Page 69 of The Villain's Beast

“More than me but less than Fletcher.” I sighed and turned, situating my back against the couch. Luca mindlessly plopped his hand onto the top of my head and I closed my eyes, relieved he was quickly recovering from whatever had Daren and Fletcher in such an uproar. “What happened?”

“I swung on Fletcher.”

I tried to turn around to face him, shocked that the scrawny, glasses-wearing member of the group was the one who’d had the balls to try and deliver the first blow.

“Why?”

“I was mad. I…I want my life back. I’m tired of waiting.”

I pulled my thighs up against my chest and turned to the side, resting my cheek on my knees so I could keep my eyes on Luca, who looked beyond tired. I felt the same way, worn down to my bones from all the unknowns and the secrets. Exasperated by the confusion over whatever this relationship between the five of us was turning out to be. That might have been the most complicated part. Fletcher loved Gideon, but he fucked me and he fucked Luca, and Luca loved Daren, but he fucked everyone, and Gideon was obsessed with Fletcher, but he’d come so close with me…

So close.

“I don’t know anything about your way of life. Don’t know what it’s been like to live the way the four of you had, but it all seems very calculating and slow-going. It doesn’t seem like people move fast.”

“Another thing worth changing,” Luca muttered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. He read a series of messages on his screen, then cursed under his breath and slid down until he was flat on his back and dropped his phone onto the floor.

“Who was it?” I asked.

“Gideon. His father is on campus.”

My heart rate immediately spiked, the confused organ battering against my ribs. Meeting Fletcher’s father two weeks earlier had been bad enough. I had no idea what Gideon’s father would be like, but I imagined it must take one hell of a man to create the beast that Gideon had turned into.

“What does he want?”

“Just throwing threats around, I think.” Luca pushed himself up into a seated position with a wince, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “I need to get back to the house.”

“Daren is going to be pissed if you leave.”

Luca groaned a laugh, slowly getting to his feet. He swayed a little, and I still didn’t know whose handprint was darkening around his throat. I jumped to my feet to support him while his head settled, and he smiled, pressing a soft kiss against the corner of my mouth.

“Daren knows I’ll always come back for him. Even if it kills us both.”

I grabbed Luca’s shirt, yanking him into me. “I don’t like the sound of that. I’m getting rather fond of you both.”

“It just might kill you too.” He took my face into his hands, dark eyes scanning my face for any signs of fear. Little did he know that fear would have only transformed into arousalanyway. If it were present, which it wasn’t. I wasn’t scared of these men, of their lives anymore. I was invested.

What did scare me was not understanding my place among them. Not knowing how I’d come to find myself in their web…or how I’d get out.

Not knowing if I wanted to.

“Something has to give,” I said, letting go of his shirt and smoothing the fabric out with a surprisingly steady hand.

“I know,” he said with a slow nod. “I just hope it’s not any of us.”

Chapter 49

Fletcher

Islammed Daren against the wall as soon as he closed the door to my bedroom, and he swung on me again with surprising accuracy. His fist connected with my left cheekbone sending a shower of sparks into my field of vision. I stumbled backward enough for him to shove off the wall, but instead of hitting me again, Daren lunged. He jumped onto me like a fucking possessed spider monkey, the weight of his body sending us both backward onto my bed. He raised his arm to hit me again, and I bucked off the bed, flipping him onto his back and grabbing both of his wrists. I pinned Daren against the bed, my lip curling up in a victorious sneer.

“You forget your fucking place,deputy,” I warned, shoving him harder down into the sheets. My bed smelled like him, smelled like Luca, smelled like Bellamy. Like sex and sweat and a reminder that Gideon was the one I wanted most and I’d barely gotten a taste of him.

“If I wasn’t your second, I’d have put you in the fucking ground by now.” He made a vile noise in the back of his throat and then he spit into my face. A glob of his hot saliva landed against my cheek, and I shifted my weight to keep him presseddown into the bed with one hand so I could swipe my face clean with the other.

He glared up at me like he wanted to kill me, and I imagined if we were anyone besides who we were, he would have tried. Sighing heavily, I gave him one last shove down into the mattress, then climbed off of him. He stayed put, giving me a moment to pace the room, hands braced against my hips while I counted my steps from one wall to the other.

It had been two weeks since my father visited, two weeks since he planted the seeds I was determined to not let grow. I tried so hard to think about Gideon, to think about Luca and Daren, even Bellamy, but old habits died hard, and it was a rough battle to fight on my own. Behind me, the bed creaked as Daren sat up, and I turned in time to find him gently pressing his fingertips against his cheekbones and the side of his nose.