Page 29 of Into The Darkness

“No. Go upstairs. Tell her friends she went home with a guy. She’s safe.” They nodded and hurried upstairs.

“We are going out the back door, start my car.”

“You’ve been drinking,” Rain warned.

“No, I haven’t. Just been fucking.” I smirked but knew Rain could read inside of my words. Truthfully, I had wanted to fuck somebody just to get her tight ass body off my fucking mind. I wanted to bury my cock between her tits and watch as they bounced.

“Earth to Ortiz,” Rain groaned, and I looked over at him as he tried to grab Ember. I lifted her, and he grabbed the other side while we walked out the back door and put her in the backseat of my car.

“I got it from here,” I told him, and he nodded, then gave me a mock salute before I peeled out of the driveway and straight to her apartment. The boys had grabbed her purse, so when we got there, I pulled up and found her keys tucked away in their separate little pocket. I loved that even though tonight proved she had that darkness inside of her, these quirks were still uniquely hers.

I flung her over my shoulder, then we walked to the elevator and rode it to the top floor. Her roommate was still at the party, so I opened the door and carried her into her room.

It had to have been the room that was organized with an alphabetized bookshelf. Of course, it was.

I laid her down onto the bed and slowly pulled off the straps of her dress. She was utter perfection sleeping soundly, her chest moving up and down in rhythm with my slow breaths.

If I didn’t have a raging hard-on just by being in her presence, I knew the moment I grabbed her dress and pulled it past her hips I would be fucking throbbing.

I loved the way her hips dipped into her defined waist and the way her ass looked in her tiny thong. God, she was such an enigma. I saw the way she watched me tonight with curiosity gleaming in her eyes and knew immediately she had never gotten fucked in the way I would give it to her. My sweet little sunshine was such a dirty girl.

While retrieving some pain relievers for the inevitable headache she would wake up with, I fetched a glass of water from the kitchen, then positioned her bag by her bedside. As I did, her planner slipped out, then a chuckle escaped my lips. Of course, she’d bring a damn notebook to a college fraternity party.

Intrigued, I opened it to the Friday page and slid it beneath the medication. Next week, in Dr. Creep’s class, we were set to meet again on Friday. A subtle signal, a silent acknowledgment of my presence.

“Damn it,” I muttered, a mix of frustration and self-reproach. I was already skirting recklessness, spending too much time away from the house during a party. This sentimentality, this uncharacteristic attachment, was a risk—one that didn’t align with my mission. “Until our next encounter, mi sol.”

A final lingering glance, and I memorized the image before me. I’d tucked her in, a rare moment of care amid my calculated endeavors. I could only hope that my actions wouldn’t provoke her ire come tomorrow.

Leaving her room, I moved through the shadows, my thoughts consumed by her presence. The memory of her sleeping form, vulnerable yet somehow resilient, lingered like an imprint on my mind. I drove back to the Den and went to my room, the raucous laughter and booming music fading into the background as my mind continued to replay our brief interaction. My steps were purposeful, but my thoughts were a chaotic whirlwind, tugging at the boundaries of my focus.

Back in the confines of my own space, I paced, an unusual restlessness gripping me. The image of her notebook, a symbol of her endearing idiosyncrasy, flickered before my eyes. I had laughed at it, mocked it in my mind, yet now I couldn’t shake its significance. A twinge of guilt crept in—an emotion that rarely found a foothold within me. My mission, my role, they were clear; but now, the lines seemed blurred by an unexpected fascination.

As I settled into my chair, fingers drumming absentmindedly on the surface, I was struck by the realization that Ember Solis had pierced through the constructed armor I wore. The scent of her shampoo, the warmth of her proximity—they clung to me, tugging at my thoughts in a way I couldn’t ignore. Unwanted and unforeseen, her presence was like a mystery I couldn’t decipher, a puzzle piece that didn’t fit the narrative I had scripted by my father.

“Yo.” Rain’s familiar voice pulled me from my thoughts. Rain and I lived together growing up, so our styles were so similar, but Rain was more of an introvert than I was.

“What?” I barked back at him. My father’s phone call put me in a shit mood, and thinking of Ember, only exacerbated it.

Rain was my brother, not by blood, but he saved me in so many ways I couldn’t begin to imagine how much I owed him for what he’d done for me. Without Rain, I wouldn’t be here today.

I had mindlessly made my way downstairs to where some of the brothers were eating in the kitchen. It was a large industrial kitchen, and attached next door was our dining room. We had a chef who prepared all our meals, and I had missed most of breakfast.

The dining room was decorated in Gothic-style furniture, a massive wooden table in the middle surrounded by dark wooden vintage-style chairs. A few of the guys were sitting on one end of the table, talking with each other.

“When Ember came by yesterday . . .” God, why was this woman in every single one of my subconscious thoughts and in my daily life conversations?

“What about it?” I seethed.

“Everything good?” I knew what he was asking. If I had kept my fucking mouth shut. If anyone knew me better than myself, it was Rain.

“All good. Mission is still moving forward. In fact, I probably pissed her off even more yesterday.”

“Just checking in on you. You’ve been off since Saturday.” Fuck breakfast. I was over these fucking conversations.

“I got class, gotta go.” I didn’t have class, but I needed an excuse to get the fuck out of this suffocating house. I walked out of the door, and when I got to the bottom of the steps, it took all the strength I had not to turn left to head to Ember’s apartment and go to the undergrad library to get some work done. If I had intentions of graduating early to take over my dad’s business, then I needed to focus and get my head on straight.

As I pulled up to the library, I saw the one motherfucker that would make my day even worse than when it started—Walsh Solis.

---