by Elle East
The other students shove back as I try to move through them, but I only push harder and quickly make it to the center. Being this close, I can see the unhinged look in Seth’s black eyes. His unnatural green hair looks even more garish in the sunlight. Standing next to Olivia, he’s absolutely massive compared to her small frame.
“Everyone say ‘hello’ to our newest property…” Seth announces to the crowd and all my big sister instincts scream at me to stop this. They scream at me to save her.
“—No!” Before I fully realize what I’m doing, I step into the center to stand next to Olivia.
She turns to look at me in surprise, and then embarrassment and horror quickly flash across her face.
“What are you doing?!” she hisses angrily.
“Saving you,” I whisper back, just as angry.
“I don’t need to be saved! I know what I’m doing.”
“No, you don’t. You have no idea how bad this is. I’m stopping you from fucking up your life.”
“This is none of your business—you aren’t Mom or Dad. Now go away! You’re embarrassing me!”
“Just because Mom and Dad bailed on you doesn’t mean I’m going to.”
The furious look suddenly starts to fade from her face as my words sink in. I stare into her eyes and a moment of understanding passes between the two of us.
“Sorry,” she whispers.
“It’s ok,” I whisper back—but it’s hard to speak around the lump in my throat.
“As touching as this is, could you guys have your little heart-to-heart some other time?—and make sure it actually involves touching next time.” Seth sticks out his tongue and leers at us and it makes my stomach turn. “Do it on your own fucking time. As I was saying, everyone welcome East Marters’ newest property, Olivia Hea—”
“No!” I yell. “She’s not doing it.”
Seth stops and looks down at me, the coldness behind his shark-like eyes makes me shiver. There’s something not all together human there. I can tell he’s pissed that I interrupted him and the other guys in his gang look annoyed too. I also know that the crowd is not sympathetic to Olivia and I, so we may be in big trouble.
He leans down into my face and I can smell his awful breath.
“It’s too late, it’s already done. She’s agreed to the pact and now she’s ours for the semester. There’s no backing out now.”
“She didn’t know what she was agreeing to.” I try helplessly to sound stronger than I feel.
“Too fucking bad for her.”
I look around desperately. Olivia is terrified. The gravity of the situation must finally be sinking in and she finally realizes what she just agreed to. All the other students are looking at me with a mix of annoyance and disgust. There’s no one to help me here, we are all alone.
I suddenly blurt out the only thing my desperate brain can think of.
“I’ll take her place.”
Olivia gasps and says, “No!”
Seth studies me for a couple seconds in surprise, before he leans back to stand up to his full height and lets out a long maniacal laugh.
“I love it. Sacrificing yourself for your sister. How fucking noble.” He leans back down to say quietly just to me. “I’ll make you regret being so fucking noble when you’re sucking my cock, spoiled bitch.”
My stomach turns in revulsion—and fear.
Seth turns back to the crowd and says, “Accepted. Everyone welcome our newest property, Addison Hea—”
“No.”
A commanding voice booms out from the crowd. Seth’s words sputter to a stop as he looks over in surprise. Everyone turns to look, but I don’t have to. I know who it belongs to. I’ve had the sounds of his deep, rumbling voice seared into my brain ever since he told me he hated me.
Seth catches himself and puffs his chest out to meet the new threat head-on.
“What the fuck you mean ‘no’?” Seth barks.
Daire steps out of the crowd and into the center. The other three members of the Vicious Crew move forward to flank him. The small circle is now filled with the five large members of the East Marters, the four huge guys from the Vicious Crew... and Olivia and I.
I’m aware of just how vulnerable we are—anything could happen to us. I move to stand in front of Olivia to try to protect her as much as I can. She grabs onto my arm and I feel that her palm is clammy with fear.
The guys are staring each other down and it looks like two groups of gladiators about to do battle—mean, heavily tattooed gladiators. It’s obvious from the way they are standing and the death stares they are leveling at one another, that these two groups hate each other. There’s clearly history there—brutal, vicious history.
There’s a long, tense moment where everyone is silent—no one in the crowd dares to speak even a word—until finally Daire says in a tone that’s calm, but you can tell that he is leaving no room for anyone to challenge him, “She’s ours.”
My head turns so fast to look at him that I think I give myself whiplash.
“The fuck she is,” Seth says angrily. “She volunteered for our Threesome Pact, so she’s ours.”
“We already claimed her, so it doesn’t matter if she volunteered,” Daire growls.
“When the fuck did that happen? I don’t remember you claiming any girls recently.” Seth is seething. He starts to pace back and forth. I can tell he hates being challenged and hates feeling like he’s not the one with all the power. He’s an unpredictable thug that wants to start swinging, but he’s holding himself back for some reason—then I remember what the girl in the crowd told me, “They are one of the strongest gangs at this school—second only to the Vicious Crew.” Seth’s holding himself back because even though the odds are in his favor—five to four—he isn’t sure he’ll win.
“We don’t have to run anything we do by you,” Daire says in a deadly voice. “I’m telling you she’s ours so that’s the end of the discussion.”
