I groaned, letting my head fall back against the seat. “Why don’t you sleep with her since you seem so hung up on this idea?” I regretted the words the second they left my mouth, knowing Mason would see it as a challenge, a game.
He grinned, absolutely fucking delighted. “Maybe I will.”
I had no reason to feel anything. No reason to care or to be jealous. She was just a girl, and she wasn’t mine. Not even close. So why did the idea of Mason’s lips on hers light something hot and ugly in my chest? Why did the image of his hands on her waist, her body pressed against his instead of mine, make my fingers want to curl into fists and hit him?
The road stretched ahead of us, dark and empty, trees pressing in from both sides, leading us straight to a church, and for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, I had an uneasy feeling about tonight. Maybe it was because this was the first party Kreed wouldn’t be with us. If he knew, he’d be pissed.
The church was already packedwhen I walked in. Music pulsed through stone walls, shaking the cobwebs and dust clinging to the vaulted rafters above. The place was in desperateneed of a deep clean, but it would take more than a hose to scrub the grime from the walls.
Let the Raven Night chaos commence.
I grabbed a bottle of beer from someone I didn’t recognize, their mask covering everything but their mouth. I avoided the colored Solo cups, not in the mood to play roulette with booze and drugs tonight. Keeping to the far side of the main room, I leaned against a cracked pillar that had probably held up this building for a hundred years, my eyes scanning the crowd out of habit more than interest.
Then I saw her.
She was at the door with Torin, silhouetted against the entrance where the basket of phones sat on the table beside him, already half full. We were strict about the no-phone rule since sophomore year. Kreed’s order.
“Phone?” Torin said, holding out his hand expectantly, his raven mask gleaming black under the single bulb above the door.
She blinked, and those eyes, even from across the room, I saw them contemplating, flicking to the basket and back up to him. A frown pulled at her mouth, confusion and suspicion warring across her expression. “You want my phone?”
I didn’t need to see under the mask to know who she was.
Torin smirked, tilting his head as his gaze roamed over Hales’s body. “Those are the rules. If you want in, sweet cheeks, you leave all devices at the door.”
I stood a bit straighter against the pillar. If his eyes didn’t move back to her face, I might very well blacken them before I even finished my first drink.
“Seems a bit extreme.” Her fingers curled around her phone.
“So is this party. The whole point of this night is to protect our privacy.” He tapped the side of his mask with one finger. “No evidence. No witnesses. No consequences. You in or out?”
She turned her phone over in her hand, hesitating. The screen caught the light for a second, illuminating her face from below before she dropped it into the basket with the others, the curve of her downturned lips magnifying.
The intricate black lace mask framed her eyes perfectly, tied with a silk ribbon behind waves of dark hair cascading down her back. Her plump lips pressed together as she stepped inside and glanced around the room. Her eyes grew wide and curious…untouched by what this place could do to someone. This wouldn’t be the first party I’d want my daughter to attend, and everything about Mallory Hales oozed innocence, making her not just rare and desired but easy prey.
I stayed where I was, half-hidden behind the pillar, watching as I pressed the bottle to my lips, taking a long drink. She moved through the crowd like she wasn’t sure where she was supposed to stand, her fingers fidgeting at her sides before she crossed her arms, then uncrossed them. Heat coiled hot and uncomfortable beneath my ribs.
I told myself it was irritation.
It wasn’t.
“Fuck,” I mumbled under my breath.When the hell did I grow a conscience?
It wasn’t like me to give two shits about some girl I hardly knew. If anything, I should be contemplating ways to torment her instead of protecting her. What I wanted to do was toss her ass in the little black dress over my shoulder and haul her straight back out the front door before Mason spotted her. Hell, before any of the guys noticed her standing there looking so lost and out of place.
I wasn’t even aware my feet were moving, carrying me across the room until I came up behind her and got a whiff of her shampoo through the smoke and sweat. “You want a drink?”
She spun fast, startled at my voice, one hand coming up instinctively before recognition dawned across her features despite my mask. “I’m not much of a drinker.”
“Then why are you here?” I’d told myself I’d keep my distance tonight. That I wouldn’t babysit and would let her figure this out on her own, sink or swim, her choice and her consequences, but standing here and seeing her completely out of her depth?—
I didn’t trust this place with her.
Everything about this night was discord and bad decisions waiting to happen. Wrong choices wrapped in pretty masks.
When did I become so soft?
I blamed Kaylor. She changed me, and I wasn’t sure I liked this new version of myself.
