Their Cruel Play (Untouched #3)

Chapter 1

The Nightwalker

Luke

A scream wakes me up, and I tighten my arms around Harper, but she’s not the one screaming. We’re in the guest bedroom where I carried her in the middle of the night.

“Let me go, Luke.” She pries at my hands. “Kenz.”

I release her and roll out of bed. Alert and needing to keep Harper safe, I say, “Stay here.”

Opening the door, I glance down the hall and see the door to Harper’s bedroom that I closed stands open. Harper touches my back. Of course she followed me. Fuck.

“Get the fuck out of here!” Kenz yells. A dull thud follows, and someone grunts.

I don’t have time to force Harper to return to the room. When I rush to her doorway, someone dressed all in black with a ski mask turns to me. I’m between him and the stairs, so he charges me.

I shift back and press Harper into the wall to keep the guy from accidentally running into her, and he tears down the stairs.

I turn, and Harper’s wide eyes meet mine. “Get in your room. Lock the door.”

She grabs my arm before I can take off. “What are you going to do?”

We need to know who this fucker is. I kiss her before pushing her toward her room. “I’m going after him.”

The guy has a lead on me, but I’m conditioned to run. As I hit the ground level, the back door hangs open in the kitchen, but I hesitate to rush out of it. He could still be in the house and just waiting for me to leave so he’ll have another chance at the girls.

I’m also only in my boxer briefs with no shoes. Running outside would be stupid and dangerous. I pause and listen. There’s a slight sound in the kitchen. I inch that way.

A small creak behind me makes me spin and push the person against the wall.

Harper bites her lip to stop from making a noise. Fuck, I could have hurt her. I lean in close to her ear.

“Go back upstairs,” I whisper harshly. My heart thumps in my ears.

When she shakes her head, I press my forehead against hers. Fuck. There’s no time to argue with her.

She holds up a stick with ribbons on it and narrows her eyes on me. What the fuck does she think she’s going to do with that? Help me?

Another foot shuffle sounds. I mouth, “Stay here.”

Waiting, I glare into her eyes until she nods.

This time hopefully she listens to me. I move towards the door frame. Her warmth huddles behind me. Not listening to a word I say. Fuck, I won’t have time to figure out who’s in the house. I need to get him out. Protecting Harper is my priority.

Breathing in, I duck as I enter the room and feel the whiff of something above me. Grabbing the middle of the guy, I push him into the island, away from us. He’s solid, whoever he is.

When he straightens, he brandishes an umbrella in his hand, holding it out like a sword. I want to fight him, but not when Harper isn’t safe. I can’t risk her.

“The girls are calling the police, asshole. You might want to run.”

He throws the umbrella at me before fleeing out the door. I knock the umbrella to the floor and charge after him. As I get out the door, he takes off into the darkness behind the house. He’s moving fast, but I stop and reassess.

I’m barefoot in just underwear. The girls are alone in the house, and if I leave, he could circle back around. Shaking my head, I walk back into the house. I shut and lock the door.

“You can come out, princess.” I rest my hand against the door. I need to figure out how that asshole got in. The entire house will need to be looked over.

I can’t call the guys. One, I’m not supposed to be here. Two, everyone was already out, and we can’t afford to lose tomorrow’s game. Not if we want to play college ball.

Harper rounds the corner with her stick held high. Her hair is a messy halo around her head and her brown eyes are wide open. “Who was that?”

“Is Kenz okay?” I step toward her, needing to touch her. To know she’s safe now.

Harper glances over her shoulder. “She’s okay. She nailed him with one of my lamps, but he didn’t touch her.”

When she turns back to me, I’m right in front of her. He could have hurt her. If the guy had knocked me out, he could have done whatever he planned to do. If I hadn’t been here... My hand shakes as I cup her cheek.

“You need to do what I tell you to do, princess. I could have caught him if I wasn’t worried about you.” It’s not a lie.

She narrows her eyes holding up her stick. “You needed backup.”

Shaking my head, I wrap my hand around the back of her neck. My lips tug into a smile at the weird stick in her hand. “What even is that?”

“A pinata stick.” She shrugs and her tank top strap falls down her shoulder. She glances toward the door. “We didn’t call the police.”

“Good.” I really don’t think that would have gone over well, especially with me here. They would call her mom, and Harper might actually get grounded. I don’t think this is an isolated incident or even a coincidence.

We were busy earlier and no one planned on sleeping with her. I wasn’t supposed to sneak in and take her to the guest bedroom either. Kenz must have surprised the intruder.

When her brown eyes drop to my lips, my focus returns to her.

“Why are you here?” she whispers, shifting slightly closer.

“Couldn’t sleep.” The words are quiet in the darkness of the house.

“You broke into my house and carried me into the guest bedroom?”

“I didn’t break in.”

She rolls her eyes. “I didn’t let you in.”

Pulling her hair, I tip her head back and lower my head until my lips hover over hers. Her breath coats my lips. She searches my eyes.

“You always let me in, princess.”

“Uh, not to interrupt, but...” Kenz stands in the doorway.

I straighten and turn Harper in my arms so she can see Kenz. Needing to feel her, I draw her back against me.

“Did he say anything?” I ask.

