21. Juliet
21
JULIET
C uriosity holds me tight in its wicked grip.
Lex and Gio look like dark avenging angels as they stand in the little clearing Rich and Josh chose to lead their prey to. Dressed in black jeans and an equally dark hoodie, Lex cants his head to the side, eyes sliding from the man in his hold to me as Gio reaches down, hauling Josh up from the ground and holding him aloft.
A flash of silver catches my attention and my eyes drop to a chain that dangles out of one of Lex’s jeans' front pockets. It spans around the side, disappearing into the back. Unlike Josh and Rich, whose attire—worn jeans, sneakers, and faded jerseys—speak of their athleticism, Lex looks more goth than jock right now. Gio’s not far behind.
“G-Gio, man,” Josh stutters as his eyes span quickly to Rich’s and back. “W-what are you doing out here?”
Like a snake watching its quarry, Gio Vargas tilts his head and scans down Josh’s frame before returning to his face. If Josh expects an answer, Gio doesn’t give him one. I slide back against the tree I’m braced against, my hand reaching out and skidding over harsh bark until a splinter digs into my palm.
A hiss escapes my teeth as I yank my hand away. In the dim lighting, Lex’s head jerks towards me and a low growl emits into the air, freezing the blood in my veins. I go still, my breath shuddering to a stop in my throat. That growl … that sound … there’s nothing human about it. It’s the sound of an enraged animal, violent and ready to tear through bone and flesh.
“Don’t kill them.” Gio finally says, but it’s not what any of us expect.
The responding growl thrums through the air, growing in volume before tapering off. Sweat coats the back of my neck and the adrenaline that had hit me when I realized just how much danger I’d placed myself in by coming out here to save that Cara girl screams back to the surface.
Lex scrubs his free hand down his face and then back over the longer strands of ink-black hair at the top of his head. The glint of metal under the moonlight reflects against the rings he wears. I find myself focusing on them, needing something to ground me in the scene before me. One ring is a simple, plain band. Another is shaped in small links—a chain. And the middle one is a skull.
A shiver skates down my spine.
“W-we were just fucking around, G,” Josh continues in a rush of air. He’s not fighting Gio’s hold, but neither is he comfortable.
My eyes flash over Gio’s face. Unlike his friend, he’s standing directly under a beam of moonlight that floods the clearing, the light illuminating the raw anger in his expression. The muscles in his forearm bunch and bulge, forcing his veins to stand out next to the seam of his shoved-up hoodie sleeve. Black inked lines circle his arms and disappear beneath the fabric.
“We both know what you were doing out here, Josh.” Gio's voice is a cool mask of indifference even though his face is anything but.
“You don’t know fuck all!” Rich snaps, kicking out against Lex in a futile attempt to break free. “Why do you even care? No one wants that bitch around anyway. Donovan is the reason all our parents lost their fucking jobs!”
I stiffen, the pain in my hand and calf temporarily forgotten in a brief moment of all-encompassing fury. Before I can step forward and correct him though, Lex’s fist jolts out and slams into Rich’s face. Once, twice, and by the third strike Rich sags, his head lolling to the side as he goes unconscious. Not that his awareness, or lack thereof, seems to stop Lex.
No. Instead, Lex continues to beat Rich’s face in. The sharp crunch of cartilage breaking under his knuckles echoes into the night and the sound seems to break something in Josh.
“Dude, he’s killing him!” Josh scrambles, bucking against Gio’s grip. With a sigh, Gio releases his captive and steps to the side. Josh stumbles at the sudden freedom he finds and catapults himself into a nearby tree.
At first, I think Gio’s letting him go, but that’s not the case. He turns and plants his hands on his hips, watching on as Lex releases his unconscious victim and attacks Josh. With a barely stifled shout of dismay, Lex takes the other man down, gripping him by the head and slamming it against the ground.
“Stop!” The begging yell is swallowed by the sound of Josh’s skull meeting the hard-packed earth. The air in my lungs becomes stifling, swallowing in on itself until all I can taste is foul carbon on the back of my tongue.
