Vincent grumbled, getting out of bed. “Well, hurry the fuck up and get dressed. I’m not having my sister cock-block me. If I want to fuck you, I’m going to fuck you.”
The fact that his asshole statement turned her on proved she was in too deep with him.
I’m so fucked.
* * *
“Where’s Adalyn?” Lake asked Vincent’s mother and Adalyn’s father who were sitting in the living room, watching TV.
Carla smiled. “She’s upstairs in her room. It’s good to see you, sweetheart.”
She smiled back, feeling anxious about facing her best friend for the first time in what seemed like forever.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Vincent asked, taking her hand in comfort.
She shook her head, looking at the ground. “No, I should do it alone.”
Heading up the stairs, she heard Carla’s worried tone ask what was wrong.
Vincent plopped down on the couch, putting his feet on the table. “Nothing’s wrong. Lake’s just going to tell her that she’s my girlfriend, and she lives with me.”
She froze when she heard the gasps. Dammit, Vincent! He had no shame.
Making herself go to Adalyn’s door since turning back to face Vincent’s mother was just as scary, she forced herself to knock then go inside.
Adalyn practically screamed then jumped up from her bed, giving Lake a death grip of a hug. “Where the hell have you been!” She slapped at her arm before giving her another hug.
Lake hugged her back one last time, sure their friendship would be over. “Um, I need to tell you something.”
“Yeah, you do! You need to tell me why you disappeared for over a month without returning any of my calls and texts.” Adalyn slapped her arm again.
“Let’s sit down.” She sat on her bed and Adalyn plopped down beside her, giving her a curious yet still mad look.
Lake bit her lip, not knowing where to start. The beginning. She needs to hear all of it.
“The day after Nero’s graduation party, I found out my father owed Dante a lot of money, and he was going to hurt him. So, I did the only thing I knew to do and offered to pay him back. I gave him all of my college fund money, but that wasn’t enough, so we worked out a deal that I would work for him.”
She took a breath, her vision starting to become blurry. “The job wasn’t exactly legal, and I wasn’t proud of what I was doing. I was so embarrassed, and that’s why I couldn’t tell you.” She wiped at a tear that strolled down her face.
“Then Vincent found out, and he helped me for a month to get out of debt with Dante. We became”—she didn’t know how to tell her the next words—“close. I didn’t mean or even want for it to happen, but it did, and that’s why I kept away from you. I couldn’t face you. You are my best friend, Adalyn, and I feel like I betrayed you. I’m so sorry.”
“Sooo”—Adalyn raised her eyebrow— “does this mean you’re not going off to college now?”
“Adalyn, did you even hear me? Me and Vincent are together.” She wanted to shake some sense in her. Punch me in the face or something!
Adalyn shrugged. “Well, I knew it was going to happen eventually.”
Huh? “You knew?”
“Yes, I’m not stupid. I figured something happened that night we went to Poison, and you refused to tell me.” Adalyn raised her hand. “By the way, you can keep that to yourself now. I don’t need to know what happened.”
Lake blushed a little before she took her in for a hug. “You’re the bestest friend I could ask for, and I don’t deserve you.”
“Oh, hush.” Adalyn hugged her back. “You didn’t answer me. Are you still leaving for college?”
She fell back on her bed, sighing. “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
Vincent’s deal with her was that if she came back, he would let her leave and go to any college she wanted, no matter how far. The fact that he had said that to her showed her how selfless he was, and it made her heart ache in a way which scared her shitless.
Adalyn fell back on the bed beside her. Lake knew what she was thinking about—the two had been friends for so long it wasn’t hard at this point to tell.
“Do you love him?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
Adalyn looked away from the ceiling to face her. “I guess it would be hard to. He is a dick.”
Lake busted out laughing, and then Adalyn quickly followed. The two were both cracking up to the point they laughed so hard and for so long they forgot what had made them start the first place.
Adalyn was the peanut butter to her jelly, the chip to her dip, the pop to her tart. It feels good to see my best friend again.
The two talked about everything they had missed from each other’s lives for what seemed like hours, and Lake wasn’t ready for it to end anytime soon. Vincent and Nero had to work again that night in the casino to make up for missing the night before. If she wasn’t going to be able to distract herself from that fact by having fun out, she was going to bring the fun to her.
Lake smiled at her, her wheels turning for what to do tonight.
“You are not going to believe who lives beside Vincent.”
“Who?” Adalyn asked.
“Elle. Do you want to come over and hang out with me and her while Nero and Vincent go to work?”
Nero isn’t going to like me very much.
Adalyn was already excited. “Oh, my gosh, yes! We should invite Maria and Chloe, too.”
“You’re a genius, Adalyn.” Lake laughed mischievously, going through her contact list and pressing ‘call’ over Elle’s name.
Nero is going to hate my fucking guts.
Chapter Fifty-Two
The Difference Between Life and Death
“How in the fuck did this happen?” Nero looked at Elle when Vincent came in with Lake and Adalyn.
“Holy shit, this is insane!” Adalyn ran through the place, going straight up to the wall of glass windows and putting her hands and face on the glass to look down at the city.
