lighting over at this table is significantly better.” I watch in abject horror as Lucas slides the hostess a crisp one hundred dollar bill before sitting at the table directly beside ours. Cassian, Elias, and Karsyn join him.
What the fuckity fuck?
Why are they here?
Why are they together?
They’re not even friends anymore, dammit! They hate each other. I can practically taste the animosity saturating the air.
Emmett narrows his eyes at the four Devils while I just gape wordlessly.
“What are you guys doing here?” Emmett demands through clenched teeth.
Lucas smiles darkly.
“Can’t we enjoy a nice meal before the party tonight?”
“Y-You guys…don’t talk!” I manage to stutter out, pointing wildly between the four of them.
“And this is a date restaurant,” Emmett adds.
“Are you saying we can’t be on a date?” Cassian throws his head back in raucous laughter before tossing an arm around the back of Karsyn’s seat. If Cassian is here, if he’s laughing, it means that he hasn’t heard about what I did. Yet. “Come here, baby, and give me a kiss.”
Karsyn makes a face. “I’d rather cut off my balls.”
“Or let me suck them. Don’t play hard to get,” Cassian teases.
Karsyn releases a disgruntled huff. “Oh, all right. As long as you don’t use your teeth.”
Lucas shakes his head at their antics, his expression utterly impassive, before turning to spear me in place with a single look.
“Peony, I didn’t know I’d find you here.”
“You did,” I say firmly, once I finally overcome my initial shock. “You heard Emmett ask me, and then you heard us finalize our plans.”
“Did I?” His expression doesn’t change once. Not even a minuscule twitch of his lips.
My hands tremble beneath the table as I glance from face to face. What exactly are they up to? What are they planning to do to me?
“If you’ll excuse me…”
Ignoring Emmett’s protests, I stomp away from the table and exit the restaurant. And then I don’t stop walking until I’m hidden in a connected alleyway, my back resting against the cold brick wall. I take deep, stuttered breaths as anger rampages through me.
How dare they?
How fucking dare they?
“I told the guys I needed to take a piss,” a familiar voice says nonchalantly, a moment before he leans against the wall beside me. “I don’t think they believe me, but they were too busy glaring daggers at each other to stop me.”
“Elias,” I say coolly.
“Peony,” he replies back, but unlike me, there’s the slightest hint of amusement in his tone. He reaches into his leather jacket pocket and procures a box of cigarettes and then a lighter. He places one between his lips and then uses both hands to light it.
“Isn’t that super stereotypical of you?” I deadpan as I stare at his face illuminated by the crackling orange fire. “The leather-jacket wearing, bad boy biker smoking?”
He releases a rough guffaw.
“And isn’t this stereotypical of you? Pretty girl hiding from her date because she knows she doesn’t belong to him.”
“Fuck you, Elias,” I hiss. “You’re such an asshole.”
“Maybe.” He shrugs, seemingly unconcerned. “I’m a lot of things. A nightmare, for one. A monster. I never said I was the good guy, and I don’t think I ever will.”
“So you’re okay with walking through life acting like a massive dick?” I snap, folding my arms over my chest as a sudden gust of wind causes goosebumps to pebble on my legs.
“I have a massive dick,” Elias teases as he unzips his leather jacket. Before I can protest, he drapes it over my shoulders, and I’m assaulted by his distinct scent of leather and grease, combined with something sweet from his cologne.
“Why are you here?” I demand, trying to ignore the desperate urge I have to bury my nose into his jacket and inhale deeply. “And I know it’s not for the breadsticks.”
“The breadsticks are good, but no. That’s not why we’re here.” His eyes bore into mine, but he doesn’t bother to answer my question. Fucking prick.
“I see that the old gang is back together again,” I say curtly, and he simply nods his head once.
“We are.”
Silence descends as we stare at one another, the frigid wind battering against our cheeks.
“Why are you guys back together again?” I hiss when it becomes too much. Then again, everything about these Devils is too fucking much.
“The same reason we got together in the first place. The same reason we broke up.”
My heart hammers in my chest, but I can’t figure out why. His eyes captivate me, making me incapable of speech.
“I hope that