Her face isn’t the one that greets me at my bedroom door. Mrs. Griffin’s is.
It’s like the fates realign to make my tasks easy for me, but it’s more tormenting than anything.
“What are you doing here?”
She pushes into my room, placing her handbag on my desk.
“Nice place,” she compliments.
“Thanks? How did you get in here?”
“You’ve been avoiding me. The terms of your enrollment were made clear to you.”
Fuck.
“I think I know why you’ve been avoiding me.”
The steam from the shower begins billowing from the open door. Holding up a finger, I excuse myself to turn the water off. Are guidance counselors allowed to make house calls to student’s bedrooms?
Turning the shower off, the vent kicks in, clearing the steam, and my eyes bug out of my head when I turn to find Mrs. Griffin in the doorway wearing nothing but black lace lingerie and black stockings.
What the fuck is happening?
“I see the way you look at me, the way you check out my pictures, and it’s okay. I feel it too. How can we deny something that feels so powerful?” she says, sauntering her half-naked ass over to me.
Her arms come up around my neck, and cement fills my bones.
Did I fall asleep? How the hell could she think I looked at her some way—and act on it?
Not that I did…have…do—fuck, now my internal voice sounds like Chastity. Shit…Chastity.
I grab her arms and pull them from around my neck, placing them against her chest. “Nope,” I state, matter-of-fact.
“What?”
“Hard pass. Not happening. Not interested.”
“But…”
Damn woman. She’s clearly never been turned down before. Truth is, before Chastity, I may have fucked her for shits and giggles, but after Chastity? No way in hell. I don’t want to fuck another soul.
Lillian’s lips pull into a thin line, her eyes narrowing. “You don’t want this?”
It’s then I see it. My stomach rolls and, heat explodes up my spine. Under the blacklight God had fitted in here, The Elite mark glows.
“You’re Elite?” I shake my head, grabbing her wrist and straightening her arm. She attempts to tug it free from my grasp, but she’s weaker than piss.
I lift her arm above her head. Tucked right near her armpit is The Elite mark, Envy written beneath their logo.
She’s Envy for the class of god knows when.
Why would they want me to fuck a member?
I weaken my hold, and she snatches back her arm. “You’ll regret this,” she snaps.
I follow her retreat into my room. She bends to swipe up her jacket, the only thing covering her scantily clad form.
“Did The Elite put you up to seducing me?” I ask, bewildered.
She rounds on me with pity in her features, shaking her head at me.
“Why would The Elite want me to seduce you?” she snaps. Good question. It’s just fucking weird I’m given the task to fuck her and here she is doing the job for me.
“I thought you wanted this.” She laughs without humor, slipping her shoes on and grabbing her purse.
“I’ll see you for our session next week,” she throws over her shoulder, slamming my bedroom door like nothing happened.
Fuck this, I need to talk to Pride.
I get to the bottom of my street and frown when I see God’s car parked on the corner with him inside. Pulling up next to him, I lower my window, and he does the same.
“Hey,” he says, hesitant.
“What are you doing here?”
“You said do whatever it takes,” he reminds me.
“Yeah well, I guess some of us are willing to go the extra mile. My mom’s fucking car, God? After everything she went through with Robbie?”
Grinding his jaw he smacks his hand on the steering wheel.
“It’s just a car, she now has a new one. I’m only in The Elite for you!” He punctures the word you with a growl.
“And now I hear you handed in your coin? From fucking Pride, of all people, I hear this?”
What’s his problem with Pride?
“I’m out of the Elite,” I state, and sickness at the thought of actually being out stirs in my gut. I don’t know what I plan to do about tuition and living and anything else right now. I can’t see past Chastity.
She’s all that matters. I know he won’t understand that, not until it happens to him one day.
It’s like being held underwater your entire life, and then finally being pulled up and taking a breath.
“You needed The Elite. This was all your idea—your plan,” he fumes.
I nod my head, agreeing. “I know, but they wanted something I couldn’t give them. I’m going to tell Pride and the others at our next meeting. They’ll replace me.”
With that, he rolls his window up and screeches out of the estate.
Sacrifice. That’s when you know you love someone, when you’re willing to give up something you want for something you need. I need her, her happiness, her smiles, touch, love.
