Giving up for the night, I crawl into bed just as the sun starts to rise steadily. It’s not much, and low key, kind of sucks, but it’s mine. That may not mean much to some people, but after finally getting out from under my family’s thumb five years ago, it means everything to me.
Chapter 3
Dorian
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The bouncer throwsus out of the club on our asses and returns inside, the sound amplified for a brief moment as he opens the door before he slams it shut behind him.
“Well that sucked ass. Sorry we dragged you out here for this, Luce,” I apologize.
He scoffs, standing up and brushing dirt off of his dress pants. “This is exactly the sort of reason I despise places like this; they’re trouble. I would think the two of you would know better by now to just avoid these situations rather than come to me to bail you out after the fact,” he states coolly. “I’m heading home.”
But Atlas isn’t ready to let it go that easily. “We might have gotten our cards back, but she still got nearly four hundred bucks between the three of us! It’s bullshit they keep an employee that can pull shit like this.”
“Just drop it, Atlas,” I sigh. “Lucien is right.”
Her vivid splash of hair going into the woods catches his eye and he breaks into a run without pausing for debate. Lucien and I share a look, groan, and start jogging to catch up with him.
“He never thinks things through,” Lucien adds, his tone brokering a warning that he’s reaching the end of his patience. Atlas owes Lucien a great debt and should know better than to push his limits as much as he has been lately. “She likely has men hidden in the woods that are going to kick Atlas’ ass and sell him to a brothel.”
I snicker. “Nobody calls them brothels anymore. Just how old do you think you are, Luce?” He narrows his eyes at me challengingly and I push myself just a little harder to put distance between us before I add cautiously, “Atlas is right though. You need to loosen up.”
“No, I need you two to quit deciding I need to live my life like you do. I’m perfectly content with the way things are. I worked far too hard to get where I am to go mucking it up by thinking with my dick and getting distracted,” he counters.
I sigh, but drop it for now. All work and no play makes Lucien a pent up, sexually repressed asshole. He never sees it. But that’s what friends do; look out for each other when one of us has our heads too far up our own ass to see it ourselves.
We have to slow our pace dramatically to work our way through the thick foliage and tightly knit trees, but so far there’s been no cloaked, evil villains waiting in the shadows to ambush us. No werewolves or vampires, not so much as a mosquito. Just three guys, chasing a woman through the woods.
Oh fuck, that sounds really bad. We’re going to end up in jail tonight, I just know it.
The trees start to thin out and I just barely keep from crashing into Atlas’ back. When I start to speak, he claps a hand over my mouth.
“What is she doing?” he mumbles quietly as Lucien draws up on his other side.
The woman looks in either direction before sighing and stepping forward before she’s just...gone.
