Cruel

by Raven Kennedy

  We stayed like that, his body poised over mine, and me unable to break free. Nothing but rapid breaths, unblinking eyes, and licking lips were between us. As I watched him watching me, I wondered why I felt no fear, despite what I’d just seen. And maybe I was fucked up, but I shifted my thighs open ever so slightly, just to test if he was, in fact, as turned on as I was. I felt his hardened length, and an electric jolt of desire shot straight through me. We were both twisted fucks.

  When I moved again, Rogue groaned, the low timber vibrating against my chest. He pinned me down even harder, his hands on me, forcing me still.

  “You better keep quiet about what you saw, Scar,” he ordered, his voice unyielding. “I’ll kill you just like I killed him, you hear me? I won’t think twice about it.”

  There was less venom in his voice than before, and despite this confusing interaction, his words were a harsh reminder of why I was running in the first place. I bucked beneath him, dying to break free, but loving the friction of my movements, too.

  “You killed a man,” I whispered, mostly out of shock, like saying it outloud made it more real somehow. “You killed him, and you didn’t even hesitate. What’s wrong with you?”

  My judgmental words instantly made the hatred reappear in his eyes. “Shut up!” he roared, before moving one of the hands to wrap around my neck. He squeezed just enough to tease between the line of suffocation and carnal bliss. I moaned as a sticky substance coated my skin and traveled down my chest. When I glanced down, I realized it was the dead man’s blood.

  I gave Rogue a challenging stare before swallowing my fear. “Make me,” I said huskily.

  He blinked at me, like he couldn’t believe those words has just left my lips. “You want me to make you, Scar?” he asked, his voice like a growl.

  I stared at him, trying to gauge his expression, feeling the damp earth soak into my nearly naked back and ass. He was so much harsher out here, in the dark night. The sharp angles of his face made him seem even more sinister, but it filled me with a thrill of anticipation.

  “You think I’m afraid of you, and you’re right. But you’re wrong about why,” I retorted, proud that my voice sounded so steady. “So go ahead and make your threats, Rogue. And then get the fuck off me.”

  I watched as a slow smile spread across his face, his bright teeth nearly glowing in the dark. “Then you’re stupider than I thought. Because you should be scared of me for every reason.”

  His hand on my neck tightened, effectively cutting off air to my windpipe. A small sound of protest managed to escape me, but that was it. My hands clawed at his hold, but he just laughed at how easily beaten I was. The box I was keeping my emotions in was starting to burst, and a deep-set fear was quickly taking over me. Rogue Kelly killed a man, what the fuck was I doing? Why did I want this?

  I wouldn’t be beaten. I refused. I could have let him terrify me, break me like he broke that man, but it seemed like no matter what Rogue did to me, I kept coming back for more. So instead of going on the defensive, I dropped my hands to his hips, letting my fingers curl under the waistband of his jeans and boxers. At the same time, I jutted my own hips up again, grinding myself against him.

  My movement completely took him off guard, and just as my vision was starting to dot, he released the pressure around my neck, and I took in a rasping breath. But I didn’t stop what I’d started. There was no stopping now.

  I looked up at him as my fingers pressed against the rigid muscles of his stomach. He was completely hard now, much harder than before. The erratic pulse at his neck looked like a ticking bomb. All I wanted to do was set him off. I wanted us both to explode.

  His breath caught when my hand dipped lower, over his jeans to let the heel of my palm rub down his length. He swallowed hard, his eyes unblinking as he watched me with an expression I couldn’t read.

  “You’re gonna end up dead,” he said, his tone flat.

  I shrugged a shoulder. “We all do.”

  I barely had out the last word before his lips crashed down to mine. He squeezed my neck and jaw, completely controlling my angle and movements. His teeth came down over my bottom lip, instantly splitting open the cut that I’d gotten from Stephanie. But I didn’t care. The pressure of his hand, the painful bite, the hard jut of his hips digging into me, the feel of his length against my hand—I loved it all.

