The Third Strike: Rogues of Everly Prep Book Three

by Wendi Wilson

“So, Theo’s parents have his phone. I’ll tell Josh. Thanks, Seth.”

  “Anytime, Sis,” he said, shooting me a wink as he left.

  I shook my head. Having a brother was the best.

  9

  Watching Amelia hang all over Seth was almost as intolerable as watching Charlotte touch Mason. No. That was a fucking lie. Nothing was worse than watching that blonde bitch put her skank hands where I couldn’t. And the way she glanced at me every few seconds told me the show was solely for my benefit.

  “Can we start eating lunch in the bathroom?”

  “What?” Josh asked, his distracted gaze moving from the Rogues’ table to me.

  “I’d rather risk hepatitis by eating my chili mac on the toilet than sit here and watch this shit show,” I clarified.

  “Just ignore them, queen,” he replied. “Pretend like none of it bothers you. You’re letting them win.”

  “Ha. Pot, meet kettle,” I shot back, arching a brow at him.

  A sad laugh rumbled from his lips as he shook his head. We were both pathetic, and we knew it. But at least we had each other. That was something those asshole Bellamys couldn’t fuck with. Josh was my rock, and I was his. We’d make it to other side of this mess, together.

  “Have I told you today that I love you?” I asked.

  “Duh,” he said, shooting me a wink. “What’s not to love?”

  “You really should work on your low self-esteem, Joshua Fairbanks,” I said, my tone thick with sarcastic concern. “You are special.”

  He laughed at my antics, and I leaned back with a satisfied smile. It seemed finding love had been a bitch for the both of us, and it was up to me to keep his spirits up. And vice versa.

  “I still can’t believe they took his phone,” Josh murmured, his eyes once again on the Rogue’s table. “He’s eighteen, for fuck’s sake.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess if they pay for it, then it’s technically theirs,” I said, frowning. “But what if it wasn’t?”

  I pulled my phone from my pocket and pulled up Seth’s number. I composed a text and watched him, waiting for Amelia to be distracted by Isla before hitting send.

  “What did you do?” Josh asked, nodding at the device gripped between my fingers.

  “Texted Seth,” I explained. “The problem we’re having is that the Bellamys are controlling everyone. They probably ordered Theo’s parents to take his phone. But what if we take away some of that control?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked, leaning forward.

  “You might not realize this,” I said, arching a brow at him, “but not everyone can afford the newest, fanciest phone hooked up to an unlimited network. As an alternative, some companies offer cheap, disposable ones that work on a prepaid basis. Theo, Mason, and Cooper could each get one, and we could stay in contact with no one being the wiser.”

  Josh’s eyes widened as color rushed into his pale cheeks. “That’s brilliant. You’re brilliant.”

  “Of course, I am,” I shot back. “Are you just now figuring that out?”

  “Marry me.”

  “Nope.”

  “Please?”

  “No, but I still love...”

  Movement across the room caught my eye, cutting off my words. I watched in horror as Charlotte stood up and swung her leg over Mason’s, straddling his lap. She rolled her hips, rubbing her crotch against his as her arms circled his neck.

  Anger rocketed through me, and I half rose out of my chair. Josh’s hand zipped across the table, gripping mine hard enough to stop me.

  “Don’t,” he hissed. “That’s what she wants. Don’t give it to her.”

  “I’m going to give it to her, all right,” I gritted out, anger overriding all common sense.

  “Chaz.”

  Josh tugged on my hand as he said the word, and some of the red haze cleared from my vision. My butt landed back in the chair, and my eyes moved from Charlotte’s narrow hips up to her head. She had her face buried in his neck, probably leaving a hickey to mark her territory like a bitch in heat.

  My gaze moved to Mason’s face, and his blue eyes were locked on me. He looked as pissed as I felt, having to endure this bullshit from a girl he couldn’t stand. All of the anger drained from me as we stared at each other, both of us becoming oblivious of Charlotte’s antics.

  They didn’t matter. She didn’t matter. All that mattered was how we felt about each other, and what we would have when we came out of this on the other side.

