by Josie Max
“It looks like you three are busy, I’m just going to my room now—” I took a few steps back and was almost out of the room when the mayor hopped up.
He was by my side before I had the chance to get away.
“What’s the rush?” He slid his arm around my back and his fingers curled around my upper arm. I winced as they dug into my skin and was pulled farther into the room.
Both John's and David’s eyes sparkled from the alcohol and their smiles grew when the mayor placed me in front of them.
“She’s shy. We might have to take our time with her.” Ichabod chuckled.
Bile rose in my throat as I noticed one of the men already had a hard-on tenting his pants. He had white hair, bald on top, a pot-belly, and looked to be about as old as my grandfather when my grandfather was still alive.
“I got all night.” He sat up and reached over to touch my thigh.
I slapped it away. “I’m not a prostitute. I’m seventeen.”
Creep.
He didn’t even acknowledge me.
“She’s feisty. I like it.”
“Now, Violet, remember when I asked you to do some things for me when you first came? Well . . ..” He waved toward the men.
My mouth fell open.
“Are you serious? You’re pimping me out to your sleazy friends?”
He shook his head. “These are men I’ve worked with when I was on the board of Franklin First.”
I wouldn’t care if they were on the Nobel Peace Prize board and were considering me for the top honor. There would be no way I’d do anything with them.
I tried to pull away, but the mayor had a stronger grip than I had anticipated.
“We’re old friends.”
“You got the old part right,” I sneered.
The mayor’s fingers tightened until I yelped from the pain. He reached up and grabbed my ponytail, yanking my face to his.
“Listen here, you little brat. You are going to do what I say or there will be consequences. And trust me when I say . . . I know lots of people. Lots of important people who can make your life hell.”
I cleared my throat and then spit in his face. Fuck him. It’s one thing to be a little handsy and creepy when I first arrived. But making me get fucked by his skeezy old friends was so far from okay, I’d need a telescope to find it.
That’s when I felt something hit me in my stomach. I doubled over and fell to the floor. For a moment I thought I would throw up, but nothing came—probably because I already shit everything out earlier in the day.
Wrapping my arms around my stomach, I gasped for breath. The nausea came in waves and I wondered if I could ever stand upright again.
I felt something press down on my legs. Glazing over, I saw the mayor straddling me.
“If you’re going to be such a little bitch about it, I think I should be the first to go. Cristen that teenage pussy.” He nodded toward the men. “David, grab her arms. I can’t get any scratch marks on my face.”
I held my arms firm and desperately wiggled my body, but David was strong, too. They may be old and fat, but they had some strength to them.
That’s when I realized I had a voice. I opened my mouth and tried to scream, but nothing came out. My heart pounded in my chest and I put all my strength into saying something. I didn’t know if it was the punch to my stomach or just plain fear that wouldn’t let me yell for help.
I closed my eyes and wondered, was this it? The moment I lost my virginity would be from being raped by these old assholes.
Hot tears streamed down my temples as I tried to gain traction with my feet, but his weight kept me pinned in place. Even as my arms were held down and I watched the mayor try to frantically unzip his pants, I fought.
He was to take care of me, not use me.
If one of them got close enough, I’d use my teeth if I had to.
My hips pushed and swayed as I struggled with little success to push him off me. That’s when my voice came back.
I opened my mouth wide and screamed as loud as I could.
“Stuff something into her mouth. Get her to shut the fuck up.”
I had never stopped yelling for help. Even as the one guy who wasn’t holding me down tried to stuff something that reeked of sweat into my mouth, I kept it up.
He made the mistake of pushing the cloth in with his finger and I chomped down.
“Ow, you fucking bitch!” he yelled.
As I pushed the stinky gag out of my mouth, there was a flash of pain across the side of my face. One man hit me. I hadn’t been paying attention, too focused on getting rid of the gag to notice who it was, but it hurt. Light flashed in my right eye as the sting on my cheek throbbed.
“It’s time to make this bitch pay,” John said as he reached for my shirt and ripped it open. Tiny mother-of-pearl buttons flew everywhere.
My anger gave way to fear as I felt fingers grasp my upper thighs and pinch my nipples. Nothing about this was sexual or delicate. These men wanted to hurt me. They enjoyed exuding power and watching the fear in my eyes.
I was their prey, and they had won the prize.
NINE
Knight
THE SUN WAS WARM ON the early September afternoon. When I arrived home from school, I lounged by the pool and did a little spying on our new guest.
Violet.
It had been a breeze messing with Violet over the past five days. It was like playing keep-away with a toddler. I got a thrill watching her cheeks flush and those pouty lips stiffen.
She broke so easily on Monday in art class that I thought she had no fight left. I was wrong. But it made it all the more fun.
As I sat on the lounge chair ready to pull off my T-shirt to soak in the last rays of the year, I heard someone yell.
Pulling my shirt back down, I cocked my head and noticed it was coming from the pool house.
The screams grew louder, and I realized it was Violet and she was screaming for help.
