I creep through Marco’s home, looking over the way he lives. He’s twenty-six and living in a run-down warehouse. He’s a fucking slob. There’s shit all over the place. Old takeout containers, probably from when he was in town last, dirty clothes, and not to mention the state of the bathroom. I’m doing him a fucking favor here.
I walk through to the kitchen and find my mark. His back is still to me while his paid pussy is digging her nails into his back but not for the same reasons that Ocean digs hers into mine. This chick is in pain and it’s about time I put her out of her misery.
Marco grunts in pleasure. “Yeah, you fucking like that, don’t you, you dirty little slut.”
I hold back a gag. I’ve never understood men calling their women dirty sluts. Have a little class. If you treat a woman well, she’ll do the same for you. It’s simple math.
I walk up behind them and as I grow nearer, I raise the gun to the back of Marco’s head. The woman sees it within a split second of warning and her eyes go big before a squeal tears out of her.
The barrel of the gun presses against the back of his head and he freezes with his hands in the air. The girl instantly pulls back from him with a pained groan, watching me with wide eyes. “Go,” I tell her.
She doesn’t hesitate and sprints out the door, leaving her clothes behind.
“That was a fucking mistake,” Marco spits, not bothering to turn around. He would have hundreds of enemies all wanting to stand where I stand right now. Not turning around to see who’s at his back is a mistake, but making any kind of move would also be a mistake. I guess it doesn’t matter. Either way, he’s going to end up dead.
“Turn around.”
He takes his time but does as he’s told, assuming the man at his back is too fucking pussy to pull the trigger.
As he meets my eyes, his lips twist into an amused grin. “If it isn’t Carrington Jr.” he laughs. “I’ll give you two seconds to get out of here. Trust me, you’re not going to like the repercussions of coming onto my turf.”
“Just like you’re not going to like the repercussions of coming onto mine. Tell me, how’re your brothers doing? I trust they’re becoming well acquainted with their new housing situation.”
His face falls as if only just realizing who’s responsible for putting his scumbag brothers behind bars. To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed in him. His father dearest had worked it out in no time. I guess there’s a communication issue between the family. I had originally planned the same fate for Marco, but in his case it was a little different. It would have been as easy as handing over my home security footage to the cops, showing the moment he ended Maryne’s life but I found myself holding onto it.
I think I always knew I’d end up here but I had to try to be better, for Ocean’s sake. She deserves someone good. I guess I’m not him.
The twins were occupied, the boys had gone home, and Milo was keeping Ocean busy with the latest gossip on the guys from BSA. It was too easy to just slip out the doors. Hell, I’m sure I’ll even be able to slip back in without anyone blinking a damn eye.
Marco spits, keeping his gaze locked straight ahead. “You’re going to fucking die for that.”
I jam the gun under his chin, stepping into him and watching as the force of the gun pushes his chin up. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. How are you going to tell them when you’re already dead? But don’t you worry, I have plans for them too.”
Marco’s jaw clenches, finally realizing just how much trouble he’s in. “I should have fucking shot you when I had the chance.”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “You should have. It’s funny how the tables have turned, isn’t it?”
“You won’t get away with this.”
“That’s just the thing, Marco. I already have. Now get on your fucking knees so I can end you just like you ended Maryne.”
Marco tries to pull away from the barrel of my gun but I keep on him, not giving him anything to work with. “Who the fuck is Maryne?”
My fist slams up into ribs, winding him. He buckles over and as he goes, I kick his feet out from under him, dropping his dead ass to the dirty as fuck floor. “Don’t speak her fucking name,” I growl, jamming the gun under his chin once again. “Tell me, how did you picture you were going to die? I bet you never pictured your brains being painted all over your shitty little kitchen for your father to find.”
“Fuck you.”
I twist my wrist back and forth, playing with the barrel under his chin, making him hyper-aware of it. “Any last words?”
His eyes sharpen with hatred and I laugh at his pain. “Go to hell,” he spits, knowing damn well that I'll never spare him, not in a million years.
My lips twist into a sick grin as my finger touches down on the trigger, hovering there as I prepare to take exactly what Maryne deserves.
I meet Marco’s eyes, showing him the devil who lives inside of me. My voice lowers with a deadly promise as a satisfying, sick laugh tears out of me. “I’ll see you there.”
BANG!
Chapter 28
I lay across my bed on Sunday night, staring up at Milo as he crashes down on my bed. “So, were you ever going to tell me how you ended up screwing Spencer under the bleachers? Actually no, go from before that. Tell me how you guys ended up getting close in the first place. I just can’t wrap my head around it. You realize this is Spencer, right? Like mousy brown-haired, blue-eyed, looks like a good boy but is actually the devil with a wicked jawline Spencer?”
“Yes,” he laughs. “I know who he is and as if you can deny that he’s one of the most attractive guys you’ve ever laid your eyes on?”
“I mean, yeah, he totally is and don’t get me wrong here, I’m completely aboard the Spencer train to pound town, but I thought you didn’t like him? You always made out like he was a bit of a douche.”
