Page 65 of Make Me Wild (Rich Demons of Darkwood 3)

At first, I thought he was crying, but then I realized how hard his fingertips were pressing into the sides of his face. He was on the verge of drawing his own blood. And then I realized he was just devastated, and filled with rage that he had no way of venting. He was so angry at himself.

“We didn't have a choice, Stellan. We had to kill them or they would have killed us.”

“I know,” he said, his voice choked.

I knew that feeling, of trying to be logical and yet being ragged with emotion at the same time that no logic could cure.

Then I heard feet on the steps and Pax went down the stairs on the other side of me, before turning to face Stellan. Stellan got up and began to pace.

“Next time, don’t try to do shit on your own,” Pax said to his back. “You obviously aren’t capable.”

I stared at Pax, horrified. He wasn’t exactly the softest person, but he was probably the nicest out of the four. Why the hell would he attack Stellan now at such a vulnerable moment?

“Shut up,” Stellan told him.

Pax let out a laugh. “Why? Are you going to make me? You can’t even protect Aurora. You aren’t worthy of her. What are you gonna do? Kick my ass?”

“Pax!” I said in horror. “Stop it!”

I started to rise to my feet, but Remington suddenly sat down beside me, his hand settling on my shoulder. His gaze met mine, and he gave a quick shake of his head.

Sometimes I didn’t understand these men and what happened between them.

Then Stellan threw himself at Pax. Stellan got in a good punch that snapped Pax’s head back. Pax paid him back with a brutal punch. The two of them tumbled to the ground, wrestling for supremacy.

I tried to fight Remington off, but once I launched myself off the step, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into his lap. Cain sat beside him, his fingers tangling in my hair as he dragged my head back into his lap. “Enough,” Cain ordered me, turning my head.

And then I realized they were both sitting on the ground, and Pax was hugging Stellan. “It’s alright. It’s alright. We'll find her.”

He’d given Stellan the chance to vent his rage, and said the words out loud that Stellan must be thinking–giving him a chance to reject them.

“Something is bothering me,” Remington stated, as if there was nothing noteworthy about the brutal and affectionate scene that had just unfolded in front of us. Or the way he and Cain had teamed up to dominate me; Cain still had his fingers in my hair, my head in his lap as he absently brushed his fingers through my strands, possessive and stern all at once. The two of them together turned me on and made it hard to focus on what Remington was saying.

He went on, “How did your hacker friend get those videos so quickly?”

“She’s good.”

Remington looked doubtful. “She’d have to be a lot better than me.”

“We already know that.” After all, she’d been able to mess up his grades. Remington was able to set them to rights, but not fast enough to stop the fallout.

He shook his head. “Something isn’t right here,” he insisted. “Trust me, Aurora, I think your hacker friend knows more than she should about the Demon.”

That was a chilling thought, since she had all the video evidence of what the Demon had done…and I knew I was in some of those videos.

“We need to figure out who she is,” Remington said.

“Don’t worry, little devil,” Cain soothed. “We’ve got you.”

Chapter23

Aurora

It was time for us to go. Maybe it was time for us to leave these houses behind forever. There was nothing else for us to find here.

But then, I saw some dandelions, gone to seed, bobbing their fluffy white heads at the edge of the curb. It was late in the season for there to still be dandelions. And even though I knew it was stupid, part of me couldn’t help but think it was a last message from Sophia. She was saying goodbye.

We used to make wishes all the time. It had been childish, but it had been kind of her thing. On the late summer day when I’d first met her, she’d picked two dandelions and handed one to me.

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