Completely alert.
“…The fuck?”
Sterling follows my gaze, straight to the one it seems fate delivered right here, to the very place I rule, the place where my word is law.
“You know her or something?”
“Yeah. Something like that.” I’m intentionally careful with my words.
He doesn’t recognize her, which comes as no surprise. Of the three of us, I was the jackass who couldn’t stop watching her at the bonfire. I’m also the one with a compromising photo of her hidden on my phone.
My brothers know nothing of what I found in our dad’s safe, and I’ll likely keep it to myself, unless I have good reason to reveal what I know.
A few seconds behind, Dane freezes with his mouth half-open when he finally spots her. Then, his brow jumps and he’s taking it all in, the details I refuse to find appealing about her—tight little waist, sun-kissed skin, legs for days, nice size rack, pretty face. Not the typical, magazine-class pretty face, either. It’s unique and ethereal, makes you want to stare. Makes you want to get closer.
She’s the human equivalent of oleander.
Beautiful.
Delicate.
Dangerous.
My feelings are all twisted, edging on two different extremes. The man in me knows she’s on fire, hot as they come. But there’s more to her than that, and it’s that hidden truth that fuels my rage.
If that picture proves anything, it’s that there’s a strong possibility she’s been in a myriad of compromising positions with my father. She looks like the type to do whatever freaky-ass shit he wants. Anything to make sure he doesn’t snap his wallet shut with her greedy little fingers in it.
She isn’t the first. My dad has an M.O. when it comes to these things and it’s predictable as hell. He likes his sidepieces young, usually blonde, easy to manipulate, easy to blind with diamonds and fancy vacations he tells my mom are ‘business trips’.
I eye her, positive she doesn’t even know that dick’s real name. He’s become somewhat of a ghost, the reason for the blacked-out windows on his truck, the reason he’s turned down television interviews with every local news outlet. To some, Vin Golden is the phantom who manipulates this town like a puppet. To me, he’s just an asshole with money.
Whatever the case, there’s only one fact about this situation that matters. This girl’s decided to be my dad’s plaything until he tires of her, which officially makes her my enemy.
I lean in so my words don’t go beyond my brothers’ ears. “I guarantee what I’m about to say won’t make any sense, but I need you both to hear me out.”
The statement is met with two questioning stares.
“What’s up?” Sterling faces me, looking stern before crossing both arms over his chest.
I second-guess myself for a moment, but I know I can’t pull off what I have in mind without their full cooperation.
“That girl is nowhere near as innocent as she looks,” I explain.
Dane laughs and passes another glance her way. “Good. Innocence has always been overrated in my book.”
I’m shaking my head before he even finishes. “No, trust me. You don’t want anything to do with this one.”
I feel my expression morph into an angry scowl when I peer up at her again. I’m over beating around the bush and just tell them straight up.
“We have to take her down. And not just ‘make her cry and write about us in her diary’ type shit. I mean, I want this bitch broken, ground into dust.”
I have their full attention and see the questions brimming in their eyes.
“You know we’ve got your back, but—”
“No questions,” I say more harshly than I mean to, but seeing her again has me feeling like I’ll lose it.
I’ve never had this chance before, to deal with one of Dad’s sluts as I see fit. In the past, I was either too young to step up, or he’d covered his tracks too well. This time, he hadn’t been so careful.
Telling Mom about the late-night phone calls I overheard, or the many other glaring clues I’ve found over the years was never an option. Having his infidelity shoved in her face would shatter her world. Completely. It’s the reason she willingly ignores all the signs, sticks her head in the sand and keeps cleaning and baking like her husband hasn’t fucked half the town.
Dane’s watching her again, my new target. She steps up with a nervous smile to hand one of Headmaster Harrison’s administrators a packet of paperwork.
“All you need to know is she deserves everything that’s coming to her,” I assure them.
There’s a staggering silence between us that lasts an uncomfortably long time, but I assume they need to process. We’re not the friendliest pricks on the planet, but we don’t usually turn up the heat on people just for shits and giggles. I know it’s a lot—asking them to unleash hell on someone without explanation—but I hope they know I wouldn’t go to such extremes without good reason.
“All right,” Sterling agrees first, then Dane nods wearily.
“I’m in.”
We’re all turned in her direction, focused solely on our unsuspecting mark. I circle back to the belief that fate brought her here. I have no clue what other messed up shit she’s done in her lifetime, but something becomes crystal clear to me.
The universe wants her to suffer. It must. If that wasn’t the case, it wouldn’t have dropped her in my path again.
This girl’s entire world is about to go dark, and I’m gonna love every second of it.
@QweenPandora: What have we here, lovelies? My sources say North Cypress’s favorite brainy beauty, Josslyn ‘Joss’ Francois, has finally returned from her epic journey. But … has she returned unsullied? Or has the VirginVixen—as I like to call her—finally given up the goods? Some of those IG pics made it quite
