Savage Vicious Heir: Part Two: A dark high school bully romance

11. Elliot

ELLIOT

The party rages around me, but I might as well be sitting alone in the Chapel for how much it excites me.

I’ve always known that I’m broken. Dad and Scott have made sure to always point out my flaws and how I’ll never stand up to them. But since looking up to find Abi’s heart shattering before my very eyes in that pub last week, it’s worse than ever. And I fear it could be irreparable.

I should be enjoying myself with my boys. I have them all to myself. It’s what I’ve craved since they all started falling in love and losing themselves to their girls. I just wanted another night of just us. A night like all those we planned in the lead-up to our final year at All Hallows’. But I can’t find it within me to enjoy it.

I haven’t touched a sip of alcohol. I’m not interested. Yeah, it might numb everything. But I don’t want that. I want to suffer. I want the pain.

I watch everyone as they chat with their friends, laugh, dance. That should be me. I should be out there living up my last few weeks of this.

I’m going to blink and all of this will be over. The next Heirs will be ripping out any evidence of our reign from this building and making it theirs.

Our time here will be nothing but a memory. One that is going to end with pain and regret for me.

Fuck. It wasn’t meant to be like this.

One girl wasn’t meant to have the power to finally sever the thin threads that were holding me together.

But here we are.

My eyes land on my boys. They’re in the kitchen with a few other members of the team. Each of them has beers in their hands and even from here, I can see that their eyes are alight with happiness.

That should be me.

I should be up there with them.

My fists curl, my short nails pressing into my skin.

It’s not enough.

Nothing ever is.

I haven’t relapsed since that day in the shower.

I told myself that I’ll be stronger. That I’ll fight it.If I can do it, then maybe Abigail can too.

The thought of her being in her dorm room taking a blade to her beautiful porcelain skin rips me apart inside.

All I can do is trust that she’s being strong, that she’s fighting the darkness more effectively than I am.

I keep my eyes on Oak, Reese, and Theo, wishing my life was as easy as theirs are right now.They’ve overcome everything that was thrown at them this year and come out the other side with their girls standing firmly beside them.

I guess it should give me hope. Especially when I remember how hopeless some of their situations seemed at certain points this year. But it’s not helping.

Nothing is.

My brows pinch as Oak lifts his phone up to look at the screen before he swipes and puts it to his ear.There’s only one person who would call him tonight.Everyone else is here.

My heart begins to race as I think about what the girls are doing.

What Abigail is doing.

Oak and Reese told me earlier that they were going out.

The thought of my sweet Abigail in a club surrounded by drunken arseholes without us there to protect her has acid sloshing in my stomach.

I want to be there. To make sure that every motherfucker within a ten-mile radius knows that she’s mine.

She’s not yours though. You fucked it up, remember?

Oak pushes a finger into his other ear so he can hear what’s being said on the other end, and I sit up straighter as he turns his back on the others, his shoulders widening.

What’s happening?

Is Abi okay?

I can’t see his face so I don’t stand a chance of reading his lips, but I clearly see the moment he nods before hanging up.

He just agreed to something.

What?

He steps up to Reese before saying something in his ear and then marching towards the front door.

“Fuck,” I grunt, jumping to my feet and forcing my way through the crowd between us to find out what’s happening.

Something is wrong. I can feel it in the very depths of my soul.

He’s out of the front door by the time I catch up to him. The second he’s in touching distance, I grip his shoulder and spin him around to face me.“What’s going on?”

He studies me for a beat. I want to say that it’s because he’s surprised to have been stopped and not because he’s drunk.

Sure, he’s had a few beers but not enough to be wasted. Unless he’s had something I haven’t seen.

Oakley isn’t stupid enough to put his girl in danger, a little voice says in the back of my mind.

If that’s even where he’s going…

“Nothing,” he finally says. “Go back inside.”

I move closer. “Not until you tell me where you’re going.”

“Elliot.”

“It was Tally, wasn’t it?” I ask. “You’re going to the girls. Are they okay? Is Ab—” I cut myself off, but it’s pointless. Oak knows. They all fucking do.

They always have.

Tally is the only one who has railed me for what I did, but I’m not stupid. There’s no way she hasn’t told her boyfriend every second of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the others know by now too.

“They’re drunk, okay.” He exhales a weary breath. “I’m just going to pick them up so they don’t have to get a taxi.”

“Sounds good, let’s go.”

“Elliot,” he warns, his expression hard.

“What?” I spit, unwilling to have a fucking discussion about this. If he thinks Tally’s call was important enough to leave mid-party, then I’m fucking going too. “You’ve been drinking.”

“I’ve had two, maybe three, beers max. I had a feeling she’d call.”

“Then let’s go and get them.”

He hesitates as I move towards where we park our cars.

“What?” I snap. “What are you hiding?”

His teeth clench and his shoulders tense. “Go back inside, Elliot. I’ve got this.”

