Page 65 of Alluring Darkness
Can’t be fixed.
I really am broken beyond repair, aren’t I?
26
ELI
My phone vibrates in my pocket. Lowering the gun, I place it on the small counter in front of me and fish out my phone. I glance down at the name visible on the display. It’s a guy from my senior class. A frown creases my brow. We’re not exactly friends, so why the hell is he calling me?
I slide the answer button. Since it’s late on a Saturday night, the indoor firing range is empty apart from me, so I don’t have to worry about other people’s noise as I hold my phone to my ear.
“What?” I demand.
“Hi,” he blurts out, sounding a bit stunned by my brusque reply. “I’m—”
“I know who you are. Why are you calling me?”
“I… well, I saw that girl that you’re, uhm… That you’re… well…”
My heart lurches in my chest.Raina. Shifting the phone into a better position, I listen to him stutter as he tries to define what exactly Raina is to me, and failing miserably, for another few seconds before I cut him off.
“Raina,” I say.
“Yes, her,” he replies, sounding relieved.
“What about her?”
“Well, I’m downtown and I just walked past that bar on High Street. Silver Saint, on the corner there, you know? And well, I saw her through the window. She’s there. Alone. And as far as I could tell, she’s drunk out of her mind.”
The blood freezes in my veins.
“I, uhm,” he continues. “I just thought you might want to know.”
“Thanks.”
I hang up. Leaving the gun and equipment for someone else to clean up, I run out of the building and towards the parking lot.
Fury and frustration, and a tiny bit of worry, whirl through my soul as I throw myself into my car and floor it. The car practically skids out of the parking lot, and then I’m speeding down the street and towards the city.
What the fuck is Raina doing blackout drunk in a bar downtown? She told me that she was visiting her family tonight, which is why I, against my better judgement, allowed her to leave campus. If that was a lie so that she could go out partying, I’m going to make her fucking crawl.
Since I’m connected to the Morelli family, I often get people trying to do me favors so that I’ll put in a good word for them when they inevitably apply for a position there. And right now, I’m incredibly fucking thankful for that, because otherwise, that guy would never have called and I would never have known about Raina’s little rebellion.
Dark fields flash past my vision until they’re finally replaced by glowing streetlamps and long rows of houses. I drive all the way up to the Silver Saint and park my car right there on the side of the road. The car behind me honks loudly at my abrupt stop. But the moment I step out of the car, the other driver yanks on the steering wheel and does a U-turn before speeding out of there as if he’s afraid I’m going to hunt him down. I might have. If I hadn’t been so distracted by the thought of Raina stumbling around inside the bar in front of me.
Yanking the door open, I stalk across the threshold.
The bartender opens his mouth as if to call out a greeting, or maybe ask what I want, but no words make it out when his gaze lands on me. Color drains from his pinched face, and he swallows nervously.
I pay him no mind as I quickly scan the bar.
It’s a crowded and dimly lit place with furniture made of dark wood. Most of the patrons are deep in their cups, and a constant murmur of voices hangs over the area.
My gaze snaps to a woman slumped on a chair close to the dartboard on the other side of the room, and for a second, I swear my heart stops beating.
Raina’s eyes are open, but she’s barely sitting up. Instead, she’s leaning the back of her head against the wall behind her and staring up at the ceiling. There’s a loopy grin on her face, as if she finds something absolutely hilarious up there in the dark ceiling.
Rage roars through me as I notice two men hovering close to her, watching her with hungry eyes. I storm towards them.