Page 46 of We Will Reign

Me: Are you threatening me? I don’t take kindly to threats.

Ridge: I don’t make threats. I make promises. You’re really trying me today, Angel. First the walk out of the student center with Maddox and now this. Why are you letting him get close to you?

Anger ripples through me, heating the blood in my veins. I almost thought we were making progress but then he pulls something like this.

Me: Why do you care?

Ridge: Because he’s not the one for you. I am.

Ridge is unhinged—unpredictable—and totally freaks me out. But temptation is strong and it’s as if he’s got a rope around my waist, slowly weeding me toward him. Only, I don’t know where he’s pulling me from.

Me: If I’m the one for you, then tell me how to find you.

I’ve gone in circles, scouring every bit of the area, even stepped into the woods a few times. Now I’m back at the fire and still don’t know where he is.

Minutes have passed since I sent the last message with no response. So I send another…

Me: Can you give me a hint?

Ignoring everyone around me, I keep searching, but I’m halted when my body collides with another. I look up and I’m face to face with Lev.

“You lost, Trouble?” he asks, tone flat.

My eyebrows pinch together tightly. “Trouble?”

“That’s what you are, right? Out there trying to stir up trouble. Playing both sides with two of my friends?”

An airy laugh rushes out of me. “Playing both sides?”

“You always answer questions with questions or are you just fucking dumb?”

I’m rendered speechless. When I met Neo Saint, Scar’s boyfriend, I thought I’d seen the worst a guy could get. I was dead wrong. Lev is quite literally the spawn of the devil. I’ve known him for one hour and have no intentions of knowing him any longer.

“Wow!” My neck stiffens. “You are something else and I don’t have time for this. Enjoy your night,Lev.”I go to walk around him, but stop myself, unsatisfied with letting him think he can talk to me that way. I spin back around, now at his side. “What kind of name is Lev anyways. It’s fucking dumb. That’s what it is.”

“It means lion, smartass. And you know what lions like to eat?” He leans close, almost too close for comfort. His hot breath fans my face as I watch his lips move with each word they speak, slightly curved upward in a malicious smirk. “Little whores who like to play games,” he growls, closing in on me. “And I’m hungry, Trouble. In fact, I’m fucking starving.” The next thing I know, his teeth are on my cheek and I’m certain he’s going to bite me. When he pulls back, I draw in a deep breath of relief, wiping his saliva from my face.

I expect some sort of malicious laugh, but he’s desensitized. Completely void of any emotion, though his words tell me otherwise.

A lump lodges in my throat, but I swallow it down in one gulp. My mind is too stunned to react, so I hold my breath and quickly walk away, feeling like I’ve been kicked in the gut.

Once I’m out of Lev’s reach, I exhale audibly. Tears well in my eyes. No one has ever talked down to me that way. No one. Ever.

Was he threatening me, again?

Lev doesn’t know a thing about me. Earlier, he asked Maddox who I was, as if he’d never seen me before in his life. Something tells me he knows exactly who I am, and that thought terrifies me.

CHAPTER16

RILEY

“Next thing I know,Neo is dragging him down the trail by the feet and we’re all laughing our asses off while his head ricochets off branches and rocks.” Crew takes another sip of his beer, then continues with his story. “So we got him here,” he points over to the hot springs where people are parading around in swimwear like it’s a hot summer’s day, "dumped his ass in, and left him.”

I cringe at the mental image in my head. “You guys are downright evil.”

“He fucking deserved it,” Neo chimes in, one arm wrapped around Scar’s waist and the other gripping a plastic cup of beer. “No one grabs our girl’s ass and gets away with it.”

Scar shakes her head, but the cracked smile on her face tells me she loves the protection she gets from her guys.

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