My heart begins to race. “It’s Abi, isn’t it? What’s happened?”

“For fuck’s sake, man,” he complains rubbing the back of his neck.

I glare at him, refusing to back down until he gives me the truth.

We don’t lie to each other. Ever.

“Fuck. She’s wasted, okay. Tally called for a lift because she was vomiting on the pavement.”

“She’s what?” I hiss as I take off running towards my car.

“They took her out to let her hair down,” he calls after me.

“It sounds like it might have backfired,” I retort as I pull the driver’s door open and drop into the seat.

I have the engine running a second later and I floor the gas as soon as Oak drops in beside me.

“Tally is going to kill me for this,” he complains. “She specifically said to come alone.”

“I don’t give a shit. Get down on your knees and grovel. Do whatever it is you do that makes her swear.”

“Fuck, yeah,” he growls. I don’t need to look over to know he’s got a shit-eating grin on his face. There is nothing he loves more than driving Tally to the brink of insanity and forcing dirty talk out of her mouth.

“Where are they?” I ask as I head into the middle of town.

Pulling his tracking app, he syncs it to my car’s Bluetooth so I can see their location on the screen.

“Bingo,” I hiss, zeroing in on Tally’s pin.

It takes us less than ten minutes thanks to my slight breaking of the speed limit. It’s worth it, not that something as small as speeding would stick. I don’t need my father’s power to get something like that swept under the rug, Oak’s dad could make it disappear in a heartbeat as well.

I slow my speed as the club appears in the distance before the shadow of a group of girls huddling together a little down from the entrance becomes clear.

“There,” Oak says, pointing out of the window as if I’m fucking blind.

Jerking the wheel to the left, I bump up on the curb and bring the car to an abrupt stop. I throw the door open and jump out. I have no idea if I close it behind me, my only concern is the girl slumped on the pavement.

Tally, Raine and Liv all jump up the second they see me coming.

“I called Oak,” Tally spits, her anger more than obvious.

“I don’t care. If anyone should be looking after Abi, it’s me.”

“Bullshit,” Tally replies, her eyes widening in shock as she hears her own curse.

She must be drunk.

“Get out of my way,” I demand, pushing past them to get to my girl.

My girl.

Knowing that it’s pointless to put up a fight, they move aside, and I drop to my knees before her.

She’s pale but when I reach out and cup her face, her skin is clammy.Sliding one arm under her knees and another behind her back, I effortlessly lift her into my arms.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tally screeches.

“Getting her off the fucking street, what does it look like?” I grunt. Isn’t it fucking obvious? “Open the door,” I demand when I get closer to my car.

Oak pulls it open, and I lower Abigail into it.

“If you all want a ride back, I suggest you get the fuck in before I drive off and leave you all here.”

“What the hell?” Tally asks again before the sound of her slapping Oak’s shoulder fills the air.

“Babe,” he complains. “I tried, okay. He saw me leaving and guessed. What was I meant to do?” he asks as I jog around the front of my car.

“Lie, anything,” she seethes.

“Two seconds or I’m leaving without you,” I warn before dropping into the driver’s seat.

“It’s okay, Red,” I say, double-checking I strapped her in. “Everything is going to be okay.”

I study her for a beat while the others pile in behind us.Tally sitting on Oak’s lap while the girls all squish in next to them. It’s a tight squeeze but they manage.

Abi is totally out of it. Her eyes are firmly closed and her chest is rising and falling steadily.

“How much did she drink?” I demand.

“Too much,” Liv offers unhelpfully.

“She was just enjoying herself. Getting a little drunk after everything she’s been through isn’t a crime, you know,” Raine spits. “She is allowed to be an eighteen-year-old.”

“I fucking know that,” I fume. I just wish she could have done it where I was so I could keep an eye on her. “Oak, call the guys, clear the Chapel out. The party is over,” I say, staring him dead in the eye in the rearview mirror so he knows how serious I am.

What would have happened tonight if she’d wandered off? If the girls got separated?

My heart pounds harder against my chest.

She’s vulnerable. Too fucking vulnerable and it’s all my fault.

If anything happened to her… I’d never forgive myself.

She doesn’t so much as stir all the way back to the Chapel, and thankfully, she doesn’t vomit in my car.

There are a few lingering drunk students who are still attempting to figure out how to get home, but I don’t pay them any attention as I lift Abigail into my arms and march towards the Chapel with her.

“Put her on the sofa,” Tally demands from behind me. “I’ll get her pillows and sheets.”

“Fuck that, Darlington. The only place she’s sleeping tonight is in my bed,” I shoot back over my shoulder.

“Elliot, you can’t, she?—”

“I don’t give a fuck what you think. She’s sleeping in my bed. She can hate me for it tomorrow all she likes.”

With Tally still shouting at me, I march through the Chapel, ignoring Reese and Theo as I head for the stairs. No one on this Earth could stop me from taking care of my girl right now.

No one.