Tormented: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Elginvale High Book 1)

by Esme Devlin

  She’s different, too. Rosheen uses me. I know she does, and it’s never bothered me before considering I use her too. She knows being with me makes her untouchable, as did the ones who came before her. She likes that. She likes the power I give her. She doesn’t care that I treat her like shit, just as long as I’m nice sometimes and she reaps the rewards for putting up with it. Lacey wouldn’t stand for that. She’s happy with what she’s already got. She doesn’t need me, and that makes her difficult. She’s a challenge. To get to Lacey, I’ll need to work harder.

  That doesn’t put me off her. If anything, it fucking excites me.

  I take Lacey’s hand and lead her back through the warehouse to where I left my sister. People move out of the way for us. We enter the room and it goes silent, except for Heather who’s sat at the table with the boys giggling like mad.

  “Time to go,” I tell her.

  Heather looks at me and does a dramatic, sad face. “I’m having fun! Ten more minutes?”

  “Move it, Heather. I’m not fucking about.”

  Her sad face turns to anger, but she gets up from her chair anyway.

  “What about Stevie?” Lacey says. “Can you carry her?”

  “Calvin, take Stevie home.” I say.

  Calvin nods and gets up from his chair, throwing his pile of cards down on the table.

  “No! She can’t go home in that state.” Lacey turns to me. “Take her to my house. Please.”

  I shrug. “Fair enough. Calvin, you heard the woman. Drop her off at Lacey’s.” I motion with my head for the girls to follow me, and then I make my way out of the room.

  Lacey practically has to run to catch up with me. “I meant you!” Her spoilt tone is begging for me to teach her a lesson.

  I chuckle. “I know what you meant. Am I, or am I not doing what you asked of me?”

  She’s skipping along at my side to keep up and I watch her puzzled face from the corner of my eye. “You are.”

  I stop in my tracks and push her up against the wall. Her eyes go wide and her mouth hangs open in surprise. “So shouldn’t you be showing me a little more gratitude?” My fingers trace her bottom lip and she turns her face away from it, making my hand slip. I hold her little neck instead, not tightly, but firm enough. Both her hands fly to my wrist and she clamps them around it. Not that they could stop me if I chose to squeeze.

  “Fuck you, Shaun Keagan.”

  “So insolent…” My words trail off as I press a kiss against her forehead. “Why don’t you try playing nicely?”

  She pauses for a moment and I sense my sister behind us, watching us. When Lacey finally answers, she looks me straight in the eye and says, “Because you don’t deserve it.”

  I let go of her neck and continue on down the corridor. Within a second, I hear the girl’s steps beside me. Maybe she’s right, maybe I don’t deserve it. But there are things she doesn’t understand.

  I unlock the car and open the front and rear passenger side. “In the back,” I say to Heather. “You can try to sleep off that drink before Dad sees you.”

  She shoots me a dagger with her eyes but gets in, regardless.

  “Princess,” I smile sweetly at Lacey while gesturing for her to get in the front, and she fires me a dagger too.

  Fucking women.

  I reverse out of the car park, and before long we’re on the single track road that leads back into town. I adjust the rear view mirror so I can see Heather and notice she’s sprawled out on the back seats; her face turned away from me. Good. My dad will fucking flip if he’s home.

  “What time is it?” Lacey asks.

  “Twenty past three.”

  “Not a chance any of us are making it to school tomorrow,” she sighs.

  “Speak for yourself, I’ll be there fresh as a daisy, with my toolbox screwing your locker door back on.”

  She giggles, despite clearly not wanting to. I catch her in the corner of my eye and she turns her head to look out of the window. “I thought I had to bargain my virginity to get that back?”

  “Guess I changed my mind. Would you like to reinstate the original deal? I wouldn’t complain if you did…” I flash her a smile, and she laughs properly this time.

  “You confuse the hell out of me,” she says.

  “Feelings mutual,” I confess.

