There’s another standoff, and I can’t help my dumb mouth from asking, “Don’t I get a say in this?”
“No,” they all growl at me and I quickly shut up, though I can’t help the anger that’s battling with the fear inside me. They are talking about me like I’m not even there, like I’m just a piece of meat and not a person. Like they can just decide what happens to me and I have no say.
I’m mad, but I also remember what happened last time I went up against the Vicious Crew—I almost drowned. The only reason I’m still alive and standing here right now is because Daire decided to pull me back up out of the water.
These guys are all dangerous and I have to remember that I’m at their mercy for the time being.
“Her sister too,” Daire adds and Seth bristles. “She took her sister’s place and so she’s off the table as well.”
“That’s bullshit,” Seth barks and moves dangerously close to Daire.
All the guys crowd in closer, getting ready for the fight that seems inevitable at this point. I reach around and grab Olivia’s hand. The second the fight starts we are going to run.
“You really want to do this here?” Daire asks. “Over a couple of worthless girls?”
I can’t help but be a bit insulted by that.
Seth seems to consider for a second. He looks over at the other guys, Brax, Alec and Theo, and realization seems to dawn on him properly for the first time—realization about just what exactly he’s up against.
“What the fuck ever, man,” he says flippantly, but it’s obvious he’s pissed he lost the stand off. He’s trying to maintain his image to the rest of the gathered students. He doesn’t want to look soft and doesn’t want anyone to think that Vicious won. “You claimed them so they are yours. I don’t give a shit about a couple worthless bitches. Plenty of ‘em lining up to ride this.” He grabs his crotch. “Get them out of my sight.”
The Vicious Crew comes to surround Olivia and I, and walks us through the crowd—which parts without a word. I breathe a sigh of relief when we are finally away from that whole mess… until the reality of what just happened sinks in.
I just became “property” of the guy who told me he wanted me to suffer, that he hated me. Property of the guys who tried to kill me. We’d been saved, only to be put in an even more dangerous situation. The Vicious Crew are worse than the East Marters and everyone knows it.
They lead us back into the school, like they’re our bodyguards or something—I guess they have to guard their “property” now, I can’t help but think in disgust. I try not to look, but I can feel all four of them surrounding us. Their presence makes my skin feel too tight and my body ache in a strange way I’ve never felt before—that must be what true disgust feels like.
“Get to class,” Daire says suddenly.
Olivia and I look at each other for a split second, before we’re sprinting down the hall away from them. We round a corner but don’t stop just because we are out of their sight. We’ve seen what kind of power these guys have and we aren’t going to test them.
I drop her off at her class first. She gives me an apologetic look before saying, “I was just trying to make friends.”
She shrugs as if it’s an explanation for what she tried to do with the East Marters, and I guess it kind of is, because I understand why she did it. She’s always been so desperate to fit in, to find people who’ll love her like our parents never did, that she gets herself into stupid situations. That’s just Olivia.
“I know.” I open my mouth to say more, but I can’t think of what else there is to say.
“I think we’re in trouble,” she whispers, clearly terrified.
“Yeah, I think so too,” I whisper back.
“Did Daire really try to drown you?”
I just look at her and nod. She nods back, finally accepting what I said as the truth.
“I better get to class,” I say as I turn to go. “Be careful, Olivia.”
“I will… You too.” Then she disappears into the classroom and I hurry down the hall to mine.
The true ramifications of what I’ve gotten myself into are slowly sinking in. I was now the “property” of the Vicious Crew. They could ask me to do anything they wanted—and I’d have to do it, or risk my life by saying “no”. Maybe what they are going to ask me to do will risk my life anyway.
Maybe they will make me have sex with them? That’s what the East Marters implied their favors were going to be. A part of me deep down, so deep that I didn’t even know it existed, gets a little thrill of excitement when I think about the favors being sexual. The four of them are undeniably gorgeous—in a kind of tattooed-and-pierced-bad-boy kind of way.
But you hate them, I have to remind myself. They disgust you. They fucking tried to kill you. There’s no way that you could be so messed up that you’d be attracted to guys like that.
I shake my head to clear it of those nasty thoughts. Of course I don’t want them. Of course I find them disgusting. If the favors they want from me turn out to be sexual, then I’ll… just have to find a way to get out of it.
But I know that safely getting out of whatever this messed up thing I’ve gotten myself into, is going to be almost impossible.
7
Everything feels different the next day when I walk down the halls. The girls still give me death stares, but no one is messing with me anymore. Normally by lunchtime I would have had to avoid at least a couple fights, but today there are none. It’s weird.
“You’re lucky, Highness,” Alec comes up from behind to say into my ear, and I jump a mile high. “You need our protection more than anyone.”
“Yeah, especially from you,” I spit out venomously as I try to catch my breath. Being at Marter High has forced me to constantly be on edge and Alec almost gave me a heart attack.
We both look at the hostile faces of the other students as they glide past us. He chuckles at that and I look over at him. I’ve never taken the time to really look at Alec Cross, I’ve been too busy trying to avoid him to get a good look, but I can’t deny that he is hot.
He has slicked back black hair with a part on the side that’s so sharp it looks like it could cut you. I see intelligence in his eyes as he looks at me, but I refuse to meet his gaze for long. I can see how girls fall into those deep amber depths and get lost from themselves—and lost from their clothes.
His one arm is completely covered in a blackout tattoo and the rest of his body is covered in a scattering of others—including his neck and knuckles. His face is cute and unmarked, which seems at odds with all his ink. I wonder how much those all hurt to get.
Despite the attractive outside, I know what lurks beneath. I know that Alec, like the rest of the Vicious Crew, are monsters. Monsters in pretty packaging—which makes them even more dangerous that regular monsters because you don’t see them coming.
“We’re cashing in our first favor,” he says casually as we start walking, but I stop short to stare at him.
I spent all of last night dreading this moment. I couldn’t sleep because I was too scared thinking about all the awful things they were going to ask me to do. But I didn’t realize it would happen so soon.