Cruel

by Raven Kennedy

  “You need help looking?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “I’ll find her.”

  Clay looked like he wanted to argue, but I just turned and walked out.

  I would find her. I wasn’t about to let Clayton fucking Hammond swoop in like some shitty hero. If anyone was gonna rescue her, it was gonna be me. But I hoped like fuck that she didn’t need rescuing. Except every minute that passed that I didn’t hear from her or find her, it was more likely that Johnny Jack’s guys had somehow figured something out.

  Back in my car, Bonham stayed in constant contact with Luis, but Scarlett wasn’t at any of the spots they checked either. The four of us swept over nearly the entire town. The library, the cafes, the historic district, the movie theater, every fucking place we could think of that she’d ever hung out. She was nowhere. Her driver was still stationed at the dance school, but her appointment had come and gone, and she was a no-show. Another one of my contacts had said that she still hadn’t gone home, and another guy did a sweep of the school just in case, but she wasn’t there.

  Real panic started to set in.

  And then my phone buzzed.

  I pulled it out, fucking hoping that it would be her and it was—but not in the way I expected. When I swiped the screen to open the text message, my blood turned cold.

  It was a photo of her, sent by an unknown number. I could tell by the background that she was at the train tracks. There was a time stamp on it from hours earlier, right after last period ended.

  I hadn’t even realized that I’d slammed on my brakes, totally stopping traffic, until Bonham nudged me. “Dude. Gimme the phone and drive the fucking car before someone smashes into us.”

  Jolting my head up, I pushed the phone into his chest, flung out my middle finger to everyone honking at me, and sped off.

  “Fuck.” Bonham’s voice was strained and full of panic. I could see him zooming in on the photo to get closer to her face, and for some reason, I wanted to snatch the phone from him, but I kept myself in check.

  “Did they take her?” he asked, his eyes still on the screen.

  I ground my teeth together. “Sure as fuck looks like it.”

  “Fuck!” He punched a fist into my dashboard, so hard that I’m surprised he didn’t make the airbag engage.

  The next second, he was forwarding the photo to the other guys. His phone immediately started ringing, and I could hear Godfrey yelling on the other line.

  “Tell them to meet at my place. We’ll grab some shit and go find Johnny Jack’s guys.”

  Bonham relayed the information, all three of them knowing full well what I meant. My dad had a room dedicated to weapons, and we’d be dipping into his stash before we ventured into Macon Mob territory. If they had her, I wasn’t willing to wait, and I wasn’t stupid enough to go in unarmed.

  I pulled up to my house in record time, just as Godfrey and Luis sped in behind me. We parked haphazardly, and then we were rushing toward the door.

  I grabbed my keyring and tossed it to Luis so that he’d be able to unlock the weapons room and the safes. “Suit up. I’m gonna grab us a change of clothes.”

  We sure as fuck couldn’t storm into a crime lord’s house dressed in our prep school outfits.

  The three of them rushed toward the back of the house for the stairs to the basement, while I went upstairs, taking the steps two at a time.

  When I got to my bedroom, I flung open the door and immediately moved to the closet. Grabbing a duffel, I started shoving hoodies and jeans into the bag. Good enough.

  Coming back out of the closet, I looked around for anything else we might need, but I stopped short.

  I blinked, not sure if what I was seeing was real.

  “Scarlett?”

  My tone came out manic and furious, but she didn’t wake up. Relief and anger poured through me.

  There she was, sleeping on my bed, with her fucking pleated uniform skirt riding up and showing off the curve of her ass. Her tights were discarded, laying in a pile on the floor along with her shoes. Beneath her skirt, she was wearing cherry red silk panties that barely covered her, and her white polo shirt had ridden up, showing off her stomach. My dick instantly hardened.

  She was curled onto her side, her hands under her head, and breathing steadily like she didn’t have a care in the world. I considered shooting off a text to the guys to let them know I’d found her, but instead, I found myself closing the bedroom door and flipping the lock. I stalked over to the side of the bed, and then I stood over her, watching her sleep like a creepy asshole. I couldn’t help it. She looked like some fucking wet dream school-girl fantasy.

