I saw Mackenzie closing in on George, who sat by herself on the edge of the playground. I knew this pattern of hers – Mackenzie’s father did something awful, so she came to school and lorded it over the other kids to feel good about herself. I couldn’t bear that stormy look in her eyes, and I didn’t want to watch what she had planned for George – all I wanted was to see her smile. So for the first time ever, I skipped school. We took a bus down to Anaheim and spent the day at Disneyland. It was one of the best days of my entire life. We didn’t have to pretend – we could be completely ourselves.
I hold up the photo strip to the light – the pair of us crowded inside the booth, dressed in sparkly Mickey Mouse ears and feather boas we got from a junk store. I’m wearing aviator sunglasses and trying to look staunch while Mackenzie pokes her tongue out at the camera. That day I peeled back the Ice Queen and the real Mackenzie shone through like the sun.
I run my fingers over her smiling face. I wonder if that smile still lurks somewhere inside Mackenzie, somewhere beneath this cold, calculating monster.
How does Mackenzie command the loyalty of a gang of thugs who can break into more than ten Emerald Beach mansions in the same night?
She burned her initials into Alec’s forehead… that’s fucked up.
Someone broke her. Someone snuffed out Mackenzie’s sunshine so completely she’s a stranger to me now. And I have a feeling I know exactly who it was.
Mackenzie’s right. I was supposed to protect her, and I didn’t. I couldn’t. I was only thirteen. But I’m not thirteen any longer, and no matter what it takes, I will make sure she knows that I still see the sunshine inside her.
I pick up the phone again just as Noah winds up his tirade. A chill ripples down my spine at the venom in his voice. Vowing to protect Mackenzie may mean going up against my best friend, and I can’t do that. Not after everything he’s been through. But I had to.
“Mackenzie Malloy is going to pay,” Noah hisses. And I wish, more than anything I’ve ever wished for, that I could save him from himself. “I’m going to kill her for this.”
30
Mackenzie
School the next day is… interesting. When I step into the corridor, students fall over themselves to get away from me. The fear rolls off them in waves, and it’s intoxicating.
They wanted to know where Mackenzie Malloy has been all these years.
They wanted answers.
I can’t be held responsible if they couldn’t handle the truth.
I should have started with this power move, I think as I reach my locker and shove my books into my bag. A note flutters out. I unfold the paper and read the neat handwriting.
“Watch out for Noah,” it reads. I glance up. Eli’s down the opposite end of the corridor, in a circle of jocks. He looks up, his eyes meeting mine, and I feel that now-familiar zip of lightning through my veins, like I’m plugged into a power socket. I think of the last time our eyes met, across his pool as he took in my surprise. I needed him to see me there, to know I don’t need his protection.
That’s what the note is really about. Eli nods at the paper in my hand. He’s trying to get in my good books again, to remind me he’s looking out for me.
Message received.
I roll it the note into a ball and shove it into my mouth, chewing it with gusto.
I don’t need you to protect me anymore, Eli Hart.
Something that might have been sadness flickers in Eli’s ocean eyes. It’s gone in a moment, replaced with that too-pretty smile. He wears his mask as I wear mine.
Eli turns back to his friends. I spit out the note into a trash can and get to class. Gabriel sits next to me and asks how I managed to cover his double-height windows in an enormous drawing of a dick when I’m so short. I smile enigmatically and ignore him for the rest of the day.
Stares and whispers follow me everywhere, but no one says a thing to my face. Alec isn’t at school – he’s probably still recovering from surgery – and Cleo doesn't offer more than a few violent glares. At lunch, I take my tray and walk past the royal table. No one stops me or yells anything, but there’s an audible release of tension when I leave the dining hall and enter the outdoor courtyard.
George sits in the corner, earbuds dangling from her eyes. I make a beeline for her, but she quickly dumps her tray and races back inside. I sink down into the spot she left, feeling her warmth against the seat, wishing I hadn’t been such a bitch in my old life so things could be different.
