Luke didn’t follow us. Usually, I’d be wary of him doing something behind our backs but at the moment, I just wanted to get to Milla.
“You’re a genius,” I whispered as we took the stairs two at a time.
Corey shrugged. “Every villain thinks he’s the smartest. Just look at our fucking brother.”
“What the hell was Noah thinking?” I muttered bitterly. “Dad probably already knows about what happened. Do you think he’s going to like having his eldest son ruin his honeymoon?”
“I wouldn’t be so mad if that had been his motive,” said Corey in a grave tone. “But, nope. He just wanted to make a clown out of Milla. Hurting her was his only priority. It had nothing to do with Eva or Dad.”
He stopped on the first-floor landing and fixed me with a grim look. “We could’ve ended up with a worse shrew than Eva fucking Brown,” he said. “Noah made her sound like some conniving bitch but let’s be honest. Eva’s as harmless as Milla.”
“Noah will never believe you,” I said.
“His distrust in people is starting to bug me. If he doesn’t change, he’ll destroy himself.”
“And destroy us too,” I added. “I’m done taking orders from the asshat.”
Corey chuckled and hopped up the stairs. I followed him, eager to get to Milla.
Reaching the second-floor landing, we spotted the door to the room Luke mentioned. We both hurried, kicking the door open.
My gaze fell on Milla immediately.
She was no longer covered in crimson goo. Her face was clean. The long auburn strands of her hair looked wet as if she’d just walked out of a shower.
Corey moved inside the room but I stood rooted on the threshold.
Milla wore a large faded t-shirt.That’s not hers, I realized at once.
She was probably wearing one of Luke’s t-shirts.
Rage flashed through me, hot and swift. Milla was wearing Luke’s t-shirt and tucked into his bed.
“What are you doing here?” she asked in a cracked voice as Corey approached her.
The fear in her sapphire eyes cooled my anger immediately.
“We’re here to take you home,” said Corey.
“Where’s Luke?” she asked, looking over at me. “Did you hurt him?” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Did you?”
“The asshole’s fine,” Corey assured her. He reached out toward her but she shrank away from him.
I walked forward, wondering if the two of us could cajole her into coming with us. On any other occasion, we’d have forced and bullied her into doing what we wanted, but there was no way we could do that tonight.
Milla didn’t have any fight left in her. She was just a scared, lonely girl tonight.
“We’ll take you home,” I said in a gentle voice but it came out as a deep growl. Clearing my throat, I tried again. “You’ll relax better there.”
She stared at me, mistrust clear in her tear-filled eyes. “I’ll never go back to that house,” she said in a broken voice. “Not until Mom and Brian come back.”
“How about we take you to your apartment?” said Corey. “Wouldn’t you like that?”
Thank fuck Corey could talk that gently with her. Until now, we never had to care for a girl like this. Then again, we never cared enough for a girl to even try.
“You’ll take me there?” she asked, her brows stringing together. “Really?”
“Yep,” said Corey, flashing her his whore-boy grin. “Look. I got the key.” Fishing inside the pocket of his jacket, he took out a key with a snowy-white owl figurine hanging from the keychain.