Where the fuck was she?
“Everything is set,” Gage said, his dark gaze taking in my agitated movements. “The security cameras are playing on a loop.”
“Thanks.” I gnawed on my bottom lip until a sting registered, and the copper tinge of blood hit my tongue.
Damn it. I forgot my asshole of a stepbrother had busted my lip.
Gage crossed his thick arms over his chest. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Kill? If you get caught?—”
“I can handle it.”
Honestly, I was hoping like hell Lexi would decide against snooping around tonight. I’d only said that to convince her to attend the party, but she was standing me up anyway.
A group of girls piled onto the leather couch across the room, giggling as Slate passed out drinks, priming them for the other party downstairs. The alcohol gave them more courage to try out all the sinful things that occurred down there.
“You know I have your back, right? Whatever is going on, I’m on your side.”
My attention fully swiveled toward the brooding guy who barely spoke more than a few words on any given day. The plethora of tattoos and piercings gave him a dangerous edge that most of us in Serpents & Daggers tried to hide. Gage didn’t give a fuck. Hewantedpeople to fear him.
I patted his thick shoulder. “The less you know, the better.”
If I discovered more nefarious shit about my stepfather and confronted him, I couldn’t put my friends in his path of destruction.
When Stan found Lexi in my room, I might have appeared relatively calm on the outside, but on the inside, a storm of fear and anger raged. A few weeks ago, I would have put on a show for him and degraded Lexi to make him believe she was nothing to me.
Not anymore. The thought of hurting her like that made me sick, even if it meant pissing off Stan.
Would he really strip me of the Davenport name and kick me out of the family? And what would happen to my mom?
“There you are.” Lorelei appeared, plastering herself to my side and rubbing her tits against my arm, the top of her flimsy emerald dress drifting lower with her movements. “I’ve beenlooking for you. I thought we’d head downstairs to the real party.”
Gage smirked behind his cup as he took a sip, watching me squirm.
I extricated myself from her sticky web and sipped my beer. “Lorelei, you and I are not together.”
Her overly glossed pink lips tipped into a frown. “I miss you, Killian. Let’s just have some fun tonight. I’ll let you doanythingyou want.” She smoothed her hand down her body, her fingers disappearing under the dress. “I’m already so wet for you.”
And desperate. This girl really had no shame.
“You only want me because of my last name,” I said. “Stop pretending it’s anything else and move on.”
Lorelei stopped fondling herself and crossed her arms against her chest, the seductive demeanor vanishing. “You can’t seriously ditch me for Lexi Vega. You two aren’t even in the same universe. We could be so good together?—”
I flipped my hat backward and rubbed the center of my forehead, needing to be done with this once and for all. “Do you actually like me, Lorelei?”
“Of course I do.”
“What do you like about me? Besides the sex.”
Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to conjure up an answer. Her brow furrowed, and something like fear flashed across her face. Was she really afraid of losing me? Or the Davenport name?
Finally, she tossed her hands up. “I like everything about you.”
“No, you don’t.” I downed the rest of my beer and set the empty cup on a nearby bookshelf. “Our arrangement is over, Lorelei. Plenty of other guys would love to be your next rung on the social ladder.”
That whisper of fear rekindled in her brown eyes as she regarded me. “Please, don’t do this, Killian.Please. We could have everything together.”
“It’s not happening.”