The entire school is afraid of me. I’m powerful. I’m untouchable. And in this noisy place surrounded by others, I’ve never been more alone.
Mrs. Anderson is so keen to have me on the cheerleading team she invites me to try out at Friday’s before-school practice, since I missed last week’s official tryouts. Just the thought of walking into that gym filled with Cleo and her snakes makes my skin break out, but if I don’t go, all Antony’s work will be for nothing. They need to believe I’m not afraid of them.
I’m not afraid of them.
It’s still dark outside when I arrive at school. I change into a cheerleading skirt and a racer-back tank top in the bathroom so I don’t have to go into the girl’s locker room. As I cross the campus, I see George running toward me, waving her arms. I don’t want to be late, so I call out to her that I’ll find her after tryouts, and enter the gym from the side door.
As soon as I step inside, the lights flicker out.
Someone grabs me from behind, slamming me into the bleachers. I kick out behind me, feel the satisfying crunch of my heel grinding against soft, dangly bits. My assailant drops me, but then someone else grabs my hair, yanking my head back so hard I feel something in my neck crunch.
The room spins as limbs and faces fly at me from all directions. Cleo rakes her fingers down my face. Someone else punches me in the gut, driving the air from my lungs. I kick and thrash and scream and howl. My fists connect with flesh, but there are too many of them. They pin my arms, kick my legs out from under me. There’s nothing to break my fall as they slam me into the hard gym floor.
“Why are you doing this?” a voice screams, but the sound is far away. “You’re hurting her!”
Watch out for Noah.
The words on Eli’s note swirl in my receding vision, before the darkness swallows me.
31
Mackenzie
I come to as I’m being yanked and tossed between people. My eyes fly open, but it’s no use; it’s too dark wherever I am, and my vision’s blurred.
Not the darkness. I’m never going back to the darkness again.
I kick and wriggle, but everything feels slow, as if I’m trying to move through molasses. A pounding headache starts in my temples and flares across my skull.
“Get the bag over her head.”
No no no.
Rough hands grab me, hold me down. I kick, lash out with my fists, but I’m throwing marshmallows at semi trucks for all the damage I do. My knuckles glance off something sharp, and a guy grunts in pain. His hand drops from my shoulder but it’s replaced by another. Panic rises in my stomach as the headache lashes against my skull.
They pull a canvas bag over my head and tie the handles loosely under my chin. It reeks of sweat and male cologne. The smell fills my nostrils, closes my throat. I’m drowning in the stink of this horror.
The panic has me in its grip now. I thrash my head, kick and jerk. I can’t go out like this, blinded, struggling for breath. It’s too much like before.
They drag me outside and drop me on something hard. I land on my side and kick out my legs only to hit a hard surface. Metal. I smell gas and expensive leather seats. My cheek brushes rough carpet. I’m in the trunk of someone’s car.
All around me, male voices leer and guffaw, calling me every hateful name under the sun, every word men have invented throughout history to throw at women who threaten them. The words hit my skin like arrows, piercing my soul, taking my power.
They tie my hands and the trunk
slams down on top of me, sealing me inside. I slam my feet into the lid of my tomb, but it’s sealed tight. I can’t claw my way out of here.
Antony’s not coming to rescue me.
The engine roars to life. I can hear them through the trunk, laughing and joking. Someone turns the music up. There’s a speaker in here, and the bass pounds through me like a fist beating my ass from the inside.
My screams bounce back at me, hollow and useless. I fight the rising panic. This is not the same. It’s not a coffin.
Yet.
I go still and quiet. There’s no point wasting my energy screaming while the car’s moving. I try to count the turns we make but it becomes too difficult. Instead, I pull my knees to my chest. As soon as the trunk opens I’ll kick the first guy in the face; maybe I’ll be able to fight my way out. Or at least, if I die tonight, someone’s pretty face is going with me.
We drive for what seems like hours, until my head is screaming, until the darkness is all I know. And in the darkness I forget who I am now. I am back in the coffin, buried in six feet of dirt and the sins of my family.
