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“Sorry, girls, we don’t do after parties. The night stopped after the three hours. We need to get home. Beauty sleep and such.” I flash them a smile and grip Clara harder.
Maureen rolls her eyes. “Whatever, come on girls let’s go find another after party. Clara can call an Uber.”
“Are you really leaving her here to get her own way home?” I ask.
“She wouldn’t want to keep partying anyway. Believe me she’s wanted to get out of this party since before she put on her boring ass red dress.”
“We’ll take her home,” I say, looking at my brothers to gauge their feelings on the idea. I know they said no women tonight, but I’m hoping they’ll give me an exception. Besides it’s still early and we can drop her off, make sure she’s safe and still have time to go home to celebrate.
What’s a little detour?
“Whatever.” Maureen cocks her head and the girls pile into the back of the Hummer.
Not one of them appears worried they’re leaving one of their own with a group of men they just met. We watch as they pull out of the parking lot, the bass bumping and their giddy screams drifting out into the night sky.
I glance down at Clara who’s still leaning on me not bothering to hold up her own body weight.
“Where do you live?” I ask, shaking her a little to get her coherent enough to get her address.
Her face tilts up toward me, her blue eyes glassy and unfocused. She opens her mouth and I lean in to capture her words, but then she turns and pukes on the pavement.
“Not only did she turn you down. You made her physically sick,” Damien says, laughing with my brother as I keep Clara on her feet.
“Shut up,” I say, not turning to see my idiot brother’s enjoyment.
When her body stops shaking, I attempt to get her address from her one more time. Her eyes slide over to the side as I ask where she lives. “I don’t remember,” she whispers, before passing out in my arms.
“What the hell are we going to do?” I ask as my brothers stop laughing. It’s not so funny now that they understand the gravity of the situation.
“We get her address from her ID and take her home,” Axel says, glancing around to find her purse.
“I don’t think she has her purse with her,” I say.
“Those bitches left her and took her purse with them.” Damien glares in the direction they drove off to.
“We’ll take her home and let her sleep it off. At least we’ll know she’s safe at our place. And it’s not like we can’t celebrate, she’s passed out.” I swing her into my arms, her body going limp.
Axel and Damien exchange looks but I don’t wait for them to agree. They’ll figure out my solution is the only one we have soon enough. I get to the Range Rover seconds before Axel opens the door and I climb in the back with Clara still in my arms.
I lean my head against the window as Damien drives us home. My laugh gets both of my brother’s attention. They give me a questioning look and I watch Clara’s head bounce as the car moves over the asphalt.
“Out of all the scenarios of how I thought this night would end, I can honestly say this wasn’t even on my radar.”
I brace Clara’s head against my shoulder and smile. This curvy woman hasn’t done any of the things I expected since the moment I saw her.
Chapter 5
Clara
I’m dying. And it can’t come soon enough.
My mind wanders, attempting to piece together the reason I feel like I’m about to meet my maker.
Was I run over?
Tortured?
Kidnapped?
Perhaps all three?
My head hurts from internally asking those questions, so I give it a rest. I groan as pain splits through my head causing light to brighten the inside of my eyelids.
“Here take these,” a voice says into my ear. Instead of wanting to cringe away from the noise I want to crawl closer to it. It’s soothing, and doesn’t hurt like my own inner voice does. A warm hand grabs mine and puts something small in it, but I don’t move, not understanding what I’m supposed to do.
“They’re pain pills. Take them now and you won’t feel so bad after a couple more hours of sleep,” the calming voice says even closer to my ear now.
I still don’t move, my body not responding to any of my orders. My body’s broken. It feels like my spine has been severed and my brain is no longer communicating with the rest of me. The only thing they have in common is they’re both working together to put me in extreme pain at the moment.
Am I awake?
When the voice understands I have no control over myself, it takes the pills out of my hand. “Open up.”
