Page 2

DANTE

“ N o fucking way, dude.”

Hayden aims his ocean-blue eyes at me, all squinted and shit. Fuck. “Please, Dante.”

Oh fucking, fuck, shit, damn. Jacob and Parker stand off to the side of the large living room, arms crossed, identical smiles on their terrifyingly similar faces. I am so fucked.

“It’s too dangerous,” I mumble, already knowing I’ve lost the fight on this one.

Hayden’s sweet smile sends a shiver right down my spine. “Please?”

“Okay, gross, don’t use your daddy, please smile on me.

It won’t work. Fine. Whatever, I’m outvoted here anyway.

But I am not cleaning blood from your jeans again because you guys are always so fucking messy.

” I sneer at all of them because they are .

Slobs. “You can clean the blood out of your designer jeans by yourself. I am mostly speaking to you, Parker.”

“Hey!” Parker yells with a roll of his eyes. “I do my own laundry.”

“Oh, so now we just flat-out lie during the tribunal?” Jacob quips with a leer of his own.

I hold my hands out with a grunt, all of them quiet and turn to look at me. “Just shut up. Hayden, you better have a hell of a plan to get us into the back of the club and out without being noticed by a single person.”

Hayden’s smile is somehow even worse than it was a moment ago.

Oh no. This time my stomach curdles and sweat breaks out at the back of my neck.

When I glance over to Jacob and Parker, they’re wearing the same sort of look that Hayden is.

I grimace as I realize tonight is going to be absolute hell in more ways than one.

An hour later, I’m working my way into the club alone, already fighting the urge to cringe at the smell of sweat and alcohol.

I hate clubs. I also hate leather pants but that’s what I’m wearing because the guys always have to make me a spectacle.

The club is warm, flashing lights adding to the bad mood the place has put me in. Now I’ll also have a migraine tonight.

As eyes in the club turn to me, my body prickles with awareness of their stares.

I hate being ogled. If I could fade into the background everywhere I went, I’d be a happy, happy man.

I mumble half-hearted apologies to people as I bump into them while making my way to the center of the dance floor, but no one seems to care.

Everyone is too caught up in their own lives.

People are either drunk or high, two things that I can’t stand myself.

Hayden is going to owe me something off of my wish list after tonight.

I’m thinking those really expensive headphones I’ve been eyeing that I’m too cheap to purchase for myself.

Mr. Rich Kid can buy me what I want after dressing me up in leather pants, a mesh shirt, and putting goddamn eyeliner on me.

I start to dance, raising my arms so that the shirt lifts enough to show off my stomach that’s muscled and covered with tattoos. Some eyes stay on me, but the majority go back to their own business. That won’t do. Fuck.

My watch buzzes with a reminder that the boys are starting the mission, but I’m not causing a big enough distraction to get the bodyguards at the doors at the other end to abandon their station.

I’ve got to get sluttier or louder, not sure which one is the best option.

My eyes scan across the crowded club, looking for absolutely anything to get me the distraction I need.

But my eyes land on a platinum-blond twink instead.

Oh. He has a nose piercing, and a barbell through his perfectly shaped eyebrow.

The longer I look, the more I realize his hair has streaks of rose pink shot through it.

He’s wearing tight-as-fuck jeans and a mesh crop top that shows off the skin of his stomach.

My brain does this red-alert-cease-to-think thing when I notice the fucking ring through his belly button.

Oh, Jesus Christ. The way he’s moving his hips to the beat, arms in the air, eyes closed, makes my body feel like molten lava is moving through it.

Now is not the time to try to pull someone.

“Are you trying at all,” Parker drawls into my ear.

I growl and Hayden laughs through the comms. “You’re going to piss him off. When he goes full Hulk in a rage, maybe we’ll get the guards gone. Oh. Guys, this door is unlocked, oh no, oops.”

“Fuck, Hayden,” Jacob gasps just before the comms go dead.

That sounds bad. But I’m in the middle of the dance floor with no further information, so the only thing I can do is stick to the original mission.

Get eyes on me or cause a scene. I shake my arms out as I think of something to do, just as my eyes catch on a big, older guy trying to drag the platinum twink off the dance floor.