Josh goes silent a few minutes later and his body collapses into the leaves and underbrush. I wait a beat, wanting to see if Lex will stop now that his second victim is also unconscious. He doesn’t. He just keeps pounding away in near silence. I don’t even think he’s breathing particularly hard or with any effort.
A minute passes. Then another. And another.
Someone should stop this. They should tell Lex he’s done enough, but I don’t want to be the one to end Josh’s torment, even if he isn’t aware of it. That cruel, wicked sensation from earlier rises back up inside me.
I wait to feel guilt start to creep in, but it never does.
In its place, I feel nothing but satisfaction.
I glance at Gio to see if he’s going to end Lex’s actions any time soon, but he’s no longer watching his friend. His eyes are fixed squarely on me.
I jerk back, nearly falling on my ass as something smacks the back of my legs. He advances on me and I don’t have time to step over the root that stopped my retreat before he’s on me, grabbing me by my upper arms and pressing me against the very same tree Josh had.
“Hey!” I shove a hand against his chest, forgetting about the splinter and biting back a curse when the action forces it deeper into my flesh.
Gio’s dark eyes narrow on me and he hovers closer. “Don’t fucking think you’re blameless either, Prep Girl,” he snarls. “What were you thinking following these guys out here?”
“None of your damn business.” Balling my hands into fists and ignoring the ache in my palm, I press him back a step. “But if you’re done going caveman on me, I’m leaving.”
“No, we’re not done,” he says. “Not by a long shot.” Then he turns his head and barks over his shoulder. “Lex! Get your ass up and stop beating them. They’re too unconscious to enjoy it.”
The consistent thudding of a fist meeting an unresisting body ceases and the shadow that is Lex appears over Gio’s shoulder. The irony of trading Josh and Rich for two of the Scorpion Kings is not lost on me. When Lex moves closer, his big body remains shockingly silent as if he’s not real but a wraith, a creature belonging to these woods. My ribcage constricts tightly around my heart and lungs.
Rich and Josh might have been two men high on the power of being strong, but Lex and Gio are different. In the world of Silverwood, they are filthy kings. Monsters in their own right. I tip my head back and wait for them to pass their royal judgment, but no words escape their lips. They remain silent as the noises of the forest return gradually to replace the silence I hadn’t even realized held us in a bubble. A small animal chitters nearby as it squirrels away in the underbrush. The scream of insects seeking a mate echo into the night. A strange sort of pressure keeps me locked in place.
Neither of them had hesitated to attack Rich or Josh. Gio had known what Lex would do if he released his prey. Turning my cheek, I gaze past them to the two men collapsed on the ground, their faces each beaten to a bloody pulp.
Josh’s nose is at an awkward angle that tells me it’s certainly broken and blood runs down under his nostrils over his upper and lower lip, dripping down his chin. Gravity grabs ahold of that dark crimson liquid and drags it further down, coating his Adam’s apple with it. I’m so consumed by watching the blood drip down Josh’s face that I almost forget I’m standing here, held up against a tree by a man I certainly don’t trust. Gio’s hands ease on my upper arms and move up until they’re cupped on either side of my throat—the feeling catapults me back to reality with all the subtlety of a raging bull.
Yanking my gaze back to his face, I scowl up at the handsome playboy of Silverwood Public. “You gonna let me go?” I demand.
Gio leans closer, and Lex does the same. I’m surrounded by the scent of fire and musk, the two masculine bodies against me now so very different from the ones before. My belly drops and my thighs tremble as an emotion I thought I’d left behind months ago burns to life.
Arousal.
Oh. Fuck. No. I shake my head and try to dispel the sensation, but it doesn’t leave.
“Did they hurt you?” Gio asks, the question quiet in the otherwise too-loud night sounds.
My heartbeat races in my ears, rushing along with the sound of my blood through my veins. I shake my head again, though I’m not sure if it’s to answer him or to try and get rid of the unwelcome attraction swarming my body.
