“The truth?” Maddox nodded. “My pride.”
Mad got up off my bed and headed towards the door, but not before saying, “I got you, R.J. Whatever you need, I got you.”
And that’s what made us a dangerous bunch.
There were no limits on revenge when you had a bunch of people who’d follow you into the bowels of hell, no questions asked.
Chapter 32
Lake~
It was Saturday evening, and I still hadn’t heard from Ramsey. Now, granted, I’d just gotten home a couple of hours ago, and after showering and eating, I had fallen asleep again, but that was to be expected according to the doctor. My blood tests had shown a high level of GHB in my system, so he said I might feel lethargic for the next day or so, so to take it easy.
The second time I had awoken, my parents and Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph had been in the room with Eden, and it had been hard to field all their questions. The frustrating part had been that I hadn’t even been able to answer most of their questions. My memory stopped at me and Curt arguing, and that wasn’t any help to anyone. Everyone felt horrified that I’d been drugged, but also guilty that it had happened. Though it was no one’s fault, other than Curt’s, guilt was always there when something bad happened to someone you loved.
As for the visit from the police, that had been more of the same thing. They had asked questions that I couldn’t answer, and without evidence or a confession from Curt, there wasn’t anything they could do. Sure, there was proof that I’d been drugged, but no proof of who’d done it.
And the only reason I hadn’t reached out to Ramsey during all this? First, I knew my parents would react badly to finding out I was dating a Reed, and they were upset enough as it was. Second, my head still hurt, and I wasn’t sure I had the energy to deal with his reaction to all this, which was sure to be explosive. Third, I couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t go off and kill Curt before I could get any answers.
There was also the fact that, when I had gotten my phone back from my parents, there’d been no missed calls or texts from him since he’d taken off for Port Lucia. He could still be nursing a hangover in Port Lucia, or he could still be tangled up in bed with someone else.
I could admit I was afraid to find out.
When the door to my bedroom opened, I looked up and saw Eden walking in, and she looked furious. I sat up straighter in my bed, and ask, “What’s wrong?”
She came and sat down next to me, and I scooted over to make room for her. “Have you heard from Reed?” she asked, and my stomach plummeted.
I shook my head. “No,” I told her. “I haven’t heard from him since yesterday.”
Eden took a deep breath before saying, “I’m going to show you something, but…try not to get too upset. I know you still feel like crap.”
“Just show me, Eden,” I demanded. “My mind is-”
“Okay, okay,” she rushed out as she handed me her phone.
Taking her phone in my hand, I looked down and there was a selfie of Erica, only the picture wasn’t about her. The picture captured me and Curt in the background and it looked like we were loved up and going into the bedroom together.
A horrified gasp escaped me, and I started feeling sick. I read the caption and I could hardly believe my eyes. “What is this?”
“Keep scrolling back,” Eden grimaced.
I did as she told me, and the pictures Erica had posted showed some skewed portrait of me and Curt together, working things out. But it also brought back a vague memory of Curt giving me something to drink, maybe. I shook my head because it was fuzzy still, but…there was something there.
“It gets worse, Lake.”
I looked up at her. “How?”
“Scroll forward to her most recent posts.”
Eden had assured me that Curt hadn’t had enough time to do anything to me, but what could be worse? What else could Erica have possibly posted? But as I made my way through her timeline and found her most recent pictures, Eden was right.
It was worse.
There were countless selfies of her partying it up with Windsor students. Or, at least, I assumed they were Windsor students because I didn’t recognize anyone in the backgrounds. But then that assumption turned into fact when I came across a selfie of her and Chance McCellan. He had his arm around her, and the caption read ‘The only SCH to get invited to Windsor’. They looked cozy and my stomach threatened to revolt. And the feeling got worse as picture, after picture of Erica appeared and it looked like she was having the time of her life.
What happened to anyone but Erica Chambers?
“He…he must have seen the pictures from last night,” I mumbled mostly to myself.
“He must have,” Eden agreed.
I looked up at her. “But this feels…off…”
“What do you mean?”
Laying her phone in my lap, I said, “Ramsey’s…mean, Eden.”
“Mean?”
I knew it sounded bad, but he was. “It’s hard to explain, but…I don’t know, Eden. If Ramsey saw those pictures and thought…thought I was with Curt last night, he would have…raged.” He would have lost his shit. “Throwing a party and inviting Erica seems rather…juvenile for someone like Ramsey.” The more I thought about it, the more I knew I was right. “He would have driven back to Sands Cove and lost his mind, Eden.” I gestured towards her phone. “This seems…tame.”
“Maybe-” The screen on her phone lit up, stopping whatever she’d been about to say.
I grabbed her phone and it felt like my entire chest had been kicked in.
Erica had posted another picture, and it was the same style as the one she had taken with me and Curt in the background, only this time, she had captured Ramsey with his arm around a stunning brunette. And before I could fully absorb the first photo, another one appeared, and the caption read ‘I guess the king and his new queen are done for the night’, and the picture was of Ramsey and the brunette heading inside a house that I, now, recognized as his.
So much for girls not being invited inside his house.
