by Lily White
I flipped a page of the book as if I had the capability of reading what was on the paper.
Turning to look at him, I tilted my head.
“Thanks to your dickhead of a friend, I’m on my own when it comes to this tort project. Considering how much work needs to be put into it, I don’t think I’ll be available in the next few weeks for anything.”
Tsking, Gabriel shook his head. “You do know lying is an art form, correct?”
“You should know,” I scoffed. “You’re practically Michelangelo when it comes to that particular art.”
“More like Jackson Pollock. I just splash that shit around while laughing at how idiots drool over it. But that’s not the point.”
I rolled my eyes. “What is your point?”
“My point is you’ve already admitted you had no plans on staying here all night to finish your project. And unless you intend to hang around and do something useful, like finding the cure to cancer-“
My eyes narrowed on him for making light of what I’d said about my mom. He only grinned wider.
“-That means you can put these books aside for a few hours and come have some fun with me.”
“Except I don’t want to see Tanner,” I admitted.
“And he doesn’t want to see you. But, you can rest assured that unless you trip and land on his dick somehow, he’ll leave you alone while you’re under my invite and protection. I’m giving you my word that all will remain copacetic because you’re there as my guest looking to have a good time.”
Damn it. I wanted to argue with him, but Gabriel made it difficult to say no. He was gorgeous with straight white teeth and adorable dimples, a face of innocence that I knew was a mask hiding the demon beneath.
The truth was I needed to get out and not think about my mother or the project I wouldn’t find the focus to work on tonight. And if Everly would be there, I was sure I could relax a touch in Tanner’s presence.
Most likely, he’d be so busy with his gaggle of willing girls, he wouldn’t even notice me. But then again, Tanner had a tendency to see red every time I was nearby.
“Do you promise you’ll keep Tanner away from me?”
He lifted three fingers and answered, “Scout’s honor.”
Breathing out a heavy sigh, I caved and accepted the offer.
“Fine. But only if you make a deal with me.”
I highly doubted Tanner would be able to ignore me completely, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have something to hold over one of the Inferno boys in the future should I need it.
The corners of his lips twitched, his eyes meeting mine with interest.
“What’s the deal?”
“If Tanner so much as sneezes in my direction, you owe me a favor sometime in the future when I come calling.”
Brows lifting, his mouth pursed, but then pulled into a Cheshire grin.
“I would have thought better of you, Luca. Who knew a girl of such a high caliber could drop down and roll in the muck with the rest of us?”
“I learned from the best.”
Nodding his head, he stood to help me collect my books and stuff them in my bag.
“Consider it a deal. But just know there may be repercussions for playing our dirty, dirty games.”
Luca
In hindsight, I should have stuck to my guns and refused to let Gabriel drive me to the Inferno party.
From the moment I stepped inside the house, I was bathed in the stench of cigarette and pot smoke, the loud music pounding against my ears as Gabriel led me directly to a table set up as a bar complete with red Solo cups and bottles of every liquor imaginable.
While Gabriel went to work mixing a drink I most certainly wouldn’t consume, my asshole meter was on red alert, my eyes scanning the room in search of Tanner. I didn’t spot him among the crowd of stumbling guys and half dressed women.
As usual, the house was filled wall to wall, people grinding against each other with hooded eyes, the scent of sweat and a myriad of perfumes blending the cloud of smoke that hung like fog across the ceiling.
Just as Gabriel attempted to hand me the mixed drink from Hell, a squeal sounded to my right, a set of long arms wrapping around my shoulders a second later.
“You came. I didn’t think Clayton would actually convince you to show up, but here you are.”
Everly was already sloppy drunk and it was only a few minutes past seven. Her weight damn near took me to the ground, but I managed to wrap an arm around her waist and shove us both upright before we fell into a slush pile right next to the makeshift bar.
While she laughed and peppered light kisses all over my cheeks, I turned my head to see Jase hovering in the background, his lips pulling into a wide grin as he talked to Tanner.
As if he could feel me staring at him, Tanner’s dark eyes tracked my direction, our stares locking together like two pit bulls fighting to the death. I didn’t fail to notice the visceral reaction inside my chest, the uptick of my pulse as my breathing became more difficult.
How he could affect me so easily was beyond my understanding. I should hate the man for everything that had occurred between us already, yet my body tightened in his presence, heat blooming in my core that became liquid between my thighs.
This moment was the same as when I first met him at one of these ridiculous parties, a stare down developing between us that would normally leave me the loser for looking away first.
I almost gave ground. Almost turned my head to pay attention to anything beyond that icy stare and arrogant smirk, but then I remembered the deal I’d made with Gabriel and smiled instead.
First thing you learn about contract law is that an agreement is only as good as the specific terms written in ink, and the deal I’d made with Gabriel only addressed that Tanner couldn’t mess with me tonight ... but at no point had we agreed that I couldn’t be the one to instigate it.
Adding a wink to the eye war we were currently battling, I grinned when Tanner’s eyes narrowed, his mouth tugging into a thin line.
A favor from Gabriel was far more valuable to me than making it through the night without a confrontation with Satan.
