Page 17 of Deviant Bastards

Gryffin slides down beside me and pulls my feet up onto his lap as Dayton sprawls out in front of me with his head in my lap. “Who’s got the controller?” Barker asks just as Dayton starts Netflix. “Don’t worry, as usual, Dayton has it,” Gryffin chuckles. The show starts, and I get completely lost in the storyline. From the beginning of the opening scene, there is blood, gore, and sex. I completely lose track of time, only caring about what’s gonna happen next. I wiggle to get a little more comfortable, and that’s when the sound of someone snoring reaches my ears. I glance up to find that Gryffin has fallen fast asleep while rubbing my feet.

The strange, almost heart-warming contradiction of this large, burly, tattooed man peacefully sleeping with his hands curled around my feet, as if he’s afraid that I’ll try to escape while he sleeps, has an unexpected emotion bubbling up inside of me. A laugh bursts out of me, making Barker and Dayton turn to see what I’m laughing at. Dayton grabs his phone and snaps a picture. “That’s too funny not to have proof,” he says as he pockets his phone and turns his attention back to the television.

* * *

KENDRIC

I wait until their footsteps fade, and then I put my shirt on, glaring at Cassandra, who currently has her arse up on my desk. “Who was she?” her bitchy voice grates down my spine, causing a shiver of revulsion and regret to rack my body. I could tell from the way that Harley’s eyes narrowed she truly thought that I was screwing this bitch. The truth is that I thought about it, but apparently, my dick had other ideas. “Sheis none of your fucking business. Now, get the fuck out,” I growl at her. She looks at me with anger in her eyes, but she knows better than to argue with me. Cassandra and I have a little bit of history. She was good to me in the beginning when I wanted to scratch an itch. Then somewhere along the way, we became partners. She wanted to rise above her family’s station and make a name for herself, while I was looking for ways to strengthen our crew to prove myself to my dad. Together, we networked and made good business deals. We became the power couple to watch while growing closer together, and even though she wasn’t the girl I wanted, I was happy to settle for getting my life on the right track.

Unfortunately, all that came crashing down when I caught her cheating on me, not once, but four fucking times. We made an agreement that would allow us to still have what we originally wanted and to keep our business running. But now that means I have to meet with her once a month. Hopefully, soon that will all come to an end.

“I thought…” her voice trails off as I spin to face her, my mask of indifference firmly in place. I approach her and wrap a hand around her throat, squeezing ever so slightly but enough that she gets the message. “You thought, what? That I would fuck you?” I squeeze her skinny, little neck a bit tighter as I yank her towards me. “Get the fuck out, and don’t come back, Cassandra. You got it?” she nods her head as her body begins to tremble.

I release her, and she sucks in a breath. “You’re a bastard, you know that, right? You’re going to die alone, just like your fucking father,” she huffs as she gathers her shit and hauls ass out of my office.

Once she’s gone, I breathe in deeply. I can’t help but wonder how this is going to change Harley’s view of me.I shouldn’t care!I yell at myself, but old habits die hard. I have to figure out what’s going on in her head because last night, she woke up the whole house with her screaming. I wanted to be the one to go to her and comfort her, but when I got to her room, it seemed like the rest of my guys got there first.

I also have to find out if the guys know who the ‘she’that Harley mentioned in her call to her arsehole father is since they seem to be so close now. I’m assuming that it’s her little sister, the one that Grayson keeps locked up in the mansion. No one has seen the kid, but there were rumours flying around that Grayson had gotten one of his maids pregnant, killed her, and taken the baby.

I open the door to my office and go in search of my girl and the guys. My girl? Ugh! I need to stop thinking like this, she’s not mine, even if I’ve been in love with her since she was twelve and I was fourteen. After my dad caught me kissing her on her thirteenth birthday, everything changed. He pretty much kept me away from the house after that... to keep us apart.

Harley comes down the stairs dressed in a pale pink dress that has so many ruffles on it, it’s ridiculous. She blushes when she sees me watching her. “Happy birthday, Harley,” I say as I walk over to kiss her cheek. I hold out my hand for her to take and to help her down the last few steps. She wobbles a little in the ridiculous high-heeled shoes that her father has made her wear.

Pulling her into my arms, I lower my lips to meet hers. I kiss her gently on the lips, causing her to gasp. I can’t help but chuckle at her reaction.

“That’s my birthday gift to you,” I say as she looks at me, stunned by the fact that I’ve just kissed her. “Well, could I have more, you know to make up for all my other birthdays?” she asks ever so softly. I chuckle at her question, “Don’t be a brat but, if you’re nice, then we’ll see what happens the next time I come over.”

“Kendric!” my father barks before she can respond to my statement. I shuffle Harley behind me, shielding her from my father as I turn to face him. “Take miss Aillerton into the ballroom,” he instructs as he takes a step towards us.