Nothing stood out about him from what I saw. Besides that he’s a guy and he was average height. He felt muscular. Probably our age.

Kenz shakes her head and crosses her arms. “I woke up and he was just there. Standing in the doorway. I screamed, and he startled. Then I threw the lamp at him.”

“Can you remember anything about him? Smell? Eye color?”

She shakes her head, and her gaze drops to Harper. Her eyebrows raise as she pointedly looks at me. She’s probably wondering why I’m here but fuck that noise. Harper is mine.

“We should look through the house and make sure no one else is here. Also find how he got in.”

Harper spins in my arms. “Should we split up?”

“No.” I brush her hair behind her ear.

“But we’d cover more ground,” she argues.

“There’s only one person that guy was after tonight.” I exhale. Fuck, I’m not letting her out of my sight, and I don’t think she’d be okay with Kenz going on her own. “I’m not convinced he won’t double back and try again.”

I take Harper’s hand and nod at Kenz. “Come on. Windows, doors. We need to double check every single one on the main floor.”

When Harper moves, Kenz’s gaze roams over me quickly. It’s not with longing like most girls. Her cheeks flush when she sees I’m just in my underwear. It doesn’t matter. As long as the girl keeps up, we won’t have an issue.

Harper

I wake up in the morning when Luke carries me back to my bedroom. He’s fully clothed already. The sun isn’t even up yet.

We went over every inch of the downstairs and double-checked the rooms we weren’t sleeping in upstairs. One window on the main floor was unlocked but closed. We locked it and headed back to bed.

I didn’t protest when Kenz went into my bedroom and Luke led me into the guest room. Maybe I should protest more, but he makes me feel safe. I wasn’t going to kick him out, even though he did sneak in.

As he carries me, I reach up and run my hand through his tousled hair. He gives me a soft smirk that does funny things to my heart.

“Morning, princess.”

“Morning, Death.”

He pushes open the door to my bedroom and walks around the bed.

“Are you going to be okay to play football tonight?” I ask.

His eyes aren’t fully open, and darkness lingers beneath them. I’m not sure what time he moved me into the guest room, but it’s obvious he didn’t get much sleep.

“I’ll be fine.” He lowers me onto the bed, and I pull him down to press a kiss to his lips. When he raises his head, he asks, “What was that for?”

I shrug and whisper, “For protecting me.”

“That’s my job, princess.”

I release him, and he straightens.

“I’ll be back to get you for school. Try to get some more sleep.” His hushed tone is gruff.

I nod and curl up in my bed, already missing his warmth surrounding me. He brushes my hair back from my forehead and presses a kiss there. My insides flutter, and I hold back the smile that tries to burst out of me.

The door shuts quietly behind him. Kenz rolls over and gives me a huge grin.

“Fuck, H.” Kenz fans herself. “Luke Foster was in your bedroom and pretty close to naked last night. He’s ripped.”

“Mmhmm.” My face heats.

“Did you guys... you know?” Kenz’s eyes are wide and excited.

“No.” That’s the thing. Luke came here to sleep. Not to claim me in any way, but just to sleep with me. It’s weird, and my insides feel funny about it.

“Weird,” she whispers.

I don’t know how to explain it. “I’m just glad he was with us.”

Her eyebrows lift. “Seriously, who was that last night? I nearly peed myself, especially when you weren’t in bed with me. I thought maybe you were in the bathroom.”

“I don’t know. The only person who’s threatened me was Tanner, but how stupid would he be to attack me the night after he threatened me?” I blow out my breath. “He seems too conniving for that.”

“When is your mom done with nights?” Kenz yawns and closes her eyes.

“She has Sunday and Monday off. I’ll have to check her schedule for next week.” Part of me really hopes she’s working days or evenings and not nights. The other part wants to sleep with the guys.

I had trouble falling asleep last night. I’ll drag today with the lack of sleep, especially after the night before and the sub drop that clung to me all day at school yesterday.

“Are we going to tell your mom about the guy who broke in?” Kenz whispers.

“I don’t know.” I turn onto my back and stare up at the ceiling. “We didn’t call her last night. Or even the police. If I tell her, she’ll worry. If I don’t, she won’t know what’s going on.”

“We don’t know why that guy was here, but Luke was right, he was after you.” Kenz shakes her head. “If I hadn’t been here and Luke hadn’t been here...”

I swallow the lurch of fear and grab my phone off the nightstand.

Me:

Should I tell Mom about last night?

Famine (Jack):

What?

Death (Luke):

We’ll talk at school.

War (Caden):

WTF

Nico:

I’m missing something

Pestilence (Eli):

Should we be worried?

Me:

Talk at school

I figured Luke would have told the guys everything, but maybe he didn’t have a chance. My eyes meet Kenz’s.

“I have to tell her something.” If I’d been home alone, things would have gone much differently.

Luke came in and took me from my bed without me realizing it.

The idea that anyone could walk in and watch me sleep without me being aware will have me sleeping with my pinata stick every night.

Maybe it’s time to invest in a baseball bat.

Kenz nods. “Yeah, maybe just say you saw someone outside the house trying to get in. But when you turned on the light, they ran away.”

“Okay.” I put my phone back on my nightstand. But when I try to close my eyes, I can’t help but worry what’s going to happen next.