Angel's Halo (Angel's Halo MC 1)

Forty minutes later I’m seriously wishing I hadn’t.

I could have been back in my room studying for my History exam. I could have been doing my laundry and watching Bones reruns in the basement of my apartment building. Instead I’m here, pretending to drink the red Solo cups of beer that Janice keeps shoving at me. I hate the taste of beer, and I have no head for liquor, so I pour the beer out a little at a time when no one is watching.

I find out quick that if Janice is a bitch sober, drunk she’s ten times worse. She gets mean and insulting. I decide then that I’m going to go to the housing authorities on Monday and request a new apartment for what’s left of the spring semester. Fudge buckets, I’d even take one of their dorm rooms over this kind of abuse.

“There you are.” Janice’s voice startles me as I come out of the first floor bathroom.

“Here I am.” I glance behind my roommate at the two guys standing on either side of her. They may be on the baseball team, but can’t be sure. Janice is a cheerleader and is always hanging around the players. “I’m going to head home.” I tell her, ignoring the grinning guys behind her. “I have an exam that I really need to cram for.” When she opens her mouth as if to protest, I shake my head. “Don’t worry. I can walk.” It’s only two miles to our apartment and I run three times that every morning. Two miles of walking won’t hurt anything.

The guy on Janice’s right steps forward. “We can’t have you running off on us now, sweetness. Janice promised us some fun.”

My eyes widen when he grabs my wrist hard enough to leave bruises. “Let go of me,” I command. After watching my mother struggle through an abusive marriage most of my life, I can’t handle to be touched roughly.

“Now, now.” The second guy moves closer, and I suddenly feel trapped. I back up until my back is against the wall. “We just want to have a little alone time, pretty girl.”

Drunken Janice snickers behind them, and my stomach rolls when I realize she’s recording my reaction on her smart phone. “What are you doing?” I ask stupidly, still not sure if I’m really seeing this; silently praying that it’s a nightmare I’ll wake up from, knowing deep down what’s about to happen to me.

The music’s too loud, the people standing around are too drunk or high or both to care as the two guys pull me into the room behind them. Janice follows, recording it all even as she locks the heavy oak door. I’m in the game room. A pool table takes up a third of the room and four leather couches are spread around at various angles to offer a view of the flat screen on the wall.

I struggle against the guy holding my wrist. He’s tall, bulky, and blond. His friend, a guy I’d seen Janice making out with on the quad last week, is a little smaller with bloodshot brown eyes and red-brown hair a few shades darker than my own. I think his name was Brayden. The blond tightens his already bruising hold on my wrist making me whimper in pain as he jerks me toward the pool table.

“No!” I resisted harder, digging my heels into the thick carpet as I attempt to slow him down. I know in my soul that as soon as I’m on that pool table I won’t be able to stop what’s going to happen.

Brayden grabs a handful of my thick, auburn hair and starts pulling me along with his friend. “You hold her down while I go first,” he tells the blond as they lift my kicking legs and place me on the table.

“Why do you get to go first?” the blond asks. “You just got off with Janice in the bathroom. My dick is throbbing.”

“Because this sweet thing is my birthday present from Janice,” Brayden informs his friend.

I’m going to vomit. Brayden’s already undoing his fly and I can’t break free of the blond guy’s hold on me. I don’t have much protection in the way of clothes. Janice had offered me one of her dresses to wear tonight and I stupidly accepted. The silky material rises up my thighs exposing my bikini briefs to everyone’s prying eyes. Even Janice, as she continues to record my humiliation, seems turned on by the sight of the white cotton material.

A hot, heavy hand touches my thigh, and I can’t stop the scream of pure terror that escapes me. There’s no use in screaming, not over this music and not with all of high people in this house. There’s no one to save me, they’re so strung out of their minds. I’d witnessed most of them passing around drugs like candy.

Brayden laughs and it’s so evil sounding that it chills my heart and makes something wither inside of me. “I like screamers,” he tells me as his fingers catch the edge of my panties and he starts pulling them down.

I don’t want to give him the satisfaction, don’t want to humiliate myself even more by screaming again, but instinct takes over and I start screaming until my throat is raw. My panties are torn off, and Brayden spreads my still kicking legs wide with ease while his friend holds my wrists so tight it feels like he’s crushing my bones.

“You swear she’s a virgin?” Brayden asks Janice.

“Pure as snow, baby.” My roommate grins at him, and it was the most malicious thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. “And all yours.”

His beefy fingers skim over my sex, and I scream louder, harder. I’ve never been so scared in my life, and tears stream down my face as I pray for all I’m worth …

The sound of wood splintering seems like a hallucination, my mind attempting to offer some type of mental break in my time of need. The three evil people standing over me don’t seem to notice, but seconds later the door crashes apart and in the doorway stands my avenging angel.

Through my tears I see him. His hair is on the longer side, pushed back from a face that’s so startlingly handsome I know he can’t be real. His shoulders are nearly as wide as the door he just forced his way through. A tight rock band shirt stretches over his impressive muscles that seem to vibrate with each panting breath he sucks in.

My captors turn slowly, their reflexes dulled from whatever drug of choice they’d been taking tonight. Janice swings around, filming him with the smartphone before deciding that he’s not giving her anything worthwhile and turns it back on me. Brayden reaches for the jeans hanging around his ankles, jerking them up as he glares at the intruder. “Get the fuck out, man. This is a private party.”

“Party’s over!” he roars in a voice so deep and deadly I nearly scream again. “Get the fuck away from her.”

There’s movement behind my savior and I’m shocked to see a girl I know from school standing beside him. She’s gorgeous, her hair flying around her shoulders and her face pale with haunting blue eyes.

“Felicity!” I cry her name, desperate for someone I trust when I can’t trust anyone else.

“Gracie!” she exclaimed, rushing toward me.

“Flick!” The avenging angel is quick behind her, looking frantic to keep her safe.