The guys keep firing innocuous questions at me while we eat.I do my best to answer them.The food is delicious.I can’t begin to eat all of it, but I swallow as much as I can.
Something feels off, though.Silver is acting strangely.He mostly stares at me while he eats, as if he’s trying to read me.It’s unnerving.The rest of the guys are doing all the talking, though I think Rook is also staring at me, brooding.
On top of the stress of this entire dinner party, the damn butterfly keeps tormenting me.Every five minutes or so, it vibrates against my clit, and each time it’s hard for me to keep from squirming.I clench my thighs together, but I’m sure I flinch.I can’t eat until it stops again.
It seems like Rook knows something is up.Silver, too, but my brother already had his suspicions.I don’t know Rook well enough.It’s probably because he’s seated directly across from me that he’s more likely to notice my odd behavior.
I want to stab my stalker.He’s causing me an enormous amount of stress.I know he can’t see me, so he doesn’t specifically know that I’m at the table trying to swallow, but I came here for dinner, so he has to assume I’m eating.And yet, he’s weaponized this little butterfly against me.
When everyone is done eating, Silver sits forward in his seat and grips the edge of the table.He growls and runs a hand down his face.He looks like he’s about to start punching someone, and I have no idea why.What’s up with him?
“Dude?”Dante asks.“Are you okay?”
“Not even close,” Silver grinds out.
“What the fuck, man?”Lucien says.
Silver turns his attention to me, stares at me hard for long seconds.The rest of the room is silent.Finally, he shifts his attention to everyone else, starting with Lucien at my side and moving around the table.
“I can’t figure it out.I thought if I had Bri over for dinner and forced all of you to sit down with us, I would suss it out.But it hasn’t happened, and now I’m fucking pissed.”
“Suss what out?”Talon asks.
The blood drains from my face.I don’t have a clue what Silver is talking about, but my gut tells me something very ugly is about to happen.Oddly enough, my stalker does not activate the fucking butterfly, for which I’m eternally grateful.
There’s an eerie silence.Silver’s face is bright red.I don’t know him well enough to identify his moods.We’ve spent very little time together in the years since he found me.Most of our communication was by phone for the past four years.
But he’s about to explode.
My stomach is in knots.I don’t know why.Intuition or something.A bomb is about to go off.I can feel it building, as though someone lit the wick, and now we’re all sitting here waiting for the explosion.We’re tethered to the chairs by my brother’s eerie stare.
I want to get up and leave.Run from the house before my world flips upside down, but I can’t.I’m restrained with invisible ropes, the same as everyone else.
Silver stands and slams his palms on the table.“I just want to know which one of you did it.That’s all.I want to fucking know.”
I think I might faint.Did what?I’m confused, but at the same time I’m not.Part of me knows exactly what he’s referring to.He didn’t believe me when I insisted I was not a victim of the freshman prank.Not only did he not believe me, but he thinks one of his friends is my stalker.
I gasp, that realization hitting me hard.I jerk upright and fist my hands in my lap.Is it true?Is my Daddy one of these four men?Why the fuck did this not occur to me?How is it that I’m not able to identify him?He knows every inch of my body, and I know nothing about him.
Silver is seething.“It’s not your fault,” he tells the room.“You didn’t know she was my sister.But one of you fucked with her.I know it’s not Rook because he fucking met her a few weeks ago.He would have recognized her then.That leaves Dante, Talon, or Lucien.I want to fucking know which one of you pranked my sister.”
I’m drained.There’s no life in me.I might slide to the floor as I look from Silver to Rook to each of the other guys.Do any of them stand out?
Silver shoves off the table so hard that his chair falls backward.He runs his hands through his hair, tugging on the ends.His face is beet red.“I’ve been watching all of you all evening, assuming I would figure it out.One of you is a master at schooling your fucking face.”
He’s breathing heavily.
I’m not breathingat all.I want to run out of the room.The house.But my legs aren’t working.
He continues, still growling, “Just fucking tell me.Apologize to Bri so we can move on.”
Silver jerks his attention back to me.“Doyouknow, Bri?Do you know which one of these assholes pranked you?”
I want to deny, deny, deny.I should tell him it didn’t happen.Lie through my teeth.But he’s perceptive.He’s not asking meifI was pranked.He’s figured it out.Heknows.
He’s ruining everything.Ten thousand thoughts go through my head.Am I in a relationship with one of these men?How the fuck do I not know?This is madness.
Silver thinks one of his friends grabbed me at the beginning of the school year and terrorized me.And he’s not wrong.Someone did.Denying it would be futile, but why is he so sure it was one of his friends?