Veils of Rivalry Chapter 53

POV Cole

I nod. “Yeah. Go back to my car and wait for us.” I hand her my keys, and she takes them, hesitating. I glance down at her when she doesn’t move. “What happened the other day…” She chews her lip. “You only let it happen because it was with Blaise, right?”

I stay silent.

She nods a few times. “Does he feel the same way?”

“I don’t know.”

Her eyes glaze over, and she wipes under them. “I hope it works out.”

Me too. Me fucking too.

She gives me a flat smile and vanishes back to the front of the house.

By the time I climb up and manage to slip through the window into the pitch-black house, I wince with how loud the music is. It’s intentional. I remember Keith saying he wanted to set up some amusement park for this type of stuff. To have music so loud, you can’t hear your pulse throbbing in your ears, and the fear mixes with the adrenaline as the heavy beats of the songs play.

I faintly see from the moon and streetlights shining into the house. I listen for the running feet, but I can’t hear anything but Sleep Token nearly blowing my eardrums.

Making my way through Keith’s bedroom, I check the other rooms on this floor, swearing to myself when I realize it’s been twenty minutes since the game started, and they could’ve easily have caught Blaise by now. I know he can hold himself in a fight. He’s solid, and it fucking hurts when he hits me, but when there’s multiple people after him?

I run up the stairway before I’m thrown to the side by someone tackling into my ribs, knocking me onto the ground. They get to their feet, and I grab their ankle so they fall. I crawl over them, groaning when I see long blonde hair. I tug off the black mask to see some chick nearly crying beneath me.

“They have bats, and one has a gun,” she cries. “Please help me.”

“Go hide,” I snarl and drag us both off the ground. “Stay out of sight.”

She nods erratically and runs down the hallway. I brush my hands through my hair, sweat clinging to my skin as I look left and right. One of them has a gun? What the fuck?

And bats.

Blaise.

I rush down the staircase, then down again to the ground floor, tripping over someone lying unconscious on the ground. They’re covered in blood, gasping for breath. I don’t breathe until I yank off the mask and see it’s not Blaise. One of the guys from college. He’s in Blaise’s business class. He’s just busted up, not dying.

Turning a corner, I stop in the dining area to see Jackson and Allie. He’s bending her over the table and fucking her from behind, grabbing her hair and holding the barrel of the gun to her temple. Three others are behind him. As if they’re waiting for their turn.

In another world, I’d get jealous and run at him. I’d rip him off my ex and beat the living shit out of him. But instead, I back away, let her get the railing she obviously wants.

Bypassing the downstairs bathroom, I see someone running, but they have brown hair down their back, so I know it isn’t Blaise.

Another runner, and I shake my head. Where the fuck is he?

I shove open a door and the fist that snaps into my face knocks me back on my ass, momentarily dazed as the person crouches through my blurry vision.

He slides off the mask, tousled hair falling on his forehead.

“Cole?” I think he says, going by the way his lips move. “What the fuck are you doing?”

He grabs my arm and drags me into the room, slamming the door shut. Crouching again, he slaps my face so I focus.

I blink away the haziness and scowl at him.

“You fucking hit me,” I grit.

I want to yell at him, but I pause at the blood on his face, the busted-up lip and swollen eye.

“Who the fuck did that?”

“It doesn’t matter. Why are you here? How did you get in?”

“Mia,” I say, breathless from running around the house for the last half an hour. “She called me. She knows I love you.”

Blaise goes to speak, and his lips slam shut. His brows furrow.

“I must’ve hit you pretty hard,” he laughs. “What’s the plan, then? One has a gun and the others have weapons, and I don’t think this is a case of runners and chasers. This is serious.”

But we’re out of time, because there’s a bang on the door, and we know we’ve been caught when Jackson’s voice faintly filters through the wood, even over the ear-bursting music.

“Keith says he’s in here.”

“The window,” I say, nodding to it. “We’re on the ground floor.”

Blaise doesn’t hesitate to grab the hardest object and launch it at the window, just as something hits against the door. Luckily, the door doesn’t crack the way the window blows out.

I tell Blaise to go out first, and he flinches when his palm cuts on the glass. He jumps down, and when I go to climb out, the door is kicked open, and someone snatches my hair and yanks me back in.

“Wait, no, that’s Cole!” Allie cries over the music, just as a bat swings into my gut and winds me. “Don’t hurt him!”

Blaise can’t get back in. Although we’re on the ground floor, there’s still a jump to the grass from the window, and I can’t hear him over the music if he’s saying shit.

Jackson goes to say something against my ear, but I slam the back of my head against his face, turning in his hold and punching him in the throat. He gags, and one of his little friends catches the gun he drops, but Allie stands in front of me.

“Don’t you dare hurt him. We didn’t agree to this. You said you’d beat up Blaise. No one mentioned Cole.”

“You’re still defending him?” Jackson spits. “He’s been screwing his brother behind your back. You saw the video of them on the first chase night.”

I frown and move Allie from standing in front of me. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

He grins. “Did you think no one would notice you hiding your identity so you can force him to blow you?”

I glance over my shoulder. The music is too loud for Blaise to hear, but still. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“And the second time in the classroom. You wanked him off, still hiding who you were.”

Allie crosses her arms. “You didn’t mention that time,” she says to him.

“That’s why he has no interest in you. He’s gay.”

The term doesn’t make me uncomfortable. Before, I was in denial, but now? Yeah, I am fucking gay, and I don’t wait around to hear another word from this asshole’s mouth. My knuckles burn as I punch him again, again, and a third time to throw him on his ass. I climb on him and grab his throat. No one stops me, They watch as I slam the back of Jackson’s head into the ground.

“Stay the fuck away from Blaise,” I snap, cutting off his oxygen. Squeezing, I pull him to me, so only he can hear my next words. “Or I’ll sneak into your room at night, tie you to your bed, and I’ll carve his name into your skin. I’ll cut you. I’ll snap your fucking bones one by one with pliers and make you drink your own piss. And when you’re still alive and begging me to stop, I’ll silence you by cutting off your cock and making you choke on it until your body is found weeks later, because no one cares about you enough to check in.”

Not that I would lower myself to getting into trouble with the law for this asshole, but with how pale he goes, I’ve driven my point home. I release his throat and stand, glancing over at Allie.

“Unlock the fucking door.”

She nods a few times and runs out of the room. I wait for someone to hit me, to feel a fist or a bat or even a bullet penetrate my skin, but they all stand back as I step over Jackson and leave them there.

“You’ll regret threatening me,” I hear Jackson call out.

Yeah, probably. But I’m not caring.

As soon as Allie unlocks the door and I step out, Blaise barges through the crowd and runs straight for me.