Page 34 of Crooked Crows (Boys of Briar Hall 1)

“Maybe in a bit,” I told her, stealing the joint for a quick puff instead. She shrugged and put it back in her purse, discarding the cup.

Me and alcohol had a rocky relationship at best.

Let’s just say my particular flavor of darkness liked to bathe in whiskey. I’d once blacked out a whole evening only to find out the next day that I’d apparently ripped a chunk of Bethany Vargus’ hair out and shaved off her brother Kenny’s eyebrows after he passed out drunk. Their crime? Not caring that their family dog went missing during their party.

I was only fifteen.

And I really liked dogs. I also thought I was letting them off easy.

It happened again last year, but that time someone wound up being taken away by ambulance. No one knew who hurt the guy, but I did. Even if I couldn’t remember. Those cuts could have only been inflicted by someone who knew their way around a blade. And mine were stained red when I woke up the next day.

Probably best not to see how gin affected me.

“Come on,” Becca called over the music, taking back her joint. “Let’s dance.”

She skipped through the party goers, finding a place in the middle of the floor, already rolling her shoulders with the beat.

All around us, warm, half naked bodies grinded against one another in time with the thud of the music. Lips met in sloppy kisses. Hips rolled and greedy fingers grasped and groped. These spoiled rich kids might’ve thought they were better than all the rest, but they were just as down and dirty as any you’d find in Lennox. Hell, maybe even more so.

I was pretty sure that girl over there was straight up getting finger fucked on the dancefloor, but by the way her head was tipped back against the guy’s shoulder in ecstasy, I didn’t think she minded the audience. Probably enjoyed it.

A group of scantily dressed girls next to us shoutedcheers!and tapped their little white pills together as though they were champagne flutes, before swallowing them down with shrieks of elation.

A guy with a black backpack counted cash one of the girls stuffed into his hand and nodded toward the back of the building.

That was when I saw them.

The Crows roosted atop a raised platform at the back of the warehouse-like structure. With the majority of the overhead lights pointed at the dance floor, they were mostly concealed by shadow, little flickers of their faces visible with the brightest of the colors.

Behind them stood a pair of double doors, their square windows showing low lighting within. A guy, barely visible on the other side, pressed down on a pretty blonde head and then tipped his back in ecstasy. Uncaring that everyone outside could clearly see his slack jawed expression as the chick sucked him off.

“They call it the Red Room,” Becca explained, her voice rising over the din of music and conversation. “You know? Like Fifty Shades?”

So they had an orgy room…

Classy. I rolled my eyes before unintentionally letting my gaze fall back to them.

The Crows sat on a long black sectional, looking like kings overseeing their kingdom.

Rook, with his feet kicked up on a low table, took a swallow from a silver flask before passing it to Grey. I spotted a bit of white gauze poking out from beneath the sleeve of his t-shirt and felt all warm inside. Knowing that marking was mine, and that it would likely scar, forcing him to remember me every time he looked at it.

Corvus leaned forward over his knees, his eyes laser focused as they dragged over the bodies crowding the pier. Until they found me, and stopped.

“Show me what you got!” Becca shouted, spinning in a circle as she shook her hips to a top forty song, oblivious to the eyes watching us. Now three sets instead of just one.

A muscle in my temple jumped as I clenched my jaw, willing them to look away. Nothing to see here. Move.The Fuck. Along.

Instinctively, my gaze slid to Grey, and I found him smirking, leaning back to settle in, crossing his arms over his chest in a move that told me he wasn’t planning on looking anywhere else anytime soon.

Fine. They wanted a show? I’d give them a show.

I came here to have a good time. Something I hadn’t had in too long to remember. And they weren’t going to ruin it for me.

I began to dance, feeling the music, letting it pull and twist and curl my body, closing my eyes to welcome it in and block them out.

“Damn, girl!” Becca said as she dropped the last of her joint on the wooden floor and stomped it out with the toe of her boot. “You can move!”

“Got my mom’s stripper hips,” I hollered back, regretting the admission as soon as it slipped out. I danced around Becca so my back was to the dais, and the Crows, but I could still feel them watching my every move.

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