Lake smiled at Nero. “Don’t worry. Chloe and Maria are coming, too.”
Elle gave Nero a kiss on the cheek before he started to throw real daggers at Lake instead of with his eyes. “I’ll make it up to you later.”
“Yes, you fucking will.” Nero looked at her, the way of how she was going to make it up to him clear in his green eyes.
Lake heard something on the other side of the door and watched Vincent go and open it. Amo and Chloe were on the other side of the door, laughing.
“See you later.” Amo grinned down at her, letting it be known that he was going to be the one to take her back home, as well.
Chloe looked back up at him and smiled. “That sounds good.”
Lake had never seen Amo smile, like really smile, before that moment. In the short time since she had met Chloe, she honestly didn’t believe she had seen one from her like that, either. Go Team Amo!
Chloe came into the room, shyly saying hi to everyone before she ran off with Elle to go find wherever the hell Adalyn had gone.
Lake went to go with them, but her hand was caught by Vincent and she was pulled into a very hot and too-quick kiss.
He slapped her ass lightly when he pulled his mouth off hers. “Be good.”
“Yeah, and don’t give Elle any more fucking ideas,” Nero warned her.
Lake ran halfway up the stairs, out of harm’s way before she answered both of them, “No promises!” She giggled up the rest of the stairs to find Adalyn sitting in the bottom of the huge, empty bathtub.
Adalyn looked like she was about to cry. “I am never going to be able to take a bath the same way again.”
* * *
Vincent watched Lake giggle off upstairs, making him smile.
Nero pointed his finger at him. “That’s the fucking problem right there. You think it’s cute when she does shit like that, and it eggs her on.”
As much as he didn’t like admitting it, “It is pretty cu
te.” That was one of the many things which had drawn him to her, especially when she wasn’t doing things that could get her potentially killed. Then again, Nero was on the verge of killing her but he couldn’t, so that was just icing on the cake for him.
“It is,” Amo agreed, siding with Vincent.
Nero rolled his eyes. “Let’s go before I decide to be an asshole and stay to make sure Lake doesn’t get them in trouble.”
“I could stay,” Amo was quick to offer his services.
“Fuck no, you’re not.” Vincent pushed his biggest friend out the front door.
Nero shut the door behind him. “No fucking way. We’d come back to find you fucking all of them.”
Amo kept his mouth shut, not confirming or denying Nero’s statement.
And that right there is why Amo will never fucking be allowed to be alone with Lake.
* * *
They were all having a great time sitting on the floor upstairs, eating pizza and watching TV on the huge screen Elle had made Nero put in the bedroom so she could watch all her favorite movies in bed. Well, all of them minus Maria; she had gotten a stomach bug.
Lake swallowed the huge bite of pizza in her mouth. “So, Chloe, do you like Amo?”
Chloe looked at her, her face turning red. “N-no, he’s just my friend.”
“Vincent was just my friend at first, too.”
“It’s not like that.” She looked at the ground, her face still red.
Lake took another huge bite of her pizza. “Well, what about Lucca? Do you like him?”
Chloe looked back up at her, and her eyes grew big. “No way. He s-scares me.”
Lake looked at her in pity. The poor girl didn’t know what was coming her way, but she had to at least give her a warning.
“Vincent scares me, too.”
A loud gulp escaped Chloe’s throat before she took a nervous bite of her pizza.
Pop.
Lake looked around to see if anyone had heard a noise, but no one seemed to have noticed.
“Shh…” she said quietly, going for the remote to turn down the TV a few notches.
They all went dead silent.
Pop. Pop.
The noise was a quiet gunshot followed by the front door squeaking open.
Faces of horror stared back at her, their heartbeats pounding as one.
Her instincts kicked in, knowing she had to do something other than sit there and die.
“Bathroom,” she mouthed more than whispered, giving them the motion to crawl.
A shocked Chloe wouldn’t budge so Elle crawled over to her, pulling on her shirt to move. Finally, she inched forward, and Lake crawled behind them.
As she passed the bed, she quickly reached up and grabbed Elle’s cell phone off the mattress.
Adalyn was the first to reach the bathroom. Opening the door slowly to avoid any sounds, she crawled in with Chloe going in behind her, Elle following, and finally, Lake came in last.
As she crawled in, her mind quickly ran through scenarios. All but two of them ended in too much spilled blood. She shut the door behind her, looking around to see if anything could be placed in front of the door. Nothing. Only one scenario remained.
She handed Elle her phone then whispered to them all, “Call Nero. Then get in the tub and keep your heads down.”
Elle hurriedly pressed the buttons, putting it to her ear while simultaneously trying to get a paralyzed Chloe in the bathtub.
Lake turned back toward the door, the small window of time closing.
“Where are you going?” Adalyn whispered harshly as she crawled into the end of the tub.
She put her hand on the doorknob.
“Nero, someone’s h-here. I think they have a gun,” Elle whispered into the phone, trying not to cry.
“Lake!” Adalyn tried to crawl out but Elle was halfway on top of her, trying to give Chloe the most room.
