Chapter 31 Mia
After I’d cleaned up in the bathroom and calmed down, because Ash had just given me the best orgasms of my life and my knees were still weak, I needed a moment.
I looked like I’d just had the best orgasm of my life, too, I thought wryly as I tried to fix myself up so I could walk into the kitchen and pretend I hadn’t just screamed his name out like the hussy they thought I was.
What a crazy, insane day. I always thought being friends with the Devils would be interesting, but this was something else. I had gone from being genuinely scared this morning to screaming in ecstasy a few hours later.
My encounter with Onyx was still swirling around in my mind, and I had so many questions that I wanted to ask. Mind-blowing orgasms aside, I needed answers, and these men were the ticket to finding out more about how much the older Santo shared with them.
With a loose braid, my face washed, and Ash’s shirt and my jeans on, I headed out to face the taunting I would no doubt receive. Ash was already downstairs, as I thought he would be. He was trying not to be too smug at getting me to swear, but he was a really bad actor.
In the kitchen, the three of them were talking to their teammates as Quinn and Ava prepared food, while some of the other team made their own.
I watched Quinn. It must have been so hard for her to see and hear Gray cry like that.
I hoped she was closer to some form of closure.
However, you wouldn’t know it as she reigned over the kitchen like a queen.
The players asked her questions constantly, and she would be in amongst their food prep, or she was at the stove, checking temperatures.
And if Quinn was busy, they asked Ava, who being Ava, jumped right in to assist.
They may be a house of big, aggressive football stars, but anyone watching it was clear these boys needed a woman to guide them.
Tilting my head, I thought about it. No, not a woman, just a person with confidence. Quinn knew what she was doing, and it was obvious she had the certainty in her skill set to make sure the guys also knew what they were doing.
Deciding that hanging back had never been my style, I walked into the kitchen and looked around at the bustle.
“Can I help?” I asked as I tried to determine what they were even making.
Quinn looked up at me and smiled. “Absolutely,” she confirmed. “Can you slice and dice?”
Could I? “Yes, but I’m slow.”
“There’s no rush,” Quinn assured me as she pointed at a chopping board and some vegetables on it.
Ava, who had been at the stove with a player, tasting his food, made her way over to me. Wordlessly she handed me a knife, not the one I had been going for, and stood alongside me.
“Want me to show you how?” Her light conversational tone made me chuckle self-consciously. She had totally heard me in the bedroom.
“Please.”
I watched for a few moments, and then I was mimicking her as I did carrots. Ava reached over and stole one of my carrot sticks, and I slapped her hand as she giggled.
“All okay with you?” she asked me casually. Her look was knowing, and I shook my head at her inability to be an adult.
“Yes, Ava. I am quite well,” I said with an answering grin.
“It sounded like you were.”
“Shut up,” I mumbled as I ate a carrot stick, but we were both grinning.
Ava reached for another stick, but a hand slapped hers away. Gray stood behind us.
“Prep the food to eat the food later,” he scolded. “Quit yammering and work.”
I was about to scold him for doing nothing when I saw him start to work with whatever else Quinn was feeding us tonight.
“I forgot he cooked,” I said to Ava as I returned to my carrots. When the carrots were done, Quinn passed me sweet potato, asking for it to be small bite-sized chunks. I had no idea what that meant, but thankfully Ava did, and we shared the task between us.
As we were seated at the table later, with stir-fried chicken and veggies with rice noodles, I was unsure how my carrot sticks and bite-sized chunks of potato had helped create the wonderfully light tasty dish.
The room was quiet as we ate. Was it weird that the six of us were at a formal dinner table eating an evening meal? Probably. Did I think this would be how my day would end? No.
“What did Wade say when you called him?” Ava asked as she ate her meal.
The hand with my fork in it froze halfway to my mouth. I’d forgotten to call Wade. I would not look at Ash, I would not.
“Um, I didn’t get through.” Keeping my eyes on my food, I took a bite. “I’ll try him later.”
“Okay,” Ava agreed amicably.
“You’re looking a bit flustered, Mia,” Jett spoke up, amusement all over his face.
