Chapter 3
THREE
PHOEBE
Before my mother left us—my father, me, and the entire gang who called her family—she had braided my hair with trembling fingers and told me stories of how she and my father met.
She had said that she was a good girl and never expected to marry someone who was so much darker than her.
In her exact words, with a smoky laugh as her fingers combed through my wet strands, she told me, “You know, my parents always wanted me to marry someone in a suit and I ended up with leather. But I wouldn’t take it back for a second. Look what it gave me, bug.”
When I had asked her why she was telling me this, she said, “Because I’m not going to be here for much longer, baby girl. You know that. But I want you to know that no matter who you fall in love with, I’m sure I’d like ‘em. Just make sure to give them hell for me, yeah?”
I had crawled into her bed, just fourteen-years-old, and cried into her hair.
I didn’t want my momma to go.
But life never listened to words like that.
She died just a under a year later.
The most admirable thing I found about my mother was that she refused to rot away in a hospital bed, even as her cancer was diagnosed at stage four.
The doctors said it wasn’t really worth the fight.
It had progressed so much, the form of cancer so aggressive, that there was nothing that they could do.
Or rather, the trauma of the treatment would be too aggressive.
My momma didn’t want to spend the rest of her days suffering when the result wasn’t even guaranteed.
Why treat a sick woman when, even if it all worked, she wouldn’t live but a few months longer, anyway?
I couldn’t blame her for it at all.
So, she sat on the porch with my dad and her family every night, until the nights ran out.
And every day since then, I made sure to live up to her promise.
Give them hell for me.
Aureo watched me from his position on the infamous leather couch in the darkest corner of the cavern, the spot where nearly all light, even time, seemed to cease from the seclusion.
If it weren’t for the three spotlights surrounding the couch—spotlights we only installed just recently—then it would be nearly impossible to see him.
He was a man of the dark. And he was watching me.
Hypocritical as fuck, considering he was once again wearing a mask. He would always watch the world around him, but yet, would never let anyone watch him back.
I fucking hated when men watched me like I was something to eat. It enraged me.
And yet, heat blossomed throughout my abdomen and chest from knowing that I captured Aureo’s attention. Like I was the only woman on the dance floor.
That enraged me, too. There was no reason I should feel this way towards him.
I hadn’t spoken to him in years, besides the occasional eye-glance or awkward mutter when we ended up at the same bar.
I could have sworn that he hated my very existence.
But fuck, the feeling of being watched by him made me freeze like a deer in headlights, experience the crash and burn, only to revive itself after being hit by a bolt of lightning.
And that scared me—terrified me—because that deer would have to be an act of God or evil to survive something so intense, and I didn’t know if I was capable of that.
I didn’t know if anyone was capable of that.
It had to be the alcohol through my bloodstream.
“Just go.” Echo laughed in my ear. I hadn’t even realized that I stopped dancing, or even that she had stopped dancing, too.
People were starting to give us agitated looks for just standing stock-still and taking up space on the concrete floor for no good reason.
Someone was bound to throw their drink at my head if I stayed there.
I just kept staring at the man who both frustrated and captivated me more than any other.
I looked at her. “What?”
“Oh, don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter. A fine piece of eye candy is looking at you like he’s in love with you. Plus, I know that look in your eye. Go hop on that!”
“The look of loathing and confusion in my eyes? Really? That’s what is making you say, ‘go hop on that’?”
She hummed quizzically, a small smile playing on her full mouth. Her dark complexion nearly glowed and her hair was the definition of a kinky, sex-head mess. “You’re cute when you lie and deflect, ya know. If only I was feeling fruity tonight.” Her hand hit my ass in a smack. “Go!”
“God, you’re fuckin’ crazy sometimes,” I responded, shrugging her hand off my ass.
I didn’t know what she was getting at, given we had never experimented together in the slightest, but her comments and philosophical comments regarding my face were not my form of a fun evening.
Regardless of us being raised together, going as far to even taking baths together as children, she confused the fuck out of me.
Especially when a man who really was eye candy was watching me.