  Johnny Jack’s men didn’t have her, but something had gone down at the tracks. Something bad, and what had she done? She’d come here. To my house. To my room and in my bed. She felt safe enough here to lay down and fall asleep. For some reason, that made me feel prideful as fuck.

  I sat down, making the bed dip and her body shift against my leg. I lifted her skirt to better see her panties, nearly groaning at the sight. Her ass looked good.

  I wanted to fuck her again. Right here, right now. I could see with my eyes that she was here and safe, but I needed to feel her.

  I dragged the zipper down my pants and pulled my dick out, fisting it in my hand as I dropped to my knees. Pulling her panties to the side, I wasted no time, and buried my face between her legs.

  The second my tongue licked up her pretty slit, and my mouth latched onto her clit, she jumped, and a sleepy moan escaped her. She wriggled around, but I kept my hands locked around her hips, holding her in place.

  “Rogue? What are you—Oh, God!”

  I sucked again, shoving her legs open further so that I could get more of her. My saliva and her own arousal left a wet spot on her panties, and when her legs started to shake with pleasure, I stood up and grabbed a condom from my nightstand. I didn’t want her to come yet. If she was gonna come, I wanted to feel her pussy squeeze my dick.

  She was still sleepy, so she didn’t move, but I earned a groan of protest for stopping. I just smirked and rolled the condom on. Then I lifted her onto her hands and knees, and drove my cock into her, right as I smacked my hand against her ass.

  “Oh my fuck!” she called out, right before moaning my name. If it was possible, my cock got even harder.

  She fell forward onto the mattress from the force of my thrust, so I grabbed her and pulled her up, keeping my forearm across her chest as I held her against me. “Fuck, Rogue,” she said over and over again.

  I bit her neck hard, making her whimper, and then pressed my mouth against her ear. “You fucking left and scared the shit out of me,” I snarled.

  “I—I—Shit I’m gonna come,” she panted.

  I pushed her back down, making her land on her hands again, and smacked her ass again. A nice red mark bloomed on her cheek, and she moaned.

  “You like that, Scar? You like it when I spank your ass?”

  “Yes!”

  She couldn’t contain her moans as I kept fucking her, and pretty soon, she was begging and pleading for me to bring her the pleasure that she was so wild for.

  I snatched her hair and held it firmly in my fist, making her arch her back. “Don’t ever leave me like that again,” I growled.

  She whimpered, and I could feel her pussy tightening around me, so I spanked her again. Then I reached my hand around and played with her clit, and she came, screaming out my name as her hot cunt squeezed my cock like a fucking vise. One more pump, and I exploded into her, feeling like all my tension shot out with my cum.

  Scarlett went lax beneath me, so as soon as I recovered, I slipped out of her and went to the bathroom to throw away the condom. After cleaning myself off, I came back and slipped off her panties that had ended up around her ankles, and stuffed them into my pocket as I did up my jeans.

  “Give me those!” she hissed, trying to reach my pocket, but I smacked her hand away.

  “Nope.”

  She stood
up and attempted to straighten her clothes, her cheeks adorably pink with irritation, pleasure, and embarrassment.

  Just as I opened my mouth to ask what the fuck had happened, Luis shouted. “Yo! Rogue! Let’s fucking roll!”

  Scarlett jumped, her small hands latching around my bicep. I looked down at her, and my mood darkened once more, because that was fear in her eyes now, and I know who’d put it there. “It’s just the guys. You’re okay,” I told her.

  She tried to play it off with a nervous laugh, but she wouldn’t look at me.

  I moved to the door, unlocking it and throwing it open. “Come up here,” I hollered.

  Three pairs of feet came hurrying up the stairs, and then they appeared in my doorway. They halted, blinking at Scarlett, their expressions ranging from confusion, relief, and irritation.

  “What the fuck?” Godfrey broke the silence first. “What are you doing here?”

  Scarlett crossed her arms, fire instantly filling her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but Luis interrupted.