  And then, just like that, he pulled away.

  Chapter Ten

  I was fucked up.

  Not just the slight unhinging a person got on occasion. No, I was twisted. Completely and totally corrupted. I didn’t even know where to start. I should have been running for the police, but instead, I stood in a field and watched them dispose a body on the Kelly’s private lake. I wasn’t even scared. I was fascinated. Utterly captivated at this new side of the Heirs that I’d never seen before, despite being their best friend for over a decade. I couldn’t help but wonder what other shadows they’d hidden from me. I never imagined that they would be capable of this.

  I watched Bonham and Luis toss the bulky, bloodied sheets wrapped around the dead man into the water. He landed with a splash, and then effectively sank to the bottom, thanks to the bricks tied with rope around his body.

  I should have been planning my escape. I might have been able to outrun them, or maybe even scream. It was strange to think that while the students of Smith Academy got drunk at Rogue’s house, we were just on the outskirts of his property, covering up a murder. I wrapped my arms around my middle to fend off the chill in the air as I watched them. Despite everything, all I could think of was how it felt like I belonged again. Like I was in their group once more. And it felt good.

  Yep. I was definitely fucked up.

  I shivered, the movement drawing Rogue’s attention. He then stripped out of his shirt and tossed it at me. “Put it on.”

  I watched with hungry eyes as he ran a hand over his abs and averted his gaze. All I could think of was how his legs had dug into mine when he’d held me down. I wanted him to do it again. I wanted to be held at his mercy and give in to my darkest desires.

  “The party’s our alibi,” Rogue added with a frown before cracking his knuckles.

  I went to put the soft cotton shirt on when I realized it was covered in splatters of blood. I could smell the death clinging to the fabric as I shoved my arms through the sleeves.

  He hadn’t once spoken to me since his cruel kiss in the woods. He just ordered me to come with him. I watched as Luis washed the blood off his hands in the lake. We used to skinny dip under the moon in this very lake. I wondered if this was the first body they’d dumped here.

  I’d never swim here again.

  “Are we sure this will work?”

  “You know how my father likes to fish,” Rogue said, his tone dark as he stared out over the water. “He just stocked this thing full of catfish. I bet they’re picking bones by morning.” I swallowed at the visual as another shiver traveled up my spine.

  “Surprised you haven’t tried running again,” Luis said, drawing my attention away from my visions of floating corpses and bloodthirsty fish. He pulled at the elastic of his waistband and spun around before stripping out of his bloodied shirt.

  I trailed my eyes down his muscular back, freezing at the swipe of blood on his hip.

  “You’ve got blood on you,” I said, earning a growl from Rogue.

  “Don’t say another fucking word,” Rogue spat, as Bonham rolled up his sleeves, showing off the Rolex watch on his wrist.

  I crossed my arms with irritation. “Fine, then I won’t tell you that Godfrey swiped dead man’s wallet.”

  Rogue’s head snapped to his friend, and Godfrey shot me a glare. “Fucking narc.”

  I shrugged, unable to keep the self-satisfied smirk off my face.

  “Hand it over,” Rogue ordered, his hand outstretched.

  Godfrey grumbled something under his breath and tossed it to him.

  Bonham and Luis shook their heads at him. “What?” he
asked defensively.

  “You know what, idiot,” Luis said with a roll of his eyes. “You can’t take a fucking trophy back.”

  Godfrey didn’t even look remotely contrite. He was just too damn curious about people. Even dead ones, it seemed.

  “Why don’t you make yourself useful and call…” Rogue began before looking at me. “...him.”

  Him? Who was him?

  “No. Absolutely not,” Godfrey answered with a scowl. I watched their secretive back and forth in rapt attention, hanging on to every word while clinging for clues as to what the fuck was going on.

  “He was going to figure out eventually. At least this way we can use his connections to get us out of this mess. I know you’d rather not, but we don’t really have a choice,” Rogue interrupted with a frown. “Do it as soon as we figure out what we’re doing with her. We’ll go with you so he doesn’t try anything stupid.”

