by G N Wright
I grip Cherry to my side and storm over to them before I can even think about it.
Jace cuts in before I can even speak with a sarcastic tone, “Morning, brother,” he says with a smile. For the first time ever, the word brother sounds like an insult instead of an endearment and I fucking hate it. This isn’t us, this is not what we do.
Before I can even respond he turns his attention to Cherry and continues, “And good morning to you too, Miss Daniels. So nice that Marcus here has finally got himself a girlfriend,” He says with a smugly sweet smile aimed at me.
He gets his intended reaction when Cherry squeals loudly, “I know! I just can’t believe how lucky I am that he finally noticed me.”
The way she says finally has me swinging my gaze her way considering two days ago I had no idea who she was. I don’t have time to think about it any longer before Jace continues on, “Yeah, love really is in the air round here,” he replies to her as he swings his arm around Elle. “Isn’t that right, princess?”
Elle is staring at me intently, like she is willing me to stop these childish games and just talk to her, but we are too far gone for that. We aren’t Ells and River anymore, we stopped being them when she started piling on the secrets and lies. There is no going back to how things were before, there is just before and after. Now, we exist only in the after. I do my best to ignore the obvious attempt to rile me up, but Cherry doesn’t help things.
“Oh wow, you two make a gorgeous couple!” She says complimenting them like she didn’t get called a pornstar by Elle, just yesterday.
“Yep,” Jace says, popping the P obnoxiously. “I saw what was right in front of me and snatched it up,” he adds as he glares at me and I snort.
“Good luck keeping hold of her, liars get bored easily,” I respond with a smug smile and she frowns before schooling her expression and locking her eyes on Cherry who just scoffed in outrage at my statement.
“Excuse him, Cherry, he’s forgotten the manners I know his father taught him,” she says with a sickly-sweet smile and I tense at the mention of my dad. Oh, is she really going there?
“Well, only you know why he isn’t around to keep me in check, little King,” I bark back at her and I see her tense from here before she lets out a low breath and looks to my brothers.
Ignoring me, she speaks to them, “Come on, let’s go to class,” she says before sliding off the hood and barging past me and ending our verbal sparring. I try not to feel the pang in my chest as she walks away from me but it’s there, just like it always is. I turn back to my brothers who look at me with disappointment in their eyes. It just confuses the fuck out of me, but I don’t have time to decipher it before they leave to follow after her.
I don’t know what stings more, watching her walk away from me or watching my brothers go with her. I don’t know when it happened but it’s here right in front of me, I wanted a Queen and now my brothers have got one. I always knew she could be, but I guess I was wrong about who her King would be.
Cherry cuts into my thoughts as her hands slide up my chest and it takes everything in me to suppress a flinch.
“Wanna skip class? I bet I could think of something more fun to do,” she says, smiling up at me, in what I am sure is her best seductive smile, but it does nothing for me.
I don’t hesitate before I shake out of her embrace and turn to follow after my lying Queen. “Rain check, Cherry,” I throw over my shoulder without looking back at her.
The only thing on my mind is getting to the bottom of whatever is going on with Jace and Elle. As if thinking about her and Donovan wasn’t fucking bad enough. I stalk after them pushing people out of my way as I go and giving zero fucks about any of them. Now is not the time to be dealing with any bottom feeders vying for attention. No, the only person getting my attention today is my beautiful, little liar.
I am going to watch every move she makes until I uncover the rest of her secrets. If she can lie about having a child and a relationship with Asher fucking Donovan, then I’m sure there are plenty more truths that need to be uncovered.
I watch her, them. Taking note of every movement and filing it away. Lincoln is his usual serious self, and he looks like he is talking to them both sternly about something and Elle is growling at him while Jace just laughs. Lincoln shakes his head before giving Elle’s shoulder a little squeeze and heading off to class.
