Landon:We need to work on your conversational skills, baby cousin. Here you go. Don’t murder my brother. Remi’s life, however, is all yours.
It takes me fifteen minutes I don’t have to arrive at the club. I step out of my car and head inside with rigid steps.
The loud music, shouts, and the fucking noise are similar to having a machine prowl inside my head.
I push through the wiggling, twisting bodies as they jump and sway and drink and snort drugs.
After some time of shoving people out of my way, I arrive at the top level of the club. I grab the railing and cast a glance at everyone jumping around downstairs.
The colorful lights dim my vision, making them look like a copy of a copy.
In the midst of the chaos, my eyes are drawn to a girl in a light purple dress. Her rich brown hair falls to her half-naked back.
Annika, Ava, and Remi jump together to the music and point at a corner of the room across from them. It’s where Brandon and Cecily sit together, watching them with smiles and a lot of shaking their heads.
The emotions from earlier heighten in intensity as I practically jog down the stairs and to where they are.
When I arrive, it takes all my restraint not to punch Remi in his aristocratic nose and potentially start a dramatic saga.
But I do barge into their circle and shove him away with my shoulder.
He stumbles sideways and barely escapes having his face smashed on the ground.
Ava is the one who notices me next, pauses her manic jumping, and nudges Annika.
The infuriating little minx is the only one who keeps swaying and wiggling her hips.
I grab her by the nape and pull her toward me in one swift go. Her back crashes against my chest with a thud and the scent of violets fills my nostrils.
A shudder slashes through her body and seeps into my system. No clue how I manage not to tighten my fingers around her neck and give her a red necklace.
Annika must feel the darkness radiating off me. Her pupils dilate and her fuckable lips part in clear invitation.
She goes still in my hold, and I’m addicted to the way her inner submissive knows when to lay low and not provoke me further.
It’s probably her survival instinct, too, because she knows this won’t end well for her.
I catch a glimpse of both Cecily and Brandon joining us, drinks in hand.
“Spawn!” Remi shouts over the music. “You made it! Wait, you willingly came here without me having to hound the fuck out of you? Who are you and what have you done with my favorite spawn?”
“OMG!” Ava holds her hands together, completely ignoring Remi’s speech. “You’re here because of Anni! This is too surreal to wrap my mind around. I can’t believe the traitor was totally keeping us in the dark about your relationship. I’m so wounded.”
“Yeah,” Cecily supplies. “She’s been ignoring us and changing the subject so we wouldn’t bug her for answers.”
“Right? I mean, what’s there to hide? They already went on a date! He even called her his in front of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Right, Bran?”
“Yeah,” he agrees. “I was there at the fight club and personally heard it.”
“Hold on. What in the actual fuck?” Remi gets in my face. “Adate? You went on a date and didn’t tell me? And what’s with the ownership declaration when I wasn’t there? How am I your mentor if you don’t come to me in times like these? And I’m the last one to know? You bitches have conspired to kill me young, haven’t you?”
“We haven’t gone on a date,” I say.
Annika flinches in my hold, but she forces one of her loathsome fake smiles. “Yeah, it’s not what you guys think. No date.”
“Not one date.Dates.”
Everyone stares at me, dumbfounded, Annika included. The whole scene draws attention to us, considering we’re the only unmoving ones in the midst of the unfolding chaos.