Hideaway

Written by Penelope Douglas, Hideaway (2017) is the second installment of the Devil’s Night series, which fits into the dark romance/mystery genre. The novel follows four men and the women in their lives as they all navigate threats, deal with sexual tension, and reconcile The Long-Term Consequences of Traumatic Decisions. The novel depicts sexual relationships through a controversial lens, and The Psychological Impact of Toxic Power Dynamics between the characters is often downplayed as they persist in Making Sacrifices for Love and Friendship and frequently succumb to their own selfish, destructive desires.

Noted as a bestselling author by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Penelope Douglas is known for creating romances that conform to the dark romance genre. She has also professed a taste for writing about “taboo” topics that challenge existing social norms. In addition to penning the Devil’s Night series, she has authored two other series in the same genre: the Hellbent series and the Fall Away series. Her standalone novels typically build on the worlds established in her primary series and include such titles as Misconduct, Punk 57, Credence, and Tryst Six Venom.

This guide is based on the 2017 Penguin Random House edition.

Content Warning: Both the source material and this guide feature depictions of sexual violence, rape, mental illness, child abuse and child sexual abuse, suicidal ideation, self-harm, animal cruelty, addiction, sexual content, cursing, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

Years ago, four teenage friends—Kai Mori, Michael Crist, Damon Torrance, and Will Grayson III—formed a group called the Four Horsemen and began engaging in dangerous, criminal pranks every October 30, a night they called “Devil’s Night.” In the midst of these practices, when Kai was 17, he met the mysterious Nikova Banks (who goes simply by the name of “Banks”). When the two met, Kai had come to the cathedral to confess his sins. It was the last Devil’s Night that Kai and his friends would ever have, because they were about to graduate from high school. Now, in the aftermath of the events described in Corrupt (the first novel in the Devil’s Night series), Kai, Will, and Michael must deal with the consequences of Damon’s betrayal. The novel alternates between Kai and Banks’s present-day perspectives and their personal recollections of the events that occurred on that last “Devil’s Night” six years ago.

Six years ago, the 17-year-old Kai sat in what he believed to be an empty confessional and spoke of the lies, manipulation, and crimes of his past. However, Banks was secretly sitting on the other side and heard Kai’s full confession, and the two briefly spoke and shared an intimate moment in which she tells him about the infamously inaccessible 12th floor of the Pope Hotel. She also states that she wouldn’t mind the idea of Kai hunting her as he has hunted other women. 

Later that night, Kai encountered Banks on the road after her possessive and erratic half-brother, Damon, ran her off the road and into the ditch. Banks was wearing masculine clothing and kept her chest bound in order to disguise her feminine build. Kai tried to help her, but Banks resisted Kai’s attempts, and when two bodyguards arrived, she went with them instead, but not before taunting Kai with her knowledge of his activities on Devil’s Night. To assert his dominance over Banks, Kai decided to play a Devil’s Night prank on her. He and his friends kidnapped her and put her into the trunk of their car, then staged a faux-assault. Banks’s initial terror soon transformed into anger. 

Kai found her later, and their mutual attraction intensified and led to their first truly sexual moment together. However, a jealous Damon soon interrupted and demanded Banks’s loyalty, deeply confusing Kai, who did not realize that the two even knew each other. Banks obeyed Damon, going with him to a party at the cemetery. Once there, Banks ran afoul of some sinister men who pushed her into an open grave and planned to assault her. Kai came to her rescue, and the two shared another intimate moment while standing six feet underground.

One night, sometime later, Banks and Kai both attended a party at the Pope Hotel and became intimate in the ballroom. They saw a woman dancing on the stage and soon learned that she was Damon’s sexually abusive mother, who had been missing ever since Damon had finally retaliated against her abuse by attacking her. As Banks and Kai watched, Damon arrived and saw his mother in the ballroom. After an intense altercation, Kai physically struck her, and Damon later killed and buried her. (However, for years afterward, Damon let Kai believe that he had been the one to cause the death of Damon’s mother.)

In the narrative present, six years later, Kai, Will, and Michael speculate on the fate of their other friend, Damon, who disappeared a year ago after trying to murder Will as part of his broader betrayal of the Horsemen. Nobody has seen or heard from Damon since. However, Kai believes that Damon might be hiding at the Pope Hotel, so he proposes to buy the hotel from Damon’s father, Gabriel, a wealthy but corrupt man who abuses animals and women. Gabriel only agrees to sell the hotel to Kai if Kai will agree to marry Damon’s cousin, Vanessa. 

At Gabriel’s house, Kai encounters Banks and wonders what she could be doing there. Banks later appears at Kai’s family’s dojo to present Gabriel’s contract. (At this point, Kai is still unaware that Banks is Gabriel’s daughter and Damon’s half-sister.) Kai adds another clause to the contract with Gabriel, requesting that he be allowed to hire Banks to work for him. Everyone goes to the Pope Hotel to inspect the property, and although Kai and Banks locate the secret 12th floor, they cannot access it or find Damon. 

Later, Banks goes to find Kai at Michael’s penthouse. She and Kai end up kissing, but Kai is still deeply possessive of Banks. He later finds her in an alley, cold and hungry, and takes her to his parents’ house to feed her a steak dinner and take care of her. The more time that Banks spends with Kai, the more she embraces her feminine side, and she even lets Kai’s friend Alex help her pick out new clothes and makeup. 

One night, Kai finds Banks sneaking around the Pope Hotel and follows her, and he discovers the way to get to the secret 12th floor. However, when Damon isn’t there, Kai starts to question whether Banks is loyal to him or to Damon. After arguing, the two become intimate, and Kai forces himself upon her violently in an encounter where consent is dubious at best, at which point he realizes that before this moment, Banks was a virgin. Kai had assumed that Banks was more sexually experienced, and he now feels guilty for taking her virginity in such a brutal fashion. They end up having sex again in a gentler, more romantic way.

One night, Kai is back in the cathedral when he hears Banks calling him. They end up having sex in the same confessional in which they first met years ago, but they are interrupted by a call from Gabriel, who states that Kai’s future bride, Vanessa, has arrived in town. Kai goes to meet Vanessa but doesn’t sign the contract.

On the morning after Devil’s Night, Kai awakens to find his dojo on fire. (He will later learn that Damon is the culprit.) Because Vanessa has backed out of the deal that Gabriel brokered, Kai demands that Banks become his bride instead. He knows that Damon is fixated on Banks and hopes that by marrying her, he will forever have power over Damon. Kai forces Banks into a marriage and leaves the altar without even kissing her. Banks is reluctant to marry Kai but goes through with it anyway, then tries to get used to the idea of making a new life with him. She brings in her own guards and makes Kai promise not to hurt Damon. 

Damon tricks the other Horsemen by having them meet at the Pope Hotel, then goes to Kai’s house to attack Banks, Rika (Michael’s love interest), and Alex. When the Horsemen realize his malicious intentions, they race back and find Damon threatening Banks with a gun. Will attacks Damon, and in the midst of the violence, the candles fall over and set the drapes on fire. Damon redeems himself slightly by saving Rika from serious injury. He then disappears from the scene. 

In the aftermath, Banks doesn’t know if she will ever hear from her brother again, but she looks forward to her new life with Kai. 

The epilogue depicts Damon urinating on his mother’s grave. He is done with that part of his life, but there are more evil deeds yet to come.