Chapter 13 Starling #2
“Hunter,” Bunny scolds, elbowing him as she reaches around him to hold her hand out to Courtney. “Ignore my husband, he’s getting old. I’m Bunny, it’s nice to meet you.”
Courtney nods and makes polite conversation until the topic of finding her a husband is brought up again.
By the time Clay and January arrive, I think the guys have mentioned a hundred names, and Sammy, Bunny, and I have made digs about how awful it’d be to have gotten to our junior year and not be married.
I have never loved a group of people more than I do right now.
Not only have they all dropped their plans to be here—I haven’t checked my cell, but I’m assuming Sebastian asked them to come—but every single one has been making snide comments and sly barbs at Courtney, all while smiling and laughing.
We really are a bunch of absolute psychos.
“Armand is setting up lunch in the dining room,” Clay announces when he and January step out of the house and onto the patio.
“Oh, thank god, I’m so freaking hungry. I swear this baby is eating for ten,” Sammy moans, pushing out of her seat with the help of Evan.
Instead of moving toward us, Clay and January pause in the doorway, waiting for us all to get up and move inside. Hooking my arm through Court’s, I smile excitedly at her, then tow her back into the house.
Once we’re all sat at the table that’s laden with a delicious-looking spread of salads, pasta, sushi, and even some delicious-looking sweet potato fries, Clay looks to Courtney. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Clay Jansen, and this is my wife, January.”
“Seriously, Clay. You don’t remember me either? We went to Green Acres Academy together. We were friends,” Courtney spits, clearly angry, her chest heaving.
Pursing his lips, Clay tips his head to the side. “I’m sorry. What was your name?”
“Courtney Ortega,” she growls.
Screwing up his face for a moment, he stares at her, then shrugs. “High school was a long time ago.”
Court’s lips draw together, and it’s clear she’s struggling not to argue. “So, you’re all married?” she asks, once our plates are all full of food.
“January and I were first, then Starling and Sebastian, Bunny and Hunter got hitched last fall, and Sammy and Evan were what…eight months ago?” Clay says.
“And you’re already pregnant?” Court blurts.
Chuckling, Sammy smirks at Evan. “This one wasn’t exactly planned; we found out the week after the wedding. Luckily, he’d already made an honest woman of me.”
“Honestly, I never expected to see the Acres Elite all married and settled down.” Her tone is sweet, but it’s clearly a dig.
“Acres Elite.” Hunter chuckles. “To think that the whole school thought we were gods. It’s a little silly when you think about it.”
“It’s tradition,” Court says quickly.
“It’s high school.” Evan laughs. “I can’t believe some people would have done literally anything to get close to us.”
“Do you remember that girl who used to follow us around trying to hang off of us?” Hunter says. “Starling, you knew her, right? She was your friend. She was so desperate for attention it was pathetic.”
Swallowing down a laugh, I shake my head like I don’t remember. “I only hung out with you guys for a few weeks. Plus, the only friend I had in high school was Court.”
Hunter’s eyes widen for a minute, like he’s just realized that the pathetic clinger he was describing is the girl sitting beside me. Purses his lips, he shrugs. “I guess high school was a long time ago. What’s your major, Courtney?”
“Her parents are lawyers, I know you always wanted to follow in their footsteps,” I say brightly.
“I’m undeclared at the moment,” Court says, a little of her bravado diminishing.
Waving my hands, I smile like a fucking cheerleader. “Well, who cares about college? Let’s find you a husband and then you won’t have to worry about stupid things like jobs and money.”
“You’re not planning on getting a job after you graduate?” she asks.
“God no. Sebastian doesn’t want me to work,” I say, sighing happily as I turn and press a kiss to my husband’s cheek.
“Starling’s job is to look beautiful, spend my money, and to make me an heir, and she’s been practicing that since the day I finally made her mine,” Sebastian says with a grin.
“Well, shopping is so much fun.” I laugh.
