I grab her hips and instead of pulling her into me, I push her aside and step away. I’m laughing and I’m forced to blink a couple of times when my head begins to spin. “You were a mistake.”
She huffs and looks around before stepping back into me. “Didn’t seem like it when you were inside of me.”
I open my arms wide, my chin angled upward, and even though I haven't had much to drink, the trees around me begin to wave and swirl. I do my best not to focus on it, to shut it out.
“What can I say…” I shrug. “You were just a place for me to bury my dick.”
She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip, tugs at it.
“Then let me be that place again.” She tries for round two, and I shake my head, clicking my tongue against my teeth.
“No, thanks.” I walk away.
“No, thanks?” Her voice hits my back, hard and sharp, offended.
“You heard me,” I tell her, feeling a line of perspiration form at my hairline.
She laughs, and something tells me that if she doesn’t do that, she might just cry. Aria was the kind of girl that believed every man and woman wanted her.
Her ego gave me secondhand embarrassment.
“You like her, huh? A little more than you should? That serial killer’s daughter?”
I stop dead in my tracks, squeeze my eyes closed, spinning around carefully, feeling my heart bang harder in my chest.
Of course I like her, Laiken Campbell would always be a sister to me.
Aria is standing in front of me with her hands on her hips. The bottom of her black sequin dress hiked high on her thighs, the mask now pulled off her face, her cheeks ass red.
I take a step closer, then another, until I’m looking down at the trash I shouldn’t have picked up.And with a hold on my breath, I growl, “Careful.” And I almost believe I hear her heart skip.
I let my eyes trail the length of her, step back. Her cheeks are redder now, her eyes harder. With a shake of my head, I turn andwalk away, speaking over my shoulder, “Where’s your boyfriend, anyway? Having problems finding his dick?”
Aria doesn’t reply, and when the soles of my shoes hit the pavement, I turn, hearing her mumbling something out in the distance but struggling to make out anything that makes any kind of sense. Her words are a frazzled distortion. I blink a couple of times to clear the blurry film that has erected itself across my eyes, though it doesn’t move, it only seems to be getting worse. I leave her behind and stumble inside, casting my eyes to every corner in search of Harlen or Jade or Laiken.
I fall into people, my shoulders taking out theirs. I feel wider, so much bigger.
What is happening to me?
I attempt to suck back a controlled breath but only meet shortness, a clipped hopeful end. Reaching out, I latch onto the black painted railing and start to climb the floating stairs. I’m moving too slowly and when I hit the last few, I don’t realize that I’m on my hands and knees until I find myself crawling up and into a room at the top of the stairs.
There’s a desk and a bookcase, and then…the sound of a door shutting, a lock bolting, and legs, three pairs of them, maybe six. I try to move on my own, to get to my feet, only to find them numb and unresponsive, hanging weightless in front of me.
Before I can do anything, a boot is coming toward me.
I listen to my ribs crack when everything goes black.
I can feel myself curl over though, fingers cradling the blow, but I can’t feel anything else. No impact, no pain, no ache.
I reach for my breath, dig around for it, but I can't find it. I try to blink, to open my eyes, but I can’t do that either. All I can do is listen, and when I do, there is a cacophony of laughter and insults and words that I can no longer decipher being hauled toward me.
I force my eyes open, blink to stop the walls around me from melting together. The last of my consciousness plays before my eyes and when another foot comes toward me, followed by a fist, I feel my soul leave my body.
The worst part of this attack wasn’t being hit.
I was used to my father’s fists.
It was what I heard next that had paralyzed me.