  “Now I know you’re talking shit! I’ve done nothing to you!”

  “You don’t have to. I do enough for the both of us. It’s how you react to what I do that confuses me.”

  “How should I react?” She watches me closely, studying my face and I half look at her, half try to keep the car on the road.

  “Let me take you out properly,” I suggest.

  “Not a fucking chance,” she says, and whips her head forward to look out the front window, her face giving nothing away.

  I shift the gears and speed the car up. Her hand moves to hold on to the handle and the force of the accelerating car pushes her head back against the seat. I was already doing sixty-five, and now I’m pushing eighty.

  Eighty-five.

  “Shaun, stop it!”

  “Nope,” I smile, putting my foot down on the gas.

  Ninety.

  “Slow down! You’ll kill us!” Her face fills with terror as we approach the black and white luminous arrow sign that signifies a sharp bend in the road.

  “Then tell me you’ll go out with me… Let me die a happy man.” I laugh, breaking at the last second to take the corner. The back of the car slips slightly, but I correct it easily and begin speeding up again. We’re on a long straight now so I can go as fast as the car will allow.

  “Fine! Now stop!” she cries.

  I break, not hard enough to cause Heather to come flying through the windscreen, but the car does eventually roll to a complete stop. “Fine what?”

  “I’ll go out with you.”

  “Say it like you mean it.”

  “I’ll go out with you,” she repeats, slightly softer this time.

  “Good girl,” I say, reaching over and squeezing her kneecap. “A real date?”

  “If that makes you happy,” she smiles in mock sweetness and I can’t help laughing at her.

  Happy as a dog with two tails and a hard-on.

  Chapter 15

  Lacey

  Shaun drops me off back at my house with no further incident, and ten minutes later, I hear Calvin’s black Evoque approach outside. I go to the door to find him carrying Stevie up the garden path, her long dark hair spilling over his arm and swaying from the motion.

  I tell him to come in and direct him to my room, following a few steps behind. He puts her down on the bed gently and takes a step back, watching her sleep.

  “When do you think she’ll wake up?” I ask him.

  He glances at me in acknowledgment and then his eyes go back to her limp body. “Hard to say. She should be alright by morning, but she probably won’t remember much.”

  “Like who did it…” I say, my tone slightly accusatory.

  He turns his head and narrows his eyes at me. “Like how she ended up at the party in the first place.”

  “And how did she end up there in the first place?”

  Calvin chuckles, as if he finds my attempt at interrogation amusing. “Not the same way Shaun got you to go there, anyway.”

  I blush slightly at thought of him knowing just how easily Shaun can manipulate me.

  “I think he likes you, you know. Which isn’t normal for Shaun,” he continues.

  “This is how he treats people he likes? How does he treat people he hates?”

  Calvin shrugs. “He was a dick to you. That was to get back at Liam. He’s not good with girls.”

  “Understatement of the year right there,” I say.

  He smiles at me. “Give the guy a chance. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  “Eh… let me think… he could completely ruin my life with the click of a finger,” I tell him.

  Calvin turns away and goes back to
watching Stevie. “Then show him just how easily you could ruin his.”

  We both watch her for a moment while I let his words settle in. She doesn’t move, except for the steady rise and fall of her chest. He makes it sound so fucking easy. I have no power over Shaun. I don’t think anyone does.

  He finally breaks the silence, pulling a phone out of his back pocket and putting it down on the bedside table. “I better get going. Tell Stevie to text me in the morning, let me know she’s alright.”

  I look at him questioningly but nod, and he turns and walks out the bedroom door. I follow him down the stairs so I can lock up behind him, but he takes them two at a time and is much quicker than me.

  “I’ll see ya around, Lacey,” he says, as he opens the front door and slips out into the night.

  Feeling wide awake now, I go to the kitchen and click the kettle on for a cup of tea, then retrieve my phone. I lean against the counter while the kettle boils and open up Facebook, going straight to the search bar.

