by G N Wright
Elle reaches out and clasps her hands around his and it shocks him out of his stupor. She gives it a gentle squeeze and goes back to her dinner as Arthur resumes talking and we all pretend that wasn’t such a big moment.
After dinner I help Helen wash up because I am not a total fuck up, and then we head to the den to wait for Elle to finish up bedtime with Cassie. It’s weird seeing this side to her. The day I met her I thought she was just a hot as fuck chick I for sure wanted to bang, that didn’t last long when I found out Marcus knew her, and I saw the way he looked at her. Yeah, every guy was fucking looking at her that day, but no one looks at her the way Marcus does.
I got used to her as the little badass who kept putting him in place, she was all cocky comebacks and deadly threats that I thought were jokes. Since then, I have seen her laugh, cry, clean up busted knuckles, and make up stories for Cass. Hell, I have even seen her covered in blood after slitting some guy’s throat. It’s safe to say we are closer than ever and having that kind of bond back in my life, a family bond outside of my brothers is something I really cherish.
I am the last to enter the den besides Elle. The den, more fucking rich people shit. It’s a huge as fuck room that has two huge sofas with a large glass coffee table between them, there is a bar in one corner and a pool table in the other. A big as fuck flat screen tv and even more game consoles than we have at the loft. A few doors lead out of here, one I came through, one that leads to a bathroom, and another leads through to fuck knows where.
I walk in and drop onto the sofa by Linc and nod at Marcus, “You okay brother?” I ask, considering this is the first time it has been just the three of us all day.
He blows out a breath, “Is it fucked up if I say yeah?” he replies.
I smile, “Of course not.”
“How can I be happy yet fucking so filled with rage at the same time?” he adds.
I shrug, “Easy,” I reply, and he frowns, “What? You finally got the girl, the same girl your ass has been trying to lock down since you were in fucking kindergarten, from what I gathered, so course you are happy, just makes her pain all the more painful to you.”
He nods processing what I said as Lincoln speaks up, “This is far from over brother, this doesn’t just start and end with Greg.”
“What do you mean?” Marcus asks.
“He means there are a lot more people on my list of sorry fucks who need to die,” we all swing our heads as Elle steps into the room, her voice calm and collected, as always when talking about this. I honestly don’t know how she does it.
Marcus gets up and she crosses the room to him immediately, “I’m gonna need that promise again, Riv,” she says softly, and he looks confused, “the one where you promise not to retaliate.”
He looks at us and grinds his teeth and cricks his neck before looking back to her, “I’m still here, aren’t I? Not bathing in that sick fuck’s blood.”
She smiles, “I know,” she pats his chest and looks to the two of us, “All of you, come with me,” she says, before turning away from us and making her way to the door in the corner of the room.
We enter behind her and it looks just like an old, unused storage room filled with boxes and some stuff covered in dust sheets. She moves until she is on the other side of the room, and then shifts back some tarp hanging from the wall that reveals another door. It’s not like the one we came through; this is steel and there is an electrical keypad next to it and Elle taps it a few times until it beeps, and she opens it.
She turns to us and gestures us inside; I look at the guys before we all move at once to enter. Fuck, this is not what I expected.
“Fuck,” Marcus hisses under his breath coming in behind me.
The door closes behind us and I hear the click and beep of the electrical lock going back in place. The room isn’t big, but it has enough room to fit a large table with six chairs around it. The back wall has a large screen above multiple smaller ones all connected to what seems to be one computer. There is a chair in front of the desk under the wall and multiple programs running on the screens. On the left of the room is a large whiteboard with photos stuck to it that have names underneath, few of them have red crosses across the face.
“What is this?” Marcus asks, breaking the silent tension of the room.
“This is my revenge,” Elle replies simply.
“What do the red crosses mean?” I ask, a little warily because there are at least eight of them.
“Eliminated,” she says mindlessly, as she taps away on the computer before she sits in the chair and spins it towards us and gestures for us to sit at the table.
We all take a seat.
