Page 16 of The Boy I Loved (Eternal Hell #1)

“Yep. It fucks with their head. It’s great.” He shot me a grin, like we were sharing some kind of inside joke, and not talking about raping a bunch of women.

Vince smirked, bringing his hand to his lips to take another pull. The smoke billowed out around him, getting lost in the night sky. “Mason does that, too.”

The conversation stretched on, the guys each talking about the women and about virgins.

Every now and then, me or Nicholas would chime in.

After we finished smoking, we made our way to the SUV and clambered inside.

Tristan was a few years older than us, but not by much.

His father had been grooming him for this moment since he was twelve, and he was one of our best men.

He also happened to be one of Clay’s favorites.

Tristan was on guard duty, something he took very seriously.

I huffed a small laugh. None of those girls would be getting any sleep tonight. Not if he had anything to say about it.

Mom was standing over the sink, the water running as she worked to wipe down the multitude of dishes she hadn’t gotten around to yet.

Her dark hair was tugged into a messy knot on the top of her head, a few strands slipping out of the tie that was meant to bind them together.

She was humming something softly beneath her breath—a tune I was all too familiar with.

Hey, Diddle Diddle.

It was a song she used to sing for me and Alice when we were younger. Alice would be perched on Dad’s leg with me on the other side of Mom while she sang to us. That felt like a lifetime ago.

“Morning,” I greeted, coming up behind my mother. She was wearing a light blue sweater with a pair of matching pajama pants.

Mom glanced at me over her shoulder. “Morning.” She smiled softly. “Are you excited for your first day of school tomorrow?”

During the two and a half years I’d been gone, I took online classes in order to keep up my grades and credits. Clay wasn’t overly ecstatic about it, but he didn’t fight me on it much. He wouldn’t as long as I was doing everything he wanted.

“Not really,” I admitted. School seemed so…pointless now. But it was only one more year, so I couldn’t complain too much, and it gave me a small break from the horrors that had taken over my life.

I’d always been a ‘live in the moment’ kind of person and had never considered much of a future for myself.

Now I was glad I never dwelled on it, seeing as how pointless and devastating it would have been otherwise.

I guess I always thought I’d just follow in my father’s footsteps, but then he died.

Everything went downhill after that. A darkness seeped into my bones, and I started drinking.

Then I began working at the mechanic shop which sparked a friendship with Vince.

Drugs followed shortly after, nothing heavy, just pot and some pills here and there.

It helped ease the pain, and when it didn’t, I started shoplifting.

I was a young kid who had lost his father and had begun acting out as a form of coping. From my understanding, that wasn’t unheard of and was normal in a lot of similar cases. I just never expected that my little bad-boy phase would come with such drastic repercussions.

My mother turned off the water before swiveling around to face me, her lower back resting against the counter. “No?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s school, Mom. Of course I’m not excited to go back.”

She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I’m sure Hazel will be happy to see you there.” The question was innocent enough, but I didn’t miss the small tilt to her tone.

“We’ve been through this. Hazel is better off without me.

” Nausea churned within my stomach as soon as the words left me, but they were true.

There was absolutely no way in hell that I could remain in her life and keep her safe from my world at the same time.

Whatever hope she was still clinging to when it came to us …

she needed to let that shit go. I wasn’t that little boy anymore.

Mom blew out an exasperated breath, her shoulders dropping a fraction, but to my relief, she didn’t press the topic anymore. “Fine,” she relented. “I’ll stay out of it. I just wanted to help.”

Before I had the chance to say anything else, the stairs creaked, capturing my attention.

My gaze jerked towards the direction of the staircase right as Alice rounded the corner.

Her dark hair was tugged into a messy fishtail braid that barely brushed against her shoulder.

Dark circles rimmed her eyes, indicating that she’d stayed up late last night.

“Are you two hungry?” Mom pressed, not bothering to comment on the fact that it was nearly two in the afternoon and our sleep schedules were all blown to hell.

“Coffee,” Alice grumbled, rubbing her palms over her eyes as she maneuvered her way through the kitchen and toward the Keurig.

“I’m heading out with the guys. I’ll grab something then,” I added .

Mom’s lips thinned, a tick feathering along the edge of her jaw. “Is it such a good idea to be hanging out with them again?’ she hedged. “I mean … they were the ones who got you into this mess in the first place.”

Irritation sparked through my veins, filling every crevice of my body until my skin had warmed. “ I got me into this mess,” I corrected. It was true. They didn’t force me into doing these things; I was a willing participant. It probably would have happened with or without them.

“Dominic—”

I leveled her with a hard glare. “If you’re worried about me shoplifting again, don’t.”

The sound of the Keurig running echoed throughout the house, distracting me again. Maybe that was a good thing. I was sick of how my mom kept looking at me—like I was something broken. Something that needed fixed. The sad reality of the matter was that there was no fixing this, no fixing me .

My head was beyond fucked. I was constantly haunted by the things I’d done, forced to relive each nightmare every single night until they consumed me entirely.

The screams of every girl we encountered, every girl we forced to their knees before us, every girl we had to hit as a means of controlling them.

