Home > Lust (The Elite Seven #1)(16)

Lust (The Elite Seven #1)(16)
Author: Ker Dukey

He’s fucking moving.

With sluggish movements he lifts up onto his knees, groaning in pain. Shit.

“What the hell?” He groans lifting himself up further and making it to his feet. Holding a hand to the back of his head he winces and checks his palm for blood.

I need to pick my jaw up that’s slack and say something but words won’t form past the stone in my throat.

Swaying on unsteady feet he looks around until he sees me. Blinking as if to clear his thoughts he groans out. “What’s going on, Rhett?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Pride turns his angry glare on me. “Did you check him for a fucking pulse?”

Well, shit.

“I…erm…”

“Did anyone?” Pride fumes.

A cackle of laughter roars through the air, and Envy bends over to slap at his knee.

“Classic.” He swipes tears from his eyes. “I’ve got this,” he finishes. Pulling a blade from a strap on his ankle, he waltzes toward my dad, making him stammer backwards and trip on the uneven terrain in fear of his life.

I’m solidified, the roots of the wilderness binding me to my spot as heat flushes up my spine and sprouts spores all over my body.

He’s not dead.

“Dude,” God snaps at Envy.

Pride stops his advance with a tug on his arm and a shake of his head.

“What?” Envy asks, confused.

“Dude?” God says again, shaking his head. “Put the knife away.”

“Where the fuck did you get the knife?” Greed screws his face up, judging Envy’s crazy.

“Rhett, what’s going on?” my dad asks, a quake in his voice. Bugs bite at all our skin, and the whispering of the trees makes the place feel haunted as fuck. I inhale the first real breath since taking his ass down earlier tonight. Sucking at the air to fill my lungs, it feels like I’ve been in a choke hold, the devil breathing down my neck, hell climbing into my soul.

“You hit me,” I say, unsure what the hell is happening myself. I thought he was dead. In my panic, I didn’t even check his pulse.

“My head hurts,” he groans.

“You fell and hit your head,” God tells him.

“Why are we out here, and who are these people?” he questions, wary.

Stepping forward, Pride towers over my dad’s hunched over form, his build alone intimidating as shit. “We’re his brothers, and we’re willing to do whatever necessary to protect him, and his future, even if that means you gotta lose yours,” Pride warns, his threat razor sharp.

“What happened tonight?” God asks him. The other’s crowd in around him like serpents ready to strike.

Stuttering and gasping for air, my dad scans the pack surrounding him and nods in understanding. “I fell and hit my head. Rhett took me to hospital. That’s it.”

“That’s it,” Pride repeats, the warning as loud as a lion’s roar.

God’s always had my back, but knowing the lengths others are willing to go for me gives me a sense of invincibility and the feeling of family I’ve been missing lately.

My dad has given me a wide berth since that night. And the bond between the seven of us feels like a lifetime of friendships, not a week.

Pride is already at the convent when I arrive. Lit candles surround him as he reads over a card in his hands.

“Just us?” he asks as I make my presence known.

“God,” I call out, and my best friend steps out from behind the door.

Standing, Pride nods and holds the card between his finger and thumb.

“I’ve been given your task.” His lips slice into a thin line.

Anticipation shudders through me. This is it—what it’s going to cost for my membership.

“You want me to read it out loud, or…?” I take the card from his hand and swallow.

“You should know,” he says, serious and firm.

“The coin given to you by The Elite offers you one trade or future favor. If you cash it in, to forfeit your task, you won’t be given a choice of the second task chosen for you. You will need to follow it through or be expelled as a candidate. Using your coin now leaves you no future favors, shall you ever need something not given freely by The Elite,” he urges with a firm grip to my shoulder. “Think carefully about this choice. You only get one.”

“Noted.” I open the card and read the ink elegantly swirled on the paper.

Lust,

Your task is sin of the flesh.

Miss. C. Griffins.

Academic protégé.

Heir to her family fortune.

Daughter to the Dean of St. Augustine.

Seduce the forbidden fruit.

Document the sin.

Bribery shall The Elite ever need it.

It’s signed with the stamp, same logo as on the coin.

“She sounds like a perfect candidate for The Elite,” I scoff.

“Maybe she was.” Pride quirks a brow, a wicked grin curling up his lip.