  Shaun Keagan.

  I scroll through the results, already knowing that I won’t find him. I think that’s why I’ve never bothered to look before. I do the same with Instagram and Twitter, finding nothing. Clearly, Shaun is not one for making his life public.

  I change tactics and open up my internet browser, this time making my search more specific.

  Shaun Keagan Elgin Scotland.

  Jackpot.

  A single news article, but I’m in no doubt it’s him.

  It’s been a turbulent 12 months for Scottish boxer Shaun Keagan. A former three-belt champion, the 18-year-old was tearing up the heavyweight rankings at lightning pace. However, the first loss of his career to Josh Handren in January, followed by a damning drug test result, and having his boxing license revoked after being convicted of assault, brought the former Elgin amateur’s career crashing to a halt.

  There’s a picture of him at the top of the article, standing ringside and staring at the camera, his hand clenched tightly in a fist. He’s wearing a light-gray cotton tracksuit, unzipped to reveal a tight white T-shirt that shows off his pecs perfectly. And a… something else. I slide my fingers apart on the screen to zoom in, for research purposes only of course. Not that I have much to compare it too, having never seen one. Pervert.

  Okay, that’s enough of that. I shift my gaze away from the package and towards the man standing next to him. This man wears a suit, I’d say he’s in his mid 40s. He’s balding slightly at the top of his head, but that doesn’t detract from his handsome looks. He has the same pronounced dark eyebrows and chin as Shaun, and though the older man is an inch or two smaller, the pair are very similar. Similar enough to be father and son. He’s also doing the fist thing with his hand, like Shaun.

  I scroll down the article to see if it mentions the second man’s name, but to my disappointment it doesn’t. If I had his father’s name, then perhaps I could research some more about him.

  Not because I’m interested, or because I’m seriously considering what Calvin said… it’s more to do with Stevie’s theory. The secret club / illuminati stuff that she was convinced had some weight.

  Just say, for arguments sake, that Shaun did actually like me. And that I found some secret superpower that could ruin his life and ensure he couldn’t ruin mine first. And that the stars aligned, the sea boiled, and the end of the world happened, and he was the last man left on this earth. In that situation, it would be useful to know what I was getting myself involved in.

  But there’s a chink in Stevie’s theory that’s right here in black and white, printed in the article. He was convicted of assault earlier this year.

  If he is part of some elite club, and they hold all the power — including the police, then why would they sit back and watch their golden boy take an assault charge?

  Who did he assault, and why?

  I open up a new page and this time I type in:

  Shaun Keagan Elgin Assault.

  Another news article. I tap the link to open it and this time it takes forever to load.

  404 Error.

  The requested URL was not found on this server.

  I hit the back button and try again on the next article, only to face the same error page. All the links are broken. It’s like the story has been wiped completely, the only mention of it in the boxing article.

  I lock my phone in frustration, take a final gulp of my now lukewarm tea, and head back up the stairs knowing full well I will not be able to sleep. There is far too much going on in my head for me to just shut it down.

  I go in to the bedroom and check on Stevie, who’s still sleeping peacefully. Heading to the en-suite, I run myself a bath and throw in a Lush bath bomb. By the time I’ve undressed, the scent of ylang-ylang, vanilla and jasmine fill the air and I switch the lights over to the warm under-bath floor LEDs.

  Bliss.

  I instantly feel more relaxed as I slide down into the piping hot water. Wishing I’d brought in a book, but too lazy to get out and fetch one, I close my eyes and try not to think of anything.

  When that fails, I try to think of anything that isn’t Shaun.

  ❖

  “Lacey.”

  Someone is shaking me.

  “Lace!” I open my eyes and see Stevie sitting up in bed, her makeup smudged down her cheeks and her hair a mess. “Someone’s outside your house!”

  “What?” I sit up, still half asleep and not really understanding what’s happening. Why is Stevie here? What day is it?