It was sick, twisted, wrong. But with each day that passed, it became easier and easier—more normalized.

My ringtone drifted through the kitchen a moment later and I reached into my pocket and retrieved the device, glancing down at the caller ID.

“I’ve gotta take this,” I told my mom. “I’ll see you later.”

Mom frowned, parting her lips like she wanted to object, but I was already spinning on my heels. It didn’t matter how she felt or what she said. This was my life now. I pressed down on the power button, sending him to voicemail.

When I made it outside, the warm air drifted over my skin.

Nicholas was parked behind my car at the end of the driveway, his window partially rolled down as he waited.

Beside him was Mason, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

The asshole was always fighting me for the passenger seat.

I climbed in the back, situating myself beside Vincent who already had a cigarette between his lips.

“Where are we going?” I asked, spreading my legs out in front of me as Nicholas backed out of the driveway.

“The store, probably stop for lunch, and then Clay wants us to meet with Kurt at the shop,” Mason answered.

Kurt was close to my uncle and handled most of the shit here while Clay was away.

He was the only one my uncle trusted enough to run the shop in his absence.

He was just as demented if not more. When I first met him, I remembered feeling a strange sense of foreboding.

The energy in the room had turned sinister, sending a cold chill sweeping down my spine.

Maybe that should have been my first sign, but like everything else, I’d ignored it and pushed it down.

Mason glanced in the rearview mirror, his gaze settling on Vincent. “How’s Stacy holding up?’ he asked with a tilt of his lips.

“I haven’t heard anything yet.” Vincent inhaled a plume of smoke before releasing it, allowing the substance to coil through the air before disintegrating altogether. His blue eyes drifted over to me, and he tipped his chin toward the pack of cigarettes waiting in his lap. “Want one?”

I grunted an affirmation, reaching over and snatching the box from his legs before flicking the top up and tugging out one of the cancer sticks. I placed it between my lips and fished out the lighter, sucking in a deep breath as the flame roused.

“I can’t wait for school to be over,” Mason grumbled, leaning back in his seat. “I’d rather stay at the compound.”

If Mason had it his way, that’s where he’d be right now. He only agreed to finish out the year because it was what I wanted to do. But there was plenty of time for that. After graduation, he’d be lucky to even leave the damn place.

Nicholas’ hands tightened around the steering wheel, but he said nothing.

A small sliver of guilt twisted my stomach.

He didn’t want this anymore than I did, but it was our life now.

We were stuck, and there was no way out.

Even if Clay decided he no longer had any use for us, I wouldn’t know how to live a normal life.

We solved our problems with violence, sex, and drugs.

Working for Clay protected us against law enforcement. None of us would make it without him.

I glanced out the window as we traveled down the busy road. Houses decorated either side and a convenience store made its presence known up ahead.

“Stacy was one down,” Vincent added thoughtfully. “Two sorry bitches left to go.”

Mason shot him a crazed grin through the mirror, mirth sparking within his eyes. “That is one perk, huh?”

I tuned them out, focusing on the smoke filling my lungs with every pull. This was all we ever talked about. Before Clay pulled us into his reign of terror, we did other things. We hung out as most friends did and got into our fair share of trouble. But then it all … changed.

It didn’t take us long to reach the store. Relief rolled from my shoulders as I peered over at the looming building that sat mere yards away.

Snubbing my cigarette out in the ashtray, I slammed my hand on the back of Nicholas’ seat, causing him to startle with a jump.

“Goddamnit, Dominic,” he growled with annoyance.

I stifled my laugh. “Open my door.”

He blew out a frustrated breath and stepped out of the car, his shoes crunching against the asphalt. He kept the child locks on at all times, just in case we had a ‘spur of the moment’ kidnapping. It was annoying as fuck, but also convenient in times like those .

He jerked the door open just as Mason did the same for Vince. I stepped out and straightened my posture, glancing over in the store’s direction. A light breeze swept through my hair, rustling the dark strands.

Nicholas locked the doors and turned, leaving the rest of us to step into stride with him.

Several cars littered the parking lot, along with civilians making their way to and from their vehicles.

A few weary glances were tossed our way, but it had always been like that—even before we started tapping into the darker shit.

“What’s the plan after the shop?” Nicholas asked, crinkling his brows, and keeping his tone low as we started toward the supplies area.

“I have a meeting with a realtor,” Mason answered.

Our heads whipped in his direction, but it was Vince who spoke first. “A realtor? Don’t you have to have like…good credit for that shit or something?”

“Who says I don’t?” He lowered his voice as we took a right down one of the aisles. “For all anyone knows, I make a respectable living at the mechanic shop.”

I snorted in response. A respectable living making fifteen dollars an hour.

Unless Clay struck some kind of deal with him that I wasn’t privy to.

It’s something my uncle would do. He was very generous as long as people were loyal to him and did as he asked.

But there was always a price to pay when it came to him.

How big of a price did Mason pay for a house he could call his own?

The thought sent a shiver down my spine. I just hoped he knew what he was doing.