Hands bare down on my shoulders from behind, God squeezing. “Romeo, Romeo,” he mocks in a playful manner.

Taking the card from my hand, Pride holds it up. “You got it?”

“Easy,” I offer him a grin of my own, but it’s all bravado. Seducing women out of their panties isn’t an issue for me, I’ve been a pro at it ever since my balls dropped, but filming her without her knowledge and giving it over so fuck knows how many people can view it doesn’t sit well with me.

I’m an asshole, but that much of one?

Pulling a silver lighter from his pocket, Pride lights the card, the flame taking hold, consuming my task.

Dropping it to the floor, we all watch transfixed as the amber flame dies out and ash is the only thing remaining.

Now, all I need to do is find out who Miss Griffin is.

Arriving back at the house, I’m met on the driveway by an electrician’s truck and my dad hurrying out the house.

“You’ll need to order dinner in,” he tells me, rushing to his car.

“What’s with the workmen?” I call after him.

“That’s your best friend’s doing, not mine,” he calls back.

God offers me a wicked smile and lets himself into the house, taking the stairs two at a time.

I follow him to my room and find him in the attached bathroom.

“What the…?”

The light in my bathroom is now a black light.

“You’re going to want to see your tattoo once you smash this task,” he informs me.

“The tattoos only show under these lights. It’s why I’ve never seen my dads.”

I snort. “That, and his is probably lost in his rolls,” I jest.

Ignoring my insult, he says, “At the club, I saw one on the thigh of a woman.” He waggles his eyebrows.

“Do you think it’s wrong to film me fucking her?” I ask, changing the subject and finally letting some of my apprehension filter out.

“Since when do you have morals?” He jabs me in the arm. “You’ll get this done in no time. Don’t let yourself think about her, this is about you.”

About me.

“No matter what the task is, remember,” he reminds me of my own words.

“Right. We have to do this,” I say, not just to him, but to myself.

“No matter what,” I reaffirm.

Following him back downstairs, he rummages through our cupboards, coming up empty.

“Dude, where’s the fucking food?”

Cocking a brow, I pull my cell phone out. “Chill, Gluttony, I’ll order some pizza.”

Two hours later, I’ve eaten two thirds of the pizza and a liter of soda, and God hasn’t touched his. Instead, he’s waiting not so patiently for me to get ready to go racing with him.

He’s going to be pissed when I bail. I just want to get high and try to crash.

God is absent from campus again. My text from him this morning was at four a.m. and he was still out.

God: Want to get high?

I was already high and tossing and turning in my sweat-drenched sheets.

Dreams of Robbie were mixed with dreams of an unknown female crying. A video was spread through campus of her being fucked in every orifice by me.

My soul was heavy. Maybe this chick will turn out to be a fucking cunt and then I won’t feel so bad.

Lies.

Pride is in the waiting area when I reach the counselor’s room. It’s going to be twice as hard to talk to her now knowing I have to fuck her stepchild.

Intrigue prickles my thoughts as to why Pride has to see her. Has he lost someone like me?

“What’s up?” he acknowledges me.

“You have an appointment?” I ask, checking the clock. It’s just ticking on ten, which is when my appointment starts.

He shakes his head no, then holds up a folder, but doesn’t elaborate on what’s in it.

“I have to drop these off.”

The door opens, and Lillian appears, well put-together and fresh. Her hair is pulled so tight, it lifts her eyes to almost slits.

“Rhett. Go on inside,” she orders, stepping out from her office and going to Pride.

Yes, ma’am.

Closing the door behind me, I hit a fog wall of stuffy air. Moving over to her window, I nudge the thing open. The weather is humid as hell, like being in a steam room. You can taste peoples’ sweat in the corridors, it’s so sticky.

My interest moves to her shelves dominating the back wall. Books, files, pictures. My heart stammers when my fingers trace over a family photo of Lillian, the dean, and none other than Chastity.

Shit.

The opening of the door alerts me to Lillian’s arrival. She catches me with the picture in my hand and raises one of her perfectly shaped brows.

“Chastity,” I say, pointing to the image like an idiot.

“Yes,” she confirms, taking the picture from my hand and placing it back on the shelf.

How have I not noticed it until now?

“She’s my stepdaughter, hence her knowing her way around the campus as well as she does.” She smiles.

   
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