by Eden O'Neill
I admit I didn’t think.
I grabbed him. I literally grabbed his arm, and he must have put up with it because he actually moved his big honking body. I think he found it funny because he started chuckling along the way.
I left a jaw-slacked Bru. Dorian’s buddies even blinked their eyes. Ares growled. No doubt from my audacity. Even still, they all let me go with Dorian, and I didn’t stop dragging their leader until I got him around a corner from all other eyes. I didn’t care about anyone else seeing us, but I wasn’t my brother’s favorite person right now and didn’t want to create a scene.
When I let go, Dorian licked his lips, eyeing me.
“Glad you got that out of your system,” he said. His hands shot out, and then, he was on me. Chest to chest.
Breath to breath.
Our heated breaths intermingled, and his wicked gaze gleamed on me like Hades in the Underworld. His smile was coy.
“Have you finally decided to submit, little fighter?” he asked me, his grin stretched. “I have to say, you could have just left town. Or maybe since your eyes like to fuck me so much you couldn’t help but get one last touch. For the road?”
He grabbed my hand, placing it on his chest. Hard muscle formed solidly underneath my palm, and visions of him on that football field assaulted my already fogging brain. Him half naked tossing a football with his friends. He was golden and beautiful as he caught a football not a foot in front of my face. It was a power play that day what he’d done.
Just like this.
I shoved at him, and he got my hands.
“I’m assuming that’s a no,” he said, a pout to his full lips, and I jerked my hands away.
I growled, “I’m not leaving.” He couldn’t force me out of his school, and the pranks forced upon me by his minions wouldn’t work. I sneered, “I don’t care what you or your little Court groupies with those gorilla rings do.”
He stared down at his, fisting it before smiling at me.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” He crowded me, his big body enveloping me against the lockers. “That would be a mistake.”
Pure venom seeped from his voice, but with him, he liked to put a sweetness behind it. Like a deadly viper toying with his kill.
I supposed he really did like to play with his food like Ares said.
His thumb touched my lip, and I hissed.
His smile stretched.
“Be careful, Noa Sloane.” Reaching down, he squeezed my hip. I kneed at him and all he did was wrap a hand around the back of it. He jerked me forward, my mound brushing his length. He was hard, and he wasn’t being shy about showing that. He even ground on me a little, his gleeful expression cruel and equally dangerous.
I pushed at his chest. “Stop.”
He didn’t. He leaned in, way too close. I could nearly taste him again.
My throat constricted. He had me right where he wanted me, completely locked beneath him, and it probably didn’t matter who came down this hallway.
It probably didn’t matter if I screamed.
The dark prince had too much power around here. He had too much everything.
“I am going to make you scream for me,” he promised, that venomous smile in his voice now. “And it’ll be too sweet to break you.”
“Good luck with that,” I bit at him, and he held me back by the throat.
His grip tightened. “The dildos were a gift,” he said, actually admitting to them. Though odds were, he didn’t do them himself. His eyes narrowed. “When I take you, it will be much, much harder.”
“Eat shit,” I hissed, but the flash of the thought tingled a tightness between my legs.
It was like he knew.
His thumb drew a soft line down my throat, one that hummed warmth in my core.
And slicked wetness.
I had to shift my thighs just to keep them from shaking. He eyed my lips.
“Do me a favor, huh?” he asked, tilting his head. “Stretch yourself real good for me? It’ll make it so much easier for you later.”
He let go. He was truly vile. The asshole actually chuckled to himself as he strode down the hallway. Like I’d just made this the best game for him.
I probably had.
The day continued to be the day from hell when school finally did wrap up, and I got to leave the hellhole that was Windsor Prep Academy. My car hadn’t been where I had left it, and when I finally found it, my dad’s Chevelle had been parked where Ares Mallick had claimed his spot was. My tires had been slashed, and the words “Student of the Month” had been written over and replaced on the sign.
It said Legacy’s Bitch instead.
Chapter Thirteen
Sloane
My gaze jerked up when the little rabbit cruised into the headmaster’s office, always going a mile a minute.
Bow stilled upon seeing me.
“I was just getting the mail for some teachers,” she said, her head bowed. “I help some of them out by getting it in between my classes.”
She then proceeded to head over to the teachers’ mailboxes, completely avoiding eye contact with me, and I shook my head. She too had been avoiding me since Legacy had started blackballing me. I had honestly expected it from everyone else.
Not her.
She’d always been the nice one, but even she had stopped talking to me.
She even sat with them all at lunch.
That first day I had simply thought I’d lost her. I’d still been trying to dodge her. She clung like glue when she was around, and my inner introvert screamed every time. There was nothing wrong with her, but I’d never been cool with people hovering over me.
I had gotten into the a la carte line that day honestly thinking I’d won, but then I spotted her already in the courtyard. She’d been tucked between her huge-ass brother and Dorian Prinze, and I knew exactly what was going on there.
They’d gotten to her too.