I was surrounded by immature children. “Your brother said something to me earlier that I can’t stop thinking about.”
“My brother?” Jett questioned with a glance at Gray.
“Yes, the scary one,” I answered with a pointed look at Gray. “The actual scary one.”
Gray said nothing, but I saw him smile around his fork as he ate his food.
“What did Onyx say?” Jett asked me curiously as he ate. They were all eating like this was normal. Like me telling them that I found their older brother scary was nothing they hadn’t heard before.
“Well, he told me a lot about myself, which I already knew,” I scoffed. “Made a point of letting me know my star sign—”
“Seriously?” Ava butt in.
“Yes, he does like to play with people, doesn’t he?
” My gaze took in all three of them. Both Jett and Ash were no longer eating.
Gray was, which didn’t surprise me. After all, if it wasn’t involving Quinn, then there wasn’t anything that he would be interested in.
However, Jett was very much paying attention to what I had to say, and Ash was also listening intently.
“He seemed to tell me that he knew all about my mom, which meant that he would also know about my dad. Why would your brother want to know who my dad is? And more importantly, how do you get him to tell you who he is?” I fixed a hard stare on Jett. “You owe me.”
Gray snorted as he put his fork down. “We owe you nothing.”
“Red,” Ash began.
“No. Not you.” I didn’t take my eyes off Jett. “You. Tell me.”
Jett sat back in his chair, and the amused guy from before was suddenly gone.
In his place sat the Devil who I had seen here on campus since my very first day.
Here, at Cardinal Saints College, where the Devils ruled.
Three guys who were untouchable. Who no one could challenge and who no one could get near to.
I had been so close to being in their inner circle, but now they had something that I wanted, and I was not letting go.
The cold mask of a Devil stared back at me with light blue eyes hard like chips of ice.
In my peripheral vision, I could see his twin adopt exactly the same pose, no doubt the same stare with the same glare.
Ash was sitting to my right, and I couldn’t see him properly without taking my eyes off Jett, and I knew at this point, I could not look away first.
“What do you want me to tell you, Mia?” Jett asked casually. “I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know what my brother said to you when he was here.”
“Ask him.” I smiled sweetly. “Would that be an issue?”
“If he wanted you to know, he would have told you,” Gray spoke. “If he knows at all. Why do you think you would be of any interest to my brother?”
I wet my bottom lip as I thought about it briefly.
“Because he puts the C in control freak. Because there is nothing, I don’t think, that your brother doesn’t know about you and your cousin.
And I think that would then mean he would make a point of knowing about who you were involved with.
” I was still holding Jett’s stare. “He knows that my father is not named on my birth certificate and that I do not know who he is. He made a point of mentioning that. He made a point of letting me know that my mom knows and hasn’t told me.
In the very, very short time that I have interacted with this man, I don’t think he says anything without knowing the answer before he’s even asked the question. Am I wrong?” I challenged Jett.
The slow cruel smirk I had seen so many times on campus appeared. “You have it all figured out, it seems.” He sat back and spread his arms out in front of him. “What do you need us for?”
“Because I’m not an idiot. I know if he tells anyone, it will be you. And I want you to ask, and when he tells you, then you tell me.”
“Or what?” Ash asked softly to my right.
“When you’re finished challenging Jett and being a little bitch, then what?
Look around the room at your friends, and if you don’t count any of us as that, that’s fine.
But your girl Ava is sitting right here.
So, tell us, Red. What are you going to do when we say no? ”
I felt a stir of panic. Ava. Jett’s smirk grew, and what had been solid, firm ground beneath my feet was now turning rapidly into quicksand. “Ava supports my right to know.”
“I do,” Ava spoke up. “I don’t like the way you’re asking though.”
“You don’t understand, Ava.” I finally looked away from Jett and turned to her. “He knows and he won’t tell me, but he’ll tell them.”
“Why don’t you ask your mom?” Quinn spoke for the first time.
“Because Gloria won’t tell me.”
Gray pushed his chair back and stood, his plate in his hand. “We owe you nothing.” He walked away from the table.
