14
Laine
Visitor In The Dark
“Come on, Lainie. It’ll be fun, I promise.” Graham crushes my hand in his and drags me across the street toward a club with bodies spilling out the door.
“I wanna go home.” I attempt to pull my hand free. I’m mad at him, because it’s my best friend’s birthday dinner, but am I there? No. I’m here, because Graham demands we do what he wants to do. I’m surrounded by brothers that like to keep us locked in towers, and yet, Graham’s guilt game is strong. “I don’t feel like going out tonight. I wanna go home and call Britt.”
“You’re not calling her!” He spins in the middle of the street. “I said no. And you wanna know why? Because those friends are no good for you. They’re trouble. You didn’t see the shit on TV with that girl? You didn’t see her man fucking around on her?”
“He wasn’t fucki–”
“He made her look like a fool! Why would you want to associate with that trash?”
“I don’t–”
“I said no.” With eyes I had no clue could look so cold, he squeezes my hand to control my movements. “Why do you purposely disobey me? I’m only trying to create a good life for you. We work hard, we live privately.”
“You don’t understand!”
“No, Lainie, you don’t understand. I know this is bumfuck in the back of nowhere. I know friendships are tight and activities are simple, but you didn’t choose these friends because they’re good. You simply had no other choices.”
“That’s not true!”
He tugs me forward. “Now you have choices. You love me, Lainie. You said you love me. Why don’t you trust me on this? If you don’t trust me, then what kind of relationship do we really have?”
“Gray! Welcome back.”
“Hey.” The men step toward each other – the three-hundred-pound bouncer, and the one-seventy-five real estate agent – and clap shoulders.
“Watching, or showing?”
“Showing.” Graham’s smile practically glows. “It’s time. She’s up tonight.”
“Oh, girl.” The man watches me with a twinkle in his eyes. “‘Bout damn time. What’s the buy in?”
“One each.”
“One hundy?”
“Get the fuck outta here. A grand.”
“Fuck me, you got royalty there? Pure? Diamond encrusted? What the fuck you got that’s worth a whole grand?”
Graham pulls me past the leering man and through a dark door. “I guess you’ll find out when you show up with the cash.”
I push up in bed with tears in my eyes and an aching body. Struggling to catch my breath, I shove my blankets aside and trip toward the bedroom door.
I crack it open just enough to glimpse into the dark hall, and my pulse thrums at all the boogeyman potential. No time to stop, I stumble across the hall and push into the shared bathroom. Flipping the lights on and rushing to the sink, I crush my eyes closed and turn on the taps. The bright lights still hurt my eyes, but I can’t stand in the dark.
I can’t do that.
I cup my hands under the icy cold water and splash it over my face. The frigid shock is a welcome distraction, it gives me something else to focus on, something other than the ache that throbs between my legs.
Tears burn my eyes, and like a trail of shame, they slide over my cheeks, boiling hot against the water’s cold.
“It’s done.” I drag in long, deep breaths. “It’s done. I’m not at the apartment. I’m not at Graham’s. I’m not at that club.”