Page 36 of Promise of Destruction (Destruction & Vengeance Duet #1)

thirty-four

Declan

She’s insane and I’ve never been so attracted to anyone as I am watching her lose her inhibitions, even before she can blame it on the alcohol.

It’s not the wine that starts her on a path of letting go—it’s her friend.

The same blonde I saw her with at the bar the night I first met Soren.

That time, they hadn’t seemed to be on great terms, but I’ve heard their entire conversation thanks to the app I pre-installed on Soren’s new phone.

It looks like a calculator, but if you know the right equation, it opens to reveal a running record of sounds.

I lied, of course, when she asked if it would allow me to track her. She’s my asset now, whether she’ll admit it or not. I can’t risk her running around getting herself into trouble while having no idea how to find her if she ends up in water she can’t tread.

And given that she’s already done it with me, I have no doubt she’s capable of doing it with others. After all, I’m not the only one who she called out in her article, though I may have been the only person named.

Watching her on the cameras pales in comparison to watching this shit show through the window, I’m sure, but even so, this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever witnessed.

This doesn’t even look like the same woman I met at the bar—even more damning, this isn’t the same woman I’ve watched for the last two weeks.

Now I can’t help but wonder which of those women is the authentic version of her.

I hope it’s this one—a little crazy, a lot of fun, and entirely unhinged.

I watch them go through her entire cabinet, drink the second bottle of wine and make asses of themselves dancing on her kitchen counter like a couple of teenagers at the club for the first time.

Soren’s dressed in sweats with her hair swept in a pile on top of her head.

Her shirt rises as she lifts the dishes and hikes her arms over her head to feel the music, and I have to fight the urge to be on that kitchen counter, pressed up against her.

It's when she nearly falls off the counter that I shift, uncomfortable. She’s got my full attention again.

I watch as the guy backs up to her and she wraps herself around him, fitting her chest against his back.

Jealousy stirs in my stomach; It’s absurd, particularly given that I hate her and would rather see her walk over broken glass than give her a fucking piggyback ride.

But that sentiment doesn’t stop the envy from surging in me again when he cups her ass.

His hand doesn’t move the whole way to the couch, where he tosses her without ceremony.

She doesn’t move.

My keys are in my hand before she bounces up, but I’ve seen enough. She kisses the guy on the cheek—a big smack of her lips with a flourish. The blonde drops a wine glass, and they all pause a beat before they erupt into laughter again. She pours them both drinks.

By the time I actually climb inside my truck, they’ve drank a lot from their glass and the bottle and are laughing about something else.

Jesus. Women are really certifiable.

The blonde holds out a piece of pizza, and Soren takes a bite from it. I swear her eyes roll back in her head, and the sound she makes is nothing short of erotic.

I punch the gas and speed the entire way to the little house.

A red crossover is parked in the drive right next to Soren’s car, and I make a mental note to reprimand her for not parking in the garage. I turn my car off behind her spot so that I don’t block the other car in.

She doesn’t live far from me, but in the twenty minutes it took for me to make it here, they’ve gone from tipsy to full-on drunk. I close out of the tracking app and make it to the front door in a few big strides.

I don’t have to knock or ring the bell. They must have seen the lights cutting through the dark outside her open windows, because as soon as I step up to the door, it opens a fraction. The man looks confused and wary. It turns to surprise and fear when recognition sparks in his eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

“Whosit?” Soren calls, the words slurring together like she’s too tired to pause between them.

I hear movement from behind the door, and then she appears behind him. She’s even more glorious in person.

The blue dress did things to me, but something about her vulnerability in sweat pants that are loose on her hips and the tank top that hugs her torso is wildly sexy. The inch of space between her hips and the hem of her shirt makes me feral.

Soren looks confused for a moment, and I wonder just how much she had to drink if she can’t remember me. I think I’ve made quite the impression, after all.

“Ofcourse you’rehere.” She shakes her head with a little laugh.

I narrow my eyes on her. “Are you drunk ?”

“Gloriously!” The blonde calls out from where she’s sitting on the living room floor, staring at the ceiling. “We’re high too!”

“I’mnothigh!” Soren slurs, waving a dismissive hand. The action knocks her off balance, and I move quickly past her friend, who does a terrible job guarding the door, to grab her arm and steady her.

“Oh,” the blonde laughs. “Oh, babe. You are too! I dissolved a couple of Xanax in the bottle of wine.” She breaks out into a fit of giggles before she looks up to find Soren gaping at her.

“Youdruggedme?”

“I drugged us !” She dissolves into another spell of laughter. This time, Soren joins in.

“Alright,” I say, looking pointedly at the only other sober person in the room. “I think that’s enough fun for tonight.”

“What are you doing here?” He asks me, ignoring my implication that it was time to leave.

“Oh!” Soren sobers a little, patting my chest and leaning into me to try and catch her balance. “Khan, this is Declan. He’s my stalkerboss.”

“Your stalker boss?” Khan asks skeptically.

