away again.
Ivy is a smart girl, and I have no doubt she’ll escape within a few hours, which means I should keep my phone handy for when she calls.
What does surprise me is that Gabriel was able to abduct Ivy at all. She’s not exactly the type of idiot to jump into a person’s white van, even if she was sold off by my asshole for a little brother.
Which makes me wonder if Ivy hadn’t gone with Gabe willingly.
I’m not even a hundred percent sure Ivy doesn’t want to be with him. It wouldn’t surprise me at all for those two to end up together. I just wonder if the world would survive whatever they could do if they ever decided to team up.
Sadly, it’s the least of my problems, and I’m reminded of that fact when the doorbell rings.
My eyes shut, and I toss up a silent prayer that Ezra is in a better mood today, especially with my brother and his idiot friends already causing problems.
I make it down the hall to see that neither Dylan nor his friends got up to answer the door. Then again, I highly doubt any of them heard the bell over the music.
Taking a steadying breath, I ready myself for the impact of Ezra’s pissed off stare, but step back in surprise when it’s Damon on the other side.
He gives me a crooked grin.
“You look surprised to see me.”
His eyes don’t match the expression he’s wearing, but I can’t read what’s behind them.
“Uh, yeah. I was expecting Ezra.”
The crooked grin tightens, but he blinks his eyes and shakes it off, something else wavering behind his amber stare that tugs at my heart.
“Are you going to let me in?”
No.
Yes.
Damn it.
“Yeah.” I step back and wait as he steps in, the room suddenly small, the air around me chaos.
Damon is angry about something, although I’m not sure what. It’s obvious by the tension in his shoulders and jaw, by the way his hand stretches and fists repeatedly, by the way his stare cuts my direction as if assessing me.
Then, as if he’d been somewhere else entirely, he notices the loud music pumping from the other room.
Tilting his head that direction, he asks, “Your brother?”
I nod, but then my eyes widen as he storms toward the hall, my hands feebly grabbing onto his arm as he easily shakes free of me and keeps going.
“Damon!”
Too late.
He grabs Dylan before I can walk into the room, my brother’s back slamming against a wall after Damon drags him from his chair and across the room.
I can’t hear what Damon is saying to Dylan over the music, but I’m not sure I want to. I’m too concerned about Dylan’s friends bristling like they want to jump in.
Six against one.
Bad odds.
Somehow I think Damon would still handle it.
Fuck this shit.
I’m so tired of all these men throwing their weight around without any concern for how it affects me.
Storming over to the stereo, I turn it off, then walk into the middle of the room to give my orders now that my temper has been pushed to its absolute limit.
“You five. Don’t you dare get involved. And Damon!”
He’s still in Dylan’s face, his fist gripping Dylan’s shirt, holding him in place. They’re nose to nose, but whatever Damon had to say must be over.
Seconds of tension pass, Damon’s hand finally releasing Dylan as he takes a step back.
“I mean it,” he warns. “Stop making her life hell.”
He stalks off into the hall, and my eyes lock with Dylan’s. I don’t know what to do about my little brother.
Obviously, he’s going through something that’s causing him to act out, but it’s no use talking to him about it. He won’t have a casual conversation with me, much less open up.
“I’m sorry about that,” I mutter.
He pushes away from the wall to walk back to the chair where he’d been sitting to begin with.
“Keep your dogs under control,” he grumbles as if he couldn’t care less what Damon did, most likely playing it off in front of his friends. “They’re getting really fucking annoying.”
With nothing I can say to that, I leave the room and head down the hall. Damon is pacing in my room, obviously agitated, his chaotic energy suffocating.
“Why did you do that?”
Head snapping up, he stops in place and stares at me.
Rather than answering my question, he asks one of his own.
“Why did you never tell me about the promise you made to Ezra?”
Fuck...
That’s the last question I want to