In front of me now, Bow swallowed, backing away. She’d gotten the mail and what other reason did she have to be in there with me. She said nothing as she left, and I dropped my sketchpad, heading into the hallway after her. I was student assistant for Principal Mayberry during this period. I had a free one and figured I’d fill it in the headmaster’s office since she seemed cool enough.
The woman wouldn’t miss me for a few moments. She literally never came out of her office when I was there. It was her free period too, and she said she preferred quiet time with no disturbances. Her secretary even left for the hour, so assisting the headmaster during this time was a match made in heaven for me. I did tend to be a lone wolf.
I tracked down Bow, hard to do since she walked so fast. She literally was like a ball of energy. Like because she was so small, she had to overcompensate. I ended up finding her at her locker, and when I did, I crossed my arms. “How’s lunch with Legacy been?”
She’d been grabbing a book but stopped. She faced me. “Sloane…”
“You know, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” I said, shrugging. “You are Legacy after all, right?”
I’d crossed them, so why not her too?
Her face charged in color. “It’s not like that.”
“Well, what’s it like, then?”
She lifted and dropped her hands. “I didn’t want you to have any more trouble than you were obviously having,” she said, surprising me. “And it’s not like they gave me a choice. I didn’t want to fight and make things worse for you.”
So she’d given in? Perfect.
She closed her locker lightly. “And I’m not stupid, Sloane. I know you were dodging me between your classes.” She gazed around. “That I was annoying you.”
Well, fuck. I whipped my hair around, and she chewed her lip. I put a hand out. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
I was rethinking a lot of things now. A lot of things like, was all this labor I was putting myself through worth it? Was going to this school worth it? I’d had to call Callum for help getting me some new tires, and th
at had been really fun trying to lie my way through how that happened. I’d ended up telling him I’d hit a patch of ice.
In the middle of fall.
Since I knew Midwestern weather to be temperamental, I’d gotten away with it, but that hadn’t stopped him from questioning me. He’d even asked if everything was okay, stating he could come visit Bru and me sooner. He was still traveling but could make arrangements.
I turned him down, passing the help off. I could take care of myself.
I could take care of this.
I cuffed my arms. “I’m sorry about that,” I said to her, honest. “I did you bogus, and that’s on me.”
She nodded, but still gazed around the hallway. She was Legacy herself and still answered to these creeps. She started to leave, but I found myself going with her.
“I was actually wondering something, little rabbit—”
“Little rabbit?” she asked, turning.
I smiled a little. “Well, you do kind of run around here like your ass is on fire.”
Her face lit up, all that cheery brightness returning. I was surprised to find I missed it, her pep and happy. She hugged her books. “Little rabbit? Like a nickname?”
She said that unbelievably cute, and I laughed. “Yeah, like a nickname.”
Her grin widened. “I could be about that. Cool. Little rabbit.”
She tested the term out, as if awed to hear such a thing. Surely, she and her friends had little things they called each other? I smiled. “I was wondering how well you’re doing in our algebra class.”
This was a leading question. I could assume how well she was doing. She was a sophomore in a senior-level math class.
She shrugged, being modest. “I do okay. Why?”
“I could use a tutor,” I said. “I could be doing better.”
I did all right in class and could do better. But I also knew she was the only link I had to these boys. If I wanted to strike, find out something I needed to know more about who they were and how they worked.
This way of thinking was completely cheap I knew, but they hadn’t just gotten to me.
They’d gotten to Bru.
I didn’t even get to see my brother anymore he was so busy. Dorian Prinze had taken away the only thing I had and soiled my name on top of it. Hell, Dorian had done worse than that to my name.
He’d completely removed it.
Upon my proposal, Bow gazed around again. Really, us having any kind of open conversation like this could get back to her brother and his friends, but I had to take the risk. Dorian had gotten to my brother.
And I had to do something.
“I don’t know, Sloane,” she said, and I deflated, frowning. It was probably a dumb idea anyway, and using Bow, even dumber. She had been nice to me after all.
I lifted a hand. “Sorry. I know you don’t want to make waves.”
“I don’t.” She chewed her lip again but surprised me when she got out her phone. “What’s your number? You can probably come by after school or something…”
“Come by?”
She nodded. “I could help you with some of our assignments. Today would be good. I have a student council meeting until three thirty, but after that, I’m free. Let me give you my address.”
She was being serious.
This is what you need.
It did feel weird, though, giving her my number so she could text me her information.
“We can’t just meet at my place?” I asked. Being in the belly of the beast would be a good thing. I could poke around, get some information, but getting caught at a Legacy house was more than a bad idea. I could probably just pick her brain about her brother and his friends. I didn’t necessarily have to be at one of their houses.
Bow smiled, putting away her phone after texting me her address. “Thatcher won’t be around until super late. He and the other guys have football practice until like six. Drives my mom crazy since he’s always late for dinner.”
Well then, this was perfect.