The twink looks unsteady on his feet, eyes glassy with the classic I took something look and all my protective instincts go on high alert.

Pushing my way through the crowd, I stop just behind the twink and leer at the guy just a few inches shorter than me. “Does he want to go with you?”

The guy sneers. “Sure, ask him.”

I tip my head down, angling it so that I can look into the twink’s light blue eyes. “Do you?”

He gulps loudly, then shakes his head. I smirk at the guy who now has a visible vein throbbing in his massive forehead.

“He said no,” I drawl just loud enough for him to hear me over the music.

But the guy doesn’t stop. He just tries to drag the twink away, but I’ve had enough.

I shove the guy hard until he lets go of the blond that now stands still, just slightly swaying on his feet behind me.

When a fist punches me in the stomach, I laugh at the absurdity of the moment, then throw one of my own.

The dude goes down with a loud crack against the dance floor and suddenly I’ve got the distraction I needed because all the bodyguards are rushing toward me.

Oh no. Maybe this was not the guy to punch tonight.

I pick the twink up, toss him over my shoulder, and make a break for it outside as the guards chase after us.

Fuck. How am I going to get out? Also, this guy isn’t even fighting me which is bad news altogether if he’s taken something.

Goddamnit. Now I’m cursing my height because there’s no way to sneak away unseen, which means I’ll have to steal a car or hide somewhere else.

The dead weight of the twink is not helping either.

The guard at the front door presses his finger to his ear, then narrows his eyes on me as I come to a sliding halt in front of him.

“Hey, buddy,” I say with an aw-shucks grin.

The guard slides his hand to his hip, but I’m faster, even one-handed as I keep my left arm over the thighs of the twink to not lose him.

One right hook later and the guard crumbles to the floor.

Glancing over my shoulder, I see four other guards fighting the crowd, so I know it’s time to run as fast as I can.

The night air is chilly since it’s autumn in Eastport.

My years of track in high school really pay off as I make a break for it, totally ignoring my bike that’s parked in the lot of the club.

Hopefully the boys can get it home before it can give authorities a lead.

Although it’s registered to a dummy limited liability company, so hopefully we’re fine.

Fuck. Think about the matter at hand, Dante.

My head is light as I pant during my frantic run through the city streets.

I spot a dark alley, and turn into it. I place the twink on his feet, carefully situating him against the damp wall to grab my phone out of my too-tight leather pants pocket.

No messages from the boys and my comms are still dead. Shit.

I squeeze my eyes shut tight to blot out the irritation. I knew it would go down like this but no one ever fucking listens to me. I’m just the brawn… but sometimes I know what I’m talking about. I need to stop letting Hayden always get his way.

“Where am I?” the twink slurs, eyes narrowed to slits as he stares blankly at me.

I slap his cheek softly to wake him up more. “What’s your address, so I can get you home?”

He mumbles something but I can only make out six forty-two.

There are only so many addresses with that number combination in the immediate area.

Wait. Maybe he has a wallet. I fumble around to reach his back pocket, but that's when he decides that I’m a danger.

Lifting his arm fast, he uppercuts me and my eyes sting with tears.

Jesus. Now my nose is bleeding, my phone is useless, and I’ve got my hand in the twink’s back left pocket, not remotely in the way I was imagining back at the club. This night blows.

He slumps back against the wall, looks at me once, opens his mouth, and I have just enough presence of mind to take a step back as he hurls all over the place.

Nooooooo, not my special edition Chucks.

Fuck. Hayden owes me Chucks and headphones now.

But at least I have hot twink’s wallet. Reid—he doesn’t look like a Reid.

He lives at six forty-two Highland Avenue.

That’s not far from us and pretty close to the university.

A slight sheen of sweat covers Reid’s face despite the coolness of the night.

My lips bunch to the side as I bite the inside of my cheek.

I hope he has a roommate or something to check on him, otherwise I’ll have to take him back to our house.

The fastest way for me to get murdered is bringing someone home. Parker would be livid.

I order a rideshare from an app, then do my best to gather Reid into my arms in a way that looks remotely normal. Once the ride comes, I carefully arrange Reid into the back seat, buckling him in.