Jace stays behind and whatever he is saying has Elle laughing. It makes me want to paint these shitty hallways with his fucking blood. She grabs books from her locker and nods her head my way indicating where her class is. Before she turns to leave, Jace locks eyes with me over her shoulder and pulls her into a hug with a smug smile on his face before dropping a kiss to her head and turning to leave.
Elle watches him for a couple of seconds before turning my way, her smile from Jace still lingering on her lips. A smile she used to save for only me. She doesn’t notice me at first even though the hallways are emptying quickly. I use that to my advantage and fall in with a group of people heading the same way as her. As we get to a set of double doors, some freshman stops to keep the door open for her and she flashes him that same smile and I can no longer take it.
“Spread your legs for him too?” I snap and the freshman looks at Elle apologetically before scrambling away. Pussy.
She takes a deep breath before answering me, “What do you want, Marcus?”
Oh, so we are back to Marcus now. “I want you out of my school, Elle,” I reply with as much emphasis on her name as possible.
“Well, that isn’t happening. Anything else I can help you with?” she snarks back at me.
“I don’t know. What's the going rate for North bred whores these days?” and she flinches at the word whore. I feel a bit like an asshole, but then I remember how she broke my heart and I squash those feelings down quick.
“Call me a whore one more time and you will regret it. I promise you,” she says slowly through gritted teeth.
I mock a laugh, “Is that a pinky promise?” I say holding out my pinky finger to her.
Her eyes don’t leave mine as she reaches out and snaps my finger back quicker than I can pull it away. I feel the snap but don’t allow her the reaction of my pain. I smile gleefully as I grab her and push her back against the wall ignoring the pain as I curl my fingers around her arms to hold her in place.
“Remember when you said you were already broken, little King?” I whisper leaning in close, so my words are delivered right against her ear. I feel her skin break out in goosebumps beneath me “Well, I’m gonna test that theory.”
“Come for me or my family and you won’t live to see another day, Marcus,” she replies coolly, and I don’t miss the undertone of the threat.
“You’re dumber than I thought if you think I’m scared of Asher Donovan,” I snap back at her, losing some of my cool.
Before I can even feel her move, she has my arms gripped in hers and has flipped me around and pushed my face against the glass of the doors with her trusty knife at my throat. Fuck that shouldn’t be hot, but it is. The fact she has just handled my six-foot two body into submission without even breaking a sweat is impressive.
“All the men in this town really need to fucking learn that I am the real threat around here,” she spits through gritted teeth. “Last warning, Marcus. You’re either with me or against me.”
“And if I’m against you?” I ask trying to ignore the raging hard on I am now sporting.
She releases me and steps back allowing me to turn around and take her in from head to toe. The look on her face is completely murderous and sexy.
“Then prepare to fucking lose,” she says before she turns and leaves me alone in the hallway staring after her.
Chapter 10
ELLE
This week is a fucking shit show. The fact I haven’t spilled blood in Hallows High’s fucking hallways is a miracle within itself. I have been towing the line between calm and chaos all week. The only time I allowed mys
elf to slip was when I broke Marcus’ finger on Tuesday. Not my best reaction in hindsight, but he's lucky that's all he walked away with. Now I know what it feels like to stab a guy in the dick, the urge to do it again is strong. You’d think the love I have for him would make dealing with him easy, but in fact it's the opposite. What is it they say about a woman scorned?
Everywhere I turn, I have to suffer through watching Marcus with his fucking girlfriend. At least that’s what everyone is calling her. Every time I hear it, I imagine different ways to murder her. Not like any of this is her fault, my rage is firmly directed at Marcus, but of course the gods cursed me to love him too much to hurt him. What kind of sick sense of humor do they have? Pair that with the fact that Jace has entangled me in some sort of fake boyfriend situation with him and it’s safe to say I am going fucking stir crazy.
After I threatened Marcus the other day, he has been hellbent on being in my line of sight any chance he fucking gets. I am growing more than tired of it. Thank fuck it’s Friday because having to endure your period and high school bullshit is definitely some new sick kind of torture, that I don’t enjoy.
