I hadn’t liked Diego much, but I’d come around to him a little when I’d had a glimpse of the shitty upbringing he’d had. It was difficult to let go of my inner instincts which were raging over what he could have done. He’d tried to drug the Vegas, even had drugged Tory and could have done fuck knows what to her if Darius hadn’t stepped in. He’d been planning on bringing them to his psychotic mother and uncle, so how could I forgive that?
He may have been threatened into it, but it still made my fangs prickle as I looked at the two girls who’d come into this world with too many enemies to count. Even one of their friends had been plotting against them.
“Good is a strong word,” Darius growled. “He fucked with the twins, and he could have killed them.” He gripped Tory’s hand, his knuckles turning white as he held onto her and smoke seeped between his teeth. “If I hadn’t intervened that night when he’d managed to drug Roxy in The Orb then she would be dead right now.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have been that shit faced that night. I can handle my damn drink,” Tory muttered. “But then I woke up in your room and I was more concerned about what I might have done with you than I was on figuring out why I’d been so wasted.”
“I should have questioned it more,” Darius sighed, his eyes flickering with fire.
“So should I,” Tory said. “But I just got caught up in all that shit between us and my nightmares-”
“Nightmares I gave you,” Darius replied, his brow pinching as he looked at her, his guilt over the way he’d treated her plain on his face as she raised her chin and looked right back at him, not giving him a free pass but not making any more of it either.
“Well, I don’t fear drowning anymore,” she replied, expelling a heavy breath. “My nightmares have a much clearer face these days. But I should have realised what Diego had done back then. Maybe things would have been different if I had.”
Darcy reached for her, shaking her head as she took her hand.
“He was forced into it,” Darcy said and I shifted in my seat as I looked at her. She was so fucking everything to me, and despite understanding that, all I could think about was her lying in a grave because of Diego and it awoke a monster in me, one more violent than any criminal I’d met in Darkmore.
Protectiveness was clawing at my chest and I was finding it very difficult to see beyond Diego putting that fucking knotroot in Darcy and her sister’s drinks. Even if he had been threatened. Even if I could understand why he’d done it. I was still pretty sure I would have murdered him if he was standing before me now for the threat he’d posed to my girl.
“You should know better than most what it’s like to do things you didn’t want to because you were threatened into them,” Tory said, arching a brow at Darius and he ran his tongue across his teeth.
“Touché,” he muttered and Seth, Caleb and Max all shared a look.
“I never liked his hat,” Seth said thoughtfully. “Now I get why. I must have been sensing its evilness.”
Caleb gave him a hollow look. “Bullshit, you didn’t sense shit.”
“I did!” Seth insisted. “That hat was always giving me the heebies.”
“I never even paid attention to the kid,” Max said with a frown. “If I had, maybe I might have gotten a good read on him. He just had a really forgettable face, you know? Like one minute he was there then it was like…I’d totally forgotten he even existed. Like even now, I can picture his hat so much clearer than his face. But also that could be because the hat is right there.” He pointed to the hat as he squinted in concentration like he was trying to remember what Diego had looked like.
“Maybe it was a Nymph power,” Seth suggested mysteriously. “Maybe he made us all forget he was there so he could try and probe us in the night.”
“You lot are always so busy playing kings of the world that I bet you couldn’t name ninety percent of the students you go to school with,” I said dryly and the Heirs considered that before conceding with a nod.
“Good point,” Seth said. “I once had a girl suck me off seven nights in a row. She had my name tattooed on the back of her neck, made me a mix tape with every single one of my favourite songs on it and I just called her Blowie the whole time because I couldn’t remember her name. To her face, guys. To her face.”
“That’s because you’re an asshole,” Caleb laughed.