Scoffing, I glance over at her again, my stomach twisting. I’m not jealous; Charley just deserves better than that douchebag treating her like a piece of meat in front of a room full of drunk idiots.
As the night progresses and people get louder and more obnoxious, I decide to step outside for some fresh air. I’ve never been a big party guy; I just don’t see the appeal of getting shit-faced and acting like a fool, but after the big win tonight, it was kind of expected that I would come. Checking my phone, I groan when I see it’s a little after midnight. I consider going home, but my parents think I’m at Landon’s, and I don’t feel like explaining to them why I’m not.
A group of guys walks past me toward the back of the house as I scroll through my phone, and when I hear one of them say, “…slipped it into her drink,” my hackles immediately rise, and I’m on high alert. Only catching the tail end of it before they disappear around the corner, I’m not able to confirm who, exactly, they’re talking about, but I’ve heard enough to know something isn’t right. Shoving my phone in my pocket, I storm inside, on the hunt for Charley, somehow knowing in my gut that she’s theherthey were talking about. She’s not in the living room, where she’s been all night, nor in the kitchen or the dining room, and as I check down the hall in each of the rooms down here, she’s not in any of those either. Reaching the staircase, I take them two at a time, my heart pounding more violently with each room I check and come up empty.
Maybe I’ve got it all wrong.
Maybe Charley went home, and I’m freaking out over nothing.
But I can’t shake this uneasy feeling.
Reaching the last room, I try the knob, finding it locked. I wiggle it a few more times, like it’ll magically unlock, before pounding my fist on the door. At this point, I don’t care who’sin there or what they’re doing, I just know in my gut I have to get inside. When nobody answers, I do it again, my pulse racing. “Charley? Charley, are you in there?”
“Room’s occupied,” a deep voice calls out, and despite their voice being muffled, I know exactly who it is.
“Open the fucking door!” I roar, hammering my fist against the wood again. “You better not have laid a fucking hand on her, you sick fuck!”
The door swings open before I have a chance to knock again. “Mind your own fucking—” he starts to say, but is cut off when my shoulder collides with his bare chest, shoving my way into the room. Once inside, my gaze lands on the bed—where Charley’s lying on top of it, unconscious, shirt ripped open, the button on her shorts undone and the zipper down, and there’s a tear in her fishnets right below her knee, I’m guessing from when he took off her boots.
“You motherfucker,” I seethe, spinning around and grabbing him by the throat. Slamming his back against the wall, I tighten my grip, rearing my other arm back, and sending my fist directly on his nose. There’s a pounding in my ears as I land another one, and another, but before I can keep going, someone barges into the room.
Blake.
Wild eyes look from his brother, who I’m still pinning to the wall as blood drains from his nose, to me. “What the fuck is going on in here, Astor?”
“What’s going on in here, is your fucking piece of shit, predator brother slipped something in her drink and was in the middle of undressing her when I came up here,” I spit out as I drop my hand from around David’s throat and walk over to Charley, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her. Reaching behind me, I tug my shirt over my head, draping it over her chest to cover her.
“What?” Blake looks at his brother again, who has now collapsed onto the floor like a sack of potatoes. “You don’t know that. You can’t just go around accusing people of something like that.”
“You’re not that fucking stupid, Blake. Look at her!” I bark, my left eye twitching and my heart beating so fast, it feels like it’s about to burst from my chest. “Charley is fuckingunconscious,bro, and your brother was in here undressing her!”
Blake’s jaw pops as he holds my gaze. “I hear you,” he murmurs. “But we don’t know for sure what happened. For all we know, she could’ve just had too much to drink.”
I’m off the bed and across the room in a flash, grabbing Blake by the shirt. Teeth bared, I bark, “Even if that were the case, she isclearlynot in a position to consent to a goddamn thing. You think that’s okay? Huh?”
“He was drinking too, so how about you back the fuck off.”
“He’s fucking lucky nothing happened, or I would’ve killed him with my bare fucking hands.” Shoving him away, I add, “You make me sick, both of you. Get him the fuck out of here before I change my mind and strangle him for the hell of it.”
“This is his bedroom, dude,” he scoffs. “Where the hell would you like me to take him?”
“A six-foot hole in the ground would be preferred,” I grind out as I sit beside Charley and work my t-shirt over her head. Her eyes open briefly, gaze unfocused and looking nowhere in particular. She lets out a small groan as I thread her arm through the sleeve before moving on to the next. I hear the shuffling of Blake moving his brother out of the room, but he doesn’t say a word.
After a quick glance around the room to make sure I’m not forgetting anything of hers, I scoop Charley into my arms and leave, using the back door to avoid any confrontation or attention from the other partygoers. I’m able to get her in my carwithout any trouble. I lay her down across the backseat, knowing it’s probably not the safest, but my house is only a few minutes away. Parking down the street, I carry her to the loft above the garage, doubting she wants anyone in my family to see her like this.
Laying Charley on her side on the bed, I sit beside her and untie the laces on her boots. As I’m pulling the last one off, she stirs and groans, and when I glance up at her face, her eyes are open. She blinks a few times, her brows cinched together, in what has to be confusion, before her icy-blue eyes find mine. Panic rises in my chest as I realize how bad this looks—us in my parents’ loft, Charley wearing my shirt as I take off her boots—but it fades as soon as she opens her mouth. “Graham?”
“Hey, Sunny,” I murmur, my chest tight at the roughness in her voice. “I was just getting you ready for bed. Do you want some water?”
Her brow furrows, and she nods. “Where are we?”
Crossing through the small space, I grab a glass out of the cabinet, filling it about half full. “The room above my garage,” I offer simply. I don’t want to tell her too much right now, when I’m sure whatever he gave her is still in her system. It feels like a better idea to wait and tell her when she’s coherent. After I set the water on the table beside the bed, I kick off my shoes before pulling the blanket over Charley. “I’m gonna take the couch. Get some rest, okay?”
“Don’t do that,” she mumbles, tucking her hands under her chin.
“I’m just gonna keep an eye on you. I won’t leave.”
“Lay with me.”