Turning the knob, she opened the door and locked it for when she closed it. She crawled out of the door, turning back to see tears run down Adalyn’s face as well as Elle’s while she tried to hold Adalyn still. It finally hit her in that moment why she could relate to Elle.
Elle had been tortured like her. Too familiar with frightening scenarios like this, her instinct was to protect Chloe and now Adalyn. She couldn’t see it before, because Elle’s happiness with Nero had soothed her scars from the past.
Closing the door an inch, Chloe was all she could see. She sat in the tub, holding her knees to her chest, nothing but a motionless, blank stare on her marred face. Lake knew the torture she and Elle had experienced could never be compared to the pain and torment Chloe had been forced to suffer. There was nothing in this world that could soothe her scars.
Making the ultimate sacrifice, she brought the door to a close, unwilling to let anyone hurt Chloe again.
* * *
Nero pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Here we fucking go. Lake already…”
Vincent watched a flash of terror cross over Nero’s eyes. Knowing something had gone terribly wrong in his gut, he ran toward the elevator, pushing everyone out of his path.
Seeing two men load onto the elevator, he pushed his legs harder to stop the doors from closing.
“Get the fuck off!” he growled at the two men, already moving to punch in the code to send them to the top.
Nero and Amo were right behind him, throwing the stunned men off the elevator and letting them fall to the ground.
The doors slid to a close as their heavy breathing filled the air.
God, don’t you fucking dare take her away from me.
* * *
Looking around the bedroom, relief flooded her that the gunman hadn’t made it up the steps to see her come out, and that it was too late for Adalyn to leave, the risk of getting Elle and Chloe hurt too great. The bathroom door could easily be broken into with one pop of the gun, but she had a chance of them being saved. If she could distract the gunman until help came, she might save their lives.
It just came with a price.
Think, think, think!
Sneaking across the floor, she went straight to Nero and Elle’s huge walk-in closet, grabbing a lamp that sat on top of a chest along the way. She then wedged herself behind the closet door, leaving it open.
The creaking of the stairs sounded in her ears. Lake gripped the lamp, turning her knuckles and fingertips a ghostly white as she stared at the open door in front of her.
The creaking ceased.
Be strong.
Faint footsteps padded on the bedroom floor.
She took a calming breath, and then her foot slammed the closet door closed.
Then, heavy footsteps padded right outside the door.
You are strong.
The door swung open.
Lake found peace with whatever fate she was going to meet. Sacrificing herself for her best friend, a protector who deserved protecting, and a broken girl who shouldn’t have a hand laid on her was a good way to go out.
She flung the door right back, swinging the lamp with all her force at the dark figure which had entered the room.
Pop. Pop.
* * *
The elevator moved, rising to the top. They were locked in until it came to a stop.
“What the fuck happened?” Vincent growled at Nero.
Nero squeezed the phone as he punched in numbers. “She said someone fucking broke in with a gun before she hung up.”
Vincent stared at the crack between the doors, envisioning them opening.
“Lucca, where are you?” Nero asked with hope in his voice. His voice then filled the tiny space again with that hope gone. “The girls. Someone broke in. We’re in the elevator…” He pulled the phone away from his face.
Vincent squeezed his jaw shut to the point he felt pain.
Amo clenched his hands, wanting to know what Vincent would rather not hear. “Where is he?”
“First floor.” Nero crushed the phone in his hands.
; Lucca had been their last shot. There was no point calling anyone else at that point. Dante or anyone who could be in his office or in the security room would arrive at the same time they would.
He stepped up to the door, his face an inch away, every second feeling like an eternity.
Open!
Open!
Open!
Open!
Fuck!
The elevator stopped.
The crack started to open just like he had envisioned. Vincent twisted his body, getting off at the fastest possible second. A second could mean the difference between life and death.
Everything slowly started to blur together as he ran down the hallway, seeing a lifeless body of a fellow made man on the ground. He ran through the broken door and up the stairs.
The moment his eyes landed on Lake, the rage overtook his body. Vincent’s mind lost all control and he accepted it, greeting his old friend again.
* * *
Lake had successfully beaten the intruder with the lamp enough so the gun had fallen onto the floor, but not without going off a couple of times.
Run! She took the opportunity to open the door while he looked at the gun sliding across the floor. If she could lure him out and possibly downstairs, then the lives in the bathroom would be saved.
She had only made it halfway out before she came crashing to the floor, a body falling down on top of hers.
Reaching for the lamp to beat him upside his head again, her body was quickly snatched and turned around. Facing the intruder with him looking down on her, she could tell he was made. That look in their eyes gave it away every time.
“Where the fuck is she?” the crazed made man asked.
Fuck you! She fought him tooth and nail, kicking, scratching, and even managing to bite him when his arm got too close.
“You little bitch!” he roared, closing his hands over her throat.
No amount of kicking and scratching could pry his hands off her. She started to feel the life drain out of her…
Slowly…
Slowly…
Chapter Fifty-Three
The Sound Of Bone Obliterating Into Thousands Of Bits
Everything was blurry from her life force almost being gone. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel something change. The pressure of the man on her stomach was gone, the tightness around her throat released, and the numbness on her body started to wear off.
Vincent (Made Men Book 2) Page 25