“Don’t dance with any of those fuckers out there, got it?” Felix slams his drink down on the table.
I roll my eyes. “I don’t need your fucking permission, thanks.”
“Lana,” he warns. “I mean it.”
“Felix, don’t be so hard on her,” Penelope says.
“Yeah, let her enjoy the dick for once,” Dylan muses at him, dodging an immediate sucker punch by jumping up from the couch. “Missed!”
“Come here, you fucker,” Felix growls, but Dylan’s already run off onto the dance floor before Felix can grab him.
“Jesus,” Alistair groans, and he takes a casual sip of his drink. “I really don’t want to get involved in whatever this is.”
“No, you don’t,” I reply. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I—”
Felix grabs my wrist before I can turn around. “Is Jason here?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. Don’t get close with any guys here,” he grits.
“He’s worried about you,” Penelope adds.
I stare at him, both annoyed and glad that he cares about me so much he’d ruin my dating chances. But I trust Penelope. “I can take care of myself. You don’t have to worry about me.”
He swallows. “I’m your brother. I always worry about you. The same way you worry about me.”
He squeezes my arm, and I know what it means, what it’s always meant.
The gravity of his words … the powerful connection we have … it can’t ever be denied.
“I know,” I reply.
He finally releases me. “Go on, then. Have fun with your friends.”
“If you see Dylan, tell him he still owes me a drink,” Alistair says, clinking his empty glass on the table.
“And if you need me, you know where to find me,” Felix says. “If some guy touches you or there is any sign of trouble …”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” I say. “See ya.”
And I walk off before he can slap on any more rules I’m obliged to follow because Daddy dearest told me to listen to him while studying at Spine Ridge.
I growl under my breath as I put my mask back on.
When I finally spot Brooke and Crystal near the bar, I wave, and a bright smile forms on Brooke’s face. “Lana! I already ordered us drinks.” She points at the three glasses on the bar.
“Hey, Crystal,” I say as I make my way over, and we hug briefly.
“I’m so excited,” Crystal muses, and she looks around until she finds Penelope and waves wildly.
Brooke hands me my drink.
“Thanks,” I say, pulling my card out of my pristine white pants.
She waves it off. “Nah, this one’s on me.” Brooke raises her glass, and we toast the three of us. “Let’s go party!”
We all chug down a considerable amount of our drinks before we head out onto the dance floor. The music at the Rivera clubs is always so easy to get into; they always play the best tunes. The only thing I don’t like about them is that they have a dress code every once in a while that’s completely outrageous, and apparently, that’s tonight because masks are everywhere.
And I mean everywhere.
So much for a relaxing evening.
“God, I love this place,” Crystal says, boppin’ her head to the music. “They’ve got the sickest beats.”
“C’mon, dance with me!” Brooke yells at me through the loud music.
I start rolling my hips against both of them, attracting lustful eyes from the men in the club eagerly looking for their next willing girl to latch onto. But I’m not on the market. I never was, not even when I hooked up with Jason every once in a while. I’m a forever-single girl who dances just far enough from the sun so she doesn’t get burned. I don’t let them get close, even when they think they have. I don’t trust myself or my heart with anyone, so I keep it to myself. And tonight, I don’t plan on involving myself with anyone except my friends.
I check on Felix and his gang of friends, but they’re gone, and it makes me pause.
“Hey, did you see where Felix went?” I ask Crystal.
She shrugs. “There’s an exclusive backstage area, or so I’ve been told. No one’s allowed in there unless invited by a Rivera. They’re probably hanging out there, smoking weed or something.”
“Or having sex.” Brooke winks.
“Ew,” I mutter.
I do not want to imagine my brother having sex.
“Don’t you want to be with them?” Brooke asks Crystal.
She shakes her head. “I told you I’d accompany you tonight! Besides, Penelope asked me to keep an eye out for any Phantom boys. She doesn’t trust them. But I don’t think they’re that bad.”
I wince at the thought of Phantoms coming here, particularly three of them.
They probably wouldn’t dare, though, since this place is infested with Skull & Serpent Society members.
I shrug it off and focus on having a blast. We dance and drink away, hip to hip, vibing to the music while drinking our shots again and again and having an awesome time. But the more we dance and drink, the more my eyes become hazy, and the colorful lights in the room meld into one.
“Wow,” I murmur.
“You all right?” Crystal asks.
“Yeah, yeah, just getting a little tipsy,” I muse.
“I’m gonna go to the bathroom. You wanna come?” Brooke yells over the music.