I looked away finally, but only because if a girl is to take on her nemesis in his domain, she needed the help of liquid courage to make the experience worthwhile.
Thankfully, Gabriel had a drink at the ready, his brows flying up his forehead in surprise when I took it from his hand and swallowed it down a few healthy gulps...and coughed. Hard. I think a piece of my stomach might have come up with the effort. It was like drinking pure gasoline.
“Whoa, hold your roll there, Luca. My drinks are meant to be slowly consumed. Not slammed.”
Humor was evident in Gabriel’s voice, matched only by Everly’s sloppy giggles next to my ear. He took the drink from my hand just long enough for my lungs to draw in a steady breath again and my eyes to uncross.
Son of a bitch...
I took it back from him, sipping this time, a grimace twisting my mouth as I swallowed down whatever the hell it was he’d poured into the cup.
The truth was I shouldn’t have been drinking at all. I was a lightweight when it came to alcohol, my high school and early college years spent studying more than partying.
When I wasn’t studying, I was fretting over my mom, worrying about her as she fought her battle against a disease that ravages and consumes. That fear had kept me from enjoying life because nobody should lose their parents before they’d barely begun to fly on their own.
No...I couldn’t think of that. Not now.
My eyes burned from the tears stinging them. I told myself it was the fumes from the jet fuel as I was sucking down, or the smoke hovering as a cloud around my head. But deep down I knew it was a ball of emotion rising up, just waiting for me to be tipsy enough that it could escape and make itself known.
I kept drinking regardless.
“Let’s go upstairs,” Everly yelled against my ear, although I wondered if she thought she was whispering.
If not, then she had no qualms about destroying my eardrums with the sheer volume of her voice.
Twisting in place, I eyed Tanner. He was no longer staring in my direction, but I knew that didn’t mean he wasn’t acutely aware of my presence.
Every one of our encounters had ended in threats, and I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that things would go smoothly because Gabriel had extended an invite.
There was no doubt in my head that Tanner would come at me eventually.
There was also no doubt in my head that Gabriel owing me a favor would come in handy one day.
It was almost too perfect.
While I watched, Jase and Tanner turned to climb up the stairs, a dark gaze cast in my direction practically daring me to follow, a smirk promising to destroy me if I dared step so much as a toe inside his kingdom.
It was too bad for him my toe and I had plans that wouldn’t be thwarted.
Returning my attention to Everly, I flashed my best innocent smile.
“Sure, upstairs sounds fun.”
Slowly, I sipped from the mixed drink from Hell, my eyes catching Gabriel’s to find a brow arched above his eye with suspicion.
“So let me get this straight. You gave me a hard time about Tanner being a dick and your worries that he would come at you, and now you feel brave enough to go barging into the lion’s den?”
Shaking his head, he reached for the drink in my hand.
“Give that back. The alcohol is going straight to your head.”
Clutching the drink to my chest like my life depended on it, I grinned.
“It’ll be fine. He’ll leave me alone. You made a deal.”
Gabriel wasn’t a dumb guy. He could see right through what I was doing. Which was fine. The deal had already been made and addendums couldn’t be added on unless we both agreed to them.
“You’d really subject yourself to his bullshit just to have me indebted to you?”
Laughing, Gabriel grabbed an empty cup to mix up another drink. “I thought better of you, Luca.”
My smile widened. Two could play dirty, and I wasn’t against rolling in the muck, if it meant it gave me a leg up. I already knew how I would turn this in my favor. Tanner would attack. I would tell Gabriel to pay up by making Tanner play nice when it came to my project, and this entire situation would go away. My GPA would be saved, and I could go back to avoiding this group once everything was said and done.
Problem solved.
“It was your stupid mistake to take the deal. Just keep the drinks coming. I’ll be upstairs where you can deliver them to me.”
Taking a sip from his cup, he stared at me from over the rim.
“Just remember what I said about playing games, Luca. There are always repercussions.”
Game on, I thought, wondering what possible repercussions could come from this if I never made the mistake of entering into a deal with these guys.
It all came down to what I would agree to. I knew that much, and as long as I kept this about the project, then made myself scarce in order not to be cornered for any other reason, I should walk away just fine.
That was my hope, at least, but there was always room for error and surprises, which meant I needed some safeguards in place that I could use as buffers should the need arise.
I considered Everly as a potential buffer, however after looking her over and noticing her unfocused eyes, sloppy hair and clothes, and the fact that she was leaning over like the Tower of Pisa, I couldn’t trust she wouldn’t be lost following another drink, or to Jase when he winked in her direction.
My only other buffer would be Clayton. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I shot him a quick text confirming that he would be arriving at the party at some point.
Only a few seconds passed before my phone buzzed back, a response flashing up at me that he would be here within the hour.
It worked for me.
“I’ll be upstairs. Keep the drinks coming.”
Gabriel shook his head and laughed. “Your wish, my command. Or should I say your funeral?”
We exchanged an odd look as I wrapped my arm through Everly’s and followed her up to a room I knew well from the first night I allowed her to drag me here.
