Hideaway (Devil's Night, #2)

by Penelope Douglas

Gabriel didn’t know that I’d met Kai before. Gabriel didn’t know that I’d already played Kai’s version of fun. I refused to be his tool. Or his toy.

And eight days later, he shows up on my mother’s doorstep. He hands her nine thousand four hundred sixty-two dollars, a Rolex, and some emerald earrings. And he takes me home with him.

But I belonged to Damon Torrance. I didn’t know why he wanted me. Not at first. And I was scared bad things were going to happen to me. And they did.

She looked at him with a coy smile, while his expression softened as he went to her, placing his hands on her waist and looking down at her. What— “That’s Chloe,” my brother said, his tone expressionless. “His girlfriend.”

damn

My chin trembled, and I nodded. Her plaid miniskirt or my hand-me-down jeans? Her tight shirt or my oversize sweatshirt? Her money, education, and whole fucking future in front of her or my . . . nothing? I shook my head. Fuck him. I didn’t need all that stuff, and if that’s what interested Kai—appearances—then I was better off. I’d be more than all of them.

He twisted his head, nudging my hand away. “You’re a lot of trouble.” “So, stop taking an interest.”

“Stay fucking still,” he growled at me. Kai advanced on him. “What the hell are you doing?” My brother turned to him. “You’re not messing with what’s mine, are you? I thought we were brothers and all.” I closed my eyes. Oh, God. I could feel Kai’s eyes on me. His confusion. “Yours?” he shot back. “I didn’t know she was yours. You acted like you didn’t know her in the Bell Tower!”

“That night—” “Don’t,” I said, interrupting him. He stopped, and I could hear his heavy breathing pouring out of his nose. “I love that he saw us that night,” he went on, his voice almost a growl. “Loved that furious look on his fucking face when he saw you all over me.”

Beautiful, simple, and the Horsemen’s center. Everything I would never be to anyone. Still, I couldn’t see why Damon was so obsessed with her.

I was supposed to be searching for Damon. I was supposed to be cleaning up what he had on me.

“And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” She wasn’t trying to be difficult. Just honest and straight with me, and I turned her words over in my head, finally nodding. I brought the napkin up and wiped off my mouth, setting it back down and holding her gaze. “I understand. I’m still not letting you go, though.”

“Do you have money to eat?” she spoke up. But I just laughed under my breath. “Give yourself a couple hits,” I told her, gesturing to the pipe. “You won’t care anymore.” Slamming the door, I let out a breath, my chest shaking as I squeezed my eyes shut. “I am important,” I whispered to myself.

But that didn’t happen, and I now realized it would never happen. I bit my bottom lip, trying not to cry anymore. We weren’t ever going to leave, were we? He was using me, too.

“You feel me?” he asked. “You feel how much I want you? I’m going to stick my tongue up inside you and lick until you’re screaming for me to let you come. You’re mine.”

I made to zip up the jacket, but all of a sudden it was ripped off me from behind, and I jerked around, seeing a smiling Alex snatching it back and shoving me in the chest, out the door. What the fuck? She slammed the locker room door closed, and I rushed back, jiggling the knob, but she was planted against it, not letting me in.

I stood there, my head level but my gaze on the floor as I chewed the inside of my cheek. “I’ll change as soon as my clothes are dry,” I told him, looking up. “Where can I get one of those polos the other desk clerks wear?” He didn’t answer for a moment, his gaze hesitantly glancing down and back up again. Hooding his eyes, he walked around me, toward the hallway. “We’re all out.”

liar🤣

“I sometimes feel possessive of Rika Fane like that, too,” he said, turning his gaze on me. “Although she’s not my sister.” I dug in my eyebrows, suddenly on alert. How did . . . He knew? Or maybe he just suspected, and I’d confirmed it when I freaked out during his little gamble. He half smiled, probably amused by the confusion on my face. “You look just like him. I don’t know how Kai doesn’t see it.”

he knows this whole time!!!

