by Mae Doyle
“Yeah, he’s the reason we moved here. My mom met him online and they got married.” She shrugs a little and I wait for her to continue.
“But…?” I prompt, when she doesn’t keep talking.
“But he’s kind of an asshole.” She drops her eyes and kicks her toe into the floor a little.
“Kind of? Listen, Elle, I know assholes.” I am an asshole. “Does he hurt you?”
Too far. I pushed her too far and now she’s not going to tell me anything, but that was my fault.
The spark in her eyes that sets her apart from everyone else at Kennedy Academy is suddenly back and she yanks her hand from mine. “Please. Like you care. Thanks for keeping him away from me, but I know that you don’t really care about me, Clay.”
She whirls around and I catch a scent of her perfume. It’s light and airy, nothing like the whirlwind of anger that’s walking away from me now.
“Wait, Elle.” I catch up with her and take her by the arm so that she has to turn and look at me. She’s practically vibrating with anger. I can feel the heat of her skin through her shirt and it goes to my head.
What the fuck. The kitten was not supposed to make me feel dizzy.
“You don’t give a shit, Clay. You want to destroy me, so why do you care if it happens at school at your hands or if Ted does it at home? Just leave me alone. I’ll find my own way home, but there’s no way in hell I’m going anywhere with you.” Another hard yank and she pulls free from my grasp.
She’s heading down to the band room where everyone else is. If she makes it there then I won’t be able to get her on my own to talk to her.
This time I’m not going to let her go. I run up behind her and spin her so that her back slams into the wall. Her violin and bow clatter to the ground, and she bends to pick them up, but I stop her.
“Listen, kitten. I do want to destroy you. I hate that you came to my school and that you have the face of my dead girlfriend. There’s no way that you and I can both be here, do you understand me?”
She squirms under my grasp but I have her too tightly pinned to the wall for her to be able to actually get away. My cock twitches in my pants as she twists and I lean forward, pinning her in place with my hips.
“But that doesn’t mean that I want someone at your house to destroy you. Ted looks like a fucking psychopath, am I right?”
“It takes one to know one, asshole. You weirded out because looking at Ted was like looking in a mirror? You see who you’re going to become when you’re older?” She practically spits the words at me.
“When I’m older? There’s no way in hell I’m going to become that creep, kitten. A prince like me can’t fall that far. You still don’t know who you’re messing with, do you?”
“You think I’m messing with you? All I did was move here and come to your stupid school! I don’t want to be here. Let me go.” She pushes back against me but I lean forward, pinning her tighter in place. Her violin clatters from her hand and slides across the floor, but I don’t move.
Elle gasps and tries to pull away to get it, but I pin her tighter against the wall. It’s a fucking instrument. She can deal with it later.
After I’ve dealt with her.
I love the way her body feels struggling under mine. She can fight and twist all she wants, but I’m not going to let her go.
“Messing with my head, you fucking bitch,” I tell her, leaning in and hissing through my teeth. “You mess with my head and I fucking hate you for it.”
“You hate me? That’s why you can’t keep your hands off of me, right? That’s why you just want to keep pressing your cock into me? Because you hate me? You’re a fucking psycho, Clay.” Her face is red and her eyes are wide. The anger coursing through her is practically palpable, but I still don’t release her.
If anything, I dig my fingers deeper into her arm and hold her tighter in place.
“Please, Elle. If I wanted to, I’d bury my cock in you right now. You wouldn’t cry out for help because you’d be so busy screaming my name.” To prove my point, I force her legs apart with my knee then lightly trace her neck with the tip of my tongue.
“Fuck. You.”
“You want to? I told you last time not to make an offer that you weren’t willing to go through with, Elle.” Leaning forward, I kiss her, forcing her mouth open and allowing my tongue to lazily drag through her. She squirms against me but can’t push me off.