Just like the last time I’d stepped foot into the Inferno’s private party space, the room was filled with half dressed female admirers of the Inferno members seated about.
Taking a good look around, I noticed that, while women were mingling and dancing, drinking and carrying on, the only men in the room were those who lived in the house.
At that moment, only three were being entertained by their hopeful harem: Tanner, Jase and Doorman. I would need to learn his name, eventually, but it wasn’t an important task to accomplish at that precise moment.
Everly dragged me in deeper and asked me to dance, although her words sounded more like ‘danthwitmuhLuuuuca’ than an actual recognizable sentence.
Normally, I would have found a way to politely bow out, but I had a job to do, namely one involving cheating my way into being owed a favor.
It led me to turning and locking eyes with a familiar dark presence in the room, his gaze already focused on me despite the three - no four - women preening like giggling idiots around him.
Tanner scowled as soon as our eyes met. I couldn’t help my smile in return. Hiding the full beaming expression behind the Solo cup, I swallowed down more choke inducing swallows of what I now assumed was poison.
There was no doubt in my mind I would require a liver transplant and kidney dialysis after this night, especially after drinking the next one I knew Gabriel would be bringing me soon.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I would have to do to draw Tanner’s wrath, but I knew I would never earn the favor from Gabriel if I wasn’t within Tanner’s constant line of sight.
The effort had to be worth it, though, and for that reason, I finished the drink, wiped the burning tears from my eyes, and placed the empty cup on a side table before letting Everly drag me to the center of the room to dance.
I’d never been much of a dancer growing up. While other people had no problem moving their bodies in time to whatever beat was tossed at them, I was far too reserved to let myself go to the music. So while Everly immediately launched into a seductive, smooth gyration of her hips, a siren’s call to any man standing within a twenty foot radius, I didn’t have the same skill. At least, not while I was sober.
I was too aware of my body and worried that rather than appearing in touch with my feminine gifts, I resembled a woman suffering from a seizure, my movements jerky like sudden convulsions while I hopped around attempting to will my body into a perfectly fluid series of moves.
It wasn’t working, and it wouldn’t work until there was enough alcohol in my bloodstream for me to stop giving a damn.
Thankfully, Gabriel waltzed through the door at that moment armed with another full cup of liquid death. I didn’t look forward to drinking it, but I would, if for no other reason than to loosen up.
Leaving Everly among the other women dancing like professionals compared to what I could pull off, I sauntered over and took the cup from Gabriel’s hand.
“Thanks,” I yelled over the music while cringing at the alcohol fumes rolling off the cup.
“Do you put anything in here with the alcohol? Or is it straight liquor?”
I scowled down at the concoction as he pressed a finger to the cup to direct it closer to my mouth.
“I’ll never divulge my recipe.”
Parting my lips to take a sip, Gabriel laid his hand over the cup, his eyes glimmering when they met mine.
“You sure you want to drink this?”
“Why wouldn’t I be sure?”
Clayton would be here soon, and all I had to do was trigger Tanner one time so he would get in my face and kick me out. Then Clayton could drive me home and I’d rest easy knowing I could make Gabriel convince Tanner to help me with my project.
Rather than answering me, Gabriel just shook his h
ead and walked off.
Glancing at Tanner, I somehow knew his eyes would be on me. I lifted my plastic cup in his direction and grinned before bringing it to my lips to swallow the liquor down.
One hour more of this tops. What could go wrong?
Luca
Three drinks in and I was feeling good for the first time in the past month. My body was loose, my cheeks hurt from smiling, and my clothes were sticking to me from the sweat I’d worked up dancing.
I was surrounded by partially dressed women, and although I’d looked at them with sympathy for their lack of modesty while I’d been sober, I now felt a little jealous that they weren’t weighed down by sweat-laden cotton, their skin free to breathe as they twisted and turned, laughed and gyrated around me.
Not much of a drinker, I’d worried that the alcohol would bring too much to the surface for me, my inhibitions lowering and my walls crashing down so suddenly that the problems I was facing would float to the top.
There was too much weight riding my shoulders with school alone, but to add my mom’s health into the mix, I knew I had a storm brewing inside me that I didn’t want people to discover.
But rather than the alcohol opening me up until I couldn’t ignore the problems I was facing, it had the opposite effect. My worries bled away as I danced and let go of all my worries.
No longer did I feel the pressure of being the perfect student.
My concern for my mom was hidden behind a haze of inebriation, keeping me from losing focus on the job at hand.
The only problem was that I had no clue how to accomplish that job. I needed Tanner to be angry, and had thought just being in his space would do the trick.
Unfortunately, I was wrong. So wrong, in fact, that I had run out of ideas as to how I would trigger the asshole to become the bully I knew he was.
Every so often, I’d glance Tanner’s direction to find him watching me closely, his dark eyes narrowing in warning when our eyes met.
Flashing him warm smiles that taunted, Come over here and do something about it, I continued my one-woman show of enjoying myself without repercussions in his space.
An hour had passed without my knowing it, my phone vibrating in my pocket once or twice before I finally walked away from the dancing bodies to pull it out and check the message.