9. Lex
9
LEX
O ne week. One week of no texts. No calls. No responses of any kind. One week of teeth-gritting repressed desires. One week until Gio is officially released from the hospital and the worst of his injuries have been checked, re-checked, and checked a third time for good measure.
I consider myself a patient man. You don’t fall in love with your childhood crush and watch her for thirteen years if you don’t have patience. But in seven long— agonizing —days, she somehow manages to test what I’ve always considered to be one of my better qualities.
She doesn’t come to school, and though I’ve checked her cell and I know that she messaged the Lee girl’s phone number last, I’m not allowed to act on that information. Nolan forbids it. We know where she is, who she’s with, but Nolan is too caught up in Gio’s recovery and trying to find out why someone would attack him because of Juliet to realize that she could be in danger without us around to protect her.
So, what do I do in the interim?
The short answer: I go fucking insane. Staying awake at all hours, staring at the ceiling, lying in a bed with her clothes and the sheets that have remained unwashed because they still smell somewhat like her. When I close my eyes, I dream of her. Soft skin sliding over mine, ocean blue hair between my fingers, pink lips parted to accept my cock.
There’s still so much more I want to do with her. When I hadn’t known what it was like—having her at my mercy, beneath me, on top of me, her scent all over me—it’d been easier to resist. Now that I know… it’s like offering a dying man the cure to his disease and telling him that he can’t have it.
The long answer of what I do is a bit more complex. I do what I do best. Stalk her. Watch her. Take my pictures. Roquel Lee is a classic teenage girl. She has a laptop that’s easily hackable. A phone that she takes far too many pictures on. SnapBird is an app she’s particularly fond of—allowing users to send temporary photos and messages before they’re erased. Nothing is ever truly erased, though, and it’s child’s play to hack her account and find everything.
In many of her photos over the last week, Juliet’s been there. In the background. Reading on a bed. Half dressed, coming out of the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging from her mouth. Flipping off the camera when Roquel actually bothers to make her the star—a rare occurrence. Each hint at her life away from us makes me feral to have her back in my space.
I want her in my bathroom, in my bed, in my clothes. Not some random cunt’s. The rage nearly pushes me over the edge into dangerous kidnapping territory. Then again, if they would simply let me take her when she least expects it and tie her to my bed, we wouldn’t have to worry about her running off.
“He’s thinking about it again,” G warns as I drive towards the red bricked school building that makes up Silverwood Public.
I cast him a look in my rearview mirror but don’t respond.
“As long as he’s not acting on it, that’s all that matters,” Nolan responds absently, his eyes on his phone screen.
“You know these things come in stages,” G says. “If he’s obsessing too hard, then the next step is for him to act on his urges.”
That finally has Nolan lifting his head and turning to look at me. “You’re not going to kidnap her,” he states.
I don’t say a damn word. I’m not making any promises. I’ve waited for Juliet Donovan long enough. If she doesn’t come to her senses sooner rather than later, then I will be forced to take matters into my own hands—no matter what he says.
Nolan’s expression darkens when I don’t answer. “ Alexio .”
My upper lip peels back from my teeth in a snarl as I pull the SUV into a sharp halt, sliding halfway across two lanes and not giving a fuck. I jerk up the emergency break as I slam the gear shift into park. Nolan points at me.
“No.”
My hands clench on the steering wheel to keep from rounding on my best friend and punching him in the face. “If you don’t want me to take care of it”—the words come out slow and measured—“then get her back or I will .”
Nolan has no chance to respond because Gio speaks up again from the back seat. “She’s here.”
Together, our heads whip to the side and spot a familiar head of aqua-blue hair pulled up high into a ponytail get out of the passenger seat of a shitty Toyota Camry. The SUV is off and my seatbelt is unbuckled before I even realize I’ve moved. By then, it’s too late and I’m already stepping out of the vehicle and moving across the pavement of the parking lot.
“Lex!” G calls after me as car doors slam shut behind me.
Dressed in a pair of leggings that conform to every shape of her legs and ass and a soft gray sweatshirt with white paint stains over the front and sides, Juliet turns at the sound of my name. Sunglasses hide her eyes from me, but I don’t let that deter me. Over the top of the Camry, Roquel smirks, seeming amused if not a little unsure.
“Catch you later?” she asks, directing her attention to Juliet.
Juliet merely nods without a verbal response, and Roquel books it towards the school building. I’m dimly aware of several others in the parking lot watching us. Both Nolan and G have caught up to me by the time I reach her. My nostrils flare and I grimace in distaste. She doesn’t smell like herself, but like weed and a sickly-sweet perfume that’s also leaking out of Roquel’s car.
“Where the fuck have you been?” I demand. Though I know the answer, she can’t yet know that we’ve been keeping tabs on her.
Her dainty chin tips upward and her glare is heated through the black reflective surface of her sunglasses. “None of your business.” This close I can pick out the hints of freckles on her cheeks and nose. They’re so light that only a light dusting of makeup would cover them, but I see them and I want to know each and every one of them.
Towering over her, I back her into the Camry’s side until both of my arms come down on either side of her, pinning her in. She doesn’t flinch or try to get away. Not my baby. She’s far too stubborn to fear me even when she should.