I had enough thoughts in my brain without his presence.
Echo sighed dramatically before shooing me with her hands. “Go!”
“C’mon,” I grumbled. I probably could have stomped my foot like a child. “There is no reason for me to talk to him. Aren’t we supposed to have a girls’ night?”
She laughed. “Yeah, babe, because a girls’ night was gonna happen, anyway. Threesome? You don’t even like girls, silly.” She shoved at my shoulder, tipping back her chin and giving me a look that could rattle any stubborn stars. She was a scary drunk.
Grumbling under my breath, I swung my head back in the direction of Aureo, only to find his gaze still trained on me. Irritation ticked at the back of my skull again and I swore I could feel the pressure in my neck. I was going to wake up with a kink.
Why couldn’t I just be gay? Men sucked.
I grunted, swallowing my pride, and began stomping to the other side of the cavern.
Now I really did look like a child.
I was supposed to have a one-night stand for my birthday. Not an argument.
In mere moments, I was standing in front of Aureo. I looked to his right, nodding my head at Eros—one of the weekend warriors I knew to be an absolute teddy bear—and prayed to all the heavens that he would take the hint.
Thank God, he did.
“I’ll take that as my cue,” he said, chuckling. He turned his head back to mine and it took all my power to not scowl back at him as he winked. Before he passed me, he leaned down slightly, his whiskey breath hitting my ear. “Get ‘em, princess.”
He walked away and my eyes trailed after him in exasperation.
Why did everyone in this damn place want me to ride Aureo like a mechanical bull?
I turned my head back to Aureo, ready to blow a short-fuse, but stopped when I saw the look on his face.
He was still watching me, although I couldn’t see anything below the mask that covered the second half of his face.
It was unnerving. The brown in his eyes nearly danced at me, humor and something akin to warmth watching my every movement.
It made my stomach lurch.
He stayed quiet, making me speak first. “Can I help you with something?”
He snorted, but that was it.
You have got to be kidding me.
“That’s it? You’re just going to stalk me, eye-fuck me, and then turn into a broody alpha-male who grunts like a caveman?”
Nothing. Absolutely nothing, except for the slightest twitch in his brow.
“You could at least tell me what you want. It would be the gentleman thing to do,” I said as my hands went up to my hips nervously.
My shirt had ridden up to the point that my belly-button piercing was showing, skin slick with sweat, but I couldn’t find it in me to truly care.
I was confident with my body, and if he was staring at me anyway, then what did it matter to be modest?
My jaw, however, went slack as he leaned forward, picked up a beer on the floor right next to his leather boots, nearly covered by his black jeans, lifted his mask just enough for me to see the square cut line of his jaw and pairing stubble, and took a deep swallow. All while keeping eye contact with me.
What a dick.
“Right. Because I expected a merc like you to know human dialect, anyway.”
If a human akin to the devil could have turned into a statue, he would have, right before my eyes. Yet, he still said nothing. Now, it was just a staring contest with an evil incarnation. My body nearly vibrated from the brewing anxiety and loud, thumping music surrounding us.
You are an independent woman. You don’t deserve this, I screamed inside my head.
I scoffed. Echo must have been delusional by thinking that Aureo had any interest in me. But, I couldn’t blame her, even if I could have gotten better responses from a brick wall than him.
“Why did I bother coming over here?” I muttered as I began to turn away from him.
I was right. I was an independent woman.
I wasn’t a child anymore. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit of dejection as I turned away from him.
I wasn’t the type of girl who needed a man’s approval, and I certainly wasn’t the girl who needed sex daily, but it still stung in some weird way.
I barely made it a single step before I felt a tight, heated pressure on my wrist. By instinct, I scowled, looking down and making eye contact with a hand that may have well resembled a bear’s paw.
He had me captured in his grip, and right when I went to tug against him—now too pissed to give a damn about what he wanted—I felt the lightest brush of the plastic covering his face against my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine.
Considering I hadn’t known he was behind me, it’s a miracle that I didn’t jump out of my skin.
“What the fuck did you just say to me?” he rasped.