  “I love you,” I mouthed, and the angry color in his face faded a little.

  “I love you,” he mouthed back.

  I nodded, then turned my attention back to Josh. “Thanks for pulling me off the ledge. Want to get out of here?”

  “Yeah, let’s go before my lunch makes a reappearance all over this table,” he replied, pushing himself to his feet.

  As we gathered our things, my phone chimed with an incoming text. A laugh barked out of me as I read it, earning a quizzical look from Josh.

  “It’s Simone,” I said, handing him the phone.

  Good job being the bigger person, it read. But if it were me, I’d have wrapped those bleach-blonde extensions around her neck and choked her out. Fucking whore.

  Josh chuckled, then looked up at Simone, shooting her a wink. We missed her now that she sat at the Rogues’ table every day with Cooper. She had been splitting time with us, but Cooper’s parents had intervened, telling him that his girlfriend should remain by his side if he wanted to keep her.

  That threat reeked of Gwyneth and Phin Bellamy. And while it hurt our egos to succumb to it, we did. Simone and Cooper really liked each other, and it didn’t hurt to have someone whose parents weren’t under the thumb of the Bellamys on the inside. Simone wasn’t being constantly monitored like the guys, so she could keep me and Josh in the loop.

  I texted her back, arranging a girls’ night—plus Josh—for Saturday at my house. She responded immediately with several thumbs-up emojis and winky faces. I smiled and slipped my phone back into my pocket as Josh and I left the dining hall.

  “Slumber party at my house on Saturday with Simone,” I told him, and he grinned.

  “Sounds perfect. I’ll bring the chocolate.”

  “Sweet,” I replied. “I can’t wait.”

  Son. Of. A. Bitch.

  I stared at my phone, my heart pounding in my throat, as Josh and Simone peered over my shoulders. Simone’s sharp intake of breath and Josh’s low growl barely pierced the fog of anger swirling around me as I read the caption below a very compromising picture of me.

  You can take the slut out of the trailer, but you can’t take the trailer out of the slut.

  “Mother fucking son of a bitch,” I mumbled as I watched the number of likes and comments skyrocket.

  The photo showed me, naked from the waist up, a look of ecstasy on my face as I rode Mason’s cock. Of course, his upper half was cropped out of the shot, so there was no way to tell who it was. I stared at the image for a few more beats before clicking on the account holder who posted it. It was a new account, of course, under my name. No one at Everly Prep would refuse to follow a new account under my name. It was guaranteed to be juicy.

  I knew exactly who set up the account and posted that picture. I recognized the shot from the video footage Charlotte sent me when she played her hand.

  “I guess my compliance only gives Mason and Stella a pardon,” I said as Josh plucked the phone from my hand and shut it down. “Charlotte won’t show it to the Bellamys, but she’ll damned-well use it to humiliate me.”

  “It’s nothing the whole school hasn’t seen before,” Josh quips, sending me a half-hearted smirk as I turned to glare at him. “Too soon?”

  A pillow slammed against the back of his head, making him grunt in surprise. I looked up with wide eyes to see Simone standing on my bed, cranking up for another swing at him.

  “Just because everyone saw one boob pic of Chaz doesn’t mean she wants them seeing another one,” she ye
lls, letting the pillow fly and hitting him the face this time.

  A laugh barked out of me, rendering them both frozen and speechless. They looked from me, to each other, and back again as if they were worried I’d lost my mind, which only made me laugh harder.

  “Are…we…really…having a pillow fight during a slumber party?” I choked out between laughs. The cliché was just too much.

  “All I did was make a joke, and she assaulted me,” Josh yelled, stabbing a finger in Simone’s direction.

  “Whatever,” she responded, flipping her black curls over her shoulder. “I was just standing up for my girl.”

  She held up a fist, and I bumped mine against it. Then, by unspoken agreement, we tackled Josh to the mattress and squeezed in on either side of him. I stared at the ceiling with unfocused eyes until Josh broke the silence.

  “What are you going to do to her?” he murmured.

