Page 132 of Mayhem
“We aren’t changing our minds, Maly. You’ve also already stayed with us for a week before I left. Two weeks here, one week at your apartment. We can rotate like that for a few months.”
“But we aren’t going to have to,” Paetyn stated. “The first week you leave, we’ll all hate it. We don’t like it when you leave now,” he finished, gesturing between them.
“Okay, two weeks at a time here.”
“We’ll go with you tomorrow to get whatever you need,” Cruz offered.
“No. I’m staying at my apartment next week. That way, I’m here the week of Thanksgiving, but I’ll stay with you tonight.”
“Angel, if you thought you were leaving tonight after telling us you loved us, there was no way in hell we were letting that happen.”
“Finish your dessert,” Cruz instructed. “Unless you want to take it to the bedroom and finish it while I have mine.”
Erin grabbed her plate from the table and headed towards the stairs. “Come on then,” she threw over her shoulder, and Cruz smirked as he and Paetyn followed her.
37
Erin moved to the slow melody, Paetyn’s hands on her hips as he stole kisses while they danced. It was the weekend before Halloween, and they were at Mirage for a themed night. Erin was sure the place was packed to capacity. There was a costume contest with a cash prize for the best three.
“You keep kissing me, and I’m going to think you’re trying to corrupt me,” she stated in his ear.
“Would it take a lot, little angel?” he teased.
She’d decided to dress as an angel that year. It made the most sense to her. She wore a long white dress that plunged in the back and a halo. She’d forgone the wings, not wanting to fight with them all night. Her men were dressed in all black. Demons to her angel.
“I guess we’ll find out at the end of the night. I still need to stop by my apartment when we leave.” She needed to pick up a few things to finish her first two-week stay with them. Chayse had picked her up so she could help her get ready, and they’d stopped by her apartment to get the dress, but they were running short on time, so she hadn’t grabbed anything else.
Paetyn nodded, and they continued their slow sway until the song went off. It was the third they’d danced through and headed back to their section. Cruz pulled her down onto his lap, and she grabbed her drink off the table. Remy and Lawrence had taken to the dance floor, and Chayse and Nik were doing the rounds. Alijah and Kieran sat on a couch across from them. Herfriend had managed to get Kieran to dance a couple of times, but for the most part, she’d danced with either her or Chayse.
Cruz and Kieran were similar in their stances on dancing. They preferred not to, but Erin had gotten him to dance with her a couple of times. However, she would never try to push him outside of his comfort zone. Since Paetyn would dance with her whenever, she’d dance a few with him and one with Cruz afterward while spending most of her time in their section on his lap or between them.
“Your phone has been vibrating nonstop, Maly.”
“It has?” she asked. She hadn’t noticed it before.
“Since the two of you went to dance,” he responded.
She felt the vibration from her clutch that sat beside them as if on cue. She put her glass down and took the phone from the bag. It wasn’t a saved number but had a Washington area code, and Erin’s stomach dropped.Had something happened to her dad?
“I’m going to go take this real quick,” she stated, standing and leaving the section before anyone could respond.
She briefly considered going to Nik’s office, but she knew the door leading there was locked and didn’t want to track him down. Instead, she headed for the front door and entered the cool October weather.
“Hello?” she answered, walking away from the line of people still hoping to get in and any prying ears. Static answered her. “Hello?” she asked again.
“Such a pretty angelic being.”
Erin furrowed her brow. The voice was low, and she couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. She realized this might have been the person who was calling before. After she blocked the first number, they called from others, and she’d block it whenever she answered, and no one said anything. Or she only heard a word or two. This was the first time she’d been able to makeout a whole sentence, and she immediately began to look around because this person knew what she was wearing.
“Who is this?” she asked after a moment, and she could only describe the answering sound as a sigh. “Whoisthis?” she stressed. This time, there was nothing, and she hung up the phone.
A car came to a slow stop beside her, and Erin wasn’t paying it any mind as she blocked this most recent number. It wasn’t until the horn blew, startling her, that she looked up. The windows were deeply tinted. The passenger side window was down just enough for her to see something round that resembled a barrel.
Her stomach dropped as a loud pop came, and she was shot with…rose petals? She looked down at them, a bit shaken before it was overtaken by anger, and she glared at the now rolled-up window.
“What do you want?!” she yelled. “Leave me alone!”
The car drove away, and she glimpsed at the license plate, trying to remember what she could of it.
