The Devil's Game (Rhodes to Hell Book 1) Read online

  I’m out of breath from running, but my body is completely done after throwing up and when I try to stand back up straight I’m a little wobbly. It’s pretty hot and I can feel the throw up still in my nose and I do not want to look at Hollis with throw up coming from my nose. No thank you.

  I spit one more time before sitting back on my heels and despite looking like shit and probably having throw up all over my face I look at him. I turn slightly and see him frowning at me. It lessens when our eyes met, but it’s still there.

  “Feel better?” he asks, his tone lacking the care you’d expect to come with this kind of question.

  I nod. “I need water and something to wipe my face.”

  “Come on,” he tells me before turning and walking towards the building where I assume the bathrooms are. I follow behind him and as we walk he pulls the shirt he’s wearing off and hands it to me. My eyes go wide at all of the tattoos covering his whole body, but I try to recover quickly by covering my face with his sweaty shirt.

  His smell is all over the shirt and it’s a mixture between the smell of fireworks and something earthy. I can’t put my finger on it but I’m thankful for anything better smelling than the alcohol I just threw up.

  I wipe my face off and when he pushes in a door on the side of the building I stop and wait. I don’t know if I’ll throw up again and the last thing I want to do was walk inside somewhere and not have a patch of grass to catch my puke.

  He returns a few minutes later with two water bottles, one in each hand, and extends one to me.

  “You should probably eat something,” he tells me, handing me the water. “We can go up to the house and get some food. Dinner will be a little later and we’ll all have to be there to eat with Preston, but we can have whatever you can stomach for lunch. And then we can shower.”

  “Yeah I definitely only had alcohol left in my stomach, I guess it wasn’t very smart to run like so hard.” I chuckle and he just stares at me. “You carrying me up those steps?”

  “Nope.” He chuckles back at me at the question as he turns around, walking back towards the steps and leaving me behind. I open my water and take a sip and then catch up to him again. He glances over at me. I have my best begging face on, but he doesn’t budge. “I’m not getting thrown up on.”

  I let out a laugh because honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted someone who’d just thrown up on my back either. “Fair point. Well, it was nice knowing you.”

  He frowns and looks over at me again, not getting my joke.

  “I’m going to be dead by the time we make it to the top,” I explain to him with a laugh and he shakes his head at me. He still doesn’t pick me up.

  My legs are on fire by the time we make it about a fourth of the way up and by halfway I think I might die. I’ve never been in horrible shape, but steps like these aren’t for the faint of heart. We are almost to the top I stop to catch my breath but Hollis keeps marching up. I watch him for a few steps and I start to notice he’s in a rhythm with his steps and I wonder if it would be easier to just do it like him.

  I stand back up straight again and grab the railing, doing my best to stay in step with him. It becomes like a game and when we get to the top I don’t even realize we are done until I look up from his no longer moving feet. I laugh when I make it to where Hollis is standing, and lean over my legs to catch my breath. Hollis looks down at me and tries to hide his smile with another shake of his head but he fails.

  “You didn’t do as bad as we did our first times on the steps. You should be proud,” he tells me with a smirk.

  “I am not proud of currently being in a state of almost death.” I groan, desperately trying to catch my breath, “Thanks to some steps.”

  He just shrugs. “We’ve all been there.”

  He turns away from me and begins walking back in the direction we’d come from before the run, the sweat on his bare back making him glisten in the sun. I follow behind him with a dumb smile on my face because even though I’d just run with nothing but alcohol in my stomach, thrown up, and was forced to climb the highest set of stairs I’ve ever seen I’d forgotten for a moment what life outside this little place is like. I’d forgotten about what’s waiting on me if I decide to leave the safety of Preston’s compound. I forgot about having to make a decision at all.

  It doesn’t take long for the weight of last night and this morning to crash back onto my shoulders. I’m not given much time to think about what I’m going to do because when Hollis and I wrap the corner of the guest house Hollis pulls out his buzzing phone and reads the screen for a few seconds before looking up at me.

  Preston needs to see us early, come on, so you can get showered and changed,” he tells me heading back in the direction of the guest house.

  Chapter Sixteen

  HOLLIS—PRESENT

  “Preston said he told me to tell you he needed your answer by dinner, but things have slightly changed,” I tell Ruby.

  “What changed?” she asks as we walk into the kitchen area.

  I don’t answer her.

  I see the apprehension in her eyes and I wonder what she sees mine. I don’t want her to see anything but if she does, she doesn’t show it. I know how Preston is. I know what he’s capable of and while we both realize this girl has no better choices than to accept what he’s offering her, we also understand he’s going to change her. He’ll break her just like he broke all of us. Hopefully it won’t be a bad thing for her.

  “Are we allowed to shower first? Maybe grab something light to eat. I just threw up more than I even thought was in my stomach and I feel like I’m probably the worst smelling of the both of us …” Ruby tells me, sounding like she’s lost her damn mind.

  Nothing about her smells bad, no matter the sweat glistening on her skin from our run or her throw up.

  “Showers are fine,” I tell her. “But we have to make it quick.”