“You didn’t answer my calls.”
“Or your texts,” she agrees.
A growl rumbles in my throat. “ Why? ”
With a practiced move, she shoves the sunglasses up her face until our gazes collide for real. “Because I didn’t feel like it,” she says. “Did you think that just because you fucked me that it gave you the right to lay claim on me?”
Fucking her didn’t give me the right to claim her. Nothing did. I simply took it because I wanted it and whether she realizes it or not, Juliet has been mine since we were five. She will be mine until we’re old and gray and then after when we’re rotting in our graves side by fucking side.
“Alright, big guy,” Gio’s soothing tone is anything but as he wraps a solid arm around my waist and pries me away from her. I let him more out of deference to his still healing ribs than anything else, but I keep my gaze trained on Juliet’s. “Let’s take a deep breath and not give the vultures something to pick at later, yeah?”
Vultures meaning the eyes we have on us—that we always have on us. Juliet would know all about that sufferance, though. She’s been under close scrutiny her whole life too, if not for different reasons. Us—for what we might do, who we might hurt or how we’ll ruin them. Her—for what she wore, what she ate, who she pretended to be… until she didn’t need to pretend anymore. She doesn’t with us and she knows it. It’s why she’s drawn to us.
We scared her, I realize as Nolan steps in front of Gio and me, capturing her attention as her eyes snap to his. Instead of making his own demands, Nolan glances down the length of her body before reaching out and flicking a paint stain on the sweatshirt she’s wearing with the back of his nail.
“Nice clothes,” he comments. “Borrow these from your friend?”
Juliet rolls her tongue into the side of her cheek before shaking her head. “Nope. Bought them myself. Roquel’s shown me how great bargain hunting can be this last week. I had to replenish my closet after all, and she gives me a lift to work when she can if I give her gas money.”
Gio’s arm goes lax on me and he turns towards her. “We really didn’t burn down your apartment, Prep Girl,” he says, dropping his voice so that none of the onlookers watching can hear.
She cuts her gaze to him. “I believe that you didn’t,” she says. “But these two?” Her eyes slide over me before moving to Nolan. “They have no alibi.”
The muscles in my arms bunch as I clench my fists, the reaction of each strained nerve and vein popping against my skin as I glare at her. “I would never put you in danger, babygirl.”
Her lips curl down at the nickname and she shakes her head, turning away and sliding her glasses the rest of the way off her head, clicking the plastic ends closed against her side. “Yeah, well, we both know how great the three of you are at lying, so forgive me if I don’t trust you.”
Just as she’s about to walk away and I’m about to dive on top of her, Nolan reaches out and captures her arm. Her eyes go to his. “You can’t avoid us forever,” he warns her. “At some point, we’ll get tired of playing this game of yours and we’ll drag you back where you belong.”
The laugh that comes from her is dry and it makes my ears hurt. “Where exactly is that, Nolan?” Her hand lands on his chest and pushes him back. He releases her, but doesn’t move far. “I’m not a Scorpion girl, guys. I’m not even a real Public girl. I’m an outcast. You had your fun. You fucked the girl whose dad ruined the town and fucked her over in the process. You got revenge for everyone. Congratu-fucking-lations.”
Damn it. I know that’s what people are saying. What they’ve been saying all week after the information had come out about her apartment building burning down. There’s not a fucking complex or landlord in Silverwood that’ll take her application now. Being eighteen also exempts her from help from social services. She already turned them down once. Even if she hadn’t—she’s right about the town. They wanted revenge on her and no one is willing to help her now.
It’s a wonder she even has a friend willing to let her stay with them, but Roquel Lee has always been a bit of an odd duckling. Ma-Ri’s niece plays by her own rules and drifts in and out of the Public scene as she wants. She knows everyone and is close to no one.
None of that erases the fact, though, that someone is definitely out to get our girl. Someone hired Otis to break into her apartment and rape her. Someone had Gio jumped to warn him away from her. Someone burned down her apartment—and no matter what she thinks, it wasn’t us.
All of that makes me wonder if perhaps her father’s claims of innocence don’t hold some weight. It’s awfully convenient that in the last six months of her life, Juliet’s whole world has crashed and burned. Her father is in jail. Her mother left town and abandoned her. It’s beginning to paint a picture and she’s at the center of it.
“We did not —” Nolan’s voice is dangerously low as he speaks before she cuts him off, ripping herself from his grasp.
“Do me a favor,” she bites out, pinning not just him with her furious gaze, but all of us. “Leave me the hell alone or I’ll make you regret it. You want to test me? You want to see what a fallen elite can do when she’s pushed to the edge? I can make that happen.”
She spits out each word like a poisoned dagger. Then, as if her whole demeanor shifts, she softens, moving closer. Trailing a hand down Nolan’s chest and leaving all of us frozen in confused surprise. Her eyelids lower and her lashes flutter as she pushes up against him, brushing his chest with her luscious tits. She rises onto her toes and in the distance, I hear other students murmuring, the snap of pictures being taken.
Then Nolan grunts as she palms his dick right through his jeans and by the way he stiffens, it’s not with pleasure in mind. “I can show you that all kings were meant to fall eventually, even the three of you.”