Chapter 31: Rebel Revenge: Chapter 31

Sometime after dark, I pulled on a black Lycra bodysuit. The thing clung to every inch of me, showing off every curve and dimple. I slicked my short hair back and fit the mask across the top half of my face.

Downstairs, Batman, Robin, and the Joker waited for me.

I eyed Vaughn in his Robin costume. “You look hot.”

He scowled, like I hadn’t been one-hundred-percent serious. “I look like a joke.”

Fang elbowed him. “Can’t all be Batman.”

“Says Batman,” Vaughn grumbled.

Kian grinned, his teeth extra white beneath face paint. “Hey, I said we could swap and you could be the Joker. You didn’t want to put the face paint on!”

“I just got a facial, Kian!”

Me, Kian, and Fang all stared at him. Simultaneously, we all burst into laughter. Laughter that turned into hysterics, until I was glad I wasn’t wearing makeup because tears streamed down my face from laughing so hard.

Some of it was nerves, and I was grateful to get them out now. We were all on edge, but teasing Vaughn for his upper-class upbringing and expensive taste was always good for some light relief.

Eventually, even Vaughn laughed. “I was joking by the way.”

Kian snorted. “You weren’t, but that’s fine. I so enjoy when your hoity-toity side comes out to play.” He turned to me and Fang. “Do you think there’ll be little cucumber sandwiches cuts into triangles for Vaughn’s sensitive palate at this party? Or should we pack him a lunch box?”

I covered my mouth to hide my smile, while Fang pressed his lips tight to keep it together.

Vaughn shook his father’s car keys in our direction. “If we’re finished making fun of me, can we get going? We’re already late.”

“Party don’t start ’til I walk in,” I announced, grabbing my purse from the hallway table.

Fang frowned disapprovingly at me. “You’re incognito tonight, Pix. Don’t draw attention to yourself.”

“When do I ever?”

All three of them stared at me, and I waved them off.

“Stop.”

“He’s right.” Kian crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t get carried away.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Even Vaughn looked like a stern principal, telling off a naughty schoolgirl. “You might not be. We should have a code in case you need to bail.”

“Or I could just say, let’s bail?”

He shrugged. “That, or pull your ear three times.”

“I think you’re taking your Robin costume too seriously. I get it. We don’t need no superheroes tonight. We’re just observing. But that goes for all of you too. If I’m worried about anyone drawing a crowd, it’s you guys.”

Kian’s gaze rolled over my catsuit-clad body. “We aren’t the ones dressed all in Lycra.” He glanced at Fang and Vaughn’s Lycra tights. “Well, at least not all of us. Those two might draw some stares too.”

Vaughn groaned, clearly grumpy about the entire thing, from being stuck as Robin right through to having to wear tights. “Can we please get this show on the road? The sooner we’re all back home safe and sound and out of wedgie pants, the better.”

I strode for the door. “Couldn’t agree more. Let’s go.”

We piled into Vaughn’s car, and he traversed the streets of Providence, most of the houses all decorated for the holiday. In Saint View, we didn’t bother, because people just stole stuff right off your lawn. But Providence was like a scary funhouse tonight, with skulls and witches and ghouls all out on the town, ready to party. It was nearing eleven, and the streets had cleared of trick-or-treaters, but the adults had come out to play.

As we drove into Caleb’s neighborhood, a growing sense of unease settled over me. His entire street was lined with expensive cars. There were clearly a lot of people at this party. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad for us, and I wondered if the guys were trying to work it out too. All four of us in the car lapsed into silence when an obnoxious Lamborghini pulled up in the driveway and Caleb got out.

Every muscle in my body was stiff, watching him stroll to the front door and letting himself in.

Kian broke the silence. “Sticking together as a group might not be possible,” he said softly. “Not if we want to watch all three of them. But at least one of us is with Rebel at all times.”

I opened my mouth to complain and shut it again when he glared at me.

“Don’t even think about it. You are not ready to take them on yet.”

It drove me nuts that he was right, but he was.