  I look down at Ruby and she watches my face as she walks closer to me. I don’t know what she’s looking for but when she pulls her eyes away from me I follow her light of sight.

  “Want me to get you a snack?” I ask, and she looks back at me again, her smirk seeming permanent.

  She rolls her eyes. “I can find my own food and you can just tell me where I can shower. I’ll be quick.”

  I laugh. I like her boldness. “I need a shower, too, we won’t be in there long.”

  I pass by the couches, moving closer to Ruby as she walks into the bedroom we’d slept in last night. I walk with her into the room and when she turns on me it takes everything in me not to smirk at her. She is so bold.

  “Are you expecting to shower with me?”

  “I won’t touch you Ruby, it’s just to cut the time. Preston doesn’t like to wait,” I explain, and it isn’t a lie. A rushed shower isn’t what I want, but I want to shower rather than be sweaty for the time we were going to have to be around Preston. The shower is plenty big enough for the both of us. “There are two shower heads …”

  “Fine,” she agrees quickly, making me grin. I can’t hold it back and she narrows her dark eyes at me. “I mean … I guess.”

  Turning around quickly she flips her loose ponytail over her shoulder and she moves to the bathroom. The shower isn’t exactly in the bathroom, because it’s a room in itself entirely, so when she beats me to the bathroom she looks around, confused. I continue to the back of the bathroom and look back when I reach the frosted shower door.

  “Come on,” I call when she just stares at me. “You can take your clothes off in here.”

  She frowns slightly, but ultimately picks her feet up and meets me at the door. I pull it open and she watches me as she walks in. Her ass is so, so aggravating. The chemistry between us is there, but she’s hellbent on being defensive. I tell myself I can’t judge her because in all honesty I know nothing about her, but all of that will change after tonight.

  We will all know everything in just a couple of hours and she’ll never have to utter a word to any
of us.

  “This is a nice ass guest house,” she laughs, turning around and taking the shower room in fully. The entire ceiling is the same type of glass from the door and the sun is high in the sky and shined through the glass illuminating the white marble and golden fixtures. There are two benches off to the side where water doesn’t touch and as I walk over to them and push my shorts down, overly aware of Ruby’s eyes on me.

  “We need to hurry. Don’t you want to clean up?” I ask her, turning my head to look at her.

  She nods, but doesn’t move. She looks nervous for the first time since I met her, and it confuses me. I don’t say anything but once I’m completely naked I turn in her direction and she makes no effort to hide the fact she’s completely checking out every inch of me.

  When her eyes finally meet mine I’m only a step away and she holds my stare, her eyes hard but her expression almost … curious. She’s waiting to see what I’ll do and there is so much I want to do to her. I want to push her hard against the cold marble and do filthy things to her, but I don’t. I told her I wouldn’t touch her and I’m not a liar.

  “Do you need help getting out of your clothing? You’re going to miss the chance to shower, little one.”

  Her breathing hitches and her chest stills for a few seconds before she realizes she needs oxygen to live and breathes an extremely shallow breath, never taking her eyes off mine. She nods slowly and pulls her eyes from mine down to her chest. I noticed the scar stretching from her left shoulder to just under her right rib before our run, but her hair had hidden a lot of it. It’s bold across her skin now.

  I’m not sure why she seems so nervous about it now.

  “You want me to take your clothes off?” I ask, making sure she understands what I’m saying.

  She hasn’t been this quiet since the second I met her yesterday, and it’s weird as hell. It’s also probably weird as hell for her to be in the shower with me being completely naked but it doesn’t matter. It only has to be sexual if we want it to be.

  “Yes,” she says softly, meeting my eyes again.

  I put my fingers under the bottom of the sports bra on either side of her and tug up. She raises her arms as I get the tight bra past her boobs and pull it up over her head. I toss it to where my clothes sit and when I turn back to her I see the shame in her expression.

  As I take her scar in fully I can understand why. Scars like hers are the ones holding more pain than what can be seen on the surface. They’re deeply rooted and no matter how badly we want them to be hidden, they are still in our faces causing us pain.

  I don’t linger on her long before tugging her shorts off dropping them to her still bare feet. As she steps out of them I noticed how red the bottoms of her feet are. She’d taken the socks I’d given her at the clinic off for our run and her bare feet seem to be burned now. I toss the shorts aside and pick up one of her feet to inspect it.

  She tries to pull away but loses her balance and her hand goes to my shoulder so she can steady herself. I look up into her eyes and find her staring down at me, clearly wondering what the hell I’m doing. I honestly have no idea so I put her foot back down and stand back up, leaving her there to go turn on the showers.

  I leave the first one after getting the temperature right and when I get to the second knob I cut it on high and step into the water. I close my eyes and tip my head up. The scalding water eats at my skin and makes my chest heavy with the pleasure I find in the pain of the searing hot water. I blow out a breath, releasing everything from the last twenty-four hours and pull my head from the stream.

  Wiping a hand down my face, I look over to where Ruby is and I find her naked body under the other shower head and she’s letting the water run down her body from the top of her head. Her back is arched and when I look down I see the hot water finally washing away all of the old blood. Her hands are down by her sides and her head is slightly tilted up and my dick is as hard as a fucking rock.

