Page 4 of When Darkness Calls

Another from the group stepped forward.

“Yeah. You looked like you were quite enjoying that cupcake, too.” A salacious grin quirked at his lips. A dazed look across his eyes.

A laugh came from behind them as another strolled forward.

“It’s nice seeing a girl who likes to eat, right, Tyler?”

The first guy, Tyler, shrugged his shoulders. “They always got a little meat on their bones. Don’t they, Aaron?”

Guy Two tilted his head, his grin deepening into something almost sinister.

“Real good to grab on to. Like having me a handful. You like having a little cushion, don’t you, Andrew?”

The third guy stepped forward again, another guy at his side whose hand shoots out to wrap around a few curled strands of my hair. My heart beat in my chest. I didn’t know if I was scared, angry, embarrassed, ashamed.

“Yeah, I do,” Andrew snickers, “Fat bitches always have the tightest pussies.”

All of them started laughing hysterically, moving to circle me on all sides. Rage burned through my body. I was completely humiliated.

“Hey, sweetheart. You think you could deepthroat cocks the way you were doing that cupcake,” the one named Tyler laughed in my face, reaching to grab the lower side of my hip. I spun on my heel, arm swinging, as my hand connected with the expanse of his cheek. It began to sting immediately, but the only reaction he gave was with the slight turn of his head, and instant narrowing of his eyes.

I ran.

“That’s how I ended up outside, where I got drenched. I don’t know. Part of me feels it might have been deliberate, or that guy was genuinely just stupid trying to carry six drinks and it was an accident. I texted Cade when I went outside, and now you’re here.” I turned to look at him with a deep breath.

Grayson was seething. He looked murderous. I was afraid his teeth were cracking under the pressure of his clenched jaw.

“Stay here,” he hisses, voice roughened in his rage.

“Wh—” But my surprise was cut off by the driver door slamming shut, hard enough to rock the truck. I stared after him in shock. His tall frame, clothed in his usual black jeans and hoodie, blends seamlessly into the sparse shadows around the street.

“Grays!” I yell his name from inside the truck. He continues at a slow pace up to the house, and around the back where I know there is a door that leads to the kitchen. The very one I ran out of when those guys had crowded and harassed me.

“Motherfucker. Goddamn it,” I mutter my frustrations, quickly turning off the truck and grabbing the keys to run after him. I’m so lucky these boots have thick heels.

“Grayson!” My shouts get the attention of a couple of people loitering on the front porch, and they watch with interest as I stumble my way around the house following Grayson’s path.

He stands in the backyard looking through the window into the kitchen. The expression on his face illuminated by the flashing lights inside is somehow both icy cold and burning with anger.

“I told you to stay in the truck.”

“I never agreed to that.” I cross my arms hoping to push away the biting chill on my exposed skin.

“Go back to the truck.” He doesn’t look at me. It’s almost scary how still he is, watching everyone inside as they dance and laugh. I stand beside him, looking too, but I can’t see very much, even with the added height from my heels.

I huff. “Why? Why do I have to?”

He turns to me. Any cold I felt melts under his piercing gaze.

“So, I can kill those fucking pricks.”

“You’re overreacting. You’re not doing anything, except taking me home.” I grabbed his hand tugging him with me, ignoring the heat searing into me and the stutter of my breath in my lungs.

“No,” he commands, pulling me back to his side. “I’m staying right here. But if you won’t leave, then you’re going to show me whose throats I’m ripping out, Dani.”

I groan, jerking my hand away from his. “You’re insane.”

“I’m insane?” He laughs bitterly, muttering under his breath. “You don’t know the half of it. But no, Dee, I’m not fucking insane. They touched you.”