  And then I remember last night.

  “Oh god, are you okay?” I ask her.

  “I’m fine,” she says, dismissing me. “Is your dad home?”

  It’s… Wednesday. I shake my head. “Not until tomorrow.”

  “There’s someone outside,” she repeats.

  “Alice? We have a housekeeper. What time is it?”

  “It’s men’s voices!”

  The anxiety I’ve been carrying around for days like a heavy stone shackled to my stomach returns instantly. I jump out of bed and rush over to the window, scared that I’m about to witness the second attack on my home.

  But that’s not what I see.

  Two white unmarked vans are parked on the street in front of my house. Men walk around the garden, chatting and barking orders at each other. One with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Another carrying a bucket. All of them dressed in paint covered overalls.

  “It’s decorators,” I tell Stevie. “I guess Alice must have sorted it out. What time is it?”

  “I have genuinely no idea where my phone is. How did I get here?”

  I nod to the bedside table and she turns around. “Long story… and I’m not actually sure I know the half of it. Can you get up? I’ll fix you a cup of tea.”

  Stevie nods and we head down the stairs to the kitchen, where Alice is busy wiping down the counters. I check the time on my phone on the way down… 11.15. Looks like we’re kipping today.

  “Good morning, girls,” Alice greets us with a smile. “I tried waking you two at 6.45 but ye’s were dead to the world!”

  “Uh… Study day today. Exam tomorrow.” I flash her a smile and she nods.

  “Cup of tea?” she offers.

  “It’s okay, thanks. I’ll make us one.”

  Alice shrugs, wiping her hands on a dishcloth. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair, I have errands to run.” she says as she picks up a set of empty canvas bags that are lying on the dining table. “How did you manage to find the decorators? I swear I phoned every one from here to the English border and they were all booked up til the end of the month!”

  I look at Stevie, and then back to Alice. “Oh, I found these guys online.”

  She pauses while she thinks and then smiles. “Och aye, that web thing. Sorry dear, that’s beyond my many talents!” She grabs her car keys and makes towards the door. “Remember to study!”

  “We will!” I shout back, turning to Stevie and giving her my best WTF eyes.

  �
�If it wasn’t her, who the fuck was it?” Stevie hisses under her breath. I wait until I hear Alice slam the front door before replying.

  “Shaun? That’s the only person I can think of.” I tell her.

  “Shaun? Fuck off!” She rears her head back in disbelief. I admit, I’m struggling to get to grips with that theory too but for now, it’s the best one I’ve got.

  “Calvin said last night that he liked me…”

  “Calvin? Wait. You need to back the fuck up and tell me what went down last night.”

  “Okay…” I walk over to the kettle and switch it on, making tea while I relate to her exactly what I know, and what I don’t know.

  “I genuinely don’t remember any of that,” she says as I put her cup down on the table in front of her.

  “Not even going to the party?”

  “Zilch. Nothing. Not a thing. I remember taking a shower and going to bed… and then I woke up here with the strange voices in the garden.” She shrugs her shoulders and then takes a sip of her tea.

  “Is something going on with you and Calvin?” I ask her, watching her reaction closely.

  Her eyes widen. “No!” She quickly looks to the side to cover it up. “Is something going on with you and Shaun?”

  “God, no!” I tell her firmly.

  We both regard each other for a moment and I’m pretty sure each of us thinks the other one is lying.

  “He texts me sometimes…” she concedes. “I wish I could remember why I agreed to go last night. It just doesn’t sound like something I would do. I mean I’ve been batting him off for days… hardly replying, when I do it's something snide.”

  “But… do you like him?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “I dunno. I mean look at him. He’s fucking gorgeous. But also, a class A prick. So I suppose I like him enough to fuck him, if that makes sense.”

  I laugh at her logic. “That makes no sense!”

  “I know right,” she says, and giggles back. “But enough about Calvin, why did you agree to go with Shaun? I thought you hated him.”