Page 75 of The Fallen Ones

I took the drink from her and did as I was told, my body humming with excitement at the prospect of finding out who the masked trio were.

I caught Damien sitting in a chair not far from where we were, watching me, a drink in one hand and a joint in the other. Girls tried to get his attention, but he wasn’t paying them any mind, his focus solely on me.

My face heated beneath his stare and the memory of us in his car.

His face remained emotionless as he continued to watch me. Damien had a way of staring right through into my soul. He always seemed to know me better than I knew myself, but in all the dark, twisted ways I hid from the world.

I tipped the bottle to my lips, him mirroring me. As much as I wanted to go to him, I held back. I knew if I went, things would get weird. Like I may actually slide onto his lap and finish what we’d started in his car.

I couldn’t do that. It was way too weird. He was my stepbrother. Or had been, however briefly.

But I couldn’t deny there was a spark between us, one I knew could grow into a dangerous wildfire if I let it.

Instead of going to him, I gave him the smallest smile. His eyes sparkled as he stared back at me before he inclined his head the slightest bit.

That was all it took for me to groan inwardly, silently wishing he was one of the masked trio because it was killing me to know what it would be like to be with Damien Fletcher, my former stepbrother.

Chapter 29

Damien

It had taken all my willpower to not go to Brandon and strangle him to death with my fucking shoelace. The idea of killing someone had never bothered me. In fact, I often dreamed of watching the life fade from the eyes of a motherfucker who wronged me. It used to be Jace I’d envisioned killing slowly, but that dream had long since faded. Right now, my focus was on Brandon Rogers, the little cocksucker whose lips had just been on my sister’s.

I knew Caleb felt the same way because I’d listened in with his conversation with Lily. She’d been exactly how I knew she’d be too. Defiant. Stubborn. A pain in the ass who just needed punished.

Caleb had stepped outside with Jace to get some air because they were both pissed and needed to cool off. I, however, liked to fuel my hate machine, and stayed behind. Besides, someone needed to watch my little devil.

So I watched her while she drank too much. While she laughed. Danced. When she started to stumble, I watched Olivia stumble with her. It was when I heard Lily say she was going home that I perked up. Olivia had been her ride and she couldn’tget a taxi. It would be a two hour wait since it was a college town and party night.

“I’ll walk,” Lily slurred. “It’s not that far from my apartment.”

“Girl, stay. You can sleep with me and Cam in his room. Right, Cam?” Olivia was speaking in cursive too, her arm around Lily’s shoulders.

Cam looked Lily up and down before nodding. “Absolutely.”

I think the fuck not.

I was just about to offer my services when Lily declared she was going to walk and she’d call Olivia when she got home. After a brief stand-off over it, Olivia drunkenly agreed before she went to Cam and started making out with him.

I pulled my phone out and sent a text to our group chat.

Damien: She’s going to walk home. Get ready, boys.

Jace: We’re outside already.

Damien: See you in a few.

I darkened my phone screen and followed her outside, keeping far enough behind her so she wouldn’t notice me. She stumbled to the sidewalk, her arms wrapped around herself to keep warm in her barely-there outfit.

Good thing we didn’t live where it was fucking cold or she’d get hypothermia.

“Hey,” Jace greeted me as I approached where he and Caleb were lurking on the edge of the woods, masks in hand. Jace thrust my mask and beanie at me and I quickly pulled them on, the guys following my move.

“Caleb, you good?” I called out.

He grunted beneath his mask. He’d been so pissed earlier. Clearly, he was still in a shitty mood, but at least he was here. I counted that as a victory.

“Let’s go,” I said, gesturing for them to follow. I knew the perfect place away from everything where we could get my little devil.

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