn to reassure her that she has done nothing wrong as I’m distracted by the low moan coming from the piece of shit laying on the ground beside me.

I turn towards him, leaving Zaphyr to comfort Melissa, and watch