Page 20 of Theirs to Ruin

That’s when I heard an animalistic growl.

The raucous bar fell into an eerie silence, the crowd parting like the Red Sea, revealing Dante. He lunged forward, his fist crashing into Serpent’s face.

Serpent staggered backwards. Riveted along with the rest of the crowd, my heart drumming a manic symphony, I watched in fear and fascination as Dante took the man apart. His fists moved with ruthless efficiency and power.

Whereas Kage had rescued me last month with strategy, cunning, and control, Dante’s actions were unhinged. This was no school counselor or wannabe biker bar-fly; he was an avatar of danger and destruction.

Every move Dante made seemed amplified. His face was unyielding stone and his fists just as brutal. I tried telling myself he was just defending the honor of one of his students, that it wasn’t me personally who’d fostered this reaction, but I’m not sure I believed it.

My sister grabbed me before I could step forward. “Don’t interfere. We need to get out of here," Bianca urged, tugging at my arm. I automatically fell into step with her, stealing one last glance at Dante as he continued to beat Serpent.

As we rushed outside, the echoes of the brawl still rumbling behind us, an involuntary shiver ran down my spine. To my shame, it didn’t feel like a shiver of fear but one of excitement.

“Holy shit that was crazy,” Bianca gasped, tugging at my arm. She looked at her phone. “There’s an Uber right around the corner.” She fiddled with the app while I looked behind me, straining to see any sign of Dante through the window but seeing only a crowd of bodies.

“There it is,” Bianca said a minute later, tugging at my arm. I started to follow her across the street to catch the approaching car.

“Camille.” The sound of my name boomed into the night.

I turned and gasped. Dante stood in the doorway of Devil’s Engine, the neon light painting his face a myriad of colors, his eyes filled with fury. Those same eyes swept my body, as if searching for injuries.

“Dante—” I whispered.

“Get the fuck back to campus,” he ordered, his voice harsh. He sounded nothing like the Dante I was used to. His eyes shifted accusingly to Bianca. “Both of you.”

Bianca stiffened but instead of arguing with him, she dragged me to the waiting Uber. We clambered inside while Dante watched us, hands at his sides, his muscular chest heaving from exertion. As the driver started to pull away, Dante turned and stormed back inside the bar.

Every part of me wanted to jump from the car and follow him back into the chaos. The danger. The blood-pumping lust that made me feel alive.

But then I remembered my mother’s last words before she died.

Why do you have to be so defiant? So childish, Camille? Learn to control yourself. When you argue with your father, it just causes more problems for me.

My father had just blasted her about spoiling me, and how it was all her fault—my defiance and my repeated arguments with him about wanting to go to Yale instead of CU.

The next day, my mom, who’d been sober for over a year, died of a drug overdose.

To this day, I felt like her death was my fault.

My dreams of Yale and of distancing myself from my dad’s crimes had withered, especially after it came out how poor we really were. It was after that I learned to control my wild. No matter how bad I wanted to let go and wreak my own kind of havoc, I couldn’t afford to let it out.

Not yet.

Tier One. Do my duty by my family.

Maybe then I could let myself go. Be the rebel Kage had called me. The storm Bianca thought I was. I wanted that, more than anything.

But I had to earn it first.

Chapter 8

Camille

“Are you okay?” Bianca asked quietly as we drove away.

I wasn’t. I was crazy for wanting to go back inside Devil’s Engine. I had to be.

Adrenalin pumped through my veins as I tried to calm myself down. I was shaken from being caught in the middle of all that brutality, but more than that, I was aroused by Dante unleashing all the insane power to protect me. I was so turned on I almost couldn’t see straight.

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