“I did,” he clarifies. “He’s always been the biggest douche but after getting to know him and stripping away that shield that he always has up, he’s actually a really cool guy. I think we could actually have something real going on.”
My brows fly up. “No shit?”
“Yeah,” he laughs. “I think he liked to hide behind his attitude so no one got in and saw the real him. He’s just like me. He’s been terrified of being himself because of how unaccepted guys like us are around here.”
“But hasn’t he always been a bit of a slut?”
“With chicks? Not really. There’s a lot of rumors about him with girls but they're just that. Rumors. He said that he’s been with one chick and has never been softer in his life— and that was the turning point for him. That's when he realized that he was definitely gay and he's been hiding it ever since.”
My heart breaks for the guy. All this time, he’s been hiding himself away, terrified of what the world would think of him. “I should have known. My gaydar must be off. I knew straight away when I met you that we batted for the same team, but I had absolutely no idea with Spence. If I’d only worked it out sooner, he could have been himself with me instead of feeling the need to hide.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” he tells me, grabbing my leg and giving it a gentle squeeze. “He had us all fooled. Not even I worked it out.”
I let out a heavy sigh and squished my pillow under my head. “So tell me all about it. How did you end up with your knickers around your ankles under the bleachers?” I look back at Milo with a smirk crossing my lips. “He’s the top, isn’t he?”
Milo laughs but the blush that spreads across his cheeks confirms what I already know. “Do you want to hear the story or not?”
“Yes,” I groan, rolling over so I can see the full effect of all of his facial expressions as he recaps his story.
His face instantly brightens and a cheesy as fuck smile tears across his boyish face. “Well, like he said last night after I came out to the guys last week, we got to talking and—”
“Stop,” I demand, cutting him off. “You’ve already skipped crucial
details. Who initiated the talking? Who came to who?”
Milo rolls his eyes and grabs the pillow from behind his back. I instantly get smacked over the head. “I’m seriously so close to telling you to come up with your own damn story and calling it quits.”
“Fine, okay,” I laugh. “I’ll shut up, but don’t skip out on the details.”
He rolls his eyes again but thankfully gets on with the story, this time giving me the information I want to know. “Okay, so that night, Spencer showed up at my door after the party and he looked like he was going to be sick and then just blurted it out like word vomit. Almost as though his secret had been eating him up inside and was forcing its way out of his mouth. But once the words were out, he was like a whole new version of himself. He was freed from his own torture and fuck, babe. It really suits him.”
A fond smile sets itself over Milo’s face and I find myself smiling right back. “You really do care about him, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I think I do. I mean, it’s weird. This time last week, I would have laughed at the thought of me and Spencer hitting it off, but so much has changed. It’s insane.”
“You’re telling me. I was wracking my mind trying to figure out who the guy you were screwing behind the bleachers was for days and the answer was right under my nose the whole time? You know, I can honestly tell you that Spencer never entered my mind.”
“I know,” he laughs, “Which is why I told you about it in the first place. I knew that tiny snippet of information was going to drive you insane.”
“You’re such a bitch.”
“I know,” he grins. “Anyway, so he came over that night, and the more we talked, the closer we seemed to get. I didn’t even realize it until we were practically on top of each other. It’s almost like our bodies were drawing us together. We talked all night and before I knew it, the sun was up and he was shocked that we’d stayed up like that. He went to leave and I don’t even know what possessed me to do it but I just grabbed him and kissed him.”
“Wait,” I say, wide-eyed. “You kissed him?”
“Yeah,” he laughs. “I was shocked too. I’m all talk and no game. I didn't even know I had it in me to make the first move like that.”
“Well, shit. What did he do?”
“He pulled back and we both just kinda stared at each other in shock and then without warning, he kissed me back and since then … well, you know.”
“No way,” I laugh. “That’s insane. You guys literally just figured everything out in the space of a day while Colton and I were tiptoeing around the topic for months.”
“That’s true. You two were giving me whiplash for ages, but now that everything has calmed down, you guys can just focus on being together and being happy.”
My mind instantly takes me to all the bullshit with Nic and the Wolves which then reminds me of the goddamn bandage at the back of my neck. “Well, nearly everything has calmed,” I remind him.
“Yeah,” he says with a heavy sigh. “Were you ever planning on going down to the police station and making a statement about you being Jude’s other rape victim?”
“I mean … yeah, may—”
My bedroom door swings open with a bang and my mother gapes at me in horror. “Excuse me?” she breathes, staring at me as though I’m some kind of stranger.
My eyes go wide and Milo looks at me as though he’s about to be sick. “Mom, I …”
“What did he just say?” she demands, not taking her eyes from mine for even a second.
I sit up on the bed, feeling my heart begin to break as she realizes that I've kept this massive secret from her. “I …” I shake my head, not able to get the words freed from my throat, but nonetheless, I keep trying. “I … I…”
Milo peels himself off the bed from beside me and gives me a heavy stare. “I’m going to go and give you guys some space to talk,” he murmurs, not making any sudden movements as the tension in the air continues to rise. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? Call me if you need me.”
