Chapter 1 #4
Johnny steps into our little pocket of shadow with a cigarette between his fingers and that effortless smile already in place. He doesn’t look like he belongs in the warehouse; he looks like the warehouse was built because someone knew he’d need somewhere to be terrible after midnight.
He glances at me first, just long enough to make sure I know he followed me on purpose.
Then he looks at Alice.
Really looks.
My hands curl at my sides.
I hate it instantly.
The way his attention sharpens. The way his smile shifts. The way Alice, curious little nightmare that she apparently is, doesn’t look away from him either.
Johnny notices that too.
“Johnny,” he says, offering his hand like we’re at some campus party and not standing ten feet from a cage with blood drying on the floor. “Older, better-looking brother.”
Alice looks at his hand.
Then at me.
Then back to him.
Something flickers in her expression.
Amusement, maybe.
Trouble, definitely.
She takes his hand.
It lasts half a second.
Barely anything.
Still, irritation moves through me so fast it feels like impact.
Johnny’s gaze cuts toward mine while his hand is still wrapped around hers.
The bastard smiles.
There it is.
The moment I know I’ve made a mistake.
Not by noticing her.
But by letting him see that I did.
Alice pulls her hand free and rests it back on her camera. “Alice.”
She doesn’t flinch. “You always introduce yourself by interrupting conversations?”
Johnny presses a hand to his chest like she just put a knife there. “Fuck. Pretty and rude?”
His smile spreads, slow and entertained.
Alice holds his stare without blinking.
That gets him.
I can see it happen. The shift in his face. The way amusement turns into interest, then into something darker. Johnny likes sharp things. Always has.Give him a girl with a smart mouth and enough fire to throw it back at him, and Johnny won’t walk away.
He’ll get off on pouring gasoline on it just to see how big the fucking inferno gets before it eats him alive.
“Well,” he says, dragging his gaze over her like he’s already imagining trouble, “that’s dangerous.”
Alice lifts a brow. “Me?”
“That pretty little mouth.” Smoke slips from his lips as his smile turns meaner. “Girls with mouths like that usually get themselves into places they shouldn’t be.”
My jaw tightens.
He keeps all that easy, predatory attention on her like I’m not standing right there. Like he hasn’t already found the exact nerve and pressed down until it hurts.
Alice looks between us.
Once.
That’s all it takes.
She pulls the camera strap over her head and for the first time since I found her, the camera leaves her hands as she tucks it into the black bag at her hip and snaps the flap shut.
Something in her expression changes.
Not fear. She’s too stubborn for that.
More like she finally understands she’s standing too close to something with teeth.
“I should go,” she says.
Any smart man would let her.
But I’ve never been good at letting go of things once my attention gets its claws in.
“When’s the next time you’re coming back?” I ask.
Her gaze cuts back to me.
Johnny goes very still beside us.
Alice catches that too.
Interesting girl.
“Why?” she asks.
I nod toward the bag where she tucked the camera away. “So I know when to watch for that flash of yours.”
Her brow lifts.
“Would hate for it to cost me a fight.”
The camera.
Not you.
Weak fucking lie, and judging by the way her mouth curves, we both know it.
There it is.
The smile I wanted.
Smaller than I expected. Sharper too. Not sweet. Not soft.
Dangerous enough to make me want more.
“Maybe I don’t know if I’m coming back.”
I smirk. “Yeah, you do.”
Her eyes narrow slightly. “You sound pretty sure.”
“I am.”
“And why is that?”
“Because we both know you liked what you saw tonight.”
Her mouth parts like she has something smart ready, but nothing comes out fast enough.
My smirk widens.
“And for someone who likes to watch?” I lean in just enough to make her tip her chin up. “You’ll be back.”
For a second, she doesn’t answer.
Then her mouth curves.
Small, but so fucking sharp and dangerous.
This time, she laughs.
It’s quiet with the crowd chaos, but enough to hook somewhere beneath my ribs and stay there.
Johnny exhales smoke beside me.
I don’t look at him because I know he heard it too.
Alice adjusts the strap of her bag and takes a step back. “Goodnight, Jagger.”
Not Wraith.
Jagger.
It shouldn’t matter.
It fucking does.
Then she turns and disappears into the crowd.
My body moves before reason catches up.
One step.
Johnny’s voice stops me.
“Careful.”
I look at him slowly.
His cigarette glows orange in the dark, his smile already waiting for me.
“She looks like the kind of play thing you’ll want to keep, little brother.”
Alice reaches the exit and glances back once.
Not at him.
At me.
Then the door opens, cold night spills in, and she’s gone.
Johnny finally looks at me.
I look back, and his smile widens.
My stomach sinks, heavy and certain.
Not because of Alice.
Because now he sees her too.
And Johnny ruins everything he fucking touches.