  “Fine,” Godfrey growled.

  Bonham looked over at me, making me tense. “What the fuck are we going to do with you?”

  I kept my mouth shut, not sure how to answer him. I didn’t want to give the Heirs any ideas and end up with that guy at the bottom of the lake. Silence was smart.

  Rogue sighed in irritation, drawing my attention away from Godfrey and back to him. “Leave it to me.”

  “Yeah, yeah. We know the drill where she’s concerned,” Godfrey said bitterly.

  What the hell did that mean? Was Rogue responsible for them hating me? Was he calling the shots? I’d always known that he was like a puppeteer, manipulating the world and clutching it in his fist.

  I was shaking from the cold, and my sticky skin was covered in goosebumps. It was late. I’m sure my mama was blowing up my phone by now, but Rogue had taken my clutch with my cellphone inside, so I had no idea exactly what time it was.

  “The car here?” Rogue asked.

  Bonham looked down at his cell, the screen lighting his face up into an eerie blue. “Yeah, I had the driver leave it for us.”

  Of course, my own driver was long gone by now, thanks to Rogue calling him from my phone and cancelling.

  Rogue checked the area one last time, making sure nothing else was left and that there was no trace that anything had happened there.

  “Let’s go.”

  None of them looked at me, but when they passed by, Rogue patted his leg at me in a, “come here” motion like I was a damn dog ordered to follow him.

  Clenching my teeth, I followed behind them, all the way past their property line, where a dark SUV was waiting with its lights off.

  Rogue climbed in the driver’s seat, Bonham sat shotgun, and Luis and Godfrey got into the back. None of them waited for me, and they all slammed the car doors shut, making me stop short, staring in confusion.

  Then the trunk lifted, making me grind my teeth together even harder. “Fucking assholes,” I muttered under my breath. With absolutely zero dignity, I climbed my trembling ass into the back of the SUV. The trunk automatically shut behind me, and then Rogue sped off, slamming my head against the back window.

  “Think you can take it easy?” I snapped.

  Godfrey turned around, eyeing me. “Typically, when fleeing a murder scene, the getaway car doesn’t take it easy,” he said mockingly.

  I pulled the hem of the shirt down over my thighs, feeling cold and barely covered. Rogue’s shirt swallowed me, but the thin material did nothing to fight the fall chill, even in the car. I kept stealing looks at Rogue’s profile, a hundred questions roiling around in the pit of my stomach.

  When Godfrey saw the expression on my face, he grinned. “Oh, I bet the curiosity is just killing you.”

  It was, but I didn’t like giving Godfrey Taylor the satisfaction of falling into his traps, so instead of asking about the murdered man whose body we just disposed of, I asked something else.

  “Where are we going?”

  “My new place downtown. Maria bought me a nice pad over one of the nightclubs that she owns as an early graduation gift,” Luis answered with a cocky smirk, but I saw the playful way he was evading the true story. Luis called his mama by her first name to let her know just what he thought of her abilities as a mother. I knew him well enough to know that Maria Salvador only bought him expensive gifts after she disappointed him, and her disappointments usually came at the end of a line of cocaine. But I refused to feel sorry for him. This wasn’t like old times.

  “You can just take me home,” I offered.

  At that, Bonham started laughing hysterically, bending over in his seat like what I said was hysterical. He looked back at me with a disdainful curl of his lip. “You actually think we’re gonna let you out of our sight? You look like a snitch. Smell like a snitch. And until we can figure out how to keep you quiet, you’re stuck with us.”

  I smiled to myself. They wouldn’t be keeping me anywhere. Mama was determined to send me away to the boarding school overseas, and they couldn’t just kill me. That man might have been a stranger, but people saw me at the party, they saw them torture me. If I went missing, people would talk. I just had to survive until Monday. “Is this the part where you kill me in a field somewhere? Do I get any last wishes?”