“Yes, Dad.” I take Harley’s hand in mine, but she pulls it away at the last minute as the arsehole Deacon St James rounds the corner. “Little Princess, where have you been?” he demands as he pulls her towards him. I can’t help the growl that rises in my throat at his hands on my girl. “I’ve got her from here, boy,” he says as he takes her hand and leads her towards the ballroom. My father clasps his hand on my shoulder, stopping me from moving or saying anything. “You’re lucky it was me who caught you two and not him, or worse, Grayson.”

She didn’t know it, but that was the night I knew that Harley was meant to be mine. But at every turn, I was told that I could never have her. And really, that didn’t matter because she never gave me the time of day after her that, always acting stuck up like she was better than me. All of that mixed together and created an anger in me that festered. As years passed and nothing changed, I had finally accepted the fact that she would never be mine. Now, on top of all that, life thought it would be funny to throw me another curveball because I never expected my best friends to fall for her too.

In the beginning, my plan was to hold her until her father admitted what he did and then let her go. Except, lately, it seems my heart has a different idea; it wants to keep her. Having her around all the time has made it increasingly hard to believe that we won’t be together, even though she hates me. So, now the question is, can I let her go home?

I stand in the doorway of the movie room, taking in the scene before me. Harley has her head in Barker’s lap while Gryffin snores at her other side and Gadge lays his head on her knees. They’re all watching that new Viking show that Gadge is obsessed with, and they seem completely content in each other’s company. Barker must sense my presence because he tilts his head in my direction. “Joining us?” he asks, which gains Harley’s attention. She glares at me for a second and then goes back to watching the tv. I shake my head at him and walk away.

I make my way to the kitchen to make coffee. While I wait for the it to brew, I stand and debate what my next move will be. I can’t let her go, but at the same time, I don’t want her to hate us any more than she already does. Having her around twenty-four/seven has given me a glimpse into the woman she grew up to be. She’s different from the little girl I didn’t want to let go of. Butthatstill hasn’t changed; I do not want to let her go.

Since we took her, she hasn’t given off the impression that she is better than us, just that she won’t be pushed around by us. Looking back, it occurs to me that maybe she wasn’t acting stuck up at all. Maybe, her father just kept her too busy with things that didn’t matter, so she couldn’t be a part of the business that she rightfully had a spot in. Maybe, I just caught her on a bad day.God knows I’ve had plenty of those.All this reflecting on the past has me rethinking everything.What if I have been angry with the wrong person all this time?

It never crossed my mind thatsheisn’t the reason why we can’t be together, but if her time here is any indication, then she didn’t start hating me until we took her from her life. And look how she’s reacted to the guys. If I can get her to feel that way for me like she does for them, then maybe, just maybe, she won’t want to leave at all. I remove a mug from the cabinet as another thought hits me like a mac truck.I’ve wasted all the time she’s been here being mad at her when I should have been getting her to fall for me the way I did for her so long ago.With that realisation, I slam the mug on the counter while trying to take a deep breath to calm the anger at myself.

A loud bang has me forgetting all about my coffee, and I turn to run towards the front door. I can’t see shit out in the hallway because there’s fucking smoke everywhere.

I can barely make out black figures storming the house. “Find the girl,” a deep, Asian voice says as a set of blue eyes focus on me. “I’ll deal with him.” The guy stalks towards me as I begin to choke on the smoke. I struggle to hold my breath as the barrel of a gun smashes into my head. The only thought running through my mind is that I hope to fuck that my guys get Harley to safety.

“She’s mine now,” I hear as darkness pulls me under.

ChapterThirteen

HARLEY

Aloud bang has the guys springing into action. Even Gryffin, who was fast asleep only moments ago, is now up and on his feet. “Get Harley to the basement and fucking stay there,” Barker snaps as he leaps across the room to grab a gun from a hidden cabinet in the wall.

Gryffin grabs hold of me, dragging me towards the back of the movie room. He reveals a panel in the wall, hits a few buttons, and a door opens.Damn, this mansion is like a fun house; so many twists and turns.As the door closes behind us, we see a group of guys, clad in all black, storming the movie room. Dayton shoots one as a second rushes him.

The door closes behind us, and Gryffin tightens his grip on my hand, tugging me along a dimly lit, narrow corridor. “We have to go back, and fucking help them, Gryffin,” I plead, but he doesn’t listen. He just continues to haul me along behind him. “Gryffin, they could be in fucking trouble, just listen to me,” I snarl at him. When it’s clear that he still isn’t going to listen, I try to pull my hand free, but he just grips me tighter. We reach the small staircase that leads to the basement, and he practically shoves me down them. “Stay here until one of us comes back,” he orders as he closes and bolts the metal door behind him.

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