The blonde gasps and shoots up, making her way over to us. Her eyes are on Soren as she covers her mouth with her hand like that will shield me from seeing how her lips move. It may have if she didn’t cover the wrong side of her mouth.

The music has been substantially lowered since their plate-smashing episode, but she still speaks like she’s trying to be heard over it. “He’s your boss now?”

“Yes.” Soren shrugs, and I tighten my arm around her to stabilize her.

“But… I thought… don’t we hate him?”

“Wehatehim.” Soren confirms, laying her head on my chest. The simple motion unleashes a thunderous drumming inside it.

“Oh,” The blonde nods like that’s a completely understandable response despite her leaning on me. And then she clutches her stomach. “Oh.”

“What?” Khan demands, looking between his friends in utter confusion.

“I think I’m going to be sick. Can you drive me home?”

I know they came together, so the request isn’t unreasonable. But Khan hesitates, looking at Soren and then me.

“It’sfine.” Soren says, waving him away with a broad flourish. She’s absolutely sloshed, and if I wasn’t so annoyed by it, I may actually enjoy how easy it would be to manipulate her right now. “I’mhis bitchnow.”

Her words seem to slap her friend across the face. His eyes widen, confusion and horror mingling together as he tries to figure out what the hell he has missed since I ran into her at the bar.

“I’ll take care of Soren.” I tell him. “You take care of her.”

“Marissa.” The blonde says to me. “Come on.” She throws an arm around Khan. “He’s fine.”

I immediately like Marissa—she proved herself to be pushy when she has to but softened once she got Soren’s walls to fall.

I don’t love that she drugged them, but I get the feeling that the laughter they erupted into tonight is the most this house has heard in a long time—maybe ever.

On the other hand, I also dislike her willingness to leave Soren with someone who is, as far as they’re concerned, a stranger.

They have to know what Soren thinks of me, so they either disagree or they’re willing to leave their friend in the hands of a monster.

Khan stares at me, swallows. He lifts his phone out of his pocket and presses something.

The shutter sound clicks, and he turns the phone toward me, revealing a candid shot of me.

Soren is still resting against me, clinging to me like a life raft in the ocean.

It’s evident how far gone she is because she seems to trust me completely in this moment.

Foolish little bird.

“If anything happens to her,” Khan taps his screen, “I have proof that I left you with her. And I won’t let you get away with it.”

I laugh at the conviction in his voice and the fact that he wouldn’t stand a chance. “I understand. Trust me, I’m not the one you should be worried about.”

He narrows his eyes, trying to figure out what I mean, and then turns to go. “Are you sure you can handle this? What about the mess?”

“Goodnight,” I tell him, letting the single word speak for itself.

“Iloveyou!” Soren calls after her friends.

Marissa turns back to blow her a sloppy kiss. “I love you too! Have fun!”

I lock the door behind them and before she can protest, I scoop Soren into my arms, cradling her like a blushing bride I’m going to whisk across the threshold. Hers wrap automatically around my neck, her body submitting to me despite her words.

“Putmedown!”

“You have no shoes on.” I tell her as I stride over the glass easily. This is hardly the first time I’ve walked on broken glass. The difference is, this time I’m insulated.

The scene had looked wild on camera, but in person, the reality of what they did is even more insane.

“You’re a secret psychopath.” I tip my head toward the wreckage on the floor, and a little laugh bubbles out of her chest.

“You already knewthat, Deck -lan.” She enunciates each half of my name, the two syllables sounding harsh on her lips. “You told me so, remember?”

The soles of my shoes take their punishment in stride until I reach the edge of the hall, where I kick them off.

I don’t want to track the disaster through her house and have her wake up in the morning with a hangover just to step on broken glass.

As it is, the way she’s leaning into me instead of away from me, tells me she’s too far gone.

I highly doubt she’ll be making it to work in the morning.

Carrying her to her room is easy. I’ve been able to nail down the layout of her home between the first night of looking through her windows and the angles of the cameras I had placed.

Her breath goes ragged when I walk through the threshold of her bedroom, as if she’s suddenly realized the implications of being here with me. Alone.

I can feel her stiffen in my arms.

“Hold tight.” I command her as I peel back the comforter on her bed.

She obliges, clinging to me like I can keep her afloat, only letting go when I lower her into the middle of her mattress.

Her hand slipping from my neck is oddly disappointing.

I turn to go without another word, but her voice stops me. “Wait!”

She’s got her knees drawn up to her chest, squinting at me like she’s having a hard time seeing straight. She’s probably trying to decide which one of the Declan’s she’s looking at is the real one.

“Soren?” I prompt.

Her name on my lips makes her shiver. I don’t know what it is born from—fear, excitement, shock. Maybe just the realization of the situation that days ago I was watching her through the window and tonight I’m in her room.

“You’renot leaving?”

It’s a question, poorly phrased though it is. I take her in, so small in her big room. She isn’t that way because of her stature, I realize, though it certainly doesn’t help. She makes herself small on purpose for some reason.

“Do you want me to?”

Her answer is irrelevant, but I have to turn to hide the grin she brings to my lips when she says “no”.