  Rogue turned around in his seat and glared at me. “Stop talking. You don’t get to call the shots, Scar, and this definitely isn’t something to joke about. Keep those pretty lips of yours closed, and maybe you’ll survive tonight. Don’t think this changes anything. You’re still a fucking nobody.”

  That’s what they all kept saying, right? But something about the dead man’s last words still had me confused. “I think you care,” I mumbled under my breath, making Godfrey look over at me. He was wearing that cynical smile I’d come to expect from him. He’d always let it crack his lips when he was certain he figured someone out.

  “Aww. Look at her,” he began, while resting his bare arm on the headrest. “See that right there?” He pointed at my eyes, keeping the padding of his finger just millimeters from my eyeball. “She’s still got hope. Pathetic.”

  I scowled at him as Luis turned to check what Godfrey was talking about. I hated how easily they could read me. I was like an open book, except they were writing the story, and the story fucking sucked.

  Chapter Eleven

  Rogue pulled the car to a stop at the back of a building, and Luis got out, instructing us to stay in the car while he grabbed some clothes.

  Drunk girls walked by on wobbly heels and music thumped in the air from the club. Luis passed the front of the headlights of our SUV, waving and smiling at them, not at all phased by what we’d just done. The drunk chicks giggled, watching as he strutted around the building to head for the stairs at the back.

  “Dumbass,” Bonham murmured under his breath. “Always has to show off.”

  Out of all the Heirs, Bonham Brodie was the preppiest of the group. It was funny how innocent his dimpled chin and blonde hair made him look, considering I’d just watched him toss a body into a lake.

  I watched his profile, noticing the hickey on the left side of his neck. Like the others, it seemed like he sampled a new flavor of girl every week. I listened to the stories whispered in the halls and giggled in the locker room. It was rumored that they had a propensity for trading. When they were tired of a girl, they passed her down the line, and she usually went along with it. There was an entire following of Heir Chasers at our school.

  Luis was usually the easiest. He was always up for anything—he being his dick. The pickiest was Rogue by far. But if a girl got to bag all four, she crowned herself “Heir Shared.” There was even a hashtag for it on social media. There would usually be a skanky photo of the chick with one or more of the guys, beaming with pride at her, I’ve been #HeirShared tagline.

  Lost in my thoughts, I was yanked back to the present situation when the door was flung open and Luis climbed in. He had changed out of his bloodied clothes into some jeans and a band tee. “Brought you some clothes. Can’t have y'all walking through the club covered
in blood and mud.” He tossed clothes at the others and shut the door after himself.

  The guys started pulling on shirts and jeans, and I kept my eyes on the ceiling, determined not to sneak a peek at their delicious bodies, even though the temptation was there. I was starting to remind myself of those women that write letters to the serial killers in prison. What the fuck was wrong with me? I fidgeted in the back, not wanting to ask for an outfit, but growing angrier by the second. Would they make me sit in this man’s blood?

  Finally, I broke. “Hello? Can I get some clothes?”

  Luis turned back and flashed me a grin. “Sorry, Babe. Fresh out.”

  “Fuck you, Luis. Give me a new shirt at least. This one has blood on it.”

  He held up his hand and I could see extra clothes clutched in his grip, and my eyes narrowed. “What’ll you give me for it?” he taunted.

  I curled my hands into fists, and my knuckles gave a twinge of pain from when I’d punched Stephanie earlier. Luis always liked to taunt and tease. Everything was always a game to him. I used to think it was funny, but that was because I was never the butt of his jokes.

  Refusing to let him see me sweat, I removed Rogue’s shirt in a teasingly slow motion then leaned forward, resting against the back of his seat with my elbows bent on either side of his head. “What do you want?” I asked, keeping my voice purposely low and husky. It was something I never would have done before. I’d always been the good girl. The innocent one. But they ruined me for that. They rained down cruelty, and I soaked it all up.

  Luis turned all the way around, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement. He liked that I was playing with him. The circumstances were odd, but I was like an addict. I’d take what I could.