“Be there around four?” she stated, backing down the hallway, and I nodded. I just needed a little information. I had that, and she could go back to ignoring me, and I could go back to being Vapor. What I was about to do wasn’t wrong at all.
And if I told myself that enough times, I may actually believe it.
Chapter Fourteen
Sloane
Rainbow Reed didn’t live off the beaten path like Bru and me. Where we virtually had no neighbors on our little hilltop in the sky, Bow was in the middle of the ritziest cul-de-sac I’d ever seen in my entire life. I honestly questioned if I was in California taking a tour of the stars’ homes considering how each house just seemed to get bigger as I passed.
And not just bigger.
Lush gardens and old brick homes donned with ivy and regency elements filled my vision. She also lived in a gated community. I had to be buzzed in after they made “a call” to the Reed Manor to confirm I was an allowed visitor.
They had a manor.
This was a new level of wealth here, and I already questioned coming around. I wasn’t particularly excited about using Bow to dig up dirt on Dorian, but I’d do what I had to do.
Like I said, he drew first blood.
I used those thoughts to take me up to Reed Manor. I was let in by another man at a wrought-iron gate. He directed me up to the main house, and I had to drive a little bit to get to the circle driveway. Bow lived in an aged brick home that had many staff grooming and trimming the hedges. They all waved at me in a friendly fashion upon passing, and I smiled, trying to look like I saw shit like this every day.
A man in bibs knocked at my door.
I jumped before rolling down the window of the Chevelle.
He smiled at me. “Noa Sloane, I presume?”
“Sloane,” I said, eyeing the house behind him. This house was something else, flower boxes filled with light pink roses and even columns outside. Where Bru’s and my place was more modern, this place had an ancient storybook look.
The man nodded. “I’m Henry, the Reeds’ groundskeeper. I’m here to take your car to the garages if that’s all right.”
The man said garages.
Well, all right then.
I gave this Henry my keys, heading toward the main house with my purse and book bag. I did bring my textbooks because I planned to study. I was just going to casually ask Bow a couple questions about Dorian and the others.
This wasn’t going to be some kind of CIA mission. Bow was a nice girl, and I wasn’t trying to take advantage of her. Odds were, since her brother’s friends weren’t really her friends, she didn’t know too much anyway.
“Sloane!”
Bow waved spritely at me down a shiny hallway. Her housekeeper Janet had let me in, and I wondered how many staff these people actually had.
“Hey,” I said, eyeing the interior. Her house was crazy, an actual chandelier glistened the ceiling from above, and they had wall sconces with candles in them. Though, I supposed those could have been electric. “You got a nice place.”
“Thanks. Want to get a snack before we study?”
She’d changed into shorts and a T-shirt, and I had too before coming over. I slipped off my sandals, then followed her to the kitchen, where several staff members were hard at work cooking stuff and wiping down counters. Several platters of cakes, cookies, and desserts lined the counters like a buffet, and my eyes twitched wide.
“You guys having a party?” I laughed, but then she picked up one of the platters. She handed it to me.
“I guess I did go a little overboard,” she said, rolling her eyes. She chuckled. “I just didn’t know what you liked.”
I nearly choked on the macaroon I took a bite of. I hit my chest. “Sorry?”
She took the platter back, laughing again. Her face reddened as she looked at me. “Janet said it would probably be too much. That two teenage girls couldn’t possibly eat it all. But like I said, I just didn’t really know what you liked
so…”
All this was for… us?
Staff continued to put food on the counter. People were still making food. I was asked what I’d like to drink too before another platter was forced in my face.
“We have watercress and tuna salad as options today, Miss Sloane,” the staff member said to me, smiling. She directed the little sandwiches toward me. “But if you want something different, we can make another option for you. Miss Reed told us to be prepared to mix it up if you wanted something different.”
Holy shit.
“Uh, these are fine.” I took a tuna, feeling obligated. Bow had filled this whole kitchen up with food for our study session.
And now, I really felt like shit.
I took a bite and didn’t fail to notice how excited it made her to see me try it. I waved the sandwich. “Really good.”
“Great.” Her fists balled. Like she almost wanted to punch the air in victory. The way she acted it was like she never had people over.
But then again, knowing who her brother was…
Sheer intimidation alone may keep people away, and since Bow didn’t play up all that Legacy shit, something told me folks may not want to take the risk to get closer to her. She certainly came with a lot of baggage.
It was either bow or break when it came to those boys and, apparently, I was stupid enough to get caught up within their crosshairs.
I finished the sandwich quick, then brushed my hands off on my shorts. Bow’s staff was ready with napkins too, but I turned them down. Really, the service around here was boss as fuck.
Bow said we could take whatever we wanted up to her room with us to study, and after we both picked a couple things, we took the journey through her large house. She gave me a little tour on the way, pointing out the guest rooms and her parents’ room. They had their own wing, I guess, and good for them. It was their house.
“Grandma’s room,” Bow said, breezing past that. “She’s not well, so we need to be quiet.”