God, she tastes good. I hate to admit that I like kissing this fucking kitten, but there’s something about her that I can’t seem to get enough of. And the way she squirms against me? I love that. Her little body feels great pressed up against mine.
Finally, I pull back, catching my breath. Fuck, I can run the football field all day long but kissing Elle makes me short of breath. It doesn’t make any fucking sense.
“Got what you wanted?” She turns her face so that I can’t kiss her again, looking down the hall. She’s completely stopped struggling and is just…waiting. I’d feel bad for her if I didn’t hate her so much.
“Not yet, but I will.” Releasing her, I step back and trip on something on the floor.
Fuck, my arms pinwheel out from my body as I try to keep my balance but I can’t keep my feet under me and I fall back. Unable to catch myself, I land with a sickening thud on something on the floor.
It shatters under me and I feel bits of wire and metal digging into my back.
“My violin!” Elle screeches and runs to me, crouching and trying to pull me off of her instrument.
I want to tell her that it’s in vain and that the damn thing is broken, but she’s sobbing now, tears dripping down her cheeks and off her chin. “Move! Move! You’re going to hurt it.”
Rolling over, I reveal the bits of her violin. It’s crushed completely flat, bits of wire sticking out and the wood shattered. She gasps and puts one hand over her mouth, rocking back on her heels in silence.
“That sucks. You like that violin, huh, kitten?” I stand up and kick at the bits of wood, but she doesn’t move.
I should feel better about this. I finally found a way to break my little kitten and teach her a lesson, but something’s not right.
“Get up, Elle. It’s just a stupid instrument.” I reach down for her hand to pull her up, but she doesn’t move. Rolling my eyes, I bend over and pull her up under her armpits. She wavers for a moment before she finds her feet.
“You broke it.” Her words are so low and quiet that I think for a moment I misheard her, but then I see the look on her face. She’s pissed. More pissed than when I pinned her up in the locker room. Angrier than when I tackled her outside in the grass.
“It’s a stupid violin.” I nudge the bits of broken wood with my toe and then give it a kick, sending a piece spinning down the hall.
“It was not.” Elle’s breathing hard and her hands are fists held at her sides.
Do it. Hit me. I want her to hit me. I want to have another reason to take her out and ruin her.
“Sure it was. You’ll get another. And that’ll teach you not to be such a bitch.” I expected that to get a rise out of her, but she still doesn’t move. Her eyes are locked on the bits of the broken instrument. The borrowed bow is a few feet away, completely unharmed.
Walking over to it, I grab it off of the floor and toss it to her. Instinctively, she reaches out and catches it. “Your bow is fine.”
“My bow is cut. Mrs. Ward’s bow is fine.”
I could handle a little attitude, but now Elle’s getting out of control. “Cut the shit, Elle. You broke your violin. I’m sure that it happens all the time to people, and besides, you have worse things to worry about.”
“Like what?” She finally meets my eyes, her gaze dark.
Ted. “Me.”
“I hate you.”
There. There it is. Finally, I get an emotion from her that I can work with. If she doesn’t hate me then I don’t know what the fuck to do with her.
I want her to hate me. I want her to
be afraid of me. Because if not…then I have to figure out how I feel about her after meeting Ted, and I don’t know that I can do that.
Chapter 12
Elle
My footsteps echo in the hall as I stalk to the band room, leaving Clay behind. I don’t want to look at him. I don’t want to be anywhere near him. I hate him.
I hate him.
Not only for what he’s doing to me, but because he broke my violin. Because I think that he knows that something’s wrong with Ted. I just want to get out of here.
I need to free myself from him and everything that he stands for, but that’s damn near impossible when I’m still at Kennedy Academy.
I take a moment to breathe and try to clear my thoughts before walking into the band room. Inside, I can hear all of the other strings players celebrating how well we sounded.
We did sound great. We sounded incredible, actually, and it felt so good to be a part of a group.