As disturbed as I am by my body's reaction, all it does is make me viscerally aware of the two men crowding me in the dark. Their large frames make everything else disappear—blocking out the rest of the clearing so I can no longer see the bodies collapsed on the ground. All I can see is them.
My breathing picks up, growing faster and faster as Gio’s thumbs rub soothingly along the sides of my throat. Damn him. I don’t want to be soothed or comforted and definitely not by him.
I switch my attention from him to Lex. “Let me go,” I demand.
Lex doesn’t say anything. Instead, he just stares at me with those dark, soulless eyes of his. Air dries up in my lungs and I choke when I want to say something, though I’m not sure what. Silence lingers between the three of us, cold and filled with tension. Their shoulders rise and fall with the effort of their own breaths, and after a moment of carefully examining Lex’s face, I realize that it’s speckled … with freckles? No, not freckles. He’s speckled with blood. My insides clench but not in fear. I stifle a groan of disbelief. I can’t find a man covered in blood sexy because that would make me fucked in the head. Damn it, I am fucked in the head.
“Who the fuck brought you here tonight?” Lex demands, his voice a deep gravelly rasp.
I blink. “Why does that matter to you?”
He stares back at me, but his expression is so imperceptible I can’t tell if he’s surprised or angry. “Answer the question and I’ll step back,” Gio murmurs.
I latch on to the bargain without a second thought. I need to get the two of them away from me. I need them both to stop fucking touching me. “Not that it’s any of your business, but my friend Roquel brought me tonight.”
The heat burning my insides diminishes but only marginally as Gio makes good on his promise and takes a step back, forcing Lex to do the same. I sigh and fold my arms over my chest, shooting them both a dark glare.
“You want to explain what you thought you were doing, following these two out here?” Gio reintroduces his earlier question with a much calmer tone than the one Lex had used.
I glance over their shoulders to Josh and Rich before returning to meet their gazes. “Not particularly.” They don’t need to know.
Gio bends slightly as he looks at me, gaze scanning my face and lower. The color of his eyes, already nearly ebony turns into darkness itself. My lashes brush my lids as I stare up into his face. It’s like looking into a never-ending void. You know what they say … once you look into the void for long enough, it begins to look back into you.
Right now, I very much think it is. I think he is the void.
This is insane. They are insane, and I need to get the fuck away from them before it’s too late.
“Listen.” I blow out a breath as I reach up and put a hand over Gio’s chest, pushing lightly to give myself some more breathing room. Not that it helps. The motherfucker doesn’t budge a single inch. Instead, his breath hitches and he makes an odd sound in the back of his throat. I whip my hand back in an instant but don’t comment.
“I appreciate you coming to help me.” The words are pulled like nails from my throat. I really don’t want to say them, but I’m not so much of a bitch that I won’t admit when I’ve been given a break, even if that break is from one of the bastards trying to wreck my life. “I didn’t ask for your help, but it’s done now and it’s not like we’re friends—quite the opposite actually—so?—”
I shuffle to the side, sidling out from the wall of muscle that surrounds me. A thick arm, corded with muscle snaps out and halts my escape. Tilting my head back, I gape as Lex captures my hand—the same one that had touched Gio. He pulls it towards himself, pressing the flat of my palm against his chest.
“Why are we the opposite?” Lex’s question is full of an enigmatic emotion, but the deep baritone of his voice vibrates across every molecule of my flesh.
The heat of his hand on mine, keeping me in place, is like a brand to my nervous system. It takes my brain a second longer than usual to catch up with his words. “ What? ” Is he serious? “Because you hate me. Everyone in Silverwood hates me.”
“Hate?” Lex’s head tilts to the side, and though I can’t pick up the fine details of his expression, I can tell that the movement is one of either confusion or curiosity. I tug against his hold. He doesn’t release me. Doesn’t even react to the action. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks, but I don’t hate you, Jules.”