  It was a valid question. Last year, I wreaked havoc on anyone who crossed me, including Charlotte and the other Roguettes. Too bad the damage I’d done hadn’t lasted. I’d underestimated the value of money and social standing to these bitches. They were back, and apparently, nastier than ever.

  “Nothing,” I said. “At least, not right now. With that video footage of me and Mason in her pocket, she holds all the power.”

  God, how it killed me to say those words. I didn’t like anyone having that kind of power over me, especially Charlotte-fucking-Rutherford.

  A pounding on my door shocked Josh and Simone into upright positions, but I just sighed and called out for Seth to come in. I knew he would come. It was only a matter of time before he saw that post.

  “I’m going to fucking kill her,” he growled as he stomped toward us, holding his phone in the air. “You’ve followed her demands. She had no right to do this.”

  “Of course she had no right,” I said, pulling myself up to look at him. “But when has that ever stopped her from doing anything? My compliance earns safety for Mason and Stella, not for me.”

  “This is bullshit,” he said, his fist slamming into his thigh.

  “I know,” I sighed, “but not completely unexpected. The only thing that matters is that Mason is kept out of it, the Bellamys never see that footage, and Stella is kept safe. I can deal with this until the end of the school year.”

  Seth huffed and puffed for a few more moments, nodded at Simone and Josh, then stalked out, slamming the door behind him. I stretched back out on the mattress, pulling Josh and Simone back down with me.

  “He’s really taking his role as protective brother seriously,” Josh mused with a chuckle.

  “I know. He’s going to give himself a coronary.”

  “It’s pretty cool, though. Right?” Simone asked.

  “It’s the best,” I whispered.

  Despite everything that’s happened over the last year, everything I’ve been through, I would forever be grateful to Atticus Kincaid for falling in love with a waitress and making her his wife. I had a real home, a real family, and the best friends a girl could ask for.

  And I had Mason. Even though we were forced to be apart for the time being, I knew one day this would all blow over, and we’d be free to be together. To be happy.

  I pushed away the little niggling of doubt that tried to creep in and erase my happiness. The tiny voice that told me Gwyneth and Phin Bellamy were never going to let me and Mason happen. They could try to keep us apart all they wanted. One day, they’d get what was coming to them.

  And I wanted to be the one to give it to them.

  10

  “I can handle it, she says. It’s only until the end of the school year, she says.”

  I mumbled the self-deprecating words under my breath as I snatched a printed flyer from the wall, crumpling it just like I did the others. I’d been pulling the damned things down all morning, and it seemed two more appeared for every single one I removed.

  The flyers featured the naked photo of me Charlotte posted online, the caption printed in bold letters beneath it. Apparently, Charlotte wanted to make sure every single person at Everly Prep saw the picture. And that no one would forget it.

  “Goddamn it,” I muttered, seeing another one hanging on the boys’ bathroom door.

  I stalked over and snatched it down, ripping it to shreds before dumping it in a nearby trash can. My eyes roved over the walls, and not seeing any other copies, I headed toward my third period class. I’d asked for a bathroom pass and spent the last ten minutes scouring the halls for those fucking flyers. I needed to get back before my professor decided I’d been gone too long and decided to give me detention.

  As I strode down the hall, I realized I actually did have to pee. Cursing under my breath, I ducked into the restroom and locked myself in a stall. Just as I was finishing up, the bathroom door swung open and footsteps echoed around me. I froze, listening as Charlotte’s voice rang out.

  “That stupid whore deserves what she gets.”

  I heard the sound of tape being pulled from a dispenser, then the crinkle of paper.

  “But don’t you think this is overkill, Charlotte?” That was Isla. “You know how she handles people who wrong her. You’ve experienced it, just like the rest of us.”

  “I’m not fucking scared of her, Isla!” Charlotte shouted. “I printed five hundred copies of this picture, and I will continue to put them up every day for the rest of the year. And there’s not a Goddamn thing that bitch can do about it.”

  “I never said you were scared, Charlotte,” Isla replied, her voice as placating as I’ve ever heard it.