My hand rests on the cool doorknob and I think about what it will be like to go in and hand Mrs. Ward her bow. I have no instrument any longer, and I’m crazy if I think that Ted is going to buy me a new one.
After tonight, I’ll have to do my best to avoid his rage. I’ll have to hide out from him the best that I can or I’m going to be forced to deal with his ugly side.
There’s no way I can go home. I’m still outside the door and I lean forward, resting my forehead on the cool wood, trying to think.
I could ask Veronica if I could go home with her, but that’s just ridiculous. Anywhere I go, I’m just hiding from what’s waiting for me.
I have Ted on one side and Clay on the other. There’s nowhere safe for me. Kennedy Academy isn’t safe. My house isn’t safe.
The bow slips from my hand and I step back from the door. It clatters loudly on the floor but nobody from inside the room comes out. They’re all celebrating, and I’m not missed. As much as I want to go in there, there’s nothing for me. Clay was right, I don’t belong here. I don’t belong anywhere.
When I close my eyes, I can almost picture what it was like when my dad was still alive and it was him, me, and my mom. But now that he’s gone…well, there’s no place for me to go.
Without thinking about what I’m doing, I turn and start running down the hall. I can hear someone on the microphone in the auditorium addressing the crowd, but all I can think about is getting out of there as quickly as possible. I have to get away from Kennedy Academy before people start leaving.
I hit the front doors at a full run and don’t slow down until I reach the parking lot. The sky is cold and clear and I bend over, grabbing my thighs and trying to slow my breathing. If I’m going to go somewhere – anywhere – then I need to catch my breath.
Unfortunately, I’m not in great shape.
Movement from the right catches my eye and I turn to see what it was. There’s nothing out here but a bunch of cars, the moonlight reflecting off of the windows and windshields, making it difficult for me to see.
I keep thinking that I see a dark shape lurking between the cars, but when I look again, it’s not there.
My heart starts to beat faster.
I try to quiet my breathing by breathing through my nose, but I’m exhausted.
Quiet panting will have to do.
There’s the movement again, to my left this time. Something is circling me in the parking lot, but each time I turn to look at it, it’s gone.
“Hello?” My voice sounds shaky and weak. Dammit, Elle, pull it together. “Who’s out there?”
Probably just a dog. I’m sure that there are stray dogs in the area, and some of them just wandered onto the campus.
Past the high fence and the guardhouse? Yeah, right.
I know that it’s not a dog. But telling myself that it is makes me feel better.
Crunching leaves behind me make me whip around.
Someone is walking towards me, and it’s definitely not a dog. From the corners of my eye I see the shapes from my right and left stand up and start walking, too.
“Who are you? Stay back.”
“Relax, Elle, we’re not going to hurt you.”
I recognize the voice, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. A sharp wind blows through the parking lot and I shiver, wrapping my arms around my stomach. Whoever the voice belongs to, I know that it’s not a good thing that they’re out here with me in the parking lot.
There’s no way that anyone out here has something good on their mind.
“It’s Teague.”
Of course, it is. Clay’s little lacky would be following me from the dinner, probably to make sure that I don’t do anything stupid. And that means…turning my head, I see that Brett and Robby are the two shadows to my sides.
“What the hell do you guys want?” Adrenaline is coursing through my body and I bounce up on my toes to keep warm. The guys stop at a distance but are close enough that they could easily grab me if they wanted to. The last time that I was faced with Teague like this, Clay pulled my shirt open so that he could see my tits.
I shiver at the memory and wrap my arms tighter around myself.
At any moment, someone could leave the building and come for their car, but nobody’s coming. That would be too lucky for me.
“We’re just out here to make sure that Clay’s kitten doesn’t run.” Teague again, and he spreads his arms out and gestures around the parking lot. “Although, you don’t have a car, do you, Elle? So I have no idea where you think that you would try to go.”
“Don’t call me that.” I hate my nickname from Clay, but hearing it from Teague’s mouth is even worse.