I shake my head. “I’m good. You go ahead.”
“I have to pee,” Crystal says, adjusting her dress. “I’m coming with you.”
They walk off while I continue dancing on the floor by myself, ignoring all the stares from the hungry men in the back desperate for attention. I know I draw them in like bees to flowers, but I can’t help the way I look. They wouldn’t dare to come close if they only knew the killer monster that hid underneath.
I twirl around and look at the exclusive backstage area, but my brother isn’t back yet. When I spot a stranger near the VIP booths staring at me with that obligated mask on, I pause. The blond streaks of hair peeking out behind the red mask and the icy stare have my knees quaking.
I suck in a breath, feeling dizzy, like I’m about to throw up.
It’s just a coincidence. A ton of people are blond and have blue eyes. Get yourself together.
I turn around and push through the crowd, heading for the other side of the club, but I come to an abrupt halt in the middle of the dance floor.
Near the entrance to the club, a red-masked stranger leans against the thick column, swaying with what looks like a red tie in his hands. A tie that looks just like the one I had wrapped around my wrists at the Phantom Society.
And it feels like my lungs are collapsing, and all the oxygen evaporates.
I spin on my heels but come face-to-face with a guy in a black suit and a red mask, his fingers running through his wavy dark hair. There’s a peculiar kind of glimmer in his eyes that’s hard to ignore. One green, one white.
I attempt to bolt in the opposite direction, but before I can even try, he’s already grabbed ahold of me and pulls me in, fingers splayed across my belly. He closes the distance between us until our bodies are pressed together, and my hips fit neatly into his.
“Hello, little kitty.” Kai’s low voice near my ear instantly puts me on edge. “Miss me?”
“No,” I lie, trying to wring out of his clutch, but it’s nearly impossible.
Suddenly, warm, wet lips settle underneath my ear, dragging a line down my neck, and I shudder in place.
He smirks against my skin. “Yet you’re quivering from my touch.”
His length swells in the small of my back, poking me and sending shocks up my spine.
“Let me go,” I growl.
Instead, he spins me around and pulls me into his embrace. “Dance with me.” I can’t even say no as he dances around with me like I’m a puppet and he’s the master puppeteer. I step on his foot, but he ignores the pain entirely, clenching his jaw as he leans in. “Do you remember our first dance together? Just you and me, with these same kind of masks.”
Kai grins, his hand moving down to my ass ever so slowly, making me painfully aware of how alert my senses have become since he stepped onto the dance floor. “How easily you yielded to me?”
“Stop,” I groan with frustration, trying to get away, but he won’t release me. So I lie instead. “Jason’s here, and if he sees you dance with me, he’s gonna punch you into the hospital.”
He snorts. “Doubt it. Last I checked, he was still in his dorm room at the Skull & Serpent Society jacking off to some porn.”
I gasp.
How the fuck—
“You’ve been spying on him?”
“I have a friend of a friend who keeps track of his movements …” Kai spins me around and sways me against him once more. “Just in case he gets it in his head that he can still come to the Beta Pi sorority to fuck you…” His lips hover near my ear, and I can feel him bare his teeth. “I’ll cut off every single one of his fingers if he tried.”
I gasp. He’s just as sadistic as my brother, if not worse. “Fuck you. If you hurt him, I’ll stab you right back.”
We swing around, pretending nothing’s going on even though I’m dancing with a killer.
“You think your violence will deter me?” he murmurs, cracking a smile against my skin. “It only makes my cock hard, Lana.”
My body heats uncontrollably, and I don’t like it one bit.
“My brother’s right there. If he sees you, you’re dead,” I say.
“Let him watch. I’m sure Nathan would love an excuse to kill him if he tries to intervene,” he says.
Kill my brother? That’s a step too far.
Defensive rage floods my veins. “Fuck no, I’d kill you both before you even tried.”
“How many jabs would you get in with that little knife of yours before I put a bullet in his brain?” he asks, and my hand instinctively reaches down to his pocket, where I definitely feel something hard, metallic, an outline of a gun.
My jaw tenses. Of course he wouldn’t sneak into a Rivera club empty-handed.
And fuck me; I hate admitting he’s right. I wouldn’t put a dent in these fuckers before they shot up everyone I loved.
“Are you willing to take that risk?” he asks. “To have all these people suffer because of your choices?”
Fuck. When he says it like that, it’s impossible for me to run to my brother.
“You sure are confident for someone stepping into enemy territory,” I reply, trying to play it off cool.
