In Peace Lies Havoc (Midnight Mayhem #1)(21)

“You gonna drink your drink?” Kyrin asks, nudging his head toward the glass.

“I don’t take drinks from strangers.”

“Huh.” Kyrin smiles. “Maybe that’s something we could learn. You know, don’t take humans who don’t belong to you.”

I wince, but not enough for any of them to notice.

My eyes flick to Killian who is on my left. He holds up his card, tapping it against his mouth. “Come on, Little Bird. You know you’ve got this.”

I have no idea what I’ve got, and this game is weird. I don’t know where to start or what I should ask.

“Ever kissed a stranger?” Not sure why that came out of my mouth, but I’ll go with it, because it’s Killian. What’s the worst that could happen?

“Take me to dinner before you fuck me, Little Bird.” He chuckles, hiding behind his card.

His left eye twitches.

I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. “I don’t know. Six of diamonds?”

“Wrong!” Killian flashes a ten of hearts.

“This game sucks,” I murmur, before realizing who is next.

Kingston stares at me flatly, his thick eyelashes fanning across his high cheekbones every time he blinks. His lips are the perfect size. Not too plump but not too thin. His face is in flawless symmetry, every feature perfect and aligned.

He holds my stare, the card tucked between his thumb and his pointer finger. He holds his drink in the other hand. I notice the leather bracelet on his wrist and the black ring on his finger.

Silence fills the space around us, and I swear I’m breathing loudly.

I blink slowly. “Ever been in love?”

He holds my stare, not so much as flinching. “Never.”

“Ever plan to?”

His jaw clenches. “Never.”

“Some might say you have a black heart.”

He cocks his head as the corner of his mouth kicks up an inch. It’s subtle, but I caught it. I carry on, my tongue swiping across my bottom lip. His eyes fall from mine to catch the movement before they come back up. Again, subtly. “Some might say…” I whisper. What the fuck am I doing? “That you’re an ace of spades.”

He stills. His eyes narrow on me, and everything around me ceases to exist. In this moment, it’s just him and me and our silent tug-of-war.

He tenses his jaw a few times and then flips the card around to face me.

Everything comes back into real time when the rest of the boys erupt into a fit of disbelief. There, between King’s fingers, is the ace of spades.

I blink a few times to pull myself out of the daze I was in. “Wait, you swapped that!” I point to the card.

King flings the card into the middle of the table. “I didn’t, and I don’t cheat.”

“That’s fucked up.” Killian shakes his head in disbelief. He stands from the table, pulling out his phone. He snaps a random photo of us all around the table. “That is going down in history.”

I shake myself off and try it on the other two. Keaton was an epic fail. I don’t even know why I tried. I can’t pull anything out of him, and to be honest, I wasn’t even trying, because I don’t know how I did it to begin with, and I was too distracted by whatever it was that just happened.

Same with Kyrin. Fail. Fail. Fail. All but goddamn Kingston Axton. Why couldn’t he be my fail? Why did he have to hold my ace of spades?

“All right! We don’t have to count to know that King won,” Killian announces, tossing his cards into the middle and downing the rest of his drink.

“Surprise, surprise.” Keaton chuckles, kicking King from beneath the table.

“What will it be, your majesty? Come on. Hand it to us!” Killian teases, tossing potato chips into his mouth.

Kingston smirks, looking around the table.

I freeze when his eyes land on me, and instead of going to Killian, they stay on me.

Oh no.

Oh shit.

I shake my head. “I’m new. You can’t include me in this.”

His eyebrows raise. “Oh, but I can.” He grins, his index finger working his upper lip.

“Yo!” Justice calls out from the driver’s seat, saving me from whatever King was about to say. Thank God. “We’re here!” I look down at the time that’s on the dashboard: 7:37.

Crap, that time went fast.

I stand from the table, taking my glass to the sink as the rest of them disappear left, right, and center to do the things they probably do, which I know nothing about.

I spin around to find King still in his chair. I’m partially annoyed because I have to pretty much brush past him to get to my room. I could sit up with Justice a bit longer, but I think our chitchat has successfully died out.

I begin heading for my room while holding my breath. When I reach King, his hand finds my inner thigh, stopping my movement—and my fucking heart.

I pause, my breathing ragged. As I look down at him, he smirks up at me. His fingers flex around my thigh and I have to internally talk myself down from combusting. “I’ll be cashing in on that dare later tonight, Little Bird.”

He releases me, and I manage to successfully make my way to my bed without falling flat on my face.

My phone vibrates just as I catch my breath in my pillow; I reach for it, opening the text.