Page 142 of Deviant

“Of course it is.” Lucas shakes his head.

“Wait! Why do the guys get to choose? I didn’t figure you to be part of the patriarchy, Lucas,” Ruby reprimands.

“Fine, Ruby. Choose. Who will be your partner?”

She looks at Big Mike and Chris and decides that if she wants to win, she needs brains as well as brawn.

“Big Mike.”

“Good for you. That leaves Chris and Abbie together. Are you two cool with that?”

Abbie looks at Chris and nods.

“Then we have our partners. The task is done. So, if you don’t mind, I would rather go back up to my room with my girl, and spend whatever hours we still have in peace. If I’m to die tomorrow, I don’t want to spend my last night with you assholes.”

“Ditto,” Andy agrees, gaining a side eye from Lucas. “Wait. No. You’re not the asshole. I meant them. Fuck. You know what I meant.”

Lucas throws him a little grin before lacing his fingers through Lucy’s and strutting out of the den, with not so much as a goodnight.

“And on that note,” Andy says, jumping off the couch and offering his hand to Harper, “Shall we, my lady?”

“We shall, my lord.” She giggles, placing her hand in his so he can give it a quick kiss before pulling her up. Harper wavesover to me and Abbie, while completely ignoring Ruby and Mackenzie.

“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Elias whispers in my ear, entwining his hand in mine.

I throw a sincere grin over to Abbie and Chris, but then take a page out of the Harper Thomas playbook and pretend that everyone else doesn’t exist to me. They all showed their true colors tonight. Not that I didn’t have an inkling to how rotten they were already.

“I’m exhausted,” I say, leaning my head on Elias’s shoulder as we walk up the staircase to our room.

“It’s been a long day and we didn’t get much sleep last night.”

My cheeks heat up at the reminder, as does the rest of my sore body.

“Don’t worry. You get the night off tonight.” He chuckles softly.

My sore bones thank him, while my heart can’t help but be disappointed.

Once we turn into our corridor, we see Andy waiting for us at his door, the sound of a giggling Harper coming from inside the room.

“I would have thought you two would be in bed already,” Elias goads, halting his step to talk to Andy.

“That can wait.”

“No, it can’t!” Harper yells from inside.

“Baby, please, just one second,” he pleads with her, while Harper answers by throwing a pillow at his head.

“I don’t think you have one second.” I laugh.

“It’s like I told ya, this… is addictive.” He winks, pointing to his scrawny chest, before closing the door behind him, leaving it slightly ajar.

“Stop flirting and start talking,” Elias grunts, letting go of my hand just to snake a protective arm around my waist.

“I don’t know about you, but that shit that went down tonight kind of made my flesh crawl.”

“Yeah, it creeped me out, too. I’m not sure any girl here will feel safe knowing there is a rapist in our group. By my count, it’s either David or Big Mike. The narcissist could easily be Mackenzie.”

“We can’t shrug off Lucas either,” Elias points out.

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