Chapter 26: Alluring Darkness: Chapter 26

My phone vibrates in my pocket. Lowering the gun, I place it on the small counter in front of me and fish out my phone. I glance down at the name visible on the display. It’s a guy from my senior class. A frown creases my brow. We’re not exactly friends, so why the hell is he calling me?

I slide the answer button. Since it’s late on a Saturday night, the indoor firing range is empty apart from me, so I don’t have to worry about other people’s noise as I hold my phone to my ear.

“What?” I demand.

“Hi,” he blurts out, sounding a bit stunned by my brusque reply. “I’m—”

“I know who you are. Why are you calling me?”

“I… well, I saw that girl that you’re, uhm… That you’re… well…”

My heart lurches in my chest. Raina. Shifting the phone into a better position, I listen to him stutter as he tries to define what exactly Raina is to me, and failing miserably, for another few seconds before I cut him off.

“Raina,” I say.

“Yes, her,” he replies, sounding relieved.

“What about her?”

“Well, I’m downtown and I just walked past that bar on High Street. Silver Saint, on the corner there, you know? And well, I saw her through the window. She’s there. Alone. And as far as I could tell, she’s drunk out of her mind.”

The blood freezes in my veins.

“I, uhm,” he continues. “I just thought you might want to know.”

“Thanks.”

I hang up. Leaving the gun and equipment for someone else to clean up, I run out of the building and towards the parking lot.

Fury and frustration, and a tiny bit of worry, whirl through my soul as I throw myself into my car and floor it. The car practically skids out of the parking lot, and then I’m speeding down the street and towards the city.

What the fuck is Raina doing blackout drunk in a bar downtown? She told me that she was visiting her family tonight, which is why I, against my better judgement, allowed her to leave campus. If that was a lie so that she could go out partying, I’m going to make her fucking crawl.

Since I’m connected to the Morelli family, I often get people trying to do me favors so that I’ll put in a good word for them when they inevitably apply for a position there. And right now, I’m incredibly fucking thankful for that, because otherwise, that guy would never have called and I would never have known about Raina’s little rebellion.

Dark fields flash past my vision until they’re finally replaced by glowing streetlamps and long rows of houses. I drive all the way up to the Silver Saint and park my car right there on the side of the road. The car behind me honks loudly at my abrupt stop. But the moment I step out of the car, the other driver yanks on the steering wheel and does a U-turn before speeding out of there as if he’s afraid I’m going to hunt him down. I might have. If I hadn’t been so distracted by the thought of Raina stumbling around inside the bar in front of me.

Yanking the door open, I stalk across the threshold.

The bartender opens his mouth as if to call out a greeting, or maybe ask what I want, but no words make it out when his gaze lands on me. Color drains from his pinched face, and he swallows nervously.

I pay him no mind as I quickly scan the bar.

It’s a crowded and dimly lit place with furniture made of dark wood. Most of the patrons are deep in their cups, and a constant murmur of voices hangs over the area.

My gaze snaps to a woman slumped on a chair close to the dartboard on the other side of the room, and for a second, I swear my heart stops beating.

Raina’s eyes are open, but she’s barely sitting up. Instead, she’s leaning the back of her head against the wall behind her and staring up at the ceiling. There’s a loopy grin on her face, as if she finds something absolutely hilarious up there in the dark ceiling.

Rage roars through me as I notice two men hovering close to her, watching her with hungry eyes. I storm towards them.

The crowd parts before me as I stalk across the floorboards until I reach Raina and the two guys. Since their attention is solely focused on her, they haven’t spotted me yet. I barrel past and position myself between them and Raina.

“Touch her and I’ll rearrange your fucking teeth,” I warn, my voice coming out low and vicious.

They clearly don’t know who I am, because the one on the left snorts and elbows his companion, who snickers.

Suddenly, I wish I had brought that gun from the range. Or one of Kaden’s blades. Or Jace’s bats. But I suppose I’ll just have to beat them to death with my fists instead.

The one who snorted flashes me a grin full of challenge. “I’ll touch whoever—”

I slam my fist into his jaw. His head snaps to the side from the force of the hit, but I don’t stop to admire the sight. Instead, I ram my other fist into his companion’s stomach. Air explodes from his lungs, and he drops to his knees immediately.

The first guy has recovered enough to try to swing back. I bring my hand down on his wrist, forcing his arm downwards before he can hit me. Then I smack my boot into the side of his knee.

He cries out in pain as he crashes down on the ground. I kick him in the chest, making him topple backwards and slam back first into the floor.

People around us are screaming and scrambling out of the way, but I barely hear them as I drop down so that I’m straddling the guy’s chest. And then I ram my fist into the side of his face. Again. And again. Blood sprays from his mouth as his head snaps from side to side with each strike.

Two steps away, his companion has finally recovered from the hit to his stomach. Fear floods his face as he sees what I’m doing to his friend, and he starts crawling away across the floor.

Stopping my assault, I instead reach out and grab his ankle. With a firm yank, I pull him back across the floor.

“Please,” the guy underneath me croaks now that I’ve stopped pounding his face. “Please, I’m sorry.”

“Yes, yes, we’re sorry,” his friend blurts out while trying to yank his ankle out of my grip. “We’re sorry, we’re sorry.”

I glance behind me to see that Raina’s body is now tilting precariously to the side. A few more inches and she’ll topple right out of the chair. Her unfocused eyes are still searching the ceiling.