He softened when he saw the expression on my face. “Not yet, but soon, Little Demon. You need time.”

I nodded. Seeing Caleb, even from a distance, had reminded me we were playing with fire.

“Good, we’ve got that all agreed on,” Vaughn murmured. “Because I’m parking the car up here. We’ll have to walk the rest of the way in.”

Fang looked to me, a question in his eyes. “Last chance, Pix. We can still turn around.”

But I shook my head. I needed to do this. Needed to see the place where it had happened.

I got out of the car, slamming the door shut behind me, knowing they’d all follow.

They surrounded me. Kian to my left. Vaughn on my right. Fang at my back. Their strides fell in time with mine as we strode toward the house from my nightmares. All of us marching into a war I couldn’t escape from. Not until I could end it myself.

A short line of people waited at the side gate where a bouncer stood guard. It was clearly the way in, so we joined the tail end. I fidgeted with my purse, straining to see around the group in front of us. The bouncer let a couple of guys in but then stopped a man and a woman.

The bouncer handed the man a form on a clipboard and a pen. “Sign this.”

“What is it?”

“Disclaimer for the event.”

The guy skimmed through the three pages of text, flipping the pages up while he squinted at the small writing in the dark. “This so we don’t sue?”

The bouncer didn’t answer. “You need to hand your phones over too. There’s no recording allowed.”

The guy signed it without reading anything, put their phones in a big bucket that was already half full with other people’s property, and the couple were let in.

“No phones?” Kian muttered. “What the hell?”

There was no way for the guys to hide theirs. They literally had their phones and wallets in their hands because their costumes didn’t come with pockets.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said beneath my breath. “Just go along with whatever he says.” I reached inside my purse and slipped my phone into a hole in the lining, obscuring it from view.

The group of guys in front of me passed no problem, but the bouncer put his hand up in front of us.

He looked at me with a sneer. “Who’s responsible for the slut?”

My mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

There was a titter of laughter from behind me, and I spun around to glare at whoever it was. All I could see was Fang’s broad chest though, which practically vibrated with anger.

It was so bad I had to put a hand over his heart to calm him.

He settled into something that was a little closer to a purr.

Vaughn cleared his throat. “What’s your problem, bro? Caleb said I could bring my girl.”

The bouncer thrust a clipboard at Vaughn. “Sign then, if she’s yours.”

Vaughn glanced at me.

I wasn’t impressed, but I nodded. We hadn’t come all this way for nothing. I wasn’t turning back now.

Vaughn read the text, explaining it as he went. “It’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo about staying out of areas marked do not disturb, security cameras are in use, as well as ‘don’t sue if you get injured’ sort of statements… Fucking hell, three pages? What is all this?”

I shifted my weight from foot to foot. “Just sign it. People are staring.” It was either that or turn around and leave. That would feel like running away, and Caleb would win again.

Vaughn glanced up and found a small crowd gathered behind us.

“Hurry up, bro,” someone called. “Halloween doesn’t last all month. We only got tonight.”

The bodyguard huffed out an impatient sigh. “She ain’t coming in unless you sign it. So sign or say goodbye.”

For a moment, I thought Vaughn was going to refuse. But eventually, he signed the paper and thrust it back to the guy. “There. Happy?”

“Keep running your mouth and I’ll be real happy to toss you out on your ass. Phones.”

The guys reluctantly put theirs into the bucket.

“I didn’t bring one,” I announced. I held out my open purse, careful to keep the hole closed with my finger. “Nothing in here but my wallet, keys, and some tampons.”

The guy poked a finger at my things, and I held my breath, praying he wouldn’t notice the phone sitting in the bottom of the bag, obscured by the black liner.

A muscle ticked in Vaughn’s jaw as his fingers clenched into fists. “Don’t touch her shit, bro. Didn’t your mother to teach you to look with your eyes, not your fingers?”

The bouncer glanced up from my purse. “What did you say?”

I could see exactly where this was headed. Into a fight before we’d even stepped foot inside. I grabbed Vaughn’s hand and squeezed it. “Let’s go.”