  “Why the fuck does it look and smell like you guys just fucked in here?”

  The guys pinned me with glares. I just shrugged.

  Godfrey turned his angry eyes to Scarlett. “Why’d you leave school early?”

  “I can ditch if I want,” she snapped back.

  “No. You can’t,” I said, stepping back into her space. She raised her chin at me, refusing to cower, and my dick started growing hard again. “Tell us what the fuck happened at the tracks.”

  Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second before she quickly schooled her face. But it was too late. Even if I hadn’t seen the photo, I would’ve known something had happened. Her face was too expressive to hide much.

  When she tried to look down, I dug out my cell and showed her the photo. Her face drained of color, and she unconsciously moved closer to me. That move, right there, it did something to me. I can’t explain what it felt like for her to step nearer to me when she felt scared, but my chest tightened.

  “What did he say to you?” I asked.

  She swallowed. “Nothing much. Just that he wanted to see me…”

  “See you why?”

  Her tongue darted out to lick her lips, and her brown eyes flicked up to mine. “He said he wanted to see me because he wanted to know what had you all out of sorts,” she said, looking past me to gauge the others’ expressions. “He said he wanted to see the reason for you killing his man. And he said...”

  “What did he say, Scar?” Bonham gently prodded.

  “He said Johnny Jack knows what you took from him.”

  Fuck.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  My encounter with Dean O’Banion at the train tracks had me more shaken than I cared to admit. And even though the guys tried to keep their expressionless masks in place, I could tell that my words affected them. The tension in the room was thicker than Savannah humidity in July.

  I crossed my arms and steeled my spine. “I want to know everything.”

  “No,” Rogue said, not surprising me in the least. I didn’t expect any of them to make this easy on me.

  “Yes,” I retorted. “As of this moment, I’m done. I don’t take kindly to being followed by creeps who give me weird, threatening messages, and I have a right to know what’s going on. Either you tell me what the hell is happening, or I walk.” I was bluffing. We all knew it. But I kept my voice stern as I scowled in Rogue’s direction.

  Rogue’s face darkened. “You don’t get to walk, Livingston. You do whatever the fuck I tell you to do.”

  Hah. Fat chance.

  “I will,” I said simply. “If you tell me what’s really going on.” My answer must have surprised him and the others, because their demeanor immediately changed. “Tell me the truth. Is this why you guys threw me away last year?”

  I watched for their tells. I got all four.

  Rogue’s fists flexed. Godfrey’s lips thinned. Luis's eyes narrowed. And Bonham shuffled on his feet. I’d known them too long to not notice. Those fucking bastards.

  I nodded and laughed humorlessly, running shaky hands through my sex hair while thinking over the last few months. Of course they were pushing me away out of some fucked up sense of macho protective bullshit. For some reason, I felt like I wanted to cry. “I knew it,” I said, more to myself than to them. I’d been clinging to hope, and for the first time since they’d cut me off, it felt like I could breathe again. It was a harsh breath, but a steadying one all the same. But then that sense of relief twisted into fury. How dare they?

  For some reason, knowing that the guys had turned against me, had made me a maggot at school, all for some noble reason, filled me with wrath.

  “You should have told me.” I said to the floor. I could feel my face heat. We told each other everything. Hell, when I got my first period, Mama was out of town so it was Bonham who had to pick me up pads. We didn’t have fucking secrets.

  “What?” Bonham asked, my voice too low for them to have heard.

  My head shot up, and when they saw the fury in my expression, they visibly stiffened. “You should have fucking told me!”

  Rogue went to step toward me, but I held my hands up to stop him. “Don’t you dare touch me.” My tone must have startled him, because he stopped in his tracks. “You made me feel like shit every single day. You hurt me. All four of you,” I admitted, looking over at them. “You tormented me. You let me get beat up and bullied every single day.” What could have possibly been worse than that? The black eyes. The ruined reputation. The name calling. The loneliness.