The screams come again, rising wild and inhuman from inside me. I don’t hear any partying from the car any longer, just the tearing echo of my own terror.
I’m going to die tonight, and it’s almost a relief because I know I won’t be afraid any longer.
Somehow, I push through my fear, and I find something else on the other side. An anger so cold and final it’s beyond wild rage – it’s something calculated, focused. I take all the fear bottled up inside me, all the dark thoughts I’ve screamed into empty rooms, and I focus on staying awake, staying alert, keeping my mind clear and ready. Because if I die, these fuckers will get away with it. No one will look for me. Not even Antony. He can’t take the risk, and even if someone finds my body, these assholes will get their rich mommies and daddies to pay off the police.
Mackenzie Malloy won’t stand for that.
I think of Antony, and how hard he’s worked to lift himself out of the mess our family left behind for him. I think of how close we are to our dream, and I’ve fucked it all up because I let Alec LeMarque get under my skin.
I think of Queen Boudica, waiting at the door for me to come home, pawing at the glass in desperate hunger when she realized I’m not.
I fumble in my pocket for my phone, hitting the buttons I hope will call Antony.
I slide my knife from my sock. I manoeuvr it between my bonds and saw at the rope.
The car jerks to a stop, slamming my head into the wall. I’m too far into the abyss to even feel the impact.
Doors slam. Voices talk and laugh, like this is a fucking trip to the seaside. I hear the trunk unlock and a beam of harsh light blinds me.
The first thing that strikes me is the heat. It bears down on me like another attacker, holding me down with fingers of fire. I can’t see in the blinding light. I kick out with my legs, but I know I’m slow, useless. I snap the ropes on my wrists and swing with the blade. I feel contact, hear a male voice swear. Someone grabs my ankle and twists my leg against my chest, locking me in place. The knife is torn from my grip.
Hands grab me, drag me into the fire. Red welts sing across my vision. I discern that I’m outside, under the full fury of the Californian sun. I’m probably in the desert, judging by the orange haze blinding me.
My eyes start to adjust, and I make out shapes through the haze and the burning blue sky. Broad shoulders. Faces. One face in particular, leering down at me.
Alec LeMarque.
His forehead is covered with another dressing, and the skin around his eyes is tugged up, giving him this creepy clown expression. He curls his lips back into a smirk that would give small children nightmares. Hell, if I survive this I know I’ll be punching that smirk in my dreams.
“Hello, Mackenzie Malloy.” He leans in close, so I can smell the alcohol on his breath.
I hawk and spit at him. I’m so weak that my spittle runs down my own chin. My throat burns. How long has it been since I had a drink?
Alec’s surrounded by his friends. They lean against two other cars – all the jock guys from school who sit at the royal table, all flashing that same sickening leer. Noah’s there, at the back, his hands shoved into his pockets, the sunlight tinting his hair to flames of crimson and violet. Against the burning sky, his skin shines like alabaster – he’s a statue, his expression unreadable, the only one not grinning.
I don’t see Eli or Gabriel, and part of me wants to cry in relief.
“You’re not such hot stuff now, are you?” Alec sneers. He grips my shoulders, his nails digging into my skin. Two of his friends hold my arms, but they don’t need to. I’m their prisoner. I’m not going anywhere. There’s no escape. “You’re a fucking psycho out-of-control ghost slut, you know that? Your thugs scared Noah’s mother so badly she’s in the hospital.”
“Boo-hoo,” I spit back. “You all should have thought of that before you hurt my friend.”
“Your friend should know to stay out of our business. Clearly, whatever hole you’ve been in the last four years hasn’t taught you any manners. We don’t want twisted psycho bitches at our school, and it’s time you were put in your place.”
I don’t understand how Queen Boudica could’ve possibly been in Alec’s ‘business,’ but I can’t find the bravado to mock him about it. It doesn’t matter. We all know why we’re here. I branded him, made him mine. He might have got the best plastic surgeon in Emerald Beach to repair the damage, but he can’t erase the picture I shared. Everyone at Stonehurst knows that I owned him.
