My relationship with the Devils had always been fraught. The way I was introduced to them won neither of us any favors. Then I slept with Onyx, and very soon after that, I realized who they were and that Onyx, although the youngest of them, ruled the roost. Because he was aSanto, and therefore he was in charge.
I did my best to avoid them, but Onyx was in one of my classes because the douchebag was also some form of intelligent bastard, too, who could do advanced classes. The loathing for him deepened.
They were all sports-oriented. Jer was on the football team, and to my surprise, so were Cooper and Onyx — not first team, though. Charlie, whom I met later, played basketball and was semi-decent but had no focus, and it was obvious to me he wouldn’t go pro. The last little nugget of the pack was Owen, and he was loud, blond, brash, and when I learned he was doing journalism, it made sense. He was a frat boy through and through. When he made anchor on ESPN a few years ago, I hadn’t been in the least bit surprised. I also suspected where a lot of his “tips” came from.
From college to adulthood, they stuck together. Owen was a prick, but not overly so. Jer was actually decent, and I grew to like him. Charlie was Onyx’s man and helped Onyx when clients acted outside of propriety, and he stepped in to stop bad press. He was like a fixer for them, and I wasn’t a hypocrite. I had used his services myself for when a client fucked up. Sometimes agents were nothing more than babysitters.
Cooper was a PI, and I had no idea how that started, but I knew he was good at it. He worked independently, and that was his danger. He was loyal to his brother, as he called him. He and Onyx were tight — tighter than the others — but Cooper was still a loner. Which made sense since Onyx wasn’t overly friendly either.
A few months after my morning with both of them, I’d been in the library, late at night. I heard the crying, and I’d ignored it. Exams were coming, and people were stressed, so if you needed to break down and cry in a corner of the library, well, it was better out than in.
Callous, possibly, but I had my own stresses, and I reasoned that if it got worse, I would investigate then.
When I heard the thumping, then the grunt, and the crying getting worse, I looked up and wondered what the hell was going on. Slipping out of my seat, I went to look.
The girl was on her knees, her hand to her cheek, and Cooper was standing over her, his jeans loose, and he looked angry. Had he hit her? Stepping forward, I startled both of them. He looked at me with fury, but it was her I concentrated on.
Her cheek was red, her skirt rumpled, her tights torn. He hit her?
“Fuck off,” Cooper barked at me.
“Are you hurt?” I asked her as I stepped forward. “Did he hurt you?” I helped her to her feet.
“Did I hurt her? Are you for real?”
“Tell me,” I asked her as I turned my back to him. “Are you okay?” She looked past me to the Devil behind me and shook her head. “I’ll help you out of here,” I told her.
His hand grabbed my shoulder, and he turned me around, pulling me roughly toward him by my sweater. “I told you to fuck off.”
“Go to hell.” Wrenching free of his hold, I stepped back. “You’re a fucking animal,” I snarled. Turning swiftly, I grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her away from him.
He didn’t follow, and when I was outside, the girl had refused to talk to me and had run off back to her dorm. I didn’t know what happened, not really, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
They thought they were gods because of a black bandana and a stupid gang name. They weren’t gods, though; they were jumped-up little pricks who needed people to remember they were boys playing at being men.
They had disgusted me.
As I stood in line at the counter, my hastily grabbed lunch in my hands, I thought back on that day. He had never denied it.
Here we were six — almost seven — years later, and he was helping Onyx with my stalker. And I knew he was helping Onyx, and he wasn’t doing it for me, but he was still helping.
Turning to look at him over my shoulder, I saw him leaning against the doorway, blocking it, eating a sandwich. Where the hell did he get a sandwich? And then I realized he had just picked it off the shelf and opened it.
What a colossal prick.
His hair was shorter than it used to be. It no longer hung in his eyes. Dark hair, blue eyes, chiseled jaw, he was a good-looking guy. Broad-shouldered, he was broader and slightly taller than Onyx, his body trim and in shape. I saw many women pass him by and give him an appreciative glance.
“Ma’am?”
Turning, I saw I was next to be served. “Sorry, this please and,” I looked over my shoulder again, “I don’t know what he’s eating, but he’s already started.”
The clerk looked at me and then Cooper, and with a heavy sigh, he rang through a price. “Fine.”
Paying, I left, and Cooper walked beside me, tossing his wrapper into the trash can as we passed.
“You buy it?”
“Yes,” I answered with a clipped tone.
