Hideaway (Devil's Night 2)

I caught Lev’s eye roll as he nudged me along, getting us both out of there.

Veering right, around the truck, I took us in the direction of the bonfire where I noticed a fight going on nearby. It looked playful, though, as people sat around watching. I cast glances left and right, looking for my brother.

And Kai.

But I didn’t see them. I knew they pulled pranks on Devil’s Night, so they could be off somewhere still. I kept my head down, though. At Damon’s request. I was to observe. Not interact.

“You’re gonna be eighteen next summer,” Lev pointed out. “You getting out of here?”

I shook my head, watching some kid shoot marshmallows with a hockey stick, hitting a group of guys. “I wouldn’t know where to go.”

“But you can, you know?” he told me. “You can do whatever you want. You don’t have to stay with him.”

I turned my eyes on him, narrowing my gaze. It was unusually gutsy of him to say something like that. Since when did he care what I did?

And I didn’t know how to respond.

It wasn’t as if I hadn’t thought about it. I knew things would change soon, but I didn’t think they were changing for good. I’d tread water until Damon got out of college, and then…like he said, we’d be on our own. The idea of leaving forever—of living by myself, working by myself, making my own friends, coming and going without consequence—it seemed too far-fetched to consider. Even if I wanted to—which I didn’t—Damon wouldn’t allow it.

I averted my eyes, dropping my voice. “He’s all I have.”

“And who told you that?” he tossed back. “Him?”

I shot him a look. Asshole.

I changed the subject. “Toward the fight?” I gestured toward the group of guys in the distance, and he nodded.

We walked through more headstones, and I could hear the chanting from the fight ahead. I was used to seeing tussles, the guys around the house constantly starting shit with each other when they were bored. I’d even picked up a few moves.

“Who’s she?” I heard a woman ask.

Stopping with Lev, I looked up to see a young redhead, her arms crossed over her chest and looking at him like she was two seconds away from spitting battery acid.

But without waiting for him to respond, she spun on her heel and started to walk away.

“Come here,” he said, grabbing her arm.

But she yanked it away. “Go screw yourself.”

“Until when?” he shot back, getting in her face. “The next time your boyfriend can’t get you off, princess, and you come begging me for it?”

My eyes widened. He was screwing around with a Thunder Bay girl? What was he thinking?

To her, this was slumming and getting her kicks. He had to know that.

The girl jutted her chin over me, scowling. “Who is she?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

She whipped around and stalked away from him, her red hair flying.

He looked at me. “Stay there. I mean it.”

I watched as he spun around and caught up to her, forcing her behind a tomb, the edges of their bodies just visible.

“Where is he?” Lev asked, and I watched her thigh hike up around his waist at the same time I heard the sound of fabric tearing.

He? Her boyfriend?