“Seriously,” I begged. “I don’t want to go. Damon would kill me if he found me with Kai again.” But he just ignored me. “Come on!” I yelled, kicking and hitting his back. “Don’t be an asshole! I don’t want to see him anyway. The dickhead barely put up a fight when I left, not man enough to come for me himself, huh?” A smack hit my ass, and I yelped. The burn spread out, making me wince.

hahahahaha

“Model father, that one.” He squeezed the backs of my thighs. “I think you’ll actually be safer with me.”

“Where are we going?” I tucked my hair behind my ears, making it easier for Ty to work. Her eyes gleamed. “Hide-and-seek.”

“The game is,” the girl stated, “a cross between hide-and-seek and seven minutes in heaven.” Seven minutes in heaven? I groaned inwardly. I’d already played that tonight. “You hide, and if you’re found,” she continued, “you and him get to have a few minutes alone.”

Then Michael leaned into my ear, whispering, “You don’t want Kai to find someone else, do you?” My lips quivered with a little snarl. “There’s no guarantee he’ll find me.” “Then make sure he does.”

hell yeah

And then he took a step. I sucked in a short breath. “What are you doing?” He took another step. “Giving you a head start.” My stomach leapt. “But I don’t . . . I didn’t want to play!” “Oh, you’ve been playing with me all night,” he said, a growl lacing his voice. “Run. Because I turn into a very different person when no one’s looking.”

But then, all of a sudden, he landed with a loud thud on the landing one short flight up, having leapt over the railings and two flights.

that's hot

“I only want you,” I breathed over his mouth, our soft lips taunting each other. “It’s not like that with him. I only talk to you.”

“I’m gonna sneak these legs open and fuck you in every corner I can get you in.” Groaning again, I turned my head and snatched up his mouth, so fucking hungry. His words. God, his words. “Fuck me,” I breathed out. “Chase me, steal me, and fuck me. Hide me, I don’t care.” He grabbed the back of my head, pulled me into his chest, and dry-fucked me harder, both of us panting and grunting and finally kissing as we both came. An electric current jolted and spread down my legs, my pussy so warm as I got wetter. “Mine,” he groaned.

“I like chasing you,” he said, a hint of a smile on his lips. “I like our foreplay.” I nodded. “I like it, too.”

“Yes.” I stuck my pen in the holder and raised my eyes to her. “No matter how you cover yourself, it’s never enough. You’re beautiful.”

And then the voice said, “Have you fucked her yet?” I raised my chin, my spine straightening. Heat flooded my veins. Damon.

“I think I understand now why you like her so much. Why, without the skimpy clothes, makeup, and hair, you find her so alluring.” I inhaled, liking this side of the playing a hell of a lot more. The side where I was on the offense. “She’s so repressed. It’s captivating to see her let go and lose herself. To realize she likes being seen as a woman.” And then I dragged out slowly, “And that she likes doing things a woman does.” I could feel his silence like it was his hands shoving against me. Only I wasn’t backing down. “So quiet all of a sudden?” I teased. “Nik is mine,” he stated, his voice clipped. “You will never be to her what I am to her.” Nik? Was that her first name? “And I will kill you in front of her,” he added.

“Go ahead,” he challenged. “Ask me. Ask me what only you and I know that you don’t want Will, Michael, and Rika to find out about.” My chest heaved with silent breaths. “Ask me where I buried the body when I cleaned up your shit six years ago.”

well shit

“Don’t tell me,” I choked out, completely deflated as I stared ahead, but I tried to be stronger. “Because if you do, I’ll bury you with her. And I know you’d hate that.”

her?!?!? he killed a girl

from me. How I was confused and angry and couldn’t seem to stop myself, and how the rage consumed me. How I wanted to hurt her, even though I didn’t really know her, but I hated her. How I loved Damon once, and how I knew Gabriel Torrance was wrong. I would do anything for his son. I have done anything for his son. I killed for him, and last year he turned around and nearly killed me.

damons mother maybe?

Cold girl—hard girl—why was I obsessed?

She clutched me, panting and nervous. “I’m his. I belong to him.” I nodded, forcing her back toward the bed. “Say it again.” I dived into her neck, biting the skin there. “I belong to him.” She moaned, letting her head fall back. “I’ll never be yours. I hate you.” “But you want me.”