I try to swallow over the lump in my throat and give Milo a small nod as he slips past my mom. He gives her a gentle kiss on her cheek. “I’m sorry you had to find out like that,” he whispers before moving past and slipping out of the pool house.
I’m left with my mother staring at me with her heart shattering into a million tiny pieces. Not just for the fact that her baby girl was hurt and abused, but because I kept it from her. I kept one of the biggest secrets and I can only imagine the kinds of things that would be going through her mind. Betrayal, heartache, devastation. She probably fears that I don't think I could tell her something like that. She’s probably busy trying to convince herself that she’s failed as a mother when in reality, I just didn’t want her to feel the same hurt that I did. I wanted to spare her. She has such an innocent heart and I desperately wanted to keep it that way but all I’ve done was made it a million times worse.
A single tear streaks down her face and I see the very moment she breaks. “I’m your mom,” she whispers, her voice shaky and broken. “How could you not tell me?”
My own shame and fear come up and cripples me as the tears spring freely from my eyes for what I went through, what I've neglected to deal with, and for the fact that I've just betrayed my mother’s trust and broken her heart.
She deserved so much better than that.
She deserved the peace of mind to have been able to sit with me the morning after, holding me and telling me it was all going to be alright. She deserved the chance to be angry, the chance to go after Jude for hurting her child. She deserved it all and I took that away from her. Instead of being truthful and remembering that she’s so damn strong and can take on the world, I hid it away. I lied and for that, I'll never forgive myself.
She raised me better than that.
How many times am I going to be the reason for her heartache?
I wipe the tears on the back of my arm and swallow over the growing lump, making it nearly impossible to breathe. “I’m sorry,” I cry, feeling the weight of the world drop down over me. “I should have—”
“Yeah,” she says, ever so slightly nodding her head. “You should have.”
And just like that, her already falling tears shoot from her eyes like a waterfall, completely devastated and crushed. Unable to even face me, she walks away without another word, taking every little piece of hope along with her.
I listen for the soft click of her bedroom door and hear as she collapses into her bed and cries into her pillow, knowing all too well that her tears are filled with guilt for not having paid enough attention and the self-doubt for being too busy with work.
The need to go in there and comfort her rocks through me but I just can’t. I can’t face her knowing that I betrayed her trust. She counted on me to always be honest with her and I held back something so big, something that changed my world and turned me into this dark person that I've become. She could have saved me from that, she could have made it all better and I robbed her of that chance.
My eyes begin to sting with the constant tears but I can’t make them stop.
I need to go to her and I don’t doubt that she’s feeling that same need with me, but neither of us is making the move, neither of us strong enough to face what we’ve neglected.
My phone chimes on my bedside table and I reach for it while wiping my tears on the back of my sleeve, feeling the ache of my raw skin as I drag the material across it.
I unlock my phone and read over the words, feeling my soul somehow shatter even more.
Nic - I guess your boy isn’t as clean-cut as he’s been making himself out to be. Marco DeCarlo was just found dead in his kitchen. One bullet through the chin, just like your friend. Maybe that bastard has a pair of balls after all.
No.
Chapter 29
I don’t remember the walk from the pool house to the Carrington mansion but one second I’m sitting in my bed, reading over Nic’s text for the fifth time, hoping that my sore eyes are dec
eiving me and the next thing I know, I’m searching through Colton’s mansion, desperately seeking him out.
I know he didn’t just kill a man. He couldn’t have. That’s not who we are. Sure, we did some fucked up things and the whole Jude situation was fifty shades of messed up, but Colton was there when I was about to slaughter Jude and he stopped me. Colton saved me from myself, saved me from endless amounts of guilt because that's not who we are.
We’re better than that.
We’re not cold-blooded murderers but the evidence pointing toward Colton is just too much to deny. He was coming after each of the DeCarlo brothers, he vowed that much and then promised to go after Vincent.
He said that he was putting them in prison. He said nothing about putting them in the ground.
Colton couldn’t have done this. Please, someone, tell me that this is some kind of horrible coincidence. Colton isn’t a killer. He's an amazing guy with a big heart. He’s the guy that I've maybe fallen in love with. I couldn’t have fallen for another killer. I just can’t. That can’t be my life.
I only just escaped guys like Nic who think the world revolves around them and the bullets in their guns. Colton isn’t like that. I know him. I refuse to believe it. He's cold and calculating, but he’s no murderer.
Although, I never imagined that he’d be the kind of guy to lock a rapist in a cramped little dungeon and use him as his personal punching bag, just waiting for him to slowly rot and die. Then again, I never thought I had it in me to slit a man’s throat but standing in that dungeon with Jude on his knees, I would have done it without hesitation.
Maybe Colton is a monster. Maybe this is all some sort of act and he’s just like Nic. Just like the Widows and everything I was trying to escape.
What’s he going to do when he realizes that I know his little secret? Will he lock me up? Will all the tables turn on me and I’ll suddenly become the victim?
Barbie B*tch: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rejects Paradise Book 3) Page 27