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“Hey!” she whines, reaching for it.
I pull it away from her, stopping her body with my own. “You’ve had enough.”
“No—I—”
“You—” I grip her from around her tiny chin, forcing her eyes up on mine. “Have had enough.” She’s annoying me because while I should be watching Poppy, her drunk stupor has me distracted. Yeah, Ruby is hot. Yeah, I will enjoy leaving my marks on her any time I get, and yes, I know how fucked up I am because I took her virginity fully knowing that the girl could end up being a grade-A clinger, but right now, I don’t want to deal with her.
Her frown dissolves and a slow curl of a smile touches the corner of her lip as she looks around my body. “Are you sure you want to boss me around?” Whatever the fuck she’s looking at has her feeling bold. “This is my cousin.” She leans around me and drags the body of whoever he is down the step where she’s standing. He has blond curly hair, tanned skin, and a build that honestly is unimpressive.
“Am I supposed to be scared?” I ask her, not bothering to pay him any attention.
“Yeah, ahhh… You’re on your own…” And even though I don’t know him, he clearly knows me. The boy leans in, kissing her on the cheek and disappearing through the sea of people. I can see out of the corner of my eye the times he looks back to me but carries on doing what he’s doing.
“What the fuck?” Ruby spins around, following her cousin. “He’s usually so protective over me.”
I shove her out of the way. “Just so you know…” I cock my head to the side and trace my eyes all over her body. From her face, down to her tits, past her semi-exposed belly, and down her legs, before coming back up and meeting her at eye level. “I’m not here for you.” Her smile falls slightly, and I carry on through the bed of people, needing to get to Poppy. When I look back to the spot I saw Poppy moments ago, she’s gone, and Betty has her tongue down some idiot’s throat.
I take heavy steps toward the tree, grabbing the guy’s shirt from his collar and shoving him backward and off Betty.
“What the fuck, man?” He runs his hand over his hair.
Betty’s eyes come to mine. “Oh, hey.”
“Where’s Poppy?”
Her eyes dart over my shoulder as she uncrosses her legs while shoving her skirt back down. I don’t care for Betty much, but she and Ruby are basically sisters, so Victor did tell me that I was to watch out for her too. Not to the extent that I go out of my way, but at least if she looks distressed. Hard pass and probably won’t do it, but whatever.
“She was right here…” She turns toward the now empty spot, her brows curving in, confused. Pushing up from her chair, she stands and starts twisting and turning, scanning the area. “She was just here.”
I turn back around, my eyes landing on Ruby, who’s following my footsteps down. “Did you see where she went?”
She rolls her eyes and I have to fight with myself not to wrap my hands around her throat and pin her up against the tree. “She’s probably pashing someone in the house, Wicked. Stop being so fucking dramatic. She’s safe here, or have you forgotten where we are?”
I haven’t, but where we are is precisely the issue. She doesn’t know that, though, of course. The naïve little brat wouldneverknow.
I move around her, circling the smaller groups of people talking and drinking, before going back to the side of the house and to the front, where the guard stands near the front door, exactly where I left him.
I point to the house. “You seen Poppy?”
He looks from left to right, taking the steps down to meet me. “No? No one has come around the front.”
I leave him behind and push through the front door. I don’t see anything. My vision caves in around me in a single circle, as if I have tunnel vision just for her. Pulling out my phone, I hit the second floor while tapping her name on my contacts list. Her phone rings three times—
“If I haven’t answered my phone, it’s because you’ve called me off a number not in my contacts. Rude. I feel violated. Don’t call me unless you know me. K, thanks, BYE!”
I want to pin her right beside Ruby on that tree, but I shove through every bedroom, clearing each one before realizing she’s not in here either. Jogging down the stairs, I exit through the back doors, hitting her name again, only this time it goes straight to voicemail. Dread fills my veins when I realize something isn’t right. Poppy may be a headcase and the equivalent to a stray cat when it comes to keeping track of her, but she’d never purposely ignore me. She knows how much I stress and how controlling I am. She knows it’ll just be easier to answer the phone, tell me she’s fine and to stop being a dickhead, and then hang up on me. She’d never do this.
Call it brother intuition or whatever, but when I push through the back doors that open back onto the same area I was just talking with Ruby, it’s as though I see the party in a different light. The groups of people who are here seem older. Not the age group I would expect for Ruby to be around. The alcohol isn’t sprawled out, and no one is being messy and stupid. Aside fromthe small group near Betty, who is the same that Ruby always hangs with, the other people are almost out of place.
I jog down the steps, stopping right beside Ruby and Betty, and the other boys they have around. I notice one of them from the party earlier. “Who the fuck are all these people?” I gesture out to the people behind us. The energy in the air shifts when Ruby turns to follow my sight.
I watch her face as her mouth twists into a confused line. “I—I don’t actually know.”
“Jesus fuck!” I whack the bottle of vodka out of her hand. “How fucking much have you had to drink to not notice any of these people until just now?”
“I know—I’m—” I ignore her, turning back to face the side of the house where the freshly cut lawn merges into the forest.
“What’s behind these trees?”