He looked down in surprise at my fingers wrapped around his, but he followed me through the gates, the other two guys close at our heels.

“I don’t like this,” Fang muttered.

I tried to make light of the fact that my gut was screaming to get out of here too. “It’s just a party.”

“A really fucking big one. I forgot how you rich people do this.” Kian let out a low, impressed whistle.

I was sure my eyes were big too. “Is this what your parties were like in high school, Vaughn?”

He wandered toward the pool, lit up with lights. Around the edges, people sat or stood around in groups, some dancing to the music pouring out over the speakers.

“I don’t know this many people.”

There were a lot of people there for a backyard party, but then most people didn’t have backyards the size of small countries. Everywhere I turned, there were bodies moving around, laughing, talking. Everyone had costumes. Some simple like Dracula capes and fangs, some more elaborate like a guy in a Viking costume, his hair braided into intricate strands.

But one thing stood out most. “Where are all the women?”

Fang gazed around, his eyes narrowing on the handful who were all outnumbered twenty to one. He stepped in closer. “Nowhere alone, Pix.”

I normally would have sassed him and told him no man controlled me.

But this was weird. The vibe wasn’t right. I tried to catch the gazes of the other women, but none of them looked my way. But none seemed particularly bothered to be in the minority either. A couple seemed to be loving it, flirting and chatting away with the guys who surrounded them.

“Maybe we’re overthinking it. Maybe Caleb just has no friends who are women.”

“That checks,” Vaughn mumbled. “He got laid a lot in college ’cause he’s a pretty boy, but none of the girls liked him much once they got to know him. He never had a girlfriend last long.”

Until Bliss. I blamed her previous shitty self-esteem for her making such a bad choice in being with Caleb. Thank God she’d found herself and kicked Caleb to the curb.

Shame I’d also fallen for his charms.

I spotted Hugh holding court on a pool lounger and shuddered. His pockmarked face starred in my nightmares, right alongside Caleb’s and Leonn’s. I’d never forget it. I’d probably have nightmares as long as I lived, while he just got to sit there like royalty, enjoying himself without a care in the world.

“That’s him, isn’t it?” Fang asked in a voice barely above a whisper. “The third guy.”

Vaughn nodded for me, because I was too busy trying to keep myself calm.

How could someone be so cruel and then just go on with their life, like nothing had even happened? Why did he get to do that while I suffered every damn day?

“Vaughn,” I croaked out. “You know them. Go sit with them. Get him drunk. Let him talk. Find out anything you can about him. I want to know all his weak spots.”

So I could use each and every one to torture him.

Vaughn hesitated, but I begged him with big eyes. “Please. I need to know who they are. Where they work. If they have families. Who they’re friends with. Their strengths. Their weaknesses.” There was a crack in my voice as I begged. “Knowledge is power, right?” I swallowed thickly. “I have so little power left. I just need something…”

To my surprise, Vaughn put his arm around my neck and drew me in, kissing the top of my head.

When I gazed up at him, questions in my eyes, he jerked his head over at the bodyguard.

“He was watching, and I said you were my girl. Need to make it seem real, right?”

Oh.

I stepped out of his embrace, and he headed over to Hugh and some other guys.

Kian watched him go, tension across his entire frame. Eventually, he turned away. “I need a fucking drink. This party is too much.”

We’d barely been here ten minutes, but I couldn’t agree more.

“There’s a guy from my gym over by the drink table. I’ll go say hi and get us something.” He looked to Fang. “You got her?”

“Always.”

Maybe it was the party and the vague sense of danger I felt in the air, but I’d never been happier to hear someone say they had my back. I made a circular motion with my finger. “We’re going to do a lap. We’ll be back by the time you finish talking to your friend.”

Kian nodded. “Rebel…”

“Yeah?” I gazed up into his warm eyes.

“Just be careful, okay? The worst thing you can do as a fighter is get cocky and underestimate your opponent.”

I didn’t think I was underestimating Caleb. I knew exactly what he was capable of. The bruises might have faded, but I’d carry the scars always.

