Nightfall (Devil's Night #4) - Penelope Douglas Page 0,197

told them and spun around, heading out of the room.

But then I heard a chair creak and Alex’s voice behind me. “I want my shirt,” she blurted out. “Now.”

I twisted around, seeing her standing and challenging me with her hand out.

“And my sneakers,” she said.

“Get fucked, Alex Palmer!” I bellowed, flipping her both of my middle fingers.

She started for me, but just then the lights went out, the train lurched, and the wheels underneath us screamed as I flew back into the wall and crashed to my ass.

I winced. What the hell?

Moonlight cast a soft glow in the car, and I saw Will jostle in his seat. Alex flew forward, landing on her hands and knees in front of me. One of the guys cursed, and a woman cried out.

I gasped, looking around the dark compartment, seeing Will still seated and righting himself, while Michael pushed himself to his feet and took out his phone.

“What was that?” Kai snapped.

“Everyone okay?” Erika asked.

The train had stopped, but I just looked up and met Alex’s glare in the darkness as she looked at me like she wanted to kill me.

Right there in the darkness with everyone distracted.

Will’s body ten feet away warmed my skin. Feeling his eyes suddenly on us, my heart beat so hard in my chest I could hear it in my ears.

“What’s wrong?” Michael asked.

He must be on the phone, but I didn’t look away from Alex.

“Okay, got it,” I heard Michael say in the distance. “Yes, we’re all right. Send an attendant to check the rest of the cars. Thank you.”

The V of Alex’s gray T-shirt hung open as I gazed down the tunnel between her breasts. I dug my nails into the carpet.

“The trip stop engaged,” someone said. “We were going too fast. It won’t take long to get the railyard to throw the switch and get us going again.”

But no one responded to him. Something pulled at me, and I looked over, seeing Will leaned back in his seat, arms slung over the back of the sofa, and his eyes locked on me.

Alex grabbed my foot, and I sucked in a breath, turning my eyes on her.

She stared at me, and then slowly…slid her other hand up my ankle, held my leg, and pulled her shoe off my body.

Heat rushed in my veins.

The eye of the storm. The eye of the storm.

I drew in a breath and gently exhaled, calming my breathing as I leaned back on my hands and let her take my other leg, pull it up, and slide off the other sneaker.

Rain hit the windows, the forest silent outside under the cover of night, and Michael lit a candle, everyone in the room looming in the background as the hairs on my body stood on end.

Everyone was silent.

There. Filling the room.

Watching us.

She gripped my ankle.

“I don’t want to fight,” I murmured.

But she retorted, “I still want my shirt.”

Will didn’t move, but I heard his intake of breath.

The pounding in my chest grew harder, and I felt his eyes and the heat pooling between my legs. I couldn’t think about anything.

No fear. No doubt. Just the moment.

There was nothing about me to lose that I wanted to keep.

Slowly, I pushed off the floor, Alex rising with me, and I wasn’t going to run.

I unbuttoned my shirt.

“Do you think he’s dead?” Alex whispered, closing the distance between us.

“No.” I moved my hands down, unfastening one button after another. “You know he’s not.”

Aydin had destroyed his life over her. He was too single-minded to die yet.

Slipping the shirt off my shoulders, I handed it to her, and she took it, letting it immediately drop to the floor.

“That’s my favorite corset,” she told me, not breaking eye contact.

I swallowed, my stomach dropping a little. I could feel six pairs of eyes all over the bare skin of my arms and chest.

With my gaze locked on her, I started unfastening the hooks, thinking about her bare chested at that party, and me feeling in front of Will right now what she would’ve felt in front of Aydin that night in the pool.

Others looking. Standing and not backing down.

If this made her feel stronger in front of her crew, I could take it.

Let’s see how far she wanted to push this.

She dropped her head, her hair brushing my cheekbone as she ran her knuckles over the lace on my stomach. “You look good in it.”

I unfastened the last hook, whispering, “It feels good.”

Hesitating only a moment, maybe wondering if