And now, he’s brought me out here to return the favor.
“Bend her over the hood,” Alec barks.
The two guys holding me slam me on the hood of Alec’s sexy-as-fuck Shelby Cobra, forcing my hands wide and my neck down, searing my cheek against the hot metal. My phone flies from my pocket. I kick up my legs, but someone else grabs my ankles and pins them, too. A whole new kind of terror grips me as Alec grabs my ass, digging his nails into my flesh.
“You started this war, Malloy. You’re only getting what you deserve. You’re going to take each one of us until you know your place. You walked into Stonehurst like you owned the place. Today, I own you.”
His hand slides down my hip, toying with the hem of my skirt, and I can’t help it – a whimper escapes my mouth.
CRACK. Alec’s hand slaps my ass, and the sound tumbles across the barren desert, reminding me how fucking alone I am. He cackles like a comic strip witch, and the sound is glass shards under my skin.
“Fallen isn’t wrong – you grew a damn fine ass, Malloy.” Alec leans over the hood, his body covering mine, sealing. “I’m going to make it mine today. Would you like that? My big cock sliding in your ass? That’s what you get you for messing with my face.”
Alec’s tongue slides across the back of my neck, wet and cold like a snake. I can already feel his poison slithering around inside me, poisoning me. I brace myself, searching my mind for a dark place to retreat into, far away from Alec’s hot breath and his cock against my thigh and his gross fingers dragging my panties down down down—
He pulls back. I dare to hope he’s had a come-to-Jesus moment. Hell, I’d settle for a come-to-Cthulhu moment if it meant he never touched me like that again.
“Noah!” Alec claps his hands. “You can do the honors.”
Fuck no.
Please no.
Not Noah. Not those coal eyes and those cheekbones that could cut skin. I can’t—
But nothing happens. I’m stuck, my skirt yanked up, my panties around my ankles. I twist my neck to watch them. Noah stares at a spot on the horizon, his shoulders rigid, his expression carved in stone.
“Noah? Bro, you listening?” Alec shoves Noah toward me. “Mackenzie Malloy on a platter. I did all this for you. This bitch broke into your house, she embarrassed you at Daphne’s party. She killed your brother.”
“I know that.” Noah’s jaw is so tight I could bou
nce a quarter off it.
“So?” Alec gestures to me. “She took something from you. Isn’t it time you repaid the favor?”
Noah shakes his head. “This is fucked up, Alec. You said we were going to scare her, make sure she never came after our families again. But not like this. This isn’t right.”
“It’s justice,” Alec hisses. “This bitch branded my face. She deserves to be full of our cum.”
“That’s your idea of justice? Raping a girl?” Noah’s gaze swivels to his friends, and the darkness in his eyes is unfathomable. “You’re sick. All of you.”
“Yeah, Alec,” Mark pipes up from the back of the crowd. He has a hand to his cheek, blood seeping between his fingers. When he lowers it, I see the slash my knife made in his skin. “Come on, this is fucked.”
“Dude, I’ve got an athletic scholarship to Stanford. No way am I putting that on the line for this bitch,” adds Chad, dropping his hold on my wrist. Of course, the most important thing is the athletic scholarship, not the fact his friend is trying to get him to rape me. But I’d take it.
“Look at her. She’s scared enough as it is.” Noah shrugs. “You’ve had your revenge. Let’s take her back.”
Alec glares at his friends. “You fucking pussies. Fine, more for me.”
And before I can cry out, he presses his body against mine again. His teeth dig into my ear. His cologne swirls around me – it’s sickly sweet, like cotton candy. Bile rises in my throat.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” he grunts, as he reaches down between us to undo his zipper and he’s right there he’s pressing against me I hate him I hate him he’s—
My Stolen Life: a high school bully romance (Stonehurst Prep Book 1) Page 15