I handed Eden her phone back, and the second she saw what was on the screen, her entire face crumbled. “I’m sorry, Lake,” she whispered, anger and sadness warring in her voice.
“I…” Something still felt off. There was something wrong with this entire thing, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Even Ramsey being with another girl, as payback or whatever, still felt relatively tamed.
I’ve seen his temper in action. I’ve seen his aggressiveness up close and personal. He wasn’t cold like this. Or, at least, he hadn’t been when dealing with me. Even though he knew hanging out with Erica and being with another girl would hurt me, in my gut, I knew Ramsey didn’t operate that way. If anything, I’d expect him to sleep with Erica and post a video of it on my social media feed. That seemed more his style, so I wasn’t exactly sure what this was.
“We’re missing something, Eden,” I told her.
“What do you mean?”
My mind searched for the missing pieces, but I it was coming up blank. But when a notification pinged on Eden’s phone and her face took on a look of disgust, that’s when it triggered.
“There’s more,” I said, thinking out loud.
“More what?”
“More to come,” I told her.
Her brows furrowed. “How do you know?”
“What’s the point of tormenting someone?” I asked her.
“To make them suffer?”
“But what’s the point in making them suffer?” I asked. “Where’s the satisfaction in making them suffer?”
Her green eyes widened. “The satisfaction is in seeing them suffer,” she whispered.
I jerked my head towards her phone. “Those are appetizers, Eden. The main course is still yet to be served.”
“What are you going to do?”
If I told Eden my plan, I knew she’d insist on standing right there beside me, but I couldn’t do that to her. I didn’t want her ge
tting caught in Ramsey’s crosshairs, so I lied to her. “For now, I’m going to get some rest,” I told her. “I’m going to get some rest and tackle this in the morning.”
She nodded in support of my idea. “Okay,” she replied. “Then I’m going to go home and get some rest, too. It’s been a long couple of days.”
It was two hours later, after I knew my parents were asleep for the night, that I snuck out of my house for the first time ever. I got into my mom’s car, and drove towards Ramsey’s house, the best my memory would let me. Of course, all I had to do was find the large front gate with a giant ‘R’ in the center, so that shouldn’t be so hard.
No way was I going to be a sitting duck and wait for him to come to me.
Chapter 33
Ramsey~
For all this was a party designed for a bigger purpose, it was going fairly well. The backyard was packed, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Granted, it wasn’t often that me or Maddox had parties, so I knew when I posted it on the Windsor site everyone was going to try their hardest to show up. However, I had made sure to note that only juniors and seniors were invited. D.J. and Crew were the only sixteen-year-olds here.
And other than annoying Chance, Erica was serving her purpose perfectly. She’s been taking selfies left and right, making sure to capture damn near everything.
Everyone was doing their part and even Dash has had Paisley Wallace wrapped around him all night long. And while he might have some mixed emotions about Eden, he could do worse than Paisley Wallace. The girl was tall, blonde, and had a million-dollar figure. She could also deepthroat like a professional, as most of us guys at Windsor would know.
My plan was coming together, piece by piece, and my dick got hard at the thought of a prolonged torture rather than just destroying Lake all at once. I wanted her to suffer. If I was going to be miserable, then she was going to be extinguished.
However, my plans took a surprising turn when me and D.J. were coming down the stairs from my bedroom. She’d gotten cold, and we’d come inside, so I could grab her a hoodie. While she had her own stuff here, D.J. always stole our clothes. She always went for comfort versus fashion.
I stopped a few steps from the landing and took in the sight of the only girl who has ever fucked me up good. She looked pale, tired, but still fucking beautiful, and that boiled my blood.
“Are you lost?” I asked. “Pretty sure you weren’t invited here.”
“Uh, maybe I should-”
I reached back and grabbed D.J.’s wrist, keeping her put. “You stay,” I told her. “She’s the one who doesn’t belong here. She’s the one who wasn’t invited here.” Lake’s eyes glanced at D.J. and I knew what it looked like. What I wanted it to look like.
Lake wrapped her arms around her waist. “No. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be,” she answered. But when I didn’t comment, she asked, “So, that’s it? No questions? No…wondering why?”
“It’s not hard to figure out why a slut does what she does, Lake,” I replied coolly. “Sometimes one dick just isn’t enough.”
Her eyes glanced behind me really quickly before saying, “Or one pussy.”
Even though she didn’t know who D.J. was to me, and even though I was making it look like there was something going on between me and D.J., her referring to D.J. as pussy further enraged the fire in my blood when I didn’t think anything else could.
“If you ever refer to her as pussy again, I will fucking more than ruin you, Lake,” I threatened. “If you think things are bad now, just wait and see. She is not just some random SC High pussy.”
Lake’s head reared back at the vehemence in my voice. She knew the girl behind me was important to me if I was defending her so forcefully.
“My mistake,” she simply replied, her eyes filling up with fake tears. I mean, what in the fuck did she have to be upset about? She’s the cheater. “I’ll just…I can see it was a mistake to come her.” She turned to go, but I was hot on her heels.