Fang and I left Kian and wandered toward the house, but we were stopped by black-and-yellow warning tape that had the back doors closed off. A printed sign pointed partygoers toward the pool house bathroom, but it was clear they didn’t want anyone in the house itself.

Fang gazed down at me. “I’m assuming the tape isn’t going to persuade you to leave it be?”

“You know me so well.” I glanced around, making sure no one was paying any attention, then ducked beneath it.

Fang grumbled, but he followed. We stuck to the shadows and moved quickly to the back door, but I didn’t think anyone was really paying us any attention. The party was very much all in the other direction.

I pulled on sliding glass door and swore softly when it was locked. “Shit.”

“Move over. These things are stupidly easy to break into.”

I stepped aside and raised an impressed eyebrow when Fang gave the door a sharp upward tug that had it sliding open.

“I didn’t know you were so adept at breaking and entering.”

“Comes in handy from time to time. Get inside before someone notices.”

The house was dark inside, no lights on, which worked in our favor. No one would notice our shadows lurking around inside. The kitchen countertop and dining room table showed the aftermath of party setup. They were strewn with empty boxes and discarded wrappers, scissors, tape, and balloons. Down the hall was a door that probably led down to the basement. It had a slide lock, firmly in place, but no padlock to keep it secured.

Fang pointed at it. “Think Caleb wants to keep his fine china and childhood figure skating trophies safe from the drunks?” he asked beneath his breath. “Hate to break it to him, but that thing ain’t keeping anyone out without a padlock. At least not from this side.”

I sniggered, moving past the door with a mental note to come back to it later once we’d made sure no one else was in the house. “He seems like the type to be a figure skater, doesn’t he? I bet he did it professionally with sequined shirts and the whole shebang.”

It lightened the mood just enough that walking into the living room by the front door took me by surprise. I hadn’t expected it, disoriented from entering the property from the back.

I froze to the spot, dropping my purse on the floor when my fingers weren’t strong enough to hold it, and stared at the room where three men had destroyed me in a matter of hours.

“Pix?”

I couldn’t talk. All I could do was stare as that night played over and over in my head. We’d come through the front door. Caleb had been kissing me, and at first it had been fun. He was hot, and we’d had chemistry.

Then his friends had arrived, and I’d realized who he truly was. Not the cute real-estate salesman he’d led me to believe.

But my new best friend’s abusive ex. Hell-bent on hurting her by hurting me.

Or maybe he just got off on hurting women in general and I was just convenient since I’d been stupid enough to let him drive me right into his web of lies.

I couldn’t forget his voice. It taunted me. Echoing around the empty room like he was right there in it.

Tears rolled down my cheeks. Tears for my best friend. Tears for the woman I’d been before. Tears for every woman who’d ever had a Caleb in her life. I took off my mask to wipe my eyes, and Fang engulfed me in his arms.

He lifted his mask so I could see his face. “I love you, Pix,” he whispered. “I hate seeing you like this.”

I blinked up at him, mouth dropping open in shock. “You…what?”

His eyes were kind as he stared down at me. “You know I do. I always have.”

A sob hurtled up my throat and exploded past my lips. I dug my fingers into his shirt and cried on his chest, too overwhelmed to say anything, though I knew what I wanted to say in my heart. My tongue just couldn’t form the words. Not here. Not in this house where too many other memories tainted the words I wanted to say.

All of a sudden, I didn’t know why I was doing any of this. I couldn’t remember one good reason for wanting to come here, to this place, and relive that night. I’d thought I’d needed it.

But maybe I just needed him.

Fang was enough to exorcise my demons. At least for tonight.

I pulled back. “Can we go somewhere? Just you and me. I…I don’t want to be here anymore.”

He gave a curt nod. “Of course. I’ll get—”

The front door flew open, a man entering with a six-pack of beer in one hand and a shopping bag in the other. “Caleb! I got the stuff. Let’s lock these doors and get the party started.”

The open door let in enough light from the street that Fang and I were like deer caught in headlights.