  I flushed the toilet, and the girls fell silent. I knew they were waiting to see who they irresponsibly let overhear their conversation. Once I was all buttoned and zipped up, I strode from the stall and pushed my way in between them to the sink. I stared at the picture Charlotte had taped to the mirror as I washed my hands while the two girls stayed silent.

  Turning off the water, I flicked my wet hands in their direction, making them flinch back. Ripping the flyer from the mirror, I let my gaze drift slowly from the picture to Charlotte’s face.

  “This is a great angle, don’t you think? My tits look amazing.”

  Isla sputtered while Charlotte let out a low growl. She opened her mouth to retort, but I cut her off.

  “You must think so, since you’ve been hanging this all over school. You want to be able to see my tits wherever you go, Charlotte?” I grabbed the hem of my shirt and tugged it up to bare my belly. “You want to see them now?”

  “Fucking whore,” she muttered, pushing her way past me to stalk out.

  I lifted a brow at Isla, silently asking if she wanted a sneak peek, and she squealed and chased after Charlotte. I dropped my shirt with a sigh, ripped up the flyer, and tossed it in the trash.

  This was going to be a long few months.

  “I ripped down at least fifteen this morning.”

  I sent Josh a thankful nod as I chewed my ham and cheese sandwich. I could feel students staring at me, but I was determined to ignore them all. They were acting like it was the first time they saw a picture of my boobs, when they all saw one last year when Amelia drugged me and posted naked pics of my unconscious body.

  Fuck, these people were awful.

  “Mason looks like he’s about murder every person in this place,” Josh murmured.

  I forced my eyes to remain on him until the urge to look at Mason passed. I knew he’d be pissed. It was just too bad there was nothing he could do about it.

  “Yeah, well, I’m sure he would like the privilege of ogling these babies to remain all his,” I snarked, pointing at the girls.

  Josh’s eyes dipped down, then chased back up and over my shoulder, where they widened.

  “Stop making me look at your boobs, queen. I don’t care to see them, and now your man looks like he wants to murder me for letting my eyes wander.”

  “They’re pretty magnificent,” I said, tapping a finger against my chin, “but I’m not sure eve
n Mason believes they’re perfect enough to make you rethink your sexual preference.”

  His eyes involuntarily dipped again, as if he needed to take another look just to prove to me and everyone else the girls held no interest for him. His nose scrunched up, and I laughed.

  “That proves it,” I said. “My body does nothing for you, so you can look at it all you want.”

  His gaze met mine, and he sighed, giving me a look like I just kicked his puppy across the room.

  “I guess this means we’re never getting married,” he grumbled, making me laugh again.

  “Most likely,” I agreed. “But if we both decide we’re done with sex and romance, we can revisit it.”

  One corner of his handsome mouth tugged upward. “We’d have an amazing life together.”

  “An amazing, celibate life,” I corrected.

  “We could always have an open marriage,” he suggested, raising his eyebrows. “Free love and all that.”

  “I think the glitter would fade fast from the arrangement. I’d tire of random, casual sex and attack you in a rabid, sex-starved haze. You’d fight me off, breaking my heart, my spirit, and my poor cobweb-filled vagina, severing our relationship forever.”

  “Yeah, that sounds terrible. Maybe we should just stay friends.”

  “Good idea,” I replied, winking at him.

  “I still love you, though.”

  “I love you, too,” I said.

  “Chastity Miller, please report to the headmaster’s office. Chastity Miller, please report to the headmaster’s office.”

  “Ugh. What now?” I asked, once the voice calling my name over the loud speaker faded.

  “I don’t know,” Josh said, shrugging. “Want me to come with you?”

  “Naw, I can handle it,” I replied, giving him a little wave. “I’ll see you later.”

  I forced my eyes to stay straight ahead as I left the dining hall. I had a strong feeling this little summons had something to do with Charlotte and her minions, because I had done nothing to warrant it. And I knew if I glanced over and saw the smug look on her face as she draped herself across Mason’s body, I would lose my shit. Then Headmaster Swain would have a real reason to call me to his office.