Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1)

by Penelope Douglas

“Or maybe I liked it. Maybe I’d like to see what it’s like having you...

Kai had nothing to worry about. I loved Michael, and I would leave him before I ever betrayed him.

“It’s not just Michael, you know?” He peered over at me. “Will and I were worried about you, too. You’re one of us. It would be hard to…”

“We feel close to you,” he admitted, gazing up at me again. “We don’t want to see you hurt, okay?”

“Because he loves you more than us,”

I’d skipped dinner, and I was starving. But then I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, and I swung around, my heart leaping into my throat as I saw the back door sitting wide open and the light from the stairwell pouring in. A dark form, dressed in a black hoodie, with the hood drawn, stood in the doorway, staring at me through a white mask. The same mask that

the guys wore when they lured me to the Crist house.

“Damon,” I choked out. And at that moment, he dropped his hand and broke out in a run, charging me. I screamed and spun around, racing for the front door. I slammed into the wood, immediately grabbing for the locks, but it was no use. He crashed into my back, wrapping a hand around the front of my neck, and digging the tip of the blade under my chin.

He squeezed my throat, and then the hand with the knife came down over my mouth, a cloth covering my lips, suffocating me. “Who’s going to stop me?” he whispered in my ear. And then everything went black.

“I never really thought about it before, but watching you sleep—here and in your apartment…”

He’d watched me sleep in my apartment? God, how long had he been there before I’d woken up?

“But he’d never marry his brother’s whore.”

I swung around, seeing Trevor standing right behind me.

And I only had a second before his hand came down and whipped across my face.

“I do want to hurt you. I want to fucking kill you, and then I’m going to kill Trevor.”

“Did you know that he was twelve when his mother started fucking him.”

“And when he was fifteen,” Trevor continued, “he beat the shit out of her and threatened to kill her if she ever came back. I overheard my father talking to his a few years ago.”

It would explain why Damon hated women, I guess.

“His father swept it under the rug and never talked about it again. The guys were all he had, and you took that from him.”

“I just…”

I rubbed a hand down my face, trying to find my words.

“I’ll just try to find you some clothes. My mom probably has things here ...

“Michael,” she said louder, reaching up to take my f...

But I tore myself away, leaning back on the sink and bowing my head, feeling pain everywhere. Was this what she wanted? For me to be vulnerable and feel the fear ...

“I thought you were gone,” I said, barely audible. “The water was so black, and I couldn’t find you. I thought I’d never get to you.” Sh...

And I looked up into her blue eyes, knowing that would always haunt me. What if she had never come back up? What would I have done? I slid a hand around the back of her neck and wrapped my other arm around her waist, taking her lips in mine and...

I could kiss her ...

Touching my forehead to hers, I ran my thumb across her f...

“I love you,...

I’ve always lo...

She broke out in a smile, tears streaming down her face as she circled her arms around my neck and pulled me in close. I squeezed her tight, burying my fac...

After all the years and all the times when I should’ve known, it took her nearly getting killed for me to realize what she meant to me. For me to realiz...

she’d always been there, right in front of me. Her, riding her bike around my driveway when she was five. Her, learning to swim in my pool. Her, running around and doing cart wheels in my backyard. Her, biting her nails when I entered the room. Her, sitting next to my mother at every basketball game in high school. Her, refusing to even look in my direction when I hung out with a girl. And me, barely able to hold back the smile at the little looks she stole and how nervous she was when I was close. She was always there, and it was always us. Trevor made me want to resent...

“Did they hurt you in any other way?” I asked.

“You really love me?”

“I love you so much,”

“This is where ...

She must’ve sensed me, because she turned her head, smiling at me over her shoulder.

Sometimes, I just had to watch her. I had to keep my eyes on her, because it was still so hard to believe that she was real. That she was here and mine.

I’d asked myself a thousand times how we got here.

How we found each other and m...

She wouldn’t have learned how to be strong and fight back or how to own who she was and save herself.

Everything happens for a reason, she would say.

She would say that I built her. That I created a monster, and that somewhere during the blood, tears, struggle, and pain,

we realized that it was love. That all sparks ...

But what she failed to remember was…our story started long...

Pick up Rika from soccer practice, please? 8 p.m.

I look at it, feeling anger. I could get those girls to shut up.

“It’s okay,” I say quietly, a tear spilling down my face.

Helpless. I hate being helpless.