I clenched my teeth, pressing the needles in hard. His muscle jerked under my hand, but still, he stayed fixed on me.

“What was her name again?” he asked softly. “Emory?”

My arms burned until I realized every muscle in my body was tensed. I forced the lump down my throat.

“Those eyes…” he murmured. “Brown with flecks of gold. They’re beautiful. I wonder what they look like staring down at you in the heat of it.”

I stared so hard at his shoulder and the design he’d instructed I tattoo that I was surprised his skin didn’t catch fire.

“How do I make her come?” he asked, watching me.

I tightened my hold on the instrument.

“Some women need a thumb on the clit when you’re inside them, you know?” he taunted. “Does she like men to do that to her?”

I gritted my teeth, punching a hole in his skin and hearing the little pop. He hissed under his breath but then smiled, pleased he’d gotten to me.

“Our fathers didn’t send us here to learn how to behave, Will. They would enjoy her, too, with or without her permission.” He paused and then continued. “They sent us here as punishment for not being more mindful of discretion. To learn how to not be sloppy,” he explained.

My father didn’t send me here. I didn’t understand how any father could send his child to a place like this, because one thing would be for certain if they ever got out: Blood isn’t love, and love is the only thing that begets loyalty.

I looked at Aydin, who now stared at the ceiling again. In my time here, I’d figured out Micah, Rory, and even Taylor, but Aydin…

He’d been here the longest, and by this point, he might’ve come too far to go back anymore.

“When I was twenty, I was at a resort wedding,” he told me, a faraway look in his eyes, “and I watched one of my father’s business associates drug his own wife, lay her down on a bed, and back away as he let my father climb on top of her and fuck her to seal a deal.”

I paused, something like pain crossing his eyes. But then it was gone.

“After a while, you know you’ll never escape it,” he said, “so you can either keep fighting the ugly, or you can reinvent it.” He turned his eyes on me again. “The biggest difference between my father and me is I just didn’t care if anyone saw the blood on the walls.”

I couldn’t move for a moment.

Em…

I dropped my eyes and finished the design, scratching in the last of the color.

“Don’t worry,” he told me. “I’m nothing like my father. Or Taylor, or Damon Torrance. I don’t force or coerce.” He dropped his voice. “It’ll hurt you more if she wants it.”

Then he reached down, kneading his cock through his pants, and the needles in my hand shook for a moment as the temptation sat there in my gut.

I had Micah and Rory. Taylor could be controlled.

No one would touch Emory if I ended Aydin right here and now.

He laid there, watching me and waiting for it, giving me my chance—daring me, but…

Finally, he just smiled and sat up, taking a clean cloth from the table and patting the blood off his shoulder.

“Everything is part of a bigger plan,” he said. “Whether it’s God or fate or something else, I honestly believe that, Will.” He tossed the cloth and looked at me. “We were always going to be important to each other.”

I raised my eyes, unable to hide the scowl.

He grabbed the back of my neck, giving me his reassuring little pat, and then nodded to the black garbage bags I had sitting close by to wrap up his tattoo.

“Finish me up,” he said. “It’s going to be a night.”

Will

Nine Years Ago

I should’ve touched her.

I took a drag off the cigarette and dumped Damon’s lighter back into the cup holder, blowing smoke out the driver’s side window.

But no. She wouldn’t have wanted me to.

I rubbed my temple and closed my eyes. She was killing me. Had been killing me for years.

Real monsters don’t wear masks, William Grayson III. A smile pulled at my lips. She was unpredictable, though, wasn’t she? I couldn’t stop thinking about last night and the lock-in.

I took another drag and blew out the smoke as I squeezed the steering wheel under my fist.

“Is this pissing you off?” Michael asked next to me, and I could hear the humor in his voice as he relaxed his ass in the passenger side seat of my truck.

I looked over, seeing him stare at my white-knuckled fist wrapped around my steering wheel.

“Nothing pisses me off,” I mumbled, seeing his head tilted back and his eyes hooded. “Except when I drive, it’s Damon and me up front,” I pointed out. “On the rare occasion you let me drive for the night.”

“The only reason you’re driving is so we can cart the keg to the church,” he told me. “If you didn’t have a truck—”

“Then I might be useless?” I finished for him.

He laughed.

But he didn’t argue, did he?

“That three-pointer from the wing sure wasn’t useless,” Kai joked from the back.

I shot him a look in my rearview mirror, but his face was buried in some booklet.

I shook my head and turned my eyes out the window. I had my talents. At least I was on for the game last night.

“About fucking time,” Michael grumbled.

I blew out a puff of smoke and followed his gaze, seeing Damon finally jog out of the cathedral and across the street.

Switching the cigarette to my left hand, I started the engine again.

“Get out.” Damon opened up the passenger side door and jerked his thumb at Michael. “Now.”

But Michael just sat there, looking amused.

Damon cocked an eyebrow. “I will put you in my lap if you want,” he told him, “but I’m sitting there.”

I laughed under my breath. Michael knew the rules. When he drove, which was almost always, Kai rode shotgun. When I drove, Damon and I were the ones in charge.

After twiddling his thumbs for a moment, Michael finally gave in. He hopped out of the truck, both of them trying to stare each other down like it was a pissing contest.

“I was almost hoping you’d put up more of a fight,” Damon taunted.

Michael teased back. “Make ya hard, do I?”

Damon smiled and climbed in, while Michael circled the truck and got in behind me.

“What took you so long?” I griped, shifting the truck into gear. “What the hell do you do in there so long?”

“He’s in there every Wednesday night,” Kai pointed out. “They got some meeting of the over-eighteen female chastity club or something?”

“Come on,” Damon whined. “That’s way too easy for me. They don’t have to be eighteen.”

“Or female,” Kai added.

I snorted as Damon whipped around and threw a playful punch at Kai. “Bastard.”

Kai just laughed, trying to shield himself.

I shook my head, pulling away from the curb and steering back onto the street.

But then Damon shouted at me. “Wait, wait, stop.”

I slammed on my brakes, seeing Griffin Ashby, the town’s mayor, dart in front of my truck.