Handing my coin over was one of the hardest things I’ve done. But it was the only way. There was no way I could complete my task, and this new one would do damage to Chastity too, all to get at her dad? Why could it not be for me to just rough the fucker up?
It fucking sucks, but there’s no other way.
Pride is standing in the parking lot when I arrive on campus, leaning against Greed’s car, arms folded, a crease marring his forehead.
Pulling into the space next to him, he comes around and gets in my passenger side.
“Hey,” I say, warily.
“I know it must have been hard for you to do it, but it’s enough. You’re in,” he tells me, and I frown, confused.
He drops my coin in my palm and nods. “I’ve informed the other’s of your status.”
What the fuck is he talking about?
He takes my confusion with surprise. “The video?” He says, like I know what the hell he’s talking about.
Getting out his phone, he plays with the screen, and then my cell beeps.
My insides coil and the blood drains from my veins.
It’s a video of Chastity and me at the carnival in the back of the magic mirror, or whatever the fuck it’s called.
Me eating her pussy. Rapture caught on her expression as I bring her to climax. Motherfucker.
The film is on a cell phone being held from what looks like just outside the back exit door.
Shame and guilt saturate me. This will kill Chastity.
“You didn’t send me that?” Pride asks.
“What? Fuck no. Where did it come from?”
“No number. I thought you must have sent it from the phone it was caught on. So you didn’t know you were being filmed?”
Is he fucking dumb? “No,” I grate out, my anger flaring.
“Well…shit.”
“Have you shown that to anyone?” Oh god, what if it’s gone viral by someone out to get me, or her, or us both, or just someone caught us and is being a dick.
“I handed it over to The Elite, Rhett. I’m sorry, brother. I thought you had a change of heart.”
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” I roar, slamming my hands against the steering wheel.
“Maybe there’s a way we can track the sender?” he grunts.
“It doesn’t fucking matter now. It’s out there.” I exhale, closing my eyes to ward off the impending headache.
“I’m sorry, Rhett.”
With that, he opens the door and slams it shut on his departure.
Walking through the corridors is a special kind of torture. I see everyone. Usually I’m lost in my own thoughts, but not today. I’m studying every damn person I pass.
Do they know? Have they seen it? Was it them?
Avoiding Chastity is its own form of torment. She’s the one I want to be with in a crisis. I’ll lose her over this. Will she know it wasn’t me? Surely the camera angle proves it.
I drag my feet for the weekly appointment with Lillian. Things are just too fucking weird for her to demand I still come to see her. I’m going to tell her today. It ends. Ask her what she knows about The Elite.
Raised voices sound from her door, garnishing worried looks from a girl in the waiting area.
It’s Chastity’s voice. No.
Pushing the handle, I open the door and my world tilts, my heart imploding. Red blotchy eyes, tear-soaked cheeks, a phone playing the video in her hand. Her cunt stepmother leans against her desk in front of her, arms folded, a smirk on her lips.
“Chas,” I croak.
Her chest rises and falls with her heartbreak.
Getting to her feet, she hands the phone back to Lillian and barges past me.
It’s over. I know it without her telling me, and the loss hits me like a tidal wave, knocking me off kilter.
Slamming the door closed, rage races through my blood like a drug.
“You fucking bitch,” I growl.
With a non-committal shoulder shrug, the whore smirks. “She had to know who she was getting involved with.”
“Like you give a fuck about her,” I snort.
“She’s my stepdaughter. Of course I do. She my husband’s pride and joy,” she sneers the last sentence, hate clear in her delivery.
“No one can compare to his sweet Chastity, even though he tries to find girls who do.” She spits her venom—jealously, hate, vengeance.
“Preserving her innocence is his concern, so it’s also mine.”
“You’ll regret this,” I warn, throwing her own threat back at her. Her cold, beady eyes narrow, and she laughs.
“This meeting is over.” She points to the door. “Close the door on the way out.”
“Fuck you, cunt,” I bark, slinging open her door. I waltz through it, letting it slam against the hinges and bounce back open.
Breaking into a jog, I check the girls’ bathroom and every corner Chastity could have fled to, but come up empty. Pushing out one of the exits, I race down the steps and come up short when Maggie stands in my path.