“You are all here because I trust you,” she says, “with my life, with my daughter's life and with my secrets.”
I take in the faces on the board. There are the obvious ones who I recognize; Greg and Elliot Donovan, Sarah and Jonathan King, that low life The Octopus, hell even the fucking Captain of Police is up there. What the fuck?
“All the details of everything are irrelevant, so I will only tell you what you need to know,” she exhales, looking between us all as we nod.
“You know the obvious. Greg raped me,” I feel Marcus flinch beside me when she tosses that statement out casually. “What you don’t know is, it was payback for something my parents did. They knew all about the Donovan’s sick little sex ring and went against him anyway, he paid them back by taking me,” she shrugs again like it’s nothing and I grind my teeth.
“Elliot only used to take the girls no one gives a fuck about, the ones forgotten or left behind on the South Side,” she locks eyes with me and grimaces apologetically knowing she is referring to Rachel and others like her. “Well after they took me, they realized they could keep all the other North Breds in line by threatening their children to keep them on their side.”
She stands and gestures to the board, “As you can see, he has a lot of people on his payroll willing to help keep his crimes on the down low. Police, lawyers, even a politician, no one is willing to go against him,” she adds, before turning back to us and that’s when I see it.
Marcus speaks first, “What happened to Nate Maxwell?” he asks, and I think back to the day Elle had a black eye and little Donovan kicked our door clean off thinking Marcus had done it. Their whispered words revealed the Octopus had done that to her.
“I went after him,” Elle says carefully, “I --” she starts again but Lincoln cuts her off.
“I killed him,” he says calmly and both Marcus and I swing our heads to look at him.
Lincoln isn’t bold or brash, he doesn’t allow his actions to get the better of him. He always thinks through every scenario before doing something, assesses every threat and goes through every backup possible before doing anything. That is what makes him so ruthless. He isn’t unpredictable and reckless like Marcus and I, so this shocks the both of us.
When he sees us staring, he snaps losing some of his cool, “What? It was him or her,” he says, gesturing to Elle.
“Lincoln’s right, he saved my life,” she adds, and he smiles.
“Sorry, what was that King? I didn’t quite catch that,” he teases her, and it lightens the mood of this fucked up room.
“Don’t fucking push it, Superman,” she responds.
“I never asked what happened in the warehouse. Whose blood were you covered in?” I voice my inner thoughts.
“What fucking warehouse?” Marcus snaps.
“You were busy being a dickhead,” I respond, with a smug smile and he huffs.
Elle ignores his outburst and points to another red cross on the board, “This guy, I sliced his throat,” she says, like I just asked what she wanted for breakfast and then gestures to the other four red crosses next to the first adding, “Lincoln dealt with the rest,” she pauses before also saying, “In what Ash tells me were some very colorful ways.”
She smiles at him clearly amused by it and he rolls his eyes in response and I look between the
two of them like I am seeing them for the first time. It’s only now I see a whole new side to both of them, that's a given with Elle, considering I don’t know her that well yet, but I thought I knew Lincoln. Yet, here I am seeing a whole new side to him, a side that is darker than I ever imagined but also filled with more smiles and jokes. He is comfortable with her, he trusts her. They don’t just have a friendship between them but something else, a bond made in blood. I mean I’m not naive, we aren’t the good guys, we beat on people, do drugs, drink far too fucking much but I have never gone this far. But after what they did to her, can I blame them?
Am I ready to do the same? Before Elle revealed her secrets, I don’t think I would have ever been able to kill someone. But now, here I sit thinking about what they did to her, the scars on her body, and the protection of her daughter.
Would I kill for them? Without a shadow of a doubt.
“So, what happens now?” Marcus asks.
“Now?” She repeats sitting down in the chair opposite us. She looks us all in the eye before she adds, “Now we go to war.”
Well fuck me, three lost Rebels have finally found our way. Death, chaos, and vengeance, a path drenched in blood and all for two amazing girls. Let’s go to fucking war.