He swirls me around again until we’re face-to-face. “We don’t fear people … people fear us.” His finger dips underneath my chin, forcing me to look up into his eyes, which glimmer with a kind of madness I’ve only ever seen in the mirror. “And your fear is what I crave.”
I swallow the lump in my throat, my heartbeat shooting up. “Have you always been this fucked up and depraved?”
“Not until I met you … and decided I wanted to make your little violent heart mine.”
I scoff, “You wish. I don’t belong to anyone.”
He pulls me so close I can barely breathe, his lips mere inches away from my face. “You already belonged to me the second you came looking for me, yearning to learn who it was that kissed you.”
“I was trying to find out who the fucker was that invaded my privacy,” I retort.
“The one who made you come on his knee and licked your pussy until you pleaded to God?”
My pussy thumps in response to his filthy words, and I fucking hate how easy it’s become for him to get me all riled up. Fuck. I’d hoped he wouldn’t bring it up again because I’m still so goddamn embarrassed I let him do all that, thinking it was Jason.
“You pretended to be Jason,” I hiss.
“I didn’t pretend to be anyone. You made that assumption,” he responds.
And fuck me, he’s right, I did, but who wouldn’t?
“How did you even get into my room?” I ask. “Jason was still—”
“Fucking you,” he interjects, making me hold my breath. “And I was already there.”
My eyes widen.
Wait … what?
He was there … when Jason fucked me?
“Where?”
A filthy smirk slowly marks his face. “Under your bed, listening to every sound, every breath, every nonexistent moan.” He leans in to whisper. “Moans I gave to you the second he left.”
My heart stands still for a moment, and even though this place is packed to the brim, it feels as though only the two of us are here.
Fuck.
“You’re a bastard.”
His fingers dig into my skin right where my pants end, and my skin begins. “Call me whatever you want, you can’t deny that he wasn’t giving you what you craved. What you needed to get off.” One hand cups my face, and he squeezes my cheeks together. “I did. And nothing will ever stop me from claiming you.”
Pfft. How would he know what I need?
“All that, just so you could get some pussy,” I spit back. “Pathetic.”
Who even does that? Lie underneath someone’s bed while they’re getting railed?
“Not some pussy …” He cups my ass, squeezing tight right in the nook where my thighs meet. “Yours and yours alone,” he whispers. “Because this pussy was made for me.”
I can’t believe he just said that.
“Over my dead body,” I say through gritted teeth.
Another spin during our dance has me dizzy.
He sways his body from left to right against mine—hard cock grinding into my ass, one hand on my waist, and the other skirting dangerously close to my neck. “You think you still have a choice, but you already made yours.”
“Why? Just because you caught me killing someone?” I retort. “Or were you stalking me before that? Is that why you three were there at that house at the same time?”
“Hmm … a happenstance. Call it fate, if you want,” he responds.
“Lies,” I grit.
“Believe what you want, little kitty … it won’t change the fact that you belong to us now.”
Wait…
My brows furrow. “Us?”
Amusement tugs at his lips. “You didn’t think I’d come here to drag you out of this serpent’s den alone, did you?”
My whole body tenses against his, and an icy chill courses through my veins.
“But I’ll play fairly this time and give you a chance to defend yourself … After all, I like a challenge. And bringing you those goose bumps I promised was already too easy.”
Easy? Me? What a joke.
But when his hand skitters down my arm, the obvious bumps on my body betray me.
“But that scream you owe me? Now that’s a challenge I’ll take on.”
Scream?
Suddenly, it clicks, and I feel like the oxygen is ripped straight from my lungs.
The texts he sent me.
“So go on, little kitty … see if you can stay out of my claws.”
What? Is he for real?
Part of me wants to pummel him in the face for even calling me that in public and making me feel uneasy, but another part … hums with desire.
He grabs my shoulders, fingers digging into my skin, as he leans over to whisper, “I won’t say it a second time … Run.”
And when he pushes me forward, I immediately turn my head.
He’s gone.
Like a ghost, vanishing into thin air.
But I can still smell his scent lingering in my nose. I can still feel the imprint his hands left on my waist, still feel his lips and the mark they left on my skin … Still hear his voice as it whispers dangerous promises to me.
Run, little kitty, run.
So I do.
I run as fast as I can through the crowd beyond the dance floor and head straight for the exit, where Milo waits for me. But he doesn’t grab me or even move a muscle except for the slight twitch in his cheeks as a smile is born.
He’s not stopping me because we both know what’s about to happen.
A chase.
And I’m the prey they’ll be hunting.
