Page 74 of My Unhinged Alphas
My head snaps toward him.
Excuse me?
Havoc grins and slaps Vale hard across the back like they’re locker-room idiots instead of two men who just had me against a wall. Vale makes a rough sound and goes tense, not from the hit itself, but from where Havoc landed it.
I stare at them. At him. At the easy way he says it, like this was some kind of experiment. Like he just needed to push the right button and watch his friend break.
A hot wave of disbelief crashes over the lingering haze in my body.
He just wanted to rile Vale up?
That’s fucked up.
That’s deeply, profoundly, spectacularly fucked up.
I shake my head and take a step back, clutching Vale’s shirt tighter around myself. “I can’t do this,” I say. My voice comes out rougher than I mean it to, but steadier too. The panic, the embarrassment, the confusion, all of it starts hardening into something else. I am done being the last person in the room to catch up.
“I can’t keep standing here while you two act like this is normal.” I look between them, breathing still uneven but finally under my control. “You want answers? Fine. I’ll tell you what I know.”
That gets their attention.
Havoc’s grin fades, not completely, but enough.
Vale still won’t quite meet my eyes.
I swallow once, forcing my mind back to the beginning, to the part that makes sense. Or used to. “It started at work,” I say. “My friends talked me into downloading a dating app. Kindred. I matched with a guy almost immediately.”
I look at the floor for a second, then back up. “His name was Ethan. At least, that’s what he said his name was. Ethan Caldwell.” I frown. “But when he introduced himself in person, I remember thinking I’d seen a different last name on the app. I told myself I must’ve read it wrong.”
Havoc and Vale exchange a look.
I keep going before they can interrupt. “He picked a place by the harbor. Fancy, quiet, barely anyone there. Too quiet, actually.” My fingers tighten in the borrowed shirt. “He was charming at first. A little too charming. Too polished. The kind of guy who looks expensive on purpose.”
I let out a breath. “He kept asking questions. About whether I had family. Whether anyone was expecting me home. If anyone would notice where I was.” My stomach twists now that I say it aloud. “At the time I thought he was just bad at being normal. Now…” I shake my head. “Now it sounds like he was checking whether I’d be easy to disappear.”
Vale’s face changes at that. Not much. Just enough.
“I texted my friend Jess during the drive,” I add. “Told her his name. Told her we were going to the harbor. She tried to look him up.” I glance toward them. “She couldn’t find anything.”
Havoc’s jaw shifts.
I go on, faster now, because if I stop I might think too hard about any of this. “He kept my glass full. I didn’t think much of it because the wine was good and I don’t drink much anyway. But then I started feeling… off. Heavy. Slow. Like the room had tiltedhalf an inch and my body was the last thing to figure it out.” I swallow. “I tried to leave. I remember standing up. I remember him catching my chair.”
The room feels colder.
“After that, it gets blurry. I remember his voice. I remember him leaning in. Then nothing.” I look at Havoc, then Vale. “The next thing I remember clearly is waking up tied to a chair in that basement with the three of you arguing over a dead body.”
Silence.
I fold my arms tighter over myself. “So there,” I say. “That’s everything. That’s all I know.”
I’m trying very hard not to think about what just happened.
That turns out to be impossible.
My whole body keeps betraying me in small, humiliating ways. A shiver that won’t settle. A pulse that still races in strange places. The lingering soreness between my thighs. The heat that comes and goes in waves every time I move the wrong way or breathe too deeply or catch the smell of Vale’s shirt around me.
I squeeze my legs together instinctively.