Chapter 24
ELLE
The only words to describe my weekend with the Rebels is cathartic. No more secrets, no more lies, just everything out in the open. I feel like I can breathe again for the first time since I laid eyes on Marcus that first day of school. The rollercoaster we have been on the last few months isn’t something I enjoyed, yet somehow, we ended up here. Together again, by each other’s side, and ready to slay the fucking world.
The guys left late last night after we spent a couple of hours going over all the information I have and mixing it with everything we know. I didn’t think I could ever shock Marcus again after he found out about Cassie, but the more he learned about Elliot, the angrier he got. He knew he was bad he just didn’t know how close to the devil he actually is. Not forgetting about his fucking spawn of Satan son either.
I wanted to ask Marcus to stay but I know he needs time to process everything that he has learned. So, I sent him home with his brothers and then spent the night wishing I hadn’t. I ended up sneaking into Cassie’s bed at 2am, where I eventually managed some sleep before my alarm woke me.
Now I’m getting ready for another week at Hallows High and for the first time I’m nervous. Which is dumb, right? I finally have all three Rebels by my side, so what the hell am I so worried about? It’s just I haven’t done this before, been someone's girlfriend. Am I Marcus’ girlfriend? Girlfriend just sounds so insignificant. Like just a regular couple of teenagers. What we have is so much more than that. He is so much more than that, our hearts are intertwined in a way that can’t be undone.
My phone pings signaling that the guys are here, so I grab my bag and head outside. I find Linc’s blacked out SUV parked in the drive with the front windows down. Lincoln is driving and Jace is sitting in the passenger seat. Marcus is standing with one of the back doors open, clearly waiting for me.
He looks a lot more rested than he did this weekend, he has his usual dusting of facial hair shadowing his chin and dark sunglasses pushed up onto his head. He is smoking a cigarette and has the collar of his leather jacket popped up. He looks like temptation. Not just for me but any woman who has a pair of eyes in their head. When he sees me, he smiles sinfully, one that says I am his, I don’t think I have been this happy since before I left here, over three years ago. Cassie makes me happy, ever since I heard her little heartbeat, she has been my lifeline daily but not having Marcus around always left a hole in my heart. A hole that is now filled with all things Marcus Riviera.
“Will you two stop eye fucking each other and get in the car before we are late, I wanna stop at Starbucks on the way,” Jace whines, leaning out of the window like a puppy.
I break out of my appraisal and feel myself blushing as I move towards the car until I’m next to Marcus. He grabs my bag off my shoulder and throws it in the back of the car before turning back to me.
He curls a hair behind my ear that has blown into my face as he speaks in a low soft tone, “How’d you sleep?” he asks gently, it sounds super fucking weird to hear him speak in anything other than his stern gravelly tone.
“Erm, okay I guess,” I say with a small smile trying to work out what is going on with him, something is different.
He smiles and it is nothing like the cheeky flirty smirk he has given me before, no, this smile is full of love. It freaks me out a little to see such a change in him.
“My little King,” he says softly, “I thought we said no more lying,” he cups my face and places a chaste kiss on my forehead before pulling away and gesturing for me to get inside.
I stand frozen for a second, considering I was expecting a kiss a bit more, shall we say steamy? I mean I am not experienced really, not past Marcus, but I have gotten used to the way he kisses me without restraint. How it consumes me, and I can feel it in my entire body. I shake my head to myself and climb into the back of the car and slide across the seat so Marcus can slide in next to me.
“Seatbelt,” Marcus says, and I frown and Jace chokes a laugh out trying to hide it into a cough. I look up to find Lincoln's gaze in the mirror and see a smirk on his face too.
What the fuck is going on?
I pull my seatbelt on and off we go to school. Jace got his wish and we stopped for coffee on the way. I asked for an Americano and he got me a Iced Chai Tea Latte. I would have dick punched him, but the fucking tea drink was too good. I cursed him out in my head while he watched me drink it.
