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“I’m not going to say anything stuuupid,” I slurred, my tongue feeling more numb than loose.
“You don’t have tosayanything to have people talking. East is already trying to work out if you were body-snatched tonight, and if you think for one second he’s going to let this go tomorrow, you got another thing coming.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see East dancing with a tall blond wearing leather pants and not much else. But his eyes were locked on us—shit.
“Exactly. I don’t know what set you off, but I have a feeling it starts with Daddy and ends with Filth?—”
“Shut the hell up.”
“Mhmm. I think maybe you should call it a night and go sleep it off.”
“I don’t want—” My words were cut off as Travis grabbed my elbow and towed me toward the doors. I followed after him, my legs like Jell-O, and I had to admit I was glad for his hand. As we weaved through the people lingering around the front entrance, I had a feeling I would’ve face-planted if I’d been making a go of it on my own.
Jesus. What had been in those drinks?
As our feet hit the pavement, Scotty—our driver—pulled up in the Sprinter van our group used to get around the city, and the next thing I knew, Travis was putting me in the car.
I slumped down into the seat and heard him tell Scotty, “Take him home, would you?”
As the door slid shut, I glared out the window at the cars whizzing by. Horns honked as taxis, buses, and cars navigated the busy city streets, but as Scotty pulled away from the curb, all I could hear echoing in my head was?—
You were a mistake…
A mistake…
A mistake…
A mistake, was I?
Well, if that was what the patronizing Mr. Archer Carrington thought, then he could say it to my damn face.
I leaned forward and tapped Scotty on the arm. “Change of plans. Take me to the Carringtons’ place.”
SEVEN
archer
THE SOUND OF my doorbell being rung incessantly woke me out of a dead sleep.
I shot up in the bed, even as my eyes struggled to open, and reached over to switch on the lamp. A quick glance at the time on my phone showed that it was after one a.m., which meant I hadn’t been asleep for too long.
I couldn’t help the panic that filled my chest as the doorbell kept ringing, wondering who it could be at such a late hour and automatically thinking it was an emergency. There were no missed calls or texts on my phone, but that didn’t mean much, and I quickly threw on the pajama pants by my bed and practically ran downstairs.
Please let everything be okay, please let Serena be fine?—
After turning off the alarm, I threw open the door…and my heart seized.
It wasn’t a police officer standing there, or even a firefighter. It was someone even more unwelcome, if that was possible.
Preston was leaning against the exterior wood paneling of my porch, his finger on the doorbell, continuing to hit the button until he finally looked up to realize I was standing there in frontof him. His hand dropped to his side and his glazed eyes widened before doing a long, lazy once-over of my body.
“Wow. You’re shirtless,” he said, words slurring as he pushed off the wall, but the move caused him to stumble precariously close to the edge of the stairs, and I jerked forward, grabbing him by the arms before he could fall.
“Preston, what the fuck?” The panic I’d felt before opening the door turned into shock once I saw who was standing there, but now? Having a drunken visitor in the middle of the night was wild enough, but Preston?
Unacceptable.
“Have you lost your mind?” I snapped, righting him so he could stand on his own. The moment he stopped swaying, I took a step back, because I didn’t need to be touching him. “What are you doing here?”