“What, ‘kitten’?” He laughs and takes a few more steps to me. I tense, my entire body ready to run if he comes much closer. “But that’s what you are, isn’t it? A scared little kitten that Clay found?”
“Like a cat playing with a dying animal.” Brett steps forward. The moonlight hits his face from the side and I can see all of his features in sharp relief. He looks like a wolf.
Hungry. Feral.
“And Clay wanted you to keep an eye on me, did he? Well, you can just tell him that you watched me leave and that it was no big deal.” Keeping one eye on Teague, I start walking away from the three of them, but Brett and Robby close rank in front of me, pinning me in again.
“Not a chance, kitten. You need to come with us.” Teague gestures behind him at the school and I shake my head.
“No way, asshole. Let me go.”
He sighs and runs his hand through his hair like he’s bored. “You know what? Fine.”
Before I realize what he’s doing, he runs at me, ducking down so that his shoulder is level with my stomach. The impact knocks all of the air out of me but before I can stop him, he sweeps me up so that I’m hanging over his shoulder.
Immediately I start to kick and hit him, but he shushes me.
“Listen, kitten. We either take you to Clay or we let you run, but one way or another, he’s going to find you. Believe me, he’d love to track you down, but I don’t think that you’d like what would happen when he finally found you. Now, he’s waiting for you inside, so let’s go see what he wants and see how we can fix this, okay?”
No. No, no, no. I don’t want to go see Clay. I don’t want to do anything but run.
He said that he’d kill me, and while right now that option is looking pretty damn good, I’m still terrified.
Clay
Of course, the little kitten would win. I had to go back into the ceremony but I sent my boys out to look for her. She’s fast, my Elle, but not fast enough.
She doesn’t know the school as well as we do, and she doesn’t know how quickly we can move. Teague will bring her back to me, I’m sure of that.
The door opens at the back of the auditorium right after I accepted my award for quarterback and am walking back to my table. It’s Teague, and he’s holding Elle by the arm so that she can’t move.
Dammit. I told him not to hurt her. Not to touch her.
I’m the only one allowed to touch my kitten.
Changing direction, I make a beeline to the back of the auditorium instead of sitting down and reach them in a matter of seconds. Elle looks exhausted and has tear tracks down her cheeks, but she doesn’t seem to be hurt.
Teague looks pissed. He pushes her towards me and leans forward to whisper. “You’ve got a feisty little kitten here, Clay.”
I fucking know that. Grabbing her by the arm, I drag her out of the auditorium and outside, heading for the parking lot.
She stumbles, but I don’t wait. I just yank on her arm to pull her back to her feet and keep her going. Each time she slows down, I dig my fingers harder into her arm.
“Stop!” She finally yanks back against me. “Why are you doing this? What do you want from me? I hate you! I fucking hate you, Clay Bryson, and I wish that you would just leave me alone!”
I whirl around to face her. Her bright eyes are dark. There’s a glint of moonlight off of them but it’s hard for me to read the expression on her face.
“You hate me? Are you serious right now?” I’m in her face, so close that I can feel her breath. “And how the fuck do you think that I feel about you and your perky little self coming into my school? You’re a fucking phantom, Elle, and I hate that you’re here. I hate you and everything about you.”
I think that she’s going to argue, but instead she yanks her arm free from me and slaps me. Again. The bitch really wants to die.
“You’ve treated me like shit since the moment I came here.” Elle takes a step forward and stabs her finger into my chest, making me flinch and step back. “And now I want out. I want to get out of here but I can’t because of my piece of shit stepdad, do you understand?”
Reaching out, I grab her finger and twist it to the side so hard that she cries out. “Don’t you need this finger for playing violin, kitten? Do you really think that you should go around stabbing it in places where you might lose it? Doesn’t seem very smart to me.”
“Fuck you.” She spits at me and I grab her by the neck. Her skin is smooth and soft under my hand and I squeeze, just a little. Just to hear her squeak.