“I’ve covered for you,” I cried out as he walked into the kitchen.
Gray turned around to face me, his hands behind him resting on the counter. “Did you?”
“My apartment got wrecked because of you. I got assaulted because of you. I ask this one thing, and you go all Devil on me.”
Gray snorted and left the kitchen. Jett pushed his chair back and stood. He said nothing as he picked up his plate and Ava’s, crossed to the sink, and then he left as well.
I felt Ash move, but I knew I had lost my moment, and I dropped my gaze to look at the table. I didn’t look as one by one, they left.
When I looked up, thinking Ava would remain, I was surprised to see Quinn. Ava left?
“It’s one small thing. Is it too much to ask?” I couldn’t hide the bitterness in my voice.
“Perhaps the way you asked?” Quinn suggested. “Or the fact you threatened them?”
“I didn’t—”
“Mia, please don’t think any of us are stupid. The threat was there — that’s why Ash asked you or what. Using the word owe among friends? Not very friendly.” Quinn stood too. “Someone will take you back to the room tonight. I think it’s best you avoid Ash just now.”
“And Ava?”
“Left of her own accord.” Quinn ran her eyes over me. “Thank you for your help, your support. It really has meant a lot. I’m sorry we involved you.”
She walked out and left me sitting at the table feeling terrible. Had I been wrong? I had thought they would appreciate my frankness. Had I been aggressive? How did this go wrong so quickly?
A throat clearing made me look up. Casey was standing awkwardly at the edge of the room. He had my purse and my jacket. “You ready?” he asked me uncertainly.
And there it was. The dismissal. Clenching my jaw, I stood, and with quick jerky movements, I put my coat on and grabbed my purse.
“I don’t need you,” I told him with a bright smile. “I know the way home.”
“But they said—”
“They can shove it up their ass.” I gave him another fake smile. “I’ll see you around.”
Once again, I was walking out of the football house, with my head held high. Once again, I was walking away, and my best friend wasn’t following me. Once again, as I walked away with my heart breaking, I wondered if this was the break that was unfixable.
The walk back to the suite was actually quick. Once inside, I picked up the envelope that was under the door, and after I opened it, it spurred me to pack up my few belongings, and then with purpose and determination, I made my way back to my apartment block.
The door had been replaced, and as I opened the envelope with the new key inside it, I went in and closed the door behind me, effectively locking everyone else out. Slowly, I looked at the repairs that had been made.
If I hadn’t known, I would have said nothing had happened. The TV was replaced, still too big, still too new, still too Devil. Heading to my room, I placed my bags down on my bed, which had been made, and checked everything to make sure nothing was missing. Everything was as it should be.
Making my way into Ava’s room, I glared at the oversized bed, which took up most of the room. The closet doors were repaired, the bed made, the desk turned the right way up.
Everything was in its place. Everything had been set straight, put the right way up, fixed. The apartment was the same. Like nothing had happened.
But everything had happened.
The apartment was the same, but I wasn’t.
It had been a week? More than a week? How did everything change so quickly, so permanently?
Lowering myself to sit on his bed, I felt the tears well, and then I heard my phone ring. Running back through to my room, I grabbed it.
“Hello?”
“Mia, girl, you flaking out on me already?” Wade asked me, and I could hear the mix of concern and frustration.
“Eh no, I’m sorry, something came up, and I forgot my phone to call you.”
“Something more important than practice?” he asked skeptically.
“Yes, I, um . . .” I looked around the room. “I got the key for my apartment back.”
“Oh, you were moving things?”
“Yeah, sorry, time slipped away from me.” I leaned my forehead against the doorframe as I lied.
“Nah, that’s okay, you being back where you belong is cool. Tomorrow?” I heard the hopefulness, and I was nodding before I realized he couldn’t see me.
“Of course, I really am sorry about tonight.”
“No worries, Mia, see you tomorrow!” He was a lot happier sounding when he hung up.
“No worries,” I murmured as I moved away from the doorway and stood in the center of my bedroom, looking around. “Back where I belong.”
Then why did it feel like I was a stranger in my own home?