Go to Hell (on hold)

NINE

Someone harshly knocked on my door three times. Before I could get up to answer, whoever it was shoved to door open and hit me in the legs. I flinched and looked up into Gabriel's annoyed face.

"Eww," he whined. "What the fuck are you doing on the floor? Get up. You're going to ruin your skirt."

I scrambled to my feet and faced him head on. Tough. I needed to be tough.

"Is there something I can help you with?" I asked as I crossed my arms over my stomach.

"Yeah, I drew the short straw, so I'm here to tell you that you aren't invited to dinner tonight. Someone will bring food up for you."

"Why can't I come to dinner?"

"Well, it's none of your goddamned business, but Luke just brought home nine strippers and six kilos of cocaine. So sorry, sweetheart, it's a boys club tonight." My eyes widened. I didn't know much about drugs, but that seemed like way too much cocaine. Dinner in my room now sounded a whole lot better.

"Is that all?" I asked, wanting Gabriel to leave. I didn't like the way he was looking at my clothes, at my hair, my face. I didn't like how he judged me.

"Kota also told me to apologize for being a dick. However, not only is that not going to happen, but you and I both know I don't give a shit if you think I'm being an ass." I nodded and held open the door for him.

"Okay, thank for letting me know. Goodbye, Gabriel." He looked at me, then at the door, then back at me. My knees nearly shook under the weight of my nerves.

"Huh, so that's how it's going to be." He shook his head and chuckled to himself. "Bye, Sang."

I gently shut the door behind him and giggled. I just stood up to Gabriel. Being tough was more fun than I thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was just suppose to be an experiment. A stupid little experiment to see what she would do. When she didn't recognize him, he thought it would be amusing to test how far it could go. Surly her memories from right before her death would come back to her and she would avoid him like the plague. But they didn't.

Now he was sitting in one of their living rooms, watching a stripper dance for all she was worth and staring at the four lines of untouched cocaine Sean had left for him, feeling like he was the one in the wrong. Ms. Sorenson should have taken the hint. She should have left when he made it clear he had grown bored of her. But she didn't.

Owen Blackbourne surveyed the room. Gabriel danced with two of the girls while Luke eagerly watched with another on his lap. Sean was doing lines of cocaine off of his girl's stomach. She giggled incessantly. Owen would have removed her from his house if the music didn't drown out most of the noise she made. Victor observed his stripper dance quietly, with a glass of red wine in hand. North and Silas both received lap dances as they chatted with each other. Nathan was passionately kissing his dancer, one hand buried in her hair, the other on her ass. He had already been warned multiple times to get a room. Kota chose to skip the festivities tonight, and Owen was thinking he made the best choice out of all of them.

It didn't escape Owen's attention that seven of the nine girls were blonde. He took note of which boys chose blonde ones— all but him and North. Even Gabriel danced between two blondes beauties. Owen didn't believe in coincidence, so he assumed Luke acquired the strippers that he did on purpose. It's not like they had a shortage of volunteers to come perform in their home. Many women were eager to prove their worth in hopes of getting to marry one of them. They hardly ever paid for strippers. Even more so in the past few years. It was tradition that the ruler of the Underworld and his or her inner circle choose spouses on the ruler's one hundredth year of being in power. That was one year from now. They should already all have brides lines up, but no one had found a suitable partner. Except Kota. But Owen doubted he would marry Sang. Kota wouldn't condemn her to a like in the Underworld forever. But some of his brothers might.