I am looking out the window watching as we approach the school when a hand hits mine. I look down to see Marcus curl his hand around mine. He gives it a gentle squeeze and I look up until our eyes lock. We just stare at each other; I’ve no idea what he’s thinking but he looks like he has so much to say. I guess neither of us know what is going on with us now. Weird right? How can you confess your love to someone but have no clue how to what? Date them? Fuck knows. I’m not exactly an expert on this kind of thing.
“Erm, I hate to break up the backseat party, but your other girlfriend is waiting, brother,” Jace cuts into our stare off with a chuckle.
Marcus and I break each other's gaze and look out of the front of the car to find Cherry waiting. Well, this should be interesting. I look to Marcus as he looks back at me.
“How are we playing this?” he asks, and I laugh.
“Erm, we aren’t playing anything, Caveman,” I reply with emphasis on the we. “You were the one who entertained Cherry, therefore that looks like a you problem to me,” I say, with a smug smile before exiting the car leaving Jace and Lincoln's laughs behind.
“Morning, Cherry,” I say, as I pass because now that I have Marcus, I realize my wanting to murder her was slightly over the top. I was hormonal, sue me.
“Morning, Elle,” she says with a smile and I almost feel guilty. Almost, then I remember the way she slammed her lips against Marcus’ on Friday, and it takes everything in me not to slam her into a wall. Not quite as bloody as stabbing her so I see that as progress. Personal growth.
I plonk myself on the wall of the steps and ready myself to watch the show. Jace and Lincoln pass Cherry and make their way to me as Marcus finally drags himself from the car. We can’t hear what he is saying to her, but he looks resigned and she starts gesturing wildly with her hands, getting the attention of a few other people passing by. The slap comes out of nowhere and honestly, I didn't know anyone would dare to hit Marcus, except for maybe me, but damn she did that.
“Damn,” Jace echoes my thoughts with a laugh, “And that is why I don’t do girlfriends,” he says, looking at me and taking in my bemused expression. “No offense, princess, but it’s just not worth the drama,” he adds with a shrug.
“None taken, pretty boy, but trust me when I say, the right person is worth everything,” I r
eply and then drop my head to his shoulder.
Marcus steps back up, “Tryna steal my girl again, Conrad?” he asks with a smirk.
Jace laughs, “If I wanted to steal her, I would,” he taunts with a challenging smirk, and before Marcus can reply he jumps off the wall and throws me over his shoulder and runs into the school. He doesn’t let me down until we get to my locker and when we lock eyes, we both laugh.
“Thank you for the ride, pretty boy,” I say with a wink and he laughs louder.
“It’s the only ride you’re getting,” he says with a smile, but I don’t get to ask what he means, as Marcus and Lincoln join us.
Marcus grabs me and pulls me to him, “Gonna need you to keep your hands off my girl, brother,” he says with a tone that is only half joking.
Jace smiles wider, “Hey, she is the one who kissed me,” he says innocently and gives me another wink as I roll my eyes.
“Do you honestly have a death wish, pretty boy?” I ask in exasperation.
“Nah, Marcus knows I’m only playing, he wouldn’t hurt me.”
I open my locker and grab the book I need for the first period and slam it shut before looking back at him, “Who says I was talking about Marcus?” I ask with a smile before I turn and walk to class.
By the time lunch rolls around the news of Marcus and I being a couple has reached the whole school and apparently there is a divide of Team Elle and Team Cherry. Fucking stupid school politics.
We sit at our usual table only this week. I am sitting next to Marcus with his arm draped around me. He hasn’t stopped finding ways to touch me all day and with my newfound libido, I wish I could say that some of those touches were inappropriate. Except no, for some reason Marcus has decided our relationship is strictly PG-13. He hasn’t given me more than a peck on the lips and after what we did in the alley on Friday, it is safe to say I am wanting, no needing more.
“Fuck happened to McCormick?” Marcus' voice brings me back from my thoughts and I look up to see that Chad has finally come back to school. My heeled boot didn’t do enough damage in my humble opinion but the limp he is still sporting, satisfies me anyway.