I hopped up and grabbed my cell off the iron and glass side table. I groaned, hoping the klutz hadn’t fallen over and hurt herself.
Opening the door to the pool house, I froze. The screaming had died down, but I heard my uncle. He was telling someone to muzzle her.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I knew what he was doing. It’s not as if this would be the first time I had walked in on my uncle fucking someone who had no interest in him.
I remember the relieved and grateful look on the woman’s face as I stood in the pantry doorway my uncle thought he had secured. And how could I forget the angry stiffness of my uncle’s jaw as he yelled at me to leave.
When I first arrived at his home two years ago, that’s exactly what I did. I was young and had recently lost both my parents when their private plane took a nosedive into the Atlantic Ocean.
My uncle frightened me, and with my little sister here, I wanted nothing to happen to her. I went along with turning a blind eye, but my eighteenth birthday was in three weeks. If I wanted, I could leave and take my sister with me.
He doesn’t scare me anymore.
I lifted my phone and turned on the camera to record. Walking down the hall, I heard her scream again.
My heart rattled in my chest, but I put on the practiced face that my uncle had grown to hate. I pretended to be bored as I turned the corner and zoomed in on each of the men’s faces before filming Violet.
One man slapped her hard enough for me to hear it at the entranceway. My jaw stiffened, but I remained focused on what I was about to do.
My hands shook as I had an intense urge to hop over the couch and rip them off her before beating them until they bled.
It was time for this to end.
“Oh, please, don’t let me interrupt you,” I drawled. “I’d hate to stop three men way past their prime resorting to rape because that’s the only way they can get it up.”
The two men, who looked familiar but I couldn’t place, gasped and scrambled back.
Violet immedi
ately spit out what was in her mouth and pushed up. Once she was on her feet, she ran around the couch and out of the room. Not once did she look at me. I saw no relief in her eyes, just anger.
As for my uncle, he smirked as he stood and fixed his pants.
“You can put the phone down, Knight, I know you’re only bluffing. I’m your uncle. We’re family.”
See, that right there was why I hated the fucker. What a hypocrite. Hearing him go on endlessly about how Green Hills needed him to watch over them. As if he was the father of the town. The kids he vowed to care for were afraid of what he would do to them.
“That’s funny, I thought the only thing you cared about was your wallet and your dick.” I smirked but lowered my phone. “I mean, that is why my sister and I are here, isn’t it? You want to siphon off her inheritance before she turns eighteen.”
It was too late for me. I was weeks away from turning eighteen but it’s not like he didn’t try to adopt me in the past two years.
As if I’d let that disgusting pig be my father.
“Look around you, Knight, I don’t need money. I have millions.”
The two men’s eyes bounced back and forth between us and I wondered if I called out, “boo!” to them, they’d run off as if I was about to haunt them.
“Millions, huh?” I rubbed my chin and took a step closer to my uncle. “Sounds so small, doesn’t it? Because I’ll have billions.”
It didn’t take long before one man tried his best to suck up to me. They were just as pathetic as my uncle.
“I never wanted to be here today. Ichabod has bribed me since—”
“Shut up, John,” my uncle bit out as he glared at the man.
My shoulders shook as I chuckled. “My, how easily they turn on you when they realize who has the money.”
My uncle remained silent as I swiveled on my heels, about to leave the room.
“Knight, your sister is only six. It’s going to be a long time until she gets to leave this house. I suggest you play nice with the man who’s watching over her . . . at night.” My shoulders tightened.
I stood ready to lash back at him but decided now wasn’t the time. Let him think he was still in control. It wouldn’t be long before his pretty façade crumbled into dust.
“I’ll play nice,” I grumbled as I left the room and continued down the hall to Violet’s room.
There were only two bedrooms in this place, so it wouldn’t take me long to find her.
She was in the larger bedroom, which made sense. Bigger was better.
I knocked and got the response I had expected.
“Go away before I stab you.”
I smirked. Violet was a wild animal trapped in a gilded cage. It might be a pleasant diversion to tame her.
“You’re such a tease. Is that the come-on line you use in the trailer park?”
After a few seconds, the door swung open and a breeze of vanilla brushed my cheeks. She had changed out of her ripped uniform and that ponytail was gone; her long auburn hair was tousled, cascading down over her shoulders. I liked it.
“You just stood there and filmed it like a sick fuck. What the hell is wrong with you?” Violet stood there with fire in her eyes and the heat was directed at me.
As my gaze drifted down her body, I took in the perfect fit of her jeans. Her T-shirt was old and worn, the blue lettering of Nirvana was peeling in spots, the fabric knotted at her hip frayed slightly.
I leaned against the door frame. “I pictured you more of a BTS sort of girl.”
She rolled her eyes and turned back toward her bed. A suitcase lay open with clothes haphazardly thrown in.
“The shirt’s my mom’s.” Violet picked up some clothes, rolled them into a ball, and threw them into the case.
“So you don’t like the band?”
Her eyes fluttered up toward me for a moment before she shrugged and went back to tossing clothes around.
“I never said that. I like them, I guess. I grew up listening to that classic stuff.”