Seth takes a menacing step towards him, but Daire doesn’t even flinch. The rest of the Vicious Crew move closer, clearly sending a message that they are going to fight with Daire no matter what. The rest of the East Marters are on edge, ready to fight, but they also look like they don’t really want Seth to continue to antagonize Daire.
There’s another standoff, and I can’t help my dumb mouth from asking, “Don’t I get a say in this?”
“No,” they all growl at me and I quickly shut up, though I can’t help the anger that’s battling with the fear inside me. They are talking about me like I’m not even there, like I’m just a piece of meat and not a person. Like they can just decide what happens to me and I have no say.
I’m mad, but I also remember what happened last time I went up against the Vicious Crew—I almost drowned. The only reason I’m still alive and standing here right now is because Daire decided to pull me back up out of the water.
These guys are all dangerous and I have to remember that I’m at their mercy for the time being.
“Her sister too,” Daire adds and Seth bristles. “She took her sister’s place and so she’s off the table as well.”
“That’s bullshit,” Seth barks and moves dangerously close to Daire.
All the guys crowd in closer, getting ready for the fight that seems inevitable at this point. I reach around and grab Olivia’s hand. The second the fight starts we are going to run.
“You really want to do this here?” Daire asks. “Over a couple of worthless girls?”
I can’t help but be a bit insulted by that.
Seth seems to consider for a second. He looks over at the other guys, Brax, Alec and Theo, and realization seems to dawn on him properly for the first time—realization about just what exactly he’s up against.
“What the fuck ever, man,” he says flippantly, but it’s obvious he’s pissed he lost the stand off. He’s trying to maintain his image to the rest of the gathered students. He doesn’t want to look soft and doesn’t want anyone to think that Viciou
s won. “You claimed them so they are yours. I don’t give a shit about a couple worthless bitches. Plenty of ‘em lining up to ride this.” He grabs his crotch. “Get them out of my sight.”
The Vicious Crew comes to surround Olivia and I, and walks us through the crowd—which parts without a word. I breathe a sigh of relief when we are finally away from that whole mess… until the reality of what just happened sinks in.
I just became “property” of the guy who told me he wanted me to suffer, that he hated me. Property of the guys who tried to kill me. We’d been saved, only to be put in an even more dangerous situation. The Vicious Crew are worse than the East Marters and everyone knows it.
They lead us back into the school, like they’re our bodyguards or something—I guess they have to guard their “property” now, I can’t help but think in disgust. I try not to look, but I can feel all four of them surrounding us. Their presence makes my skin feel too tight and my body ache in a strange way I’ve never felt before—that must be what true disgust feels like.
“Get to class,” Daire says suddenly.
Olivia and I look at each other for a split second, before we’re sprinting down the hall away from them. We round a corner but don’t stop just because we are out of their sight. We’ve seen what kind of power these guys have and we aren’t going to test them.
I drop her off at her class first. She gives me an apologetic look before saying, “I was just trying to make friends.”
She shrugs as if it’s an explanation for what she tried to do with the East Marters, and I guess it kind of is, because I understand why she did it. She’s always been so desperate to fit in, to find people who’ll love her like our parents never did, that she gets herself into stupid situations. That’s just Olivia.
“I know.” I open my mouth to say more, but I can’t think of what else there is to say.
“I think we’re in trouble,” she whispers, clearly terrified.
“Yeah, I think so too,” I whisper back.
“Did Daire really try to drown you?”
I just look at her and nod. She nods back, finally accepting what I said as the truth.
“I better get to class,” I say as I turn to go. “Be careful, Olivia.”
“I will… You too.” Then she disappears into the classroom and I hurry down the hall to mine.
The true ramifications of what I’ve gotten myself into are slowly sinking in. I was now the “property” of the Vicious Crew. They could ask me to do anything they wanted—and I’d have to do it, or risk my life by saying “no”. Maybe what they are going to ask me to do will risk my life anyway.
Maybe they will make me have sex with them? That’s what the East Marters implied their favors were going to be. A part of me deep down, so deep that I didn’t even know it existed, gets a little thrill of excitement when I think about the favors being sexual. The four of them are undeniably gorgeous—in a kind of tattooed-and-pierced-bad-boy kind of way.
But you hate them, I have to remind myself. They disgust you. They fucking tried to kill you. There’s no way that you could be so messed up that you’d be attracted to guys like that.
I shake my head to clear it of those nasty thoughts. Of course I don’t want them. Of course I find them disgusting. If the favors they want from me turn out to be sexual, then I’ll… just have to find a way to get out of it.
But I know that safely getting out of whatever this messed up thing I’ve gotten myself into, is going to be almost impossible.
7
Everything feels different the next day when I walk down the halls. The girls still give me death stares, but no one is messing with me anymore. Normally by lunchtime I would have had to avoid at least a couple fights, but today there are none. It’s weird.
“You’re lucky, Highness,” Alec comes up from behind to say into my ear, and I jump a mile high. “You need our protection more than anyone.”
