Corrupt - Douglas Penelope. Страница 34

Michael grabbed my hair, pulling my neck back before he trailed kisses down my throat.

I slowly opened my eyes and stilled. Kai was staring down at me with a smug look on his face.

Dread crept in. How had I forgotten they were there?

But before I could push Michael off me, he pulled his mouth away from my neck and hovered over me, blocking out Kai and everyone else.

“We’re going to a pool party,” he said, his voice that had been thick with lust just a moment ago now gone cold. “We’re going to pick you up in ten minutes, so have a swimsuit on.”

My throat was dry, and I couldn’t swallow.

“If you’re not ready, we’ll get you ready, even if it takes all four of us,” he threatened. “And then, maybe, after the night is over, I’ll feel like giving you the phone number.”

He climbed off me and stood up, and I felt hands wrap around my arms and lift me off the ground.

And then I winced, feeling a hand wrap around my neck and pull me back into a hard chest as a whisper hit my ear. “You’re a horny little bitch,” Damon seethed. “You almost fucked him right here in front of us.”

I ground my teeth together and glared ahead.

“The little fight you put up was cute, though,” he said, sarcasm thick in his voice. “What else you got?”

And then he planted a hand on my back and shoved me forward, my feet stumbling to keep from falling.

I sucked in breath after breath, my stomach shaking and my nerves shot.

What else you got? He’d thrown my same words from today back at me. Son of a…

I squared my shoulders and charged straight for the elevator, not looking back.

Their game had changed. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know what to do next, but I needed to think faster.

A lot faster.

Three Years Ago

“HOW’S SHE FEELING UP THERE, BROTHER?” Damon called from the back. “She can come and sit with me if she wants.”

I heard Will’s breathy laugh and felt Michael’s hand tighten on my waist as I sat on his lap.

But he didn’t respond. Michael wouldn’t. From what I’d seen, he rarely indulged Damon’s childish antics.

Kai sped ahead with his chin tipped down, shooting me casual glances. “I don’t know. She looks pretty comfortable where she is,” he told Damon.

And I just stared out the front windshield, half-rolling my eyes at both of them. I didn’t enjoy being the butt of a joke. I hadn’t asked to sit here, after all.

But I couldn’t say I was itching to rush back to my own seat, either. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, heat covered my neck, and I had no desire to ever be anywhere else. My heart pounding so hard it hurt.

Every inch of my skin begged to feel his, and I wanted to turn around and straddle him and know what he felt like between my legs.

Gripping the support handle on the side of the window, I relaxed into his chest, feeling it rise and fall behind me.

He continued texting on his phone with his left hand, acting like I wasn’t there, but the tension in his arm wrapped around my waist told me otherwise.

I spotted Kai stealing a sideway glance at me, something unreadable in his eyes.

“Have you decided what you’d like to do?”

I twisted my head back, looking at Michael. “Me? What do you mean?”

He finished his text, his eyes downcast at me and his warm breath falling on my face. “You get to pull a prank, too.”

Will came up from behind, peeking over Michael’s seat. “Think of the movie The Crow,” he pointed out. “We could rob some stores, burn down the town, murder a young couple…”

I pinched my eyebrows together, not finding that funny.

Damon spoke up from the back. “She’s a fucking lightweight. I didn’t come all the way back to town this weekend to egg cars.”

Will hooded his eyes, smirking at me. “That’s so 2010. I’m sure she can come up with something better than that.”

“I’m sure it won’t be hard,” I teased. “You haven’t exactly set a high standard.” And then I peered around at them, amusement pulling at my lips. “Is this all the Horsemen do on Devil’s Night? Because I must say, you don’t do the stories justice.”

“Ohhhh, she did not say that!” Will howled, smiling.

Michael’s sexy grin rose to the challenge. “Well, well, well, it seems Erika Fane is unimpressed, Gentlemen.

Damon remained quiet, but I saw a flicker from the back as he lit a cigarette, and Kai smiled, focusing on the road but listening.

“You didn’t like the fire?” Michael nudged, mischief in his eyes.

“It was cool.” I shrugged. “But anyone could’ve done it. What was the point?”

I remained nonchalant, enjoying taking part in a conversation even if it was just teasing. Of course, I wasn’t try to insult him.

Michael’s eyes thinned, regarding me. “What was the point?” he asked, but I could tell he was just thinking out loud.

“Hey?” Michael called out. “She wants to know what the point was.”

I heard laughter and turned to Kai, who had his arm steel-rod straight on the wheel as we sped down the road.

He glanced at me, waggling his eyebrows, but then he jerked the wheel to the right, and I yelped as all of us jostled in our seats. I shot out my hands, holding the support bar with both of them as we swayed side to side, the car derailing onto a small, narrow gravel road.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t know what to say. What the hell was he doing?

Before I knew it, he’d stopped the car, killed the engine, and turned off the headlights. The inside of the car fell completely silent.

“What the hell?” I burst out. “What are you doing?”

“What are we doing?” Michael corrected.

Kai turned his head to me, pressing his finger to his lips.

I was afraid to breathe.

We sat there for several seconds, and I was so confused, but I didn’t want to annoy them with more questions. What were we doing here, in the dark, hidden on a gravel road? And I still didn’t understand why I was on Michael’s lap.

And then my ears perked up, hearing it.

Sirens.

Everyone in the car turned their heads to look out the back window, and within seconds, flashes of red, blue, and white flew past on the bit of highway we could still see. Two fire trucks and five police cruisers.

Will started laughing, his deep, boisterous bellow like it was Christmas morning.

The vehicles passed by, continuing down the highway, and the forest turned dark and quiet again.

I turned my eyes on Kai. “You called them? That’s what you were doing on the phone.”

He grinned, nodding. “Of course they think there’s about five fires going on up there instead of just one.”

Five? Why would he have lied when he called it in?

Michael must’ve seen the puzzled look on my face. “We needed as many police out there as possible.”

“Why?”

But he just rolled his eyes at me, turning to Kai. “Show her.”

Kai started the engine, and I grasped the support bar again as he backed out of the narrow inlet at top speed. I bounced around in Michael’s lap until he wrapped his arm around my waist again, holding me still.

Kai shot the car into first gear and laid on the gas, speeding down the dark road as Nonpoint’s Bullet With a Name filled the car.

He punched into third, fourth, and then fifth gear, and within seconds, I spotted four massive headlights ahead. I inched closer to the windshield, seeing that they were trucks.

Two of them. Dump trunks.

Will’s excited noises sounded from the back, while Michael and Kai both put down their windows. I cast a nervous glance at Michael, and I couldn’t explain what I saw in his eyes. Heat. Thrill. Anticipation.

His gaze fell to my lips, and his grip tightened on my waist.