As soon as she cleared the side door and started weaving her way through the crowds, I followed with D.J. trailing behind me. I let out a whistle and everyone close enough to hear it stopped to see what was going on.
The first person who caught my eye was Crew and I gave him a tight nod. When Crew had arrived earlier with D.J. and Dash, I had pulled him aside and gave him the details. Though he knew what everyone else already knew, I needed to give him a clearer picture of what I had wanted to do to her. He had asked me for anything I could use against her, and when I had told him I had pictures of her, he’d asked for them and I had handed them over. At one point in time, those pictures had been for me. I hadn’t wanted anyone else to see her like that. But that was before I found out she was a cheating slut.
So, Crew knew what she looked like, and as soon as I had given him the head nod, he glanced around and spotted her trying to make a break for it.
He quickly made his way over to her, wrapped his arm around her waist, and pulled her back. She stepped out of his hold when he asked loud enough for everyone to hear, “Is this her?”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s her.”
Lake looked confused, but she looked at Crew and asked, “Is what me?” Crew smirked and it didn’t look friendly. Like his brothers and his father, Crew had that same black hair and green eyes, and he looked sinister. But that was probably because he was.
Crew jerked his head my way. “He said there was a hot slut from the public school that didn’t mind being passed around.” Crew gave her a lewd onceover. “That’s you, right?”
Lake’s head whipped around to face me, and pain was shooting out of those bright blue eyes of hers. “Wh…what?”
It wasn’t lost on me that a lot of people had their phones out. But, more importantly, Erica had hers out and that’s what I needed. “You let Metcalf fuck you last night after I’d just pumped you full of my cum, Lake,” I announced to everyone. “That’s pretty much the definition of getting passed around.” There were laughs and snickers all around, but I didn’t care about that. All that mattered was the girl in front of me.
Lake shook her head as she wrapped her arms around her waist again. “Don’t do this,” she said. “I didn’t sleep with Curt.”
I lifted my chin. “Now, c’mon, baby, you know better than most people that a picture is worth a thousand words.”
“Speaking of pictures,” Crew added as he pulled out his phone. “That is you, right?” He held his phone up to her and the satisfaction was swift as I watched her eyes widened in humiliation. Though no one else could really see, Crew’s words painted a very dirty assumption. “I mean, talk about some magnificent tits,” he continued. “It’s a good thing you’re a whore because it sure would be a shame for one man to be able to keep all that for himself.” Lake’s hands shot out, and she pushed Crew away, and he let her.
Her eyes were shiny, but nothing was falling free. Lake was holding on to her composure with an iron fist. “Those pictures were supposed to be private,” she spat.
I let out a deep, dark laugh. “You had both mine and Metcalf’s loads coating your pussy last night, Lake. But you want me to believe you’re upset over sharing some pictures of your tits?” I scoffed. “If you’re going to be a whore, then own that, and quit trying to play the seventeenth-century virgin, clutching your pearls and everything.”
She shook her head, rage shooting like daggers from those gorgeous blue orbs. “You’re going to regret this,” she replied, her head high. “You’re going to find out how wrong you are, and you’re going to regret this.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “The only thing I regret was going slumming at SC High,” I told her. “Had I known you were going to spread your legs for all of Sands Cove after I broke you in, I would have made sure to wear a condom. God knows what’s rotting between those used legs of yours now.”
Crickets.
In a party this size, silence should be impossible, but everyone here was hanging on every word being
said between me and Lake, and I couldn’t have planned it better. She thought she could publicly cheat on me, embarrassing me, and not pay the price? This was humiliation at its finest, and I was nowhere near started with her.
“Don’t forget her little friend, Eden,” Dash added, finally joining in. Mad, Chance, and D.J. had all remained quiet throughout the exchange, but they were just the supporting cast in all this. Dash and Crew were who I needed for this kind of payback. “That’s a hot little body who can take a finger or three.”
Lake’s head turned so fast, her long dark hair whipped her in the face. “Stay away from Eden,” she growled. Dash blew her a kiss and that’s when the first tear finally escaped.
Fuck, she was beautiful.
“Now, unless you’re going to be a good sport and let Windsor get a taste of some SC High pussy, no matter how used, I suggest you get the fuck out of here and don’t come back,” I told her. “Things could get pretty ugly around here if you do.”
Lake didn’t bother wiping away the tears that were now freely sliding down her face. But that’s probably because they were due to rage more than anything else. Instead, she lifted her chin again, and announced something that didn’t matter anymore. “I hate you.”
“Awwwe,” I pouted snidely. “And just yesterday you were telling me how much you loved me. Oh, wait. It wasn’t that you loved me, it was that you loved my cock.” I shrugged. “My mistake.”
She speared me with one final look of hate before she turned around and ran from the backyard.
And it took every ounce of strength I had not to run after her.
Chapter 34
Lake~
I came to with a start. Glancing around, it took me a second to remember where I was. The second reality set in, it took everything I had not to have another meltdown.
After I had left Ramsey’s party, furious and heartbroken, I had gone home and had cried myself to sleep. Already feeling weak from the GHB, I hadn’t been prepared for the onslaught of emotions that had taken me under.
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