What the fuck? I stilled. Her body shook, her nails dug into my shoulders, and she was breathing a mile a minute. It was pain, not pleasure. I stopped breathing. No, no, no . . . What? No. I lay there, staring down at her as my cock throbbed inside her. A virgin?

no shit

She opened her eyes, looking up into my pained face. Oh, God. What did I do? Her lips slowly curved into a half smile. “Yeah, you didn’t see that coming, did you?”

you little shit🤣

He pumped faster and rougher, going mad on top of me, until all I could do was hang on. Until all I felt like was a toy built for him to get off, and in the moment, I didn’t have one damn problem with that. I loved that he saw me like this. Loved that he wanted this from me.

I nodded once. My stomach rolled, and I was too horrified to come up with a lie. “It’s Natalya Torrance. Damon’s mother.” “His mother?” Confusion spread across his face as he turned to her again. “But . . .” But nothing. She disappeared three years ago when Damon had finally suffered enough. He had hurt himself, made me hurt him, and retreated into the horror show of his own head until one night she came for him one too many times.

She didn’t. I realized she wasn’t a pedophile in the strictest sense of the word. It wasn’t about his body or his youth. It was about him, and she was just psychotic.

“If you love her, she can hurt you,” Natalya told him. “If you hurt her instead, she’ll never escape you. You’ll always own her. She’s yours. You don’t ask, and you don’t care. Take what’s yours. Take her.” Her voice dropped so low I could barely hear. “Take her.”

So, Damon wasn’t the only goal here. Somewhere along the way, it had become about me, too. Gabriel made me work for Kai, so I did. But no contract, no Banks.

They started picking out stuff I hated, and before I knew it, I was tossing out garments I didn’t like and keeping ones I thought I might be able to wear. And after a few more minutes, I participated and shopped and shit. I sat there, still a little stunned.

I stared at Will as he drove, completely oblivious to whom I was talking to. “I gotta go,” I told my brother. “He’s going to die,” he spat out. He. Kai? “Not because he betrayed me, but because you did,” he explained. “This will be all your fault.”

Whatever. I wasn’t getting fucking married, and even though I no longer needed access to the hotel, I really loved having access to her. I liked her. A lot. Plus, she was my only link to Damon. I wasn’t ready to give her up yet, and she’d be gone the second I told Gabriel there was no deal.

“You’re such a brat, you know that?” I said. “I might spank you if I didn’t think you’d ask for seconds just to piss me off.” “I’ll never behave for you.” “Is that so?” She leaned in, whispering over my mouth. “You’re not scary without your mask, Kai Mori.”

The last time we were here together, she heard everything. Everything I didn’t want people to know. And I wanted one person who knew me. I didn’t want that tainted between us simply because I was afraid of what she would think. I needed her to understand.

I dropped my voice to a whisper. “She saw me the worst I’d ever behaved, and she still talked to me. Still listened. Still wrapped her arms around me and fuck it . . .” I choked out, tears welling. “We just, the three of us, needed that moment. Each for different reasons, but she made me feel like I wasn’t alone anymore. She made me feel wanted and strong. And it brought me a little peace for the first time in a long time.” I could feel her body shaking in my arms, and her breathing quivered. She cried softly. “But you . . .” I buried my nose in her neck, smelling something heady and fragrant. “You make me feel driven. You make me hungry and on fire and wanting to slow down time instead of wanting to rush through it. It’s you I look for when I walk in the doors in the morning. Not her. You.”

“You weren’t built for them,” I said in her ear as I reached around and rubbed her clit. “Not Damon or Gabriel or anyone else. You were made for me, and I want you in my bed tonight.” “I’m not sleeping in that shithole.”

And I wanted him to know I had to make an impossible choice. But in my head, tucked away where I kept my secrets, it would always be him. Ten years . . . twenty years down the road I would watch him from a distance and see him build his life and be happy if he was happy. I wanted him to know I loved our foreplay. I wanted him to know I loved him. “I wish I could keep you,” I said. “People like me don’t get what they want, though. They earn what they need to survive,