I eye my friends and mouth ‘on three’. I mouth the numbers, and we run, but we’re met by a wall of men. I collide into Dark Angel’s chest and fall back, but he grabs me before I can hit the concrete.
I imagine this is what it feels like to be touched by the sun. A gust of brisk March wind hits, but that doesn’t cool me down. His large hands remain on my hips, and I finally look into his eyes.
“Uh.” I know the syllable leaves my mouth, but no other sound follows. I’m too busy drowning in his dark eyes. We lock gazes. I can hear his breathing. His eyes are intense, and I don’t know if what I’m seeing is anger or something else.
Those big hands dig into my flesh. I break the spell, look away, and gaze down. There’s a sharp contrast between the paleness of his skin and my black dress.
His knuckles are red and inflamed. Despite being paralyzed with fear, I gently touch him as if my hands would be a balm to his discomfort. His nostrils flare, and the intensity of his gaze deepens.
We stare at each other. I repeatedly blink to try to break this trance, but that doesn’t work. We lock eyes like two animals in the wild would lock horns.
I run my fingertips over his skin. That must snap him back to reality because he pulls away and steps back. Grateful for the end to whatever that was, I exhale in relief.
“Take them home,” he orders one of the security guards.
“No,” I hear Cori say. “We can get ourselves home.” Her voice sounds strong, but I know her. She’s been my best friend since our first day of kindergarten. She’s scared out of her mind. Iknow Selene is, too. “I don’t want these thugs to know where we live.”
Dark Angel does a smile that looks more like a threatening grimace. I take a step back from the expression on his face. He goes around me, snatches the clutch from Cori’s hand, opens it, and takes our IDs.
“Eden Rose,” he says.
Something about the way he says my name causes my body to tingle. And it’s not in fear. He recites my address next.
“A city girl?” He poses it like a question. “How ironic.” He looks down at my ID again. “Rose?” he growls as if he knows the name. “Yes. The other Rose daughter.”
I don’t answer, but I feel my stomach drop. The last thing I want is for this goon to do something to me to get to my dad. He inches closer and looks into my eyes. He finally drops his gaze and stares at my lips. Then, the barbarian puts all three of our IDs together and rips them with his bare hands.
He puts them in his pocket instead of throwing them to the ground.
Those dark chocolate eyes land on me again. I hold his stare like I did before.
“You stay the fuck out of my club.” The words are ground out. He sounds angry enough to spit. “Take them to the sheriff’s house.”
“I don’t live at her house,” Cori yells, but the goon tasked to take us home guides us away from the alley and into a waiting SUV.
Chapter 3
Eden
“Ugh.” The word slips out of my dry, foul-tasting mouth, which is slightly less offensive than my pounding head. The noise of my dad’s lawnmower doesn’t help as I lie face down on my couch with only a thin blanket on top of me. I pat my hand around on the floor in search of a half-full water bottle, but I can’t make contact with one.
“Why is your dad torturing us?” I hear Cori ask.
Selene moans. I lift my head up and see my two friends on the sectional with me. Selene’s legs hang off the couch. She rolls over and falls to the floor.
“Did I dream about what happened last night?” Cori asks.
When we were dropped off last night, we didn’t speak about it. I think the trauma was too much, so we fell to the couch and went to sleep.
“You mean that ruffian in the alley?” Selene asks. “Not unless we’re in a horror movie and we all had the same dream. Do youthink he killed that guy?” she whispers. “I mean, that dude must be eight feet tall.”
“Probably,” I moan. I manage to roll off the couch and walk to the cheap, white refrigerator in the small apartment above my parents’ garage. They allowed me to move here when I returned home. It was supposed to be temporary until I could buy a condo or townhouse, but when your ex is a thief who stole your life savings, crashed your car, and left you in debt, you have to live with your parents.
“Here,” I say, returning to the outdated sectional. I toss the bottles at my friends. Cori’s lands in the middle of her back.
“That’s cold, you bitch.” Cori groans like an old woman. “What the fuck happened last night?”
“That hoodlum beat those rapists and scared the shit out of us in the process.” Selene opens her water bottle and downs the contents in seconds.