“Yeah, especially from you,” I spit out venomously as I try to catch my breath. Being at Marter High has forced me to constantly be on edge and Alec almost gave me a heart attack.
We both look at the hostile faces of the other students as they glide past us. He chuckles at that and I look over at him. I’ve never taken the time to really look at Alec Cross, I’ve been too busy trying to avoid him to get a good look, but I can’t deny that he is hot.
He has slicked back black hair with a part on the side that’s so sharp it looks like it could cut you. I see intelligence in his eyes as he looks at me, but I refuse to meet his gaze for long. I can see how girls fall into those deep amber depths and get lost from themselves—and lost from their clothes.
His one arm is completely covered in a blackout tattoo and the rest of his body is covered in a scattering of others—including his neck and knuckles. His face is cute and unmarked, which seems at odds with all his ink. I wonder how much those all hurt to get.
Despite the attractive outside, I know what lurks beneath. I know that Alec, like the rest of the Vicious Crew, are monsters. Monsters in pretty packaging—which makes them even more dangerous that regular monsters because you don’t see them coming.
“We’re cashing in our first favor,” he says casually as we start walking, but I stop short to stare at him.
I spent all of last night dreading this moment. I couldn’t sleep because I was too scared thinking about all the awful things they were going to ask me to do. But I didn’t realize it would happen so soon.
He looks at me and tilts his head in an appraising way.
“Already?” I ask in disbelief.
He nods with a little smile on his full lips. “Better to get it over with though, isn’t it?”
“What do you want me to do?” I try to keep my voice steady even though my heart is hammering in my chest.
“You’ll find out tonight. Brax will bring you to the spot at about eight. Make sure you go straight home after school and don’t get any ideas about trying to hide from us, you’ll only make it worse for yourself… and your sister.” He finishes coldly and I can’t help but shiver.
He turns and walks casually down the hall and I’m left standing alone, wondering what hell they have planned for me tonight.
By the time eight p.m. rolls around, I’m almost busting out of my skin with anxiety. I’m almost happy when Brax pounds on my bedroom door and tells me it’s time to go—at least I’ll finally know what’s coming and not have to worry in the dark for much longer.
Olivia opens her door a crack to watch me go. We already talked and I know she’s scared for me. I told her that if anything happens to me she needs to run away as far as she can. I feel guilty leaving her here alone, but I don’t have a choice. I can’t go to the cops and we don’t have any money to leave right now.
Brax and I walk outside into the chilly winter air. In Virginia it doesn’t get that cold, we rarely get snow, but I can see my breath and it makes me wish I brought a hat and gloves. I don’t have any idea where we are going but I hope it’s indoors.
Brax walks over to the broken garage door. It’s always been closed whenever I’ve walked by so I’ve never seen what’s inside—I assume there is nothing but old trash in there since they never bothered to fix it. He pushes hard on the top part of the door and I wince as I hear metal scrape against the driveway. With a lot of brute force he manages to yank the heavy door upwards to reveal a garage packed full of old junk—and one beautiful, gleaming motorcycle.
“Whoa,” I can’t help but say.
I’m not into motorcycles or cars or anything, but even I can tell that this bike is nice. He straddles it and I can see his muscular thighs flex beneath his jeans as they brace themselves against the metal and leather. He cocks his head at me.
“Hop on.”
I hesitate. He’s not wearing a helmet, and he’s not offering me one either. I also don’t know how he drives and I don’t know how safe this is—but I’m guessing not very.
There’s no working streetlights on this road and t
he dark shadows where his eyes should be contrast sharply with his silver hair, making him look otherworldly and sinister. I can’t help but take a step back.
He can sense my fear and says in his smokey voice, “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re our responsibility now, so you’re safe with me, Highness.”
The nickname was meant as an insult against me because of my previous life, but when Brax says it it sounds almost like a term of endearment.
I look around at the dark and deserted street. I don’t trust him, but I also don’t have much of a choice. He can make me do whatever he wants and we both know it. I’m powerless right now—and I hate it.
With resignation, I slowly walk over and climb on the back of the bike. Brax starts it immediately and I barely have enough time to grab on to him before we are roaring out of the driveway at breakneck speed.
I cling on to him for dear life as we race down cold and gloomy roads. I can feel his rock-hard body beneath my hands, and I know exactly what that body looks like naked. His scent is all around me. He smells like ginger, shampoo and clove smoke.
After about twenty minutes, we arrive at our destination. I stiffly hop off the bike and blow into my frozen hands. I had to twist them into Brax’s shirt to keep them from freezing, but even with that I can still barely feel them anymore.
“This is it,” he says as he pushes his bike into a dark alcove under a staircase, locks it, and comes back out.
I look around at an apparently abandoned factory.
“This is it? What are we going to do here?” I ask skeptically. This whole situation is getting more and more sketchy by the second.
We are standing next to a huge building on the edge of town. There’s an old sign on top, but it’s long since passed the point of being legible and half of it has rotted away. Most of the windows are broken, probably by teenagers throwing rocks. There're no lights on anywhere inside and it doesn’t look the least bit inviting—actually, it looks like the perfect set for a horror movie.