“Grunge. It’s called grunge. If you listen to it, you should at least know the music you are listening to.”
“Okay, professor.” She jerked her hip and rested her hand on it. “You going to stand there and give me a history lesson in music or are you going to apologize?”
My head went back as laughter rumbled out.
“I don’t see what’s funny. I could have been raped.” She stopped packing and crossed her arms over her chest. For a girl who tried to pretend nothing affected her—as I had witnessed over the past several days—she wasn’t doing a very good job right now.
“It’s you who should be thanking me. I saved you, again.”
She glared at me, but I wouldn’t budge.
“Right. If I remember correctly, you regretted the first time and wished you had left me for dead.”
“Still do.”
The muscle in her jaw flexed. “What the fuck is your problem? I have done nothing to you. I haven’t done anything to anyone in this whole spoiled petty part of the world. Yet everyone seems to hate me and takes any chance they can to try to destroy me.”
For a second, I could relate to her. But I shook my head and focused on what mattered.
“Because we here in North Green Hills find you and your kind repugnant. You are useless to society. The government always has to spend money on you people, yet all you do is complain that you have it so bad. You say we’re spoiled, but it seems to me the people where you’re from are the spoiled ones. Take your mother for instance—”
She marched over to me and slapped me across the face before I could finish. I rubbed the stinging spot and grinned.
“Need some sugar with that spice?”
“You shut your mouth about my mom. You never knew her.”
With pink cheeks and wide eyes, she glared up at me. Her tits rising and falling as the anger for me, for my uncle, for the world she’d never be a part of, affected her more than she wanted to admit.
“I know she died of drugs. A single, drug-addicted mom from a trailer park. How more cliché can you get?”
She brought her hand back, but this time I grabbed her wrist before she could strike me.
She tried to twist her arm away, but I held firm. With each tug, it pulled something in me. I wanted to reach around and draw her closer.
“Get the fuck off me.”
She fought, but it wasn’t much. It was all show. Her gaze avoided mine. Was she afraid of what I would discover in her eyes?
“Why do you pretend when I know you want me.”
“You’re so full of it. Rich, spoiled, and conceited. Nice combo, asshat.”
Yet her gaze remained on the ground.
“And you’re trailer trash. You can take the trash out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the dirty whore out of the cunt.”
She smirked and finally looked up. “Aww, you must have mommy issues, too. You jealous of your uncle because he got to me first?”
God, she had a smart mouth, and all I wanted to do was shove my tongue inside it. Did she realize that’s what I enjoyed most? The hunt.
My nose flared as I stared at what I wanted.
“Those lips would look real nice wrapped around my cock.”
Her tongue darted in and sucked in her bottom lip.
I wanted to fuck her but now wasn’t the time. My uncle screwed with her head by messing with her body today. She needed time to process. I wasn’t like my uncle or any dip-shit who stuck their cock in a pussy just because it was there.
I let go of her wrist and ran my fingers through my hair. Taking a deep breath, I got my cock under control.
“You leaving?” I nodded toward the suitcase.
“That’s the plan. No way I’m staying here with the rapey mayor stopping by anytime he wants.”
“You got a place to go?”
She frowned and scratched her arm. “My aunt isn’t returning until the end of the month. I’m sure a neighbor has a spare key to le
t me inside.”
I nodded. “Can you get to school during the day?”
There was just something about Violet. I came here to make sure she left, but now I was wondering if she might come in handy.
If she was helping my uncle before, he ruined it today by pinning her down. She might help me instead.
“It might take a few bus rides, but I’ll get there.”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door.
She yanked back and stopped. “Where are you taking me?”
I reached for her hand again and this time, she followed.
It wasn’t until we went inside the main house that I finally answered her.
“I’m taking you to my room.”
TEN
Violet
I TURNED IN EVERY DIRECTION, taking in Knight’s bedroom. It was amazing.
“Surprised?” He stood by the doorway, watching me with amusement.
“Yeah. I expected to find posters of people being tortured and severed fingers floating in formaldehyde-filled glass jars.”
“Funny, feisty, and a comic.”
The ceiling was vaulted and on the opposite end of the room was a large glass door that led to a balcony. But the bed was the best part. It was huge and typical dark gray and blue because he’s a guy, but it was on a platform. And right above the head of the bed was a waterfall encased in glass.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not a serial killer.” Knight walked over toward his bed.
I shook my head. “I never thought serial killer but potential mob boss maybe.”
Taking a break from all the opulence, I glanced over at him and noticed a tiny smile. Sexy dimples appeared. I held back a groan.
He wasn’t a nice guy, even if he had stopped his uncle and those creepy guys. Sure, he could have immediately yelled at them to not rape me instead of film it, but he ended up stopping it.
Maybe he hated his uncle like I did. He lived with him longer than me. I couldn’t imagine the shit he had seen or heard from that man.
“My dad was a scientist, not a mobster.”
“But I heard you tell your uncle you’re a billionaire. I may not know any scientists, but I don’t think they make that much money.”