Page 84 of Pawn

When she leaves, I roll over, cheek against the floor. “She knew …” My words land against the wood, bass from the music vibrating my body.

Damien sits on the floor beside me, the room empty except for me and him and right now, I’m actually grateful he’s here. His hand comes to my hair, raking his fingers through it.

“I don’t think she knew how to protect her friend and her sister,” Damien says. “The girl’s tougher than she looks.”

“How can she forgive him?” I ask, looking up to his chiselled face for answers.

“Maybe it’s easier for her to forgive the people she loves.” He shrugs. “It’s a fucked up mistake but should anyone suffer that much for their mistakes?”

Lifting a brow I ask, “Are we still talking about Jordan? How he killed my parents?” Damien shrugs. “What am I supposed to do, Damien? I want to hurt him but that’ll only hurt Willow.”

“You wanna hurt Jordan?” He scoffs, the smell of pot filling the room as he lights another joint. “Not the school? Not her parents? Not any of the assholes who covered this all up?”

Jordan was a kid when this happened, as old as Willow. Can I blame him for this?

Rolling over, Damien’s eyes hit mine before I can stare up at Allie’s ceiling. Inching closer, he uses his boot to close the door, the music turning into a soft thud.

“They paid Evergreen to keep it quiet.” I’m saying my thoughts as they come to my head. “Right? That’s what this entire paper trail of this deal is for?” It’s hard to sit up when I’m this toasted but I manage to balance on my elbows. “You think they knew something?”

Sitting up only gives me a better view of Damien. He’s wearing my favourite. The classic combination of his leather jackets with his black boots and dark v-neck. His eyes roam my face before they drop to my lips. It’s hard to tell if that tightness in my stomach is from my drinking or if it’s the devil’s spell all over again.

He takes his time to answer, eyes slinking from my lips to my chest and it’s like he’s touching me with his gaze. “Who?”

“My dad and your mom?” Ignoring the heat in my cheeks, this weird mix of emotions stirring inside me, I try to focus on where my drunk mind takes me. “Was that why Jordan was trying to help his dad? To silence mine?”

He shrugs, pulling the joint to his lips. After a moment, he says, “We’re better off burning this entire thing to the ground.”

It’s hard not to smile when he gives me that devilish smirk, that calculating plan in his eye and I can’t tell if he’s joking.

He catches my eyes again and his smirk grows into a full-on grin. “Come to prom with me.”

There’s a punch to the knot in my stomach. “Y-you don’t even go to the academy anymore.”

“Fine. I’ll come to prom with you.”

The fuck? “Jordan Huang killed my parents and you’re worried about prom?”

“You said you wanted normal. Prom is the most normal teenage thing I can think of.”

He gets another snort. Didn’t think I’d ever make it to prom and now I have two invitations. Three if you count the one from Isaac but I don’t make good decisions with him either.

“I already have a date.”

His jaw clenches and fuck, I love seeing that reaction. “I’ll kill ‘em. Then we can go together.”

Rolling my eyes I push off my elbows but he’s on top of me before I can get up. “Don’t make me beg, Rowland.”

Swallowing hard, the room around us disappears, the fuzzy feeling overtaking me with his body this close. With his scent, with those eyes. “I’m going with Allie and Lea,” I say, my voice softer than I’d like. “It’s the better choice, Damien. It’s only trouble with us.”

“So coming to a party to find your ass on display on the kitchen island isn’t trouble?”

“Yeah but that was my decision. Mine alone. If anything were to happen to me I’d have no one to blame but myself. Not you.”

“But you’d still blame me,” he says. “Your whole world revolves around me, Rowland. You find a way to fit me into it even when I have nothing to do with it. I know because I do the same to you.”

Sliding up, I get out from his trap, pushing myself off the ground. “I can’t do this.”

“Even after we just cracked the biggest mystery of your life?”

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