“I can’t believe you went to Cartier without me,” Sammy says, sipping at her apple juice. “That necklace is beautiful.”
“Thanks,” I say, reaching up to tug at the necklace Sebastian clasped around my throat earlier.
“We can go later this week if you want. You could get it too, and we could be matching. We should all get them,” I say excitedly, looking between my friends and Courtney as I clap my hands and bounce up and down in Sebastian’s lap.
“Evan does owe me a lot of push presents,” Sammy says, glancing at her husband with ridiculous doe eyes.
“Eighty grand isn’t much of a push present. I thought you wanted that yacht we looked at,” Evan scoffs.
“Eighty grand,” Court says beneath her breath, but loud enough that I hear her.
“Oh, my goodness,” I gush, trying to put on my best “I’m an idiot” look. “Is that in the budget?” I ask her condescendingly.
“Not really, not all of us married millionaires,” Court scoffs.
“Billionaire,” I correct. “We’re billionaires these days. That’s right, isn’t it, Baby?”
Courtney falls silent after that, and when we head back out to the pool, she spends a lot of time texting on her cell. After a couple of hours, she says she has to get back and calls an Uber to come and collect her.
I hug her goodbye, force her to swap phone numbers, and make her promise to come to brunch on the weekend. The moment a security guard drives her to the gate in one of the golf carts, I let the overly bright smile fall from my face.
“Billionaire, we’re billionaires these days,” Evan mocks the moment I step back out onto the patio.
Sammy lifts her hands into the air and starts to slow clap, her lips spread into a wide smile as she nods. “And the Oscar for the most vapid gold digger goes to…”
“Thank you, thank you,” I say, swaying my hands out to the sides as I drop into a bow.
“Little Bird, I want to fuck you so much right now,” Sebastian growls into my ear as he pulls me into his lap, his hard dick stabbing into my ass.
“I take it you hacked her cell?” Hunter asks, darkening the mood and reminding us all why we’re here and what my performance was all about.
“Wait,” I say, lifting my hand into the air, just as Clay is about to speak. Turning to Sebastian, I glare at him. “Was this necklace eighty fucking grand? Did I just prance around campus with eighty grand bouncing around my neck?”
“It looks beautiful.” Sebastian says, running his finger along the necklace and then down between my breasts.
“Take it off. I can’t believe I’ve been hanging around the pool in a necklace worth this much money.”
Scoffing softly, he reaches up and unclasps the chain, letting the warm metal pool into a puddle in his palm.
“Don’t do that, it might break,” I snap, carefully taking the chain from his hand and reclasping it so it can’t knot.
“Do you want me to take it back upstairs?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say.
“Later,” Clay says, interrupting. “I hacked her cell, and it seems like Miss Courtney did not enjoy this reunion quite as much as we did.”
Everyone’s cells all beep at the same time, and several screenshots of a message stream pop up on my screen.
Courtney : I’m going to sell the photos to the papers and Pornhub.
Tom : What? Why? You can’t do that. I’ll lose my job. The plan was to blackmail them. You said they’d pay anything to keep those pictures off the internet.
Courtney : I asked for ten million, just like you said, and she told me to fuck off. Starling is just his toy; he’s using her to get an heir, and then he’s going to dump her the moment that baby pops out.
Tom : So let’s blackmail him. That was the plan. It’s what I said we should have done in the first place. Like you said, she’s just a nobody. It’s his money, not hers.
Courtney : I tried. I messaged him, I told him his wife was being blackmailed, that we had pictures and videos of them, and that we’d sell them to the press. He laughed. He didn’t care. Then he said he’d find out who I was and that he’s make me suffer
Tom : What the fuck, Courtney? Does he know it was you?
Courtney : I don’t know. Maybe. But if he doesn’t already, he’ll figure it out. I don’t know what to do. I saw the things they did to kids who stepped out of line in high school. I’m so scared.
Tom : Where are you? I’ll come and get you.
Courtney : I can’t, I’m too scared. We need to strike first. We need to sell the pictures. Maybe you can get more pictures? Or video?