  I was shaking. I was fuming. When I remembered all the tears, confusion, heartache, and hurt I’d experience these past several months, something in me snapped. For the second time today, I raised my hand and slapped an Heir. This time, my hand stung against Rogue’s cheek.

  “I loved all of you, and you pretended to hate me,” I said, hating it when I felt a hot tear cut into my cheek. My hand stung from the force of my hit. I stared at Rogue as his eyes flared with anger, shock, and a bit of lust.

  “We had to,” Bonham said quietly.

  Bullshit. There was always a way. They were just too simple minded to come up with something. I was half tempted to slap Rogue again, the only thing stopping me was knowing that he’d probably enjoy it.

  “Fuck you,” I snapped. “You didn’t have to do anything. You’re The goddamn Heirs. You could’ve told me.”

  “No, we fucking couldn’t,” Rogue snapped.

  I couldn’t even look at him. I breathed in again, this time hating how I smelled like sex and Rogue Kelly’s cologne.

  “Scar, he’s telling the truth,” Godfrey said, surprisingly sober.

  “Then tell me why.”

  “You don’t want to know,” Rogue gritted out.

  “Screw you, Rogue Kelly. You don’t get to tell me what I do and don’t want to know. It was us against the world. Always. I want to know why you threw that away. I want to know what you didn’t trust me with.”

  “If we tell you, you’ll hate us,” Rogue said, sounding pained and out of character, but I was too mad to let it soften me.

  “I hate you now,” I retorted.

  Luis shook his head. “No you don’t, Scar. But you will.” He looked at the others before settling on Rogue. “Tell her.”

  “No,” Rogue growled. “It’s not safe.”

  “Then I’m done,” I reminded him. “You let me walk out that door, and I will never speak to you again. Ever. I’ll convince my mama to send me away, and I’ll forget any of you ever existed.”

  Rogue was on me in a second. His hands grasped my arms, hard enough to bruise. “You’re not leaving me.” He sounded desperate and addicting. Watching him cling to me like that had me ready to fight even more.

  Prove it Rogue, prove how far you’re willing to go to keep me.

  I glared up at him. “Try me.”

  We stared at one another for a moment, and I watched his eyes for signs that he
’d made a decision. I saw each emotion flicker across his features. The anger, the frustration, the… hopelessness. I knew the moment he’d decided, and the vise around my heart loosed a tiny bit.

  “Sit down. It’s a long story.”

  For a moment, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. Was he actually going to tell me? I quickly scrambled away as he released my arm, then went to sit on the bed that we’d just fucked on. His eyes heated when I crossed my legs so that I didn’t flash anybody since he still had my panties. Twisted asshole.

  “Stop giving her bedroom eyes and spit it out,” Luis said with a chuckle before pulling up Rogue’s desk chair and straddling it, resting his arms on the back.

  “You know Mr. Taylor’s clients, right? I mean, your father works with him, so I’m sure you’re aware that they aren’t the best people,” Rogue said, and my eyes sliced to Godfrey. He was staring at the ground, but he had his hands balled into fists at his sides. I ran over my memory, thinking about everything I’d ever learned about the Taylor’s law firm. I remembered that client list Daddy was looking for the other day with Johnny Jack’s name on it.

  “Yeah, I know Godfrey’s father’s clients. Everyone knows his clients. He makes it so that guilty criminals walk.” It was an oversimplification, but efficiently got the point across.

  “And how do you think he does that?” Rogue asked. I looked up at the ceiling while crossing my arms over my chest, trying to think of all that I’d learned from eavesdropping on Daddy. “He pays off judges. Finds loopholes. The usual shady lawyer shit?”

  “Sure, sometimes. But you ever wonder how evidence always just… disappears? Or loses its validity?” Rogue countered.

  “Well, yeah, but it’s not like I’m privy to that sort of insider information. Daddy still thinks I play with dolls. He’s not going to be sharing that information any time soon.” I rolled my eyes to emphasize how annoyingly sexist I found him to be.

  “Well,” Rogue began, looking at the others. “We...make the evidence disappear.”

  I blinked in disbelief. “You…wait. What?”