Page 13 of The Devil

A buzzing begins near my chest. Surely the liquor doesn’t work that fast.

I glance down, confused as Jet reaches toward me. Well, he reaches to his jacket, which is still draped over my shoulders. He slides his hand inside it, his gaze locked on mine, hand grazing my breast before he pulls his cell phone out of the pocket. It’s such an easy act, natural, and although I can’t be sure he intended it, a thousand butterflies flutter their wings inside my stomach, and I find I have to remind myself to breathe.

His eyes narrow momentarily, as if he can see inside me, as if he knows what is happening, what being this close to him, alone with him, here, is doing to me.

The phone vibrates in his hand, and he breaks eye contact to swipe the screen and read the message. His forehead furrows. He types out a quick response before tucking the phone into the pocket of his pants.

“You’re missed,” he says, bringing me crashing back to reality. To that place where breathing isn’t so natural, so easy.

“Daniel?” I ask. My brother is the sole reason I’m still here. That I haven’t run off somewhere. Disappeared. I can’t leave him behind. Ever.

He shakes his head. “Cassian.”

A beat passes. I’m relieved and disappointed.

“Want a tour before I take you back?” he asks.

“What if I don’t want to go back?”

4

JET

Istudy her for a long minute. She is so delicate in this moment. So vulnerable standing here in this cave like room. Too small. Too fragile.

Breakable.

Broken.

The hair on my arms stands on end and, at the same moment, she shivers. I watch as she hugs my jacket closer to herself. It’s so big it envelops her and there’s a pang inside me, a muscle tightening in my chest, that I shouldn’t be feeling.

She’s off limits. I know that.

But there’s only one thing I want to do right now.

I want to go to her. I want to take her in my arms and pull her to me. I want to press her face to my chest and hold her and tell her she’s safe. Tell her I will not let the evil out there touch her. I will never allow those monsters just waiting for their chance at Malek Lombardi’s daughter get to her. Ever.

My phone vibrates once again, forcing me back to reality. Cassian has ordered me to bring her back. A test of loyalty for my stepbrother and me. I know he’s struggling with his decision when it comes to Amal. I know Allegra, his wife, is the reason Amal is still unmarried, still in school, still somewhat safe from this world she was born into.

But that reprieve is coming to an end, and no one knows that better than Amal.

I take her glass and cross the room to the bar to set it down. Keeping my back to her, I pour myself another drink.

She tries to mask her fear with bluster when she’s out there in the world but I see right through that. I wonder if I’m the only one who does. I doubt it. And there’s something inside me, predator or protector I’m not sure, that wants to cage her in and keep her.

Lock her away.

Safe and sound and mine.

All mine.

I study her, her words repeating in my head.

She wants to stay.

She wants to stay here. With me. Even knowing what I am. Knowing the violence I’ve committed, I’ve liked committing, she wants to stay.

She steels her spine and slides my jacket off her shoulders. She drapes it over the arm of the couch. She’s wearing a pink dress that falls just above her knees. It’s simple, elegant and almost deceptively modest. It hints at her curves and leaves the rest to my deviant imaginings.