Leonn’s gaze stopped on mine, and his eyes went wide. “You’re…” His gaze flickered to Fang. “Oh, fuck. Caleb!”

Leonn’s bellow rattled through the quiet house. Panic speared through me. We’d both taken our masks off.

Shit.

Fang thought faster than I did. In a second, he had Leonn shoved up against the wall, a hand over his fat lips.

“Shut your mouth,” he hissed, low and deadly. “So help me fucking God, you utter one more sound, and I’ll take great pleasure in snapping your neck right here.”

I grabbed his sleeve, knowing he was fully capable of carrying out the threat. “You can’t! There’s two hundred people out there in the yard! Those papers Vaughn signed said there were security cameras…” I looked around the room wildly and didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. “What if there’s some in here?”

Fang leaned on Leonn’s fat neck, glancing around the same way I was before his blue-eyed gaze finally came to rest on mine. “What do you want, Pix? We gotta decide now. We let him go, and he’s running straight out there to tell Caleb we’re here. Game over.”

Leonn tried shaking his head, like he wouldn’t do exactly that if Fang released him.

I laughed in his face. “As if we’d believe you.” I tried to think, but my mind was a whirlwind. I had him here. One of my enemies. It was exactly what I’d wanted. But I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t prepared. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go down. I didn’t just want to kill him.

I wanted to make it hurt.

I wanted him scared and begging, just the way I had.

The walls suddenly felt like they were closing in. I needed to get out. I stuck my head out the front door and glanced over at the gates where we’d come in. There was no one there. The gates had been locked with a shiny silver padlock, the bouncer gone.

Why the fuck were the gates locked?

So no one could get in?

Or so no one could get out?

A sinking feeling in my stomach threatened to take over and cloud my brain with confusion, but I pushed it all away. “Get him out here.” On the ground in front of me lay a coil of rope, holding down an inflatable skeleton. I knelt and frantically untied it, not caring if the skeleton floated away in the breeze.

I held it up triumphantly to Fang, and he yanked Leonn off the wall.

“What’s your plan here, Pix?” Fang asked in a hushed whisper as I wrapped the rope around Leonn’s wrists as tight as I could.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, adrenaline pumping through me, but not having the desired effect of sharpening my mind. “I really have no idea. Tie him up, put him up the side of the house for someone to find later after we’re long gone.”

Fang ground his molars. “That’s not much of a plan.”

“I know!” I glanced around frantically. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. We were just supposed to observe tonight. “You got anything better?”

“Shove him in the car and kill him?”

Leonn barely even reacted. It was like he’d already accepted his defeat. He just stood there silently, not even struggling.

It sent an anger raging through me I’d only ever felt one other night. I shoved him in the chest. “Why aren’t you scared?”

He mumbled something behind Fang’s hand that I couldn’t make out. Fang pulled his hand away to let him talk with a glare that clearly said, ‘you scream, and I’ll end you.’

Leonn’s eyes looked dead. Any spark in them completely extinguished. “I deserve to die.”

I ground my molars, trying to decide what to do. Eventually, I shook my head hard. “You do. But not like this. This is too easy.”

Fang held him while I got real close, right up in the face of one of the men who’d hurt me.

“I’m coming for you. Just know that. You won’t know when. You won’t know how. But one day soon, you’ll know true fear.”

“Just kill me,” he begged.

“Not a fucking chance,” I growled in his face, the words practically demonic.

Rage coursed through me. I hated this man. Hated him with everything I had inside me, and that hate had nowhere to go. I ripped off Fang’s cape and shoved it in Leonn’s mouth, muffling his pitiful cries. “Tie him up. Leave him around the side of the house. Kneecap him if you have to, I don’t care. Just make it so he can’t let anyone else know we’re here until we’re gone.”

Fang, ever faithful, did exactly what I’d asked. He hauled Leonn through the maze of decorations without a single question.

I turned and ran back for the door.

“Where are you going?” Fang hissed from the edge of the building.

