Page 55 of Charming Cruel Boys

“He’s upstairs. In Andrew’s room,” Sawyer rushes out, his brown eyes wide as he tries to free himself from my grip.

I shove him away from me and turn, pushing past people to get to the stairs. My heart is jackhammering inside my ribs, threatening to beat out of my chest. I have to believe that he’s okay. Sara is a little wild, sure, but there’s no way she could hurt Duke, right? He’s twice her size.

Racing up the stairs, I come to a dead stop halfway, an icy tendril of fear and agony ripping through my chest. Over the pounding bass of whatever shit music is playing downstairs, I can make out faint screams coming from down the hall. My body jerks and my legs kick into overdrive, taking the rest of the stairs two at a time and running down the hall toward Andrew’s room.

I don’t waste time knocking, raising my foot and kicking the door. It resists, the lock holding strong, so I do it again and again until it finally gives under the pressure and bursts open.

Time slows to a crawl. My breathing is ragged and a dangerous red film shutters over my vision.

On the bed is a very shocked Sara, her hand frozen on my brother’s dick and her brown eyes wide as she stares at me. Her mouth opens and closes several times while I stalk into the room. She jumps into motion when I reach the edge of the bed, standing and backing away from me in a hurry. I can only imagine I look like the grim reaper right now.

Holding her hands out in front of her, she stutters over her words. “Wait, wait! I swear to god, this is not what it looks like! Duke invited me up here, this was his idea. He literallyjustpassed out, and I was about to call it quits!”

I cock my head to the side, quickly scanning the room before settling my gaze back on Sara. “That might have been somewhat convincing,” I tell her, taking a step closer and reveling in the way she flinches. “If Sawyer hadn’t told me Duke needed help and Remi wasn’t screaming at the top of her lungs a few seconds ago.” Although the moment I kicked the door open, the screaming stopped, but I’d know her voice anywhere. Remi is in this room somewhere. I can feel her presence whispering along my skin.

Sara scoffs, the sound coming out more like a choked sob. She puts on a mask of bitchy confidence before opening her red-painted lips. “Remi isn’t here, Knight. She took off or something, I don’t know. Why else do you think Duke is here with me and nother?“ She spits the word out like the mere idea of Remi is disgusting. I clench my jaw tight, reminding myself that it would be highly frowned upon if I were to smack this bitch.Bummer.

“I’m running out of patience real fast,” I warn. Before Sara can move, scream, or even blink, I pounce, muffling her surprised cry with my hand against her mouth. I drag her flailing body over to the attached bathroom and toss her inside, slamming the door and securing it with a desk chair under the doorknob. Sara bangs on the door and yells for me to let her out, but I ignore it because fuck her.

Duke groans, blinking his eyes open for a second before they close again and he falls still. My heart thrashes, and I have to swallow several times to keep my panic and raw fucking sorrow at bay.

With uneasy steps, I move to the bed and carefully tuck my brother back into his pants, my eyes welling with tears. “It’s alright, man. I’m here. You’ll be okay,” I tell him, my voice cracking.If I had been seconds later, Sara might have… No. Focus.

With Duke somewhat taken care of, I spin on my heels and look around the room again. IknowRemi is here. My eyes land on the closet and the red tie knotted around the knobs to keep it from opening. I close the distance and then quickly untie it, wrenching the doors open. The second I peer inside, all the air in my lungs whooshes out. A mixture of relief and dread overwhelm me, and I drop to my knees, reaching out with shaking hands for Remi.

She’s tucked back as far as she can be, trembling against the wall with tears staining her cheeks and her pupils dilated so big that the beautiful gray of her eyes is almost completely gone. She blinks a few times, her face scrunching up. “Knight? Is that you?” Her voice is scratchy and weak, and it breaks something deep inside me. I didn’t know I had anything left intact until this moment.

“It’s me, baby girl. Come here,” I beg, careful not to move into her space and freak her out. It’s painfully obvious that she’s been drugged, and it’s hard to keep my rage in check right now. Nothing will calm the beast inside except cocooning Remi in my arms, ensuring that she’s safe, and getting her and Duke the hell out of this house.

Remi slowly loosens her muscles, crawling toward me with hesitant eyes. When she’s within reach, she jumps on me, circling her arms around my neck and shaking against my chest. A sob rips from her mouth and I squeeze my eyes shut, breathing in her roses and sunshine perfume to ground me.With Remi in my arms, I stand and turn to my brother. Shit, I can’t carry them both out on my own. And what am I going to do about Sara? That bitch is still shouting obscenities at me through the bathroom door.

After sitting Remi gently on the edge of the bed, I pull out my phone and call Andrew. He’s downstairs somewhere, but it would take too long to find him. I watch Remi cup Duke’s face, whispering words to him that I can’t hear as the phone rings.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Andrew shouts into the phone.

“Get up to your room. Some shit went down. I need help,” I say through clenched teeth.

“Dammit. Alright, on my way,” Andrew rushes out before hanging up. I make a mental note to befriend the guy when I can get my head on straight. We’ve never been close, but Andrew’s a solid dude. He’s driven me home more times than I can count when I’ve gone too far at his parties. He’ll help me figure this out, and for that, I’ll owe him.

It only takes a minute for Andrew to make it upstairs, and his eyes grow wide and then narrow in the span of five seconds. “What happened?” he asks me, barely concealed anger hidden in his voice.

I wave my hand toward the bathroom, where Sara is throwing a damn fit. “I don’t know the details, but Sara had these two drugged. I barged in with her hands on Duke, and Remi was locked in the goddamn closet.”

At the sound of her name, Remi turns to me with a big smile. “And you saved the day! You’re my knight in shining armor. I bet that’s why your parents named you that. They knew you’d grow up and save people,” she tells me enthusiastically as if the last however many minutes of her life haven’t been absolute shit. She swivels her head and claps at Andrew’s arrival. “Oh good, you’re here! Duke needs our help. Turns out, Sara isn’t a very great friend...” Remi trails off and blinks, sending more tears down her face.

Andrew arches a brow at me. I shrug. “She’s high off her ass and Duke is basically comatose. Somehow I have to get them both home.”

Andrew nods, brushing his fingers through his hair while he paces a few times. Then he looks at me with a grim expression. “We have to call the cops. I can’t allow something like this to fly under the radar at one of my parties. Sara is eighteen; she threw a big party last month for her birthday. She’ll get tried as an adult for this.”

Thank fuck for that.

Half an hour later, the party is over and the house is cleared out of every drunk asshole that was here. Andrew went downstairs to wait for the police to arrive. He doesn’t drink at his parties, and I always wondered why. I guess this answers it. With Andrew sober, he’s around to clean up messes.

Duke is still out cold and Remi is petting his hair, humming a song softly. All I wanted tonight was some time with her, to hear her laugh and feel her lips against mine. To cherish her the way I’ve wanted to for so long without the threat of her father finding out.

Guilt churns my stomach as I watch her fuss over Duke. If I had found her sooner, if the three of us came to the party together, would she have been safe? Would Duke have been saved from Sara’s assault?

I’ll never allow this to happen again. I need her close all the time, so I can protect her. The only person I have to be worried about is Charles, but I’m about at the point of not caring. Tonight opened my eyes to all the other dangers besides that son of a bitch.I’m caught between what I’ve always wanted and the consequences that could harm everyone I care about if I give in.

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