Jules? My upper lip curls back, baring my teeth. He doesn’t get to call me Jules. We’re not fucking friends.
“ Let go .” I hiss the words between my teeth, pulling harder on my trapped hand. The muscles of his chest are impossibly hard. I try not to think about how close our bodies are.
“No,” he snaps in answer to my demand.
My eyes skip back to Gio, expecting him to step forward and do something to stop his friend. To my utter shock, the corner of his mouth is tilted upward and he stands back, folding his arms as he watches on with amusement twisting his expression. Asshole.
“This is stupid.” I tug on my hand again to no avail. My scowl deepens and I yank harder on the hand holding mine in place, right against his pectoral. “Don’t pretend—you and the entire fucking school have been out to get me from day one,” I snap.
Lex glances at Gio. “Are you still out to get her?” he asks. At least, he’s admitting that my words aren’t all false.
Gio snorts. “Not that it would do me much good if I was, but no. I’m not out to get you either, Prep Girl.”
I swivel to gape at him. “You could’ve fooled me.” Sarcasm and rage drip from my words. “Your girlfriend is still after me.”
Gio’s amusement fades in an instant. “I don’t have girlfriends,” is all he says.
I’d feel bad for Megan except … I don’t. She’s a fucking bitch. I stop fighting against Lex’s hold—it’s getting me nowhere.
“Fine,” I grit out. “Then your fuck buddy—I don’t care what you call her. The fact remains, you haven’t exactly made my life easier since I transferred to Silverwood Public. You’ll forgive me if I don’t necessarily trust you enough to tell you about my life.”
“I’m not asking about your life,” Lex says, drawing my attention back to him. The lock he has on my wrist remains ironclad.
“No?” I laugh, but the sound is a dry, ugly thing. “Then what are you doing?” I flex my fingers against his chest, feeling the throb in my palm from the splinter there.
He lifts my palm, dragging it up with his hold. The press of muscles covered by fabric under my hand distracts me just long enough for him to pull my hand all the way to his mouth. I hiss out a breath as his tongue touches the exact placement of the sliver of wood embedded there. I jerk back, a pained noise escaping my throat.
“What’s wrong?” Gio is there, his big body pressing against my side as he forces me closer into Lex.
“Nothing, it’s just a—” A gasp interrupts my words as Lex’s teeth bite down. The shard of bark shifts and I realize a split second later that Lex isn’t biting me but the splinter. With careful ministrations, he pulls my hand straight down as he extracts the painful little piece of wood from my palm in a practiced fashion. More heat pours into me, lava flooding my stomach and sinking lower to the place between my legs. Damn them .
“That hurts.” My complaint falls flat both because it’s no longer true and because of the breathless sound of my own voice.
“It shouldn’t anymore.” Gio’s voice is a quiet weapon. Sinking into me just as much as the warmth from both of their bodies.
“Why are you doing this?” It doesn’t make sense.
In places like Silverwood—where the rich and poor can be separated by little more than a series of train tracks separating the rich from the poor and the luck of birth—the reality is simple. Power goes to either those who are born with it or those who will do anything to achieve it.
For men like the Scorpion Kings, power isn’t a byproduct of birth. Power is in their blood, sweat, and sacrifices. They may not have money, but they have everything else—strength, brotherhood, and respect. People fear them as much as they envy them. Women want to fuck them. Men want to be them.
Not me.
“Why can’t you let someone help you without complaining?” Gio asks, ignoring my question.
A low snarl erupts from me and I try to pull myself back from them. In response, Lex and Gio step closer, forcing me between them—crushing me with their fire and strength.
“We’re not friends,” I snap back.
Lex moves closer and for some reason—some insane illogical sense that he won’t cause me harm at this moment—I don’t flinch away from him. “Do you want to be my friend, Juliet?” he asks.
The sensation of familiarity at those words niggles at the back of my head, an old memory cropping up. Do you want to be my friend, Juliet?
“Juliet?” Lex’s questioning tone brings me back to the present and I shake my head, warding off the strangest sense that I’ve heard him ask that before.