I choose to forgo the cafeteria for lunch. If I have to suffer through one more day where Marcus gets a fucking lunch time lap dance, I might just fork my own fucking eyeballs out. Thankfully, the guys understand my need to flee and have agreed to ditch the rest of the day with me, in favor of hanging out at home. We are going out tonight, so it gives us time to put some plans in place.
Cooking up revenge plans is still at the forefront of everything, and there has been a lot of shit going on since we blew up Elliot’s warehouse. We have noticed an increase in his men poking around the South Side asking questions. We have been keeping a low profile, aka not killing anyone else, while still doing required recon work. Being patient is shitty as fuck, when all I want to do is bleed out every fucking rapist I come across, but we have to think of the bigger picture.
Tonight, we are hitting the old warehouse on Riverside again for another party. We have a little business, but the outing is mostly for pleasure. Apparently, Jace thinks I need to ‘chill’, like it isn’t his fault I am so on edge. The little show he has been putting on for Marcus all week has me worried that he might slit his throat in his sleep, I mean it’s not like they don’t share the same house. When I said this to Jace, he just burst out laughing and told me that I still don’t know anything. Whatever the fuck that means.
I told the guys that they are welcome to join me at home, but that I will be getting ready at Taylor’s. I have endured far too much testosterone this week and I need some girl time, thankfully they agreed.
Asher will also be joining us tonight, I hope, I have barely seen him this week which in part is my fault, I guess. His father has all their men on a tight leash after the unfortunate fire and that includes bringing Ash to heel as well. I would gut Elliot just for the way he treats his son.
The house is quiet when we arrive. It's Friday afternoon so Zack is at the office and Cass has gone with Helen and Arthur to visit the twins again. I make a mental note to plan to tag along with them soon. It’s been a couple of months since I have seen them and I’m starting to miss the two of them.
The guys follow me inside and up to my room, they aren’t strangers here anymore, and it's nice to see how comfortable they are around me and my home. I guess it’s nice for me too. This is what I crave with Marcus, this easy friendship where we can just hang out like old times. It hurts my chest when I think about how we will never have that again.
Lincoln takes a seat at my desk as usual while Jace just dives onto the bed, into my mountain of pillows.
“Damnnnn, princess. I will never get used to how comfy your bed is,” he says in appreciation.
I pick one of the pillows that he has knocked to the floor up and throw it at him, “You won’t be spending enough time in my bed to get used to it, pretty boy.”
He clutches his chest, “You wound me,” he says with a smile. I roll my eyes at him as I climb onto it and lie next to him.
It’s funny, when I came back to this town, the only person I was comfortable with having in my room was my family, yet here I am with two of the South Side's most dangerous guys, and I feel nothing but content.
“So, what's the plan tonight?” Lincoln asks, breaking into my thoughts.
I shrug and then sit up onto my elbows so I can look at him, “Not much, Superman. Ash says Elliot is still out for blood for what we did, so we keep a low profile for now.”
Jace snorts, “Yeah like the low life prick ever keeps a low profile,” he says through gritted teeth showing a rare side of himself.
Now that I know about what happened to his sister Rachel, everything about Jace Conrad makes a lot more sense, the jokes, the joints, the girls. All of it is an attempt to block out losing the only family he had. I get it. I know what she went through, but I live to deal with it. If it weren’t for Cassie, Ash, Zack, and the rest of my family, I would have joined her in death at my own hands.
I reach out and grip his hand in mine and squeeze it, “Don’t waste your breath on him, pretty boy. When the time comes, I will paint the walls red for what he did to her.” I don’t have to say his sister’s name for him to know who I mean. He uses my grip on his hand to pull me towards him until I am cuddled into his chest, I panic slightly but squash it down because I know he needs this.