A snarl rips from my throat. I don’t have time to deal with these fucking idiots.

Leveling hard stares on both of them, I growl, “If you ever so much as look at her again, I’ll carve out your eyes.”

Before they can sputter out a reply, I get to my feet and spin towards Raina. The sound of rustling clothes and scuffing shoes behind my back informs me that the two guys are scrambling away from me.

In the dead silent bar, I can hear the door being shoved open as they no doubt run outside. But my eyes are focused on Raina as I stop in front of her.

However, before I can say anything, the bartender appears right next to my shoulder. Based on the way he’s wringing his hands when he speaks, he apparently knows who I am at least.

“I apologize for their behavior, sir. They will never be allowed in here again. Please, what can I do to make up for this?”

“Delete the security footage for tonight,” I reply without taking my eyes off Raina. “Make sure everyone in here knows that this never happened. And put two bottles of water in the Range Rover outside.”

“Yes, yes, consider it done.”

While he hurries away to follow my orders, I reach out and gently grip Raina’s chin. Her eyes slide in and out of focus as I tilt her head back down so that she’s looking at me instead.

“Raina,” I say, my voice low.

She squints at me, as if trying to figure out who I am. Then a light goes on behind her eyes. “Hey, it’s Small Dick Energy.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or strangle her.

“You’re drunk.” Grabbing her wrist, I start pulling her to her feet. “Let’s go.”

She tries to pull her wrist out of my grip while muttering, “I’m not going anywhere. I want another shot.”

“If you don’t do as I say, the only shot you’ll be getting is a bullet between the eyes. Now let’s go.”

Yanking her up from the chair, I start towing her towards the door. But she only makes it one step before her legs start wobbling and she stumbles to the side. Releasing her wrist, I whip around and grab her by the hips to stop her from toppling over.

Once she’s upright again, I tentatively remove my hands from her hips and hold them a few inches from her body instead. She immediately starts swaying again.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I growl.

Bending down, I slide an arm behind her legs and one behind her back, and then lift her into my arms instead.

“Hey,” she calls. Or rather, she slurs the word. Her head lolls to the side as she looks at the people we pass, and she kicks her legs weakly. “Wait…”

I stalk across the bar and shoulder open the door. The bartender is just straightening from the passenger seat after putting two bottles of water into the cupholders in the middle.

“Leave it open,” I tell him as I close the final distance.

He hurries out of the way. “Again, I’m so sorry. Please accept my sincerest apologies for—”

“Accepted,” I interrupt. “Now, go back inside.”

Without turning to see if he follows my orders, I stop in front of the open door and lower Raina onto the passenger seat. She blinks at the car while I withdraw my arms. I grab the seatbelt and start pulling it out.

But when I begin drawing it across her body, she seems to at last realize where she is because she starts trying to swat my hands away.

“No,” she says while clumsily trying to push my arms back. “No, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Ignoring her, I simply reach across her in an effort to snap the seatbelt shut. But she starts fighting harder, squirming against the seat while trying to slap my hands away from her body.

A frustrated noise tears from my chest. Releasing the seatbelt, I abruptly yank my hand up and grab her chin instead. With a firm grip on it, I force her gaze to mine.

“Keep fighting me, and I’ll put you in the trunk instead,” I warn.

She glares back at me. Or tries to. Because of how drunk she is, she can’t keep that adorably angry expression on her features for more than a second at a time.

Then she throws up her hands and heaves a dramatic sigh. “Fine.”

I release her chin and grab the seatbelt again. This time, she doesn’t fight me, so I manage to snap it in place quickly. Then I slam the door shut.

After rounding the car, I slide into the driver’s seat.

Snatching up one of the water bottles, I shove it into her hands. “Drink.”

“I don’t want water,” she protests.

“You can either drink willingly, or I can force feed it to you. Your choice.”

She once again tries her best to glare at me. Then she scowls down at the bottle in her hands.

“Fucking dictator,” she mutters.

But she twists off the cap and starts drinking. Satisfied that she does what she’s told, I start the car and then make a U-turn. Raina keeps sipping from the bottle while I drive us back to campus.

I flex my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to stop myself from brutally interrogating her on what the fuck she was doing in that bar. We’ve only made it halfway back to campus when my self-control is completely spent.

“What the hell were you doing in that bar?” I demand, still keeping my eyes on the dark road ahead.

“Drinking,” she retorts. Her words are a bit less slurred now. “What else would I be doing?”

“You told me you were going home to your family.”

“I did.”

“So you’d better have one hell of an explanation for why you lied to me about that, or this is going to be a long fucking night for you.”

“I didn’t lie. I did go home to my family.”

I glance at her when I hear the honesty in her tone. Her face shows the same sincerity. In her still half drunken state, I doubt she would be able to lie this convincingly, so I’m forced to accept that she is in fact telling the truth.

“So how did you end up wasted in a fucking bar?” I demand, sliding my gaze back to the road ahead.

She’s silent for a long moment. Then she slumps back in her seat, resting her head against the leather, and heaves a deep sigh.

“Because my mom told me that I’m messed-up in the head.”

I snap my gaze back to her.

My chest constricts at the raw emotions in her eyes as she stares out at the dark night in front of the car, and it takes every ounce of my willpower not to drive back to the city and slaughter her entire family.