“No,” I say, not sure if I'm telling the truth. “No, I don’t want a friend.” What I want is freedom. I want to get away from this place, from this godforsaken town, from the destruction my family caused. I want to go somewhere else where I can start anew and be someone else, find out who I am without the past haunting me and turning me into someone else.
I close my eyes and inhale deeply, trying to stave off the worst of my rage lest it completely overwhelm me. When I reopen them, it’s to find that both Lex and Gio have released me. A cold autumn wind cuts through the trees and fills me up, a balm to my overheated flesh.
“Give me your phone,” Lex demands.
I blink up at him. “I don’t have one.”
Now it’s his turn to blink. “ What ?” His voice takes on a new pitch, rising in shock. “What the hell do you mean you don’t have a cell phone? You have to have one.”
I shrug even as my voice comes out defensive. “Not sure if you’re aware of this, but cell phones cost money and I don’t have any.” Humiliation burns a hot wave of acid through my stomach at my admission. I’d had a phone months ago and it went the same way as my life—to shit.
“You have a job,” Gio points out. “How does your work get a hold of you?”
I look away from eyes that, even in this darkness, see too much. “I still have a laptop,” I answer. “There are programs and shit you can get to make it look like you have a phone number. It’ll record a voicemail and send those and texts to your email. I usually check it a couple of times a day when I’m at home.” In my lone studio apartment with the barest necessities.
My, my, how the mighty have fallen.
A tense, silent moment passes. Lex’s grasp on me loosens enough for me to pull free and shake my hand out. I put my palm to my chest, rubbing it absently, feeling the heat of his skin elevate. The splinter is gone, but the ache remains. “Are we done here?”
Silence and then a hand rises up. I stiffen, but all he does is hover it near my face for a brief moment. The heat of him is right there, so fucking close, and yet he doesn’t touch me. It’s almost as if he’s waiting for me to come to him, for me to ask for it. Fat chance of that happening.
Instead, I take a healthy step back, away from Lex's big shadowed body, and glance at Gio. Between the two of them, G seems to be the safer bet.
“Thanks for your help,” I say again, sounding far less grateful than my words would lead someone to believe. I can’t help it. The two of them make me feel vulnerable in a way I won’t allow myself to be ever again. Not to anyone. “I gotta head back to the party.”
“I will take you back.” Lex drops his hand as he makes the offer.
I wave a hand through the air. “No, thanks. I got it.”
“I wasn’t asking,” he says, reaching down and finding my arm with his fingers. Lex steps up to me and I nearly jerk back another foot, only stopping the automatic action by sheer force of will.
“ Lex .” Gio’s voice is hard, but there’s a wealth of meaning behind the single syllable.
A bolt of electricity races through my nerve endings at the feather-light touch of his hand on my arm, and I’m grateful when Lex releases me quickly.
“I don’t need your help.”
Lex’s eyes aren’t on me now though. They’re on Gio’s face. “She needs?—”
“We have our orders,” Gio says, cutting off Lex’s argument.
I pass a look between them even as I shuffle back towards the path that I came through before. “I can find my way back.” Though I mean for the words to sound reassuring, they come out a bit thready.
Two pairs of equally dark eyes meet mine, and though I know they’re two different colors, in the shadow of the woods, they look the same. Like two wild creatures watching me as I back away from them.
“Be careful on your way back, Prep Girl,” Gio murmurs. “Don’t stop to rescue any other idiots.”
I nod, and the second I feel I’ve been dismissed, I turn and make my way out of the clearing. When the trees part to reveal the shitty cars lined up along the forest’s edge, I glance back one last time. Nothing. Not even the hint of their shadows. More shivers move up and down my spine. Closing my arms around myself, I turn and trudge toward the party-goers. If I have any luck at all, I’ll find Madison and Roquel fairly quickly. I don’t care if it makes me a shitty friend, either, but the second I do, I’m getting the hell out of this party and away from the likes of the Scorpion Kings.