He pulls back and looks down at me, “Elle King, I will be by your side to watch him bleed out, all the Rebels will,” he declares, and I frown slightly at the reference to Marcus.
I scoff, “Yeah, I’ll be lucky if Marcus doesn’t kill you first, the way you are pushing his buttons.” Both he and Linc laugh out loud at that.
“Princess, come on, look how much fun we have had riling him up this week. I am surprised he hasn’t bashed my face in yet.”
“He doesn’t care, that's why,” I respond and they both laugh again.
“Elle, for someone so badass, you really are such a girl,” Linc says, and Jace nods.
I climb off the bed in a huff as Jace goes on, “His eyes have not left you once this week. Either to watch you or make sure you are watching the show he’s putting on.”
“Cherry might not be a show,” I say weakly.
He dives off the bed and drags me to the mirror, “No red-blooded male in their right minds would give up on this,” he says gesturing to my reflection before turning me to face him. He grips my cheeks, “Listen to me, Elle King, and listen good, you were made for that boy. The sooner you both pull your heads out of your assess and realize that, the better things will be for all of us.”
“I hate to say this, but Jace is right,” Lincoln chimes in. Jace smiles big like the cat that got the cream before spinning me around to face them.
“Of course, I am, now let’s see how else we can push his buttons,” he says, releasing me and going into my walk-in wardrobe. He ruffles around in there for a few minutes before he comes back and places some stuff on the bed.
“I’m not a doll you can dress up, Conrad,” I say to him, then curse inwardly at the outfit he has picked, it’s kinda perfect.
He has laid out a red lace bodysuit that is sleeveless and cuts super low at the front and is backed by a peach material so you can’t see through the lace, but it still has the illusion of being able to. He has paired it with fitted black velvet pants and some strappy black heels.
“You were saying,” he says smugly, when he sees my appraisal of the outfit.
“Fine,” I huff back at him, “But only because I can hide my knife in those pants,” I say, and he laughs.
He pushes me towards my en suite while landing a little slap on my ass and I squeal. “Now go get that sweet ass pampered so when you see him tonight, he won’t be able to resist you any longer.”
I roll my eyes, “I’m not trying to seduce him,” I mutter, but it doesn’t sound too convincing and I just stalk towards the bathroom as Jace turns back towards my bed.
“
Oh, and pretty boy?” He turns back to me with a nod, “Touch my ass again and you will be bleeding out on this carpet,” I say with a smile before turning and slamming the door shut behind me, cutting off his roaring laughter.
Regardless of Jace’s joking, it doesn’t stop me from washing my hair and shaving and moisturizing from head to toe before I pack my stuff up and head over to Taylor’s. The Rebels drop me off, of course, before they head home to change, telling me they will be back soon to pick me up.
Thanks to my constant texts to Taylor alerting her to all my high school drama she is completely caught up on what is going on and instead of offering me support, all she’s got is jokes.
“What? All I’m saying is fake or not, if Jace Conrad was offering me some of that, I would climb him like a tree,” she giggles before knocking back a shot.
“Trust me, Tay, I am sure if you ask, he would be more than willing,” I say, licking the salt off my hand as I try my first tequila shot, ignoring the vile burn in my throat as I swallow and suck a lime.
She laughs at my scrunched-up face before answering, “Yeah, something tells me I am not ready to ride that Rebel rollercoaster. I’m not really into one and done, yanno?” She says shrugging her shoulders.
I place my hand on her arm so she looks at me, “Trust me, in a town like this one, the Rebels are the last thing you should be worried about.” She frowns, giving me a look like she wants me to say more but she knows me well enough to know I’m done.
“Okay, one more shot and we hit the road. Your boys will be here any minute.”
She doesn’t hesitate to throw it back before adding “Fuck, it hurts my throat.”
“That's what she said,” Jace’s voice cuts into the room and we both jump.
“Jesus fucking Christ, pretty boy, didn’t anybody teach you not to sneak up on two girls?”
