Page 42 of Devoted
An irritating voice echoes in my mind, but I am so rattled beyond reason that the thoughts do not register.
Tensing my hands at my side, I finalize my decision to step up our game. It’s time to do more than just watch.
And I also don’t want to encounter that mean raccoon again.
CHAPTER THIRTY
VIVIAN
Switch it up.
An annoying beeping wakes me from my comfortable sleep. I got to bed a little earlier than normal because of the mental exhaustion I experienced talking to my mother earlier today.
I answered my phone by accident when I was working on a sketch. As soon as I heard my mother’s voice, I should have hung up the call. But guilt made me drop my pencil and pick up the phone. People could change, and things could be different this time. Or so I thought.
They weren’t. She berated me for not answering her calls for weeks and accused me of playing a game with her. It’s not true; I just don’t want anything to do with them anymore. No person who grew up with loveless, harsh, and judgmental parents would want to.
But I also didn’t want them bothering Thomas or Alek when they couldn’t reach me. They had gotten the worst of it when wewere kids. I can take an annoying call now and then to save them the trouble.
Grabbing my phone from the nightstand, I turn to the side and silently pray it’s not another notification from my parents. I squint my eyes in confusion when I see it’s a text message from Knight.
Knight Adler - Boss Text
Knight
Wake up darling
For some unknown reason, the message sends a chill down my spine. It’s then that I realize something feelsoffin my room. The little nightlight I usually have on—a crescent moon surrounded by stars—is dimmed to the darkest setting.
Did I bump into it before getting to sleep? No, it was light enough that I could still see the drawings in my sketch pad while I flipped through them in bed. Right now, my room is so dark that I can’t even see the shapes of any of the furniture at my feet.
Vivian
I’m awake. Are you still at the club?
I text Knight back before I shove the blankets off my body and swing my legs over the edge of the bed to find my kitty slippers.
As I slip my feet into the shoes, I hear a notification go off somewhere in the room. My body tenses, and it feels like ice is coursing through my veins. In horror, I look at the closet mirror, angled toward my desk and my reading chair, to see the glow of a cell phone reflected there. The light morphs into different shapes as phantom fingers type on the screen.
Even when expecting the reply, my body jumps when I see a new notification on my phone… from Knight.
Knight
tell me to leave
please
Reaching over to turn on the small lamp at the edge of my nightstand, I flick the switch and stand up to face him once there’s some light in the room.
“Why would I want you to leave?” I ask.
Time slows when I see his state. He’s dressed in his normal work clothes, black trousers with a gray button-up peeking through a mostly zipped hoodie. The hood lies on his shoulders as if he’s just slid it down seconds ago.
It’s his expression that surprises me. Knight looks pained, his normal grumpy face seems a million times lighter than the one I’m seeing right now. Red eyes that don’t reach mine stare at a point on my bedframe. His elbows are on his knees as he leans down in a pose that feels so fuckingheavy.
“Because I broke into your room while you were sleeping, Vivian,” he replies in a hushed tone.
“What’s wrong, Knight?” Crossing the room and standing at the foot of the bed, I force him to at least look in my direction, even if he’s still not meeting my eyes.
