48. Bellamy
Chapter 48
Bellamy
T he front door to the house crashed open like someone had been thrown through the thick wood. Loud voices and the door slamming closed, and it was Daren I heard first, screaming at Fletcher with a rage I’d never known from him before. Quickly, I closed the book I was reading and headed for the stairs, shocked to find Luca half-unconscious in Daren’s arms and Fletcher behind them, a mottling purple bruise around his eye and blood trickling from the corner of his lip. Daren had a matching black eye and sticks in his hair, his hat backward on his head and dirt on his knees.
“Bellamy, can you help?” Daren set Luca down on the couch, then he immediately rounded on Fletcher again. Fletcher grabbed him before Daren could land another hit, hauling him upstairs to Fletcher’s bedroom without another word.
I ran down the stairs, skidding to a stop on my knees in front of the couch. Luca was conscious, mumbling something under his breath I couldn’t quite make sense of. Gently, I pulled his glasses off his face and brushed his hair off his forehead. It didn’t appear he had any black eyes like the other two, but he had red and purple marks around his throat that looked a lot like a hand.
“Are you all right?” I whispered, tracing my fingertips over the bruises. He had dirt and leaves in his hair, and I wondered what I must have looked like after Fletcher had his way with me the first night.
“Bell,” he rasped, voice catching on the single syllable. “You’re an angel.”
“Daren doesn’t think so.”
Luca snorted, slowly blinking his eyes open. I gave him back his glasses and helped him prop up against the arm of the couch.
“What does Daren know?” he asked.
“More than me but less than Fletcher.” I sighed and turned, situating my back against the couch. Luca mindlessly plopped his hand onto the top of my head and I closed my eyes, relieved he was quickly recovering from whatever had Daren and Fletcher in such an uproar. “What happened?”
“I swung on Fletcher.”
I tried to turn around to face him, shocked that the scrawny, glasses-wearing member of the group was the one who’d had the balls to try and deliver the first blow.
“Why?”
“I was mad. I…I want my life back. I’m tired of waiting.”
I pulled my thighs up against my chest and turned to the side, resting my cheek on my knees so I could keep my eyes on Luca, who looked beyond tired. I felt the same way, worn down to my bones from all the unknowns and the secrets. Exasperated by the confusion over whatever this relationship between the five of us was turning out to be. That might have been the most complicated part. Fletcher loved Gideon, but he fucked me and he fucked Luca, and Luca loved Daren, but he fucked everyone, and Gideon was obsessed with Fletcher, but he’d come so close with me…
So close.
“I don’t know anything about your way of life. Don’t know what it’s been like to live the way the four of you had, but it all seems very calculating and slow-going. It doesn’t seem like people move fast.”
“Another thing worth changing,” Luca muttered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. He read a series of messages on his screen, then cursed under his breath and slid down until he was flat on his back and dropped his phone onto the floor.
“Who was it?” I asked.
“Gideon. His father is on campus.”
My heart rate immediately spiked, the confused organ battering against my ribs. Meeting Fletcher’s father two weeks earlier had been bad enough. I had no idea what Gideon’s father would be like, but I imagined it must take one hell of a man to create the beast that Gideon had turned into.
“What does he want?”
“Just throwing threats around, I think.” Luca pushed himself up into a seated position with a wince, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “I need to get back to the house.”
“Daren is going to be pissed if you leave.”
Luca groaned a laugh, slowly getting to his feet. He swayed a little, and I still didn’t know whose handprint was darkening around his throat. I jumped to my feet to support him while his head settled, and he smiled, pressing a soft kiss against the corner of my mouth.
“Daren knows I’ll always come back for him. Even if it kills us both.”
I grabbed Luca’s shirt, yanking him into me. “I don’t like the sound of that. I’m getting rather fond of you both.”
“It just might kill you too.” He took my face into his hands, dark eyes scanning my face for any signs of fear. Little did he know that fear would have only transformed into arousal anyway. If it were present, which it wasn’t. I wasn’t scared of these men, of their lives anymore. I was invested.
What did scare me was not understanding my place among them. Not knowing how I’d come to find myself in their web…or how I’d get out.
Not knowing if I wanted to.
“Something has to give,” I said, letting go of his shirt and smoothing the fabric out with a surprisingly steady hand.
“I know,” he said with a slow nod. “I just hope it’s not any of us.”