“I need to get my purse. Shit. And Kian and Vaughn. We can’t even call them. They’re locked in there.”

Leonn struggled in Fang’s arms, apparently more scared of a kneecapping than he was of outright dying. He clearly didn’t like pain. Maybe that came from being a doctor and seeing so many people in so much of it. I stored that tidbit away for future reference.

“Just leave it!” Fang manhandled Leonn a few more steps, turning his attention to him. “Fucking hell, you’re scared of a little kneecapping? After what you did to her? You piece of cowardly shit. I should rape you and see how you fucking like it.”

Though I knew he was on my side, I couldn’t stand there listening to it. I couldn’t hear the word rape without wanting to shrivel up and die. I couldn’t go back there. To those dark days afterward where I’d lain in my bed in the fetal position and thought about ending it all.

I ran back inside the dark house, swinging the door shut behind me in case anyone else tried coming through this entrance. The locks clicked as they reengaged, which might have been a good thing. At least it would stop Fang from following me back inside. The quicker we all got out of here, the better.

In the living room, I grabbed my purse from the floor and kept going, striding back the way we’d come, the sounds of the party outside getting louder with every step. I reached the glass doors, the party beyond.

Caleb stood on the other side.

His costume a white knight, which was about as ironic as you could possibly get. Even when he was in profile and dressed all in white, I could have sworn I could see the evil in his eye. He talked with a friend, his squinty eyes calculating the entire time.

I couldn’t afford to freeze again.

I had my mask back on, but I couldn’t walk straight past Caleb.

Something in me knew he’d know, and I had none of the guys here to back me up.

Without them, I didn’t trust myself. I was scared I’d revert to the weak pathetic mess, lying on the floor of the living room while men attacked me. While they put their hands on my body. While they broke my spirit.

Caleb shifted in my direction, and I spun on my heel, blindly turning away so he wouldn’t spot me. I hurried down the hall, and as the glass doors opened, his evil laugh floated through.

It sent chills down my spine.

I ran.

But his voice followed, casual enough I was sure he hadn’t seen me, but that wouldn’t last if I just stood there like a stunned mullet. And I couldn’t go back the way I’d come, I’d have to walk straight past him while he moved around the kitchen, clinking bottles as he went.

There was nowhere to go. No escape except the locked door that led to the basement.

He wouldn’t go down there, surely. He’d get his drinks or food and then he’d return to his guests. I just needed somewhere to hide until he went back outside and then I could creep back up, find the guys, and get the hell out of here.

A second voice joined him in the kitchen, the two of them mumbling something I couldn’t quite hear. Was it Hugh? I couldn’t be sure. I was too scared to truly listen in case it was, and I was trapped in here with two of my attackers. Their voices seemed too loud, and I was a sitting duck. Fear wrapped its way around my throat, squeezing until I slid the lock to the side and slipped past the door, closing it quietly behind me.

I stood there in the darkness, breathing heavy.

But their voices kept coming. Louder with every second.

I slunk down the stairs, fumbling along the walls for a light switch but then realizing I couldn’t just turn a light on. I edged my way around the room, searching the walls and floor for anything I could use to protect myself.

But there was nowhere to hide. It was like the room was completely empty.

Caleb’s voice kept coming. Closer with every step. Talking to another man, but terror pounded in my ears, drowning out the exact words. I stared up the stairs at the door, convinced I’d made a terrible mistake.

They were coming down here. At any moment, the door would open, the light would turn on, and I’d be caught.

Behind me, the solid wall changed, and hope reared inside me.

A doorframe. The door. A handle.

It gave way when I put pressure on it, and I stumbled into the room. It was still pitch-black, but for the briefest of moments, I dared to flick on the light.

A simple bathroom, with only a toilet and a sink for handwashing.

I shut the door as quietly as I could and turned the light back off, breathing hard. I pressed my ear to the door, desperate to know where he was, but I couldn’t tell. My breaths were too loud. A ringing in my ears piercing.

But he was out there. I knew it.

Stalking me like I was prey.

I was trapped.

Again.