Hideaway (Devil's Night 2)

The car cut through the night, racing across the bridge and down the dark highway toward Thunder Bay with the headlights shining ahead. I drew in a thick breath, everything suddenly feeling so heavy inside the car.

My skin buzzed with the feel of her next to me.

I glanced over, seeing her staring out the window, her back straight, and her hands in her lap. Slowly, though, she started to run them up and down her thighs, and I noticed how deep her breaths were growing.

She turned her head to the front again, a

nd I noticed the quick glance out of the corner of her eye. She folded her lips between her teeth.

I turned my eyes back on the road, holding back my smile. “You’re real good at self-control, aren’t you, kid?” I kept my tone calm. “Do you want to say something to me? I can feel the weight of it. You may as well go ahead.”

But she remained quiet as I knew she would. I put my elbow on the door and ran my fingers over my lips. How do you play with someone who doesn’t engage?

And then I got an idea.

“So, what is she like?” I asked.

Her eyebrows pinched together. “Who?”

“Vanessa.”

She turned her eyes back out the passenger-side window, sighing impatiently. “Like she’s going to look real good bouncing up and down on top of you on your wedding night.”

I squeezed the steering wheel, grinding it in my fist. Such a fucking brat.

“So, you’ve never talked to her, then?” I pressed.

I wanted her to be jealous.

“A couple times,” she answered. “And she once paid a boy to grab my breasts at a party when we were fifteen. Damon tied him to a tree for that and stuffed his snake, Volos, down his underwear. The kid screamed like a bitch.”

I snorted.

And then my face fell, hating that, for a moment, I missed Damon. I didn’t like hearing someone attacked Banks, but for some reason, I was appeased, knowing he avenged her. That was unlike him.

Why was he so attached to her?

But then again, I was fast becoming attached myself. For reasons I couldn’t even try to understand right now.

“I talked to Michael today,” I told her, changing the subject as I stared out the front windshield. “He said you threatened him at The Pope. After he grabbed you and pinned you to a wall to threaten you.”

I couldn’t resist feeling amused at the picture in my head.

“You told him that we are vulnerable and unfocused?” I smiled at her, rounding a soft turn. “He actually seemed concerned, like you had a point.”

Her eyebrows dug in deeper, clearly trying to ignore my attempts as conversation.

“You know, the last time I saw you, six years ago, you were timid and innocent. The type of girl who would flinch at a light breeze.” I let out a long breath, wondering if that girl was still inside her somewhere. “Now, it’s like even a sip of water is calculated. And the next nineteen moves after it.”

I could feel her tensing next to me.

“A couple years after that Devil’s Night, Rika tagged along with us on one,” I told her, but I suspected she already knew all about that. “She reminded me so much of you that night. Just learning about what it was that excited her. Just starting to put that first step over the line that she craved to cross so much. You’re both so much alike.”

Rika had reminded me of Banks that night. Someone I could be drawn to. Someone who would go down the rabbit hole with me. I had my friends, but it wasn’t the same.

“Except for the control. Rika reacts from the gut,” I added, licking my lips. “She wants what she wants, and she takes it.”

Banks turned her eyes back out the window, acting like I wasn’t here.