Tom : Let me come to you, baby. I’m so fucking sorry. I said we shouldn’t do this. We should leave, go somewhere safe, somewhere away from the Lockwoods.
Courtney : I don’t think I’ll ever feel safe again.
He’s too powerful, he’ll find out it was us, and he’ll find us.
That’s how he was when we were teenagers.
Starling ran away from him, and he followed her across the country, and stalked her for years.
Once he becomes obsessed, he’s crazy. She hated him so much in high school and even when she first came to college, but he’s completely brainwashed her.
She looks at him like he’s her savior now.
Tom : So what do we do?
Courtney : We have to hurt him before he can hurt us.
Tom : We don’t have the power to hurt a man like him. He’s too rich.
Courtney : The only way to hurt him is to hurt her.
Tom : Hurt her how? She’s untouchable, she never leaves the house without her security.
Courtney : But you’re there. You could wait for him to go out and get to her. You could scare her the way I’m scared right now. You could hurt her the way he wants to hurt me. You could take her away from him and make him suffer for the rest of his life.
“Holy fuck, is she trying to convince him to kill you?” Bunny gasps.
“I’m ready to reconsider the murder option,” Sebastian growls, dragging me closer, pinning our bodies together until we’re as close as we can be.
“Seconded,” Evan hisses.
“My dad is on his way to pick up Bunny and January. They’ll be spending the next week on vacation with my mom and Bunny’s Nana,” Hunter says, his tone cold and dark.
“Sammy and Starling can have a sleepover at your place,” Sebastian tells Evan. “I’m sure Dawn would be happy to make a load of junk food for them while we go surfing.”
“Stop,” I yell. “No one is getting murdered.”
“She wants to hurt you. This is about so much more than money or a fucking divorce,” Sebastian growls.
“We need to think about this. Has Tom responded? Has he told her how insane an idea that is? Before we start talking about homicide, we all need to remember that we have the upper hand,” I say, trying to sound calm when I feel anything but.
“We should go to the police?” January says quietly, her expression pale and worried.
“No, not yet,” I say.
“I don’t understand. Why would you wait?” Bunny asks.
“I don’t understand either,” Sebastian drawls. “You better explain just exactly what your devious little mind has come up with, Little Bird.”
Inhaling sharply, I nod, then turn to Clay. “How close to getting kicked out of Kingsacre is she?”
Clay’s brow furrows. “She’s not doing well, but she’s not even on academic probation, so she’s nowhere near to expulsion. But what the fuck does school have to do with her trying to coerce her boyfriend into killing you?”
“It has nothing to do with it. But I don’t think we should rush into anything just yet. Instead, I think we should start to disrupt her life. She thinks she’s running the show right now, so let’s take control of the narrative and throw her off center while we figure out what to do next.”
Humming unhappily, Sebastian eventually nods. “Her life starting to crumble would definitely derail her murderous thoughts for a little while,” he reluctantly agrees.
“Clay, could you help with that? Perhaps she should get caught cheating, or propositioning the dean’s son, or offering sexual favors for grades to a professor or something,” I suggest, fighting to keep my voice calm and level.
“Leave it with me, I’ll see what I can do.” Clay nods, clearly concerned.
Collaring my throat, Sebastian turns me to look at him. “I won’t allow you to get hurt,” he warns me.
“I know. But if we call the cops on her now, and all we have is a few threats and a failed attempt at getting me to divorce you, she’ll get a slap on the wrist and a stern talking to.
If she’s actually a threat to me, then we need to make sure that when we hand her to the police, it’s with enough evidence to make sure she won’t get near me ever again,” I say, pushing into his grip like I’m trying to assure him without words that I won’t do anything to put myself at risk.
“What about him?” he asks.
“I don’t care what happens to him as long as he never sets foot in our home again.”
Nodding, Sebastian lifts me off his lap, motions to his brothers, then marches into the house with the guys following after him.