Page 69 of Voracious

If I feel pain, I won’t feel everything else.

The party is still going wild as I enter, the smoke machine and strobes making it difficult to see. Some raved-up remix of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” is blasting, and as I get closer, I spot Base – he’s topless, standing on one of the hoops hanging from the ceiling, shouting every lyric perfectly while Luciella tries to get him down.

He’s singing the chorus to my sister and replacing words to fit their situation.

He’s smashed. But I still need to talk to him.

I push through the bouncing crowd until I reach him, and he grins. “Kade! When the fuck did you get here?”

My sister turns to look at me then glances at my black hoodie and combats. Her eyes narrow, and she gives up trying to pull Base down and marches straight for me. “Where is she?”

I arch a brow. “Who?”

“Stacey.”

I shrug and cross my arms. “No idea,” I lie.

Base climbs down and pulls me in for a hug. Not even a bro hug or a pat on the back – the fucker bear hugs me and lifts me off my feet. His pupils are blown, he’s sweating from dancing like a lunatic for hours and he has pink lipstick on his cheek.

Luciella isn’t wearing pink lipstick.

“We need to go to a Taylor Swift concert,” Base says. “Reckon she’d take me on stage.”

“Sure,” I say. “Come with me.”

“Where’s Stacey?” Luciella asks me again. “She isn’t answering her phone, and security said she hasn’t left the manor. Where. Is. She?”

“Are you deaf? I don’t fucking know.”

My sister stands in front of Base as I try to grab him away from her, and she glares at me, knowing I’m talking shit, but I don’t care. I need to talk to Base.

I shake my head. “Stop trying to control everything, Luciella. I’m surprised you even have any fucking friends left.”

I drag him away from the daggers Luciella is throwing at us, and he follows me out of the room, into the kitchen and out back. The cold air hits me, and I feel like I can breathe again.

“Where the fuck are we going? Why did you talk to your sister like that?”

“Just walk,” I reply, rolling my eyes at my friend, who’s still jumping about to the faint music.

Once we get into the pool house, I pull out a bag and set down two lines of coke. “I need to talk to you about something,” I say to him as I offer him a rolled-up note. He takes it and doesn’t wait to snort the white powder.

I use drugs because I feel like I’m dying if I don’t. After having this shit fed to me for sport, it’s a habit now. Base just takes it for a bigger kick than what’s naturally within him.

“You haven’t decided to take up my offer of a blowjob, have you? I kinda fancy your sister.”

I elbow his ribs as he sits beside me on the sofa. “Shut the fuck up. No.”

“Do you want me to leave her alone?”

“Only if she tells you to,” I say, screwing my eyes shut as I take a line and lie back.

“Then I need to confess to something, and if you hit me, I promise not to hit you back.” He leans his elbows on his knees. “I had a threesome with Ella.”

My brows furrow. “You what?”

He raises his hands. “I didn’t touch her. I promise. It was one of the times I flew over to her dorm when she was sick. She got better and wanted to go out, and yeah… her rule was that I couldn’t touch her, only the other guy.”

“We’re done with this subject. Don’t tell me anything else.”

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