When Sinners Play (Sinners of Hawthorne University 1)

“No. I didn’t l-let him. He d-didn’t get that far.”

A flash of relief passes through his eyes, but it doesn’t last more than a second before concern overtakes it again. He looks above my head, meeting Elias’s gaze. “Dammit. She’s still shivering like fuck. We need to get her inside.”

“Yeah.” I feel Elias nod. “Come on, Blue. We’ve got you.”

Carrying me as if I weigh nothing, he turns and heads toward campus, the other two men flanking him tightly on either side.

I try to keep my eyes open. I really do. The survival instincts in me keep screaming at me not to let my guard down, even though it’s impossible not to feel safe in Elias’s arms.

Everything is still fuzzy and blurry though; consciousness is an elusive, slippery thing I’m holding on to only by a very thin thread.

I don’t know how long or far we walk. My face is buried in Elias’s shirt, my nostrils drawing in his clean, sharp scent with every inhale.

Maybe they’ll take me to my dorm. Maybe they’ll have the decency to lay me down on my bed so I can curl up and let oblivion take me.

But a door clicks and we walk inside, I realize we’re not in my dorm building—they took me to theirs. We walk up to the third floor and down the hall, and Declan’s smooth voice comes from my right. “Here. Bring her in.”

He flips on a light as the door closes behind us, and I barely open my scratchy eyes to get a look at the living room before Elias carries me into the bedroom.

The large bed is covered in a soft comforter that smells like Declan, and I want to burrow into it, to wrap myself in his scent. In Gray’s scent, and Elias’s too. I want to fall asleep under a pile of blankets infused with the essence of these three men, and I’m not sure I want to ever wake up.

What happens next is fuzzy, almost like a series of snapshots than a continuous chain of events.

Declan pulls out the small first-aid kit that’s provided in all the dorms. Gray disappears for a moment and comes back with a glass of cold water, helping me sit up and insisting I take a drink. They give me two painkillers, and I swallow them gratefully. My head is still throbbing, and the cacophony of aches and pains in my body is only growing louder.

“We’re gonna clean you up a little. We’ll help you change too. Is that okay?” Elias’s concerned face swims in my view, and I nod.

Three sets of hands fall on me, more gentle than I ever expected from any of these men. It’s familiar, in a way. They’ve all touched me at the same time once before, and just like that time, their large, firm hands on my skin ease the panic roiling inside me.

It’s grounding, as if each touch is an anchor binding me to the earth, keeping me from dissolving into mist and floating away.

Gray dabs gently at my skin with a warm, damp washcloth. He winces every time I wince, as if my pain causes him pain, and he examines me as he cleans me up, speaking to the other two men in a low voice.

“I don’t think most of this blood is hers.”

“Yeah,” Declan murmurs, his features twisting into a grimace as his fingertips ghost over my cheek. I can feel that my face is swollen, the area above my cheekbone tender and hot. “He got her good at least once though.”

“Look at her knuckles.” Elias’s palm slips under mine, lifting my hand a little. “They’re all torn up. She must’ve split them open.”

“Any broken bones?” Gray asks, shifting his gaze from my face to Elias’s before looking down at my hand.

“Don’t think so. They’re a little swollen, but nothing’s bent the wrong way or too black and blue.” Elias makes a noise in his throat. “I think most of this blood is Cliff?

?s too.”

“Good.”

There’s something heavy and dark in Gray’s voice, and despite the harshness of his tone, it soothes me.

Good.

They help me out of my jeans before slipping me into an oversized pair of sweatpants and a thick sweater of Declan’s. Music is put on in the background, something I think is meant to calm me and fill the quiet room. I wish it was Declan’s music, and I wonder idly if he ever plays the songs he’s working on for his friends. Does he play them for other girls in stairwells, or was it just me?

I wonder where Cliff ended up after I passed out.

Was he still there when the Sinners found me?

No. He can’t have been.