  I want to look away, but I can’t make myself do it. While I wash myself I watch her standing there under the water not moving at all. Her long hair is stuck to her back and it is damn near touching her ass. With her head tipped up the sun casts light and shadows all over her dripping wet body and I grind my teeth together, wanting to touch her. I won’t.

  The view is amazing.

  I rinse my body and step out into the steam the hot water has created. The steam isn’t too heavy yet, but it’s nice and warm. I stop in front of her and just look down until she peeks out of one of her eyes. I’d moved into her sun and just like I knew she would she opens her eyes.

  “You haven’t washed.”

  It isn’t a question but she shakes her head anyway. “The hot water feels so good,” she tells me, keeping her eyes on mine.

  I can tell she wants to look all over my body like she’s already done, but her restraint is cute. “You like it hot?”

  “I can’t remember my last hot shower,” she laughs. “I love it hot.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to come back to enjoy it later, because we’ve used up our time in here. I know you saw a side of Preston who was a charming man and truly, I’m glad the side he showed you was how you met him,” I explain, reaching up and running my thumb over the edge of the bruise on her face from the fight last night, “but if you want to keep on his good side you’re going to want to hurry things along. I’ve already told you he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

  She doesn’t flinch back from the pressure I put on her bruise, but her eye on this side of her face squints slightly. The tiny squint is the only indication of pain coming from her, but I know for a fact she’s sore.

  She has to be, Benzo’s dumb ass crushed her to the floor with his own body before slamming her into the table and hitting her. She is lucky he didn’t break her cheek bone. Or one of her ribs.

  “Are you going to wash yourself or do I need to do it?” I ask, watching her as she still looks at me in my eyes.

  She grins innocently, revealing what I’ve known all along. “I’d much rather you do it.”

  “Just like you wanted me to undress you,” I ask, calling her out.

  Her smile grows and I guess she know I’m onto her. Her laugh is soft when she nods. “Caught me.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  RUBY—PRESENT

  I have way too much swirling around in my brain to think straight. There are so many questions on the tip of my tongue but as I stand in the bedroom in nothing but a towel, doing my best to calm my fucking hormones, I am speechless. Hollis dressed from a closet across the room but told me to help myself to the clothing in the drawers before leaving me alone.

  The door is closed but I can still feel the look he’d given me before he left searing through my blood. I am not sure what it is about Hollis, but I don’t think he needs my help as much as I thought. The more time I spend around him the more calculating he seems and there’s no way I can be too far off.

  He seems to know what he’s doing every step of the way and is confident in everything. It’s almost unnerving. Almost.

  I let the towel drop, walk over to the dresser, and pull out the top drawer where I found the last outfit. I only grab a new sports bra before exploring the other drawers below. It’s mostly athletic wear and I decide on a pair of shorts, but this time I opt for a shirt to go see Preston. My scar makes people ask questions and I don’t want to answer any other questions of his right now.

  I have enough on my plate answering the one he’s already asked me.

  The clothes fit me perfectly and I pull the door open once I get the shorts up over my ass. I walk through the guest house but like I thought before Hollis isn’t anywhere inside. Once I make it to the door I realize why. He is pacing the sidewalk out front, on the phone.

  “We’re coming now … yes … she showered,” he says into the phone before sighing. “She still had blood in her hair … yeah … okay we’re coming.”

  He whips around after ending the call, more than
likely ready to rip me from the guest house dressed or not, but his brows raise instead. “We need to get to the house.”

  “I didn’t think I took too long,” I chuckle but follow behind him.

  “Preston doesn’t like to wait,” Hollis tells me and I’m starting to get the picture.

  “So I’ve heard.”

  “You’re going to give him so much hell.” He laughs, continuing to walk towards the garden.

  “Probably,” I tell him with a shrug as I catch up to him. He looks down at me as I struggle over the rocks and without saying a word scoops me up and puts me over his shoulder. Before I fall over to his back I grip onto his head in an awkward way making it to where he can’t see, and I laugh.

  “You can’t just hold my fucking head.”

  “I don’t like hanging upside down,” I explain to him, laughter still in my voice.

  “Fine,” he says, and for a second I think he’s going to put me down but he just settles me on his front, his hands locking right under my ass, forcing my legs around his waist. His tattooed biceps flex with my weight, but he doesn’t stop walking until we are across the gravel.

  I have a smile on my face and ready myself to be dropped back to the sidewalk, but he just keeps walking. I look back up at him when he doesn’t put me down and he meets my eyes. “I can walk.”

  “Looked like you were struggling back there,” he says, holding back a grin as best as he can.

  “The rocks …” I counter, a smile still creeping its way across my face slowly. He’s fucking with me on purpose.

  He doesn’t say anything else and when we’re almost to the door he finally releases me, but lets me down slowly giving me a chance to find my footing. A few seconds is all I get though because as soon as I steady myself he is rushing me through the doors and to a place in the house I haven’t been to before.