Carnage by Sarah Bailey
Eighteen
Prescott
The fire in West’s eyes when he turned after kicking Scarlett out of my office and slamming the door shut had me biting my lip. It wasn’t my intention to provoke him at all. In fact, I’d been so intent on Scarlett, I hadn’t noticed him until he’d growled.
“Before you go off on one, I didn’t start anything with her.” I waved my hand at him. “She came in here and spoke to me.”
West stalked towards the windows, tension radiating off him in waves. He folded his hands behind his back in a rather Drake-like manner and stared out at the city skyline.
“Two weeks are up.” His voice had lost the note of irritation he’d used when he’d spoken to Scarlett.
“And?”
Annika’s last day had been on Friday. Now we had nothing left holding us back other than Drake wanting to wait before we did anything to Scarlett. Well, anything too drastic. We were meant to be messing with her head.
“And… did you see how sweetly she obeyed?”
It had surprised me how willingly she’d gone over to West as if she didn’t fear what he might do to her. As far as I knew, they hadn’t seen each other since her second day here. West had been calmer for the past couple of weeks. And what I meant by calmer was, he’d been doing a fuck load of weed whilst keeping to himself. I swear it made Francis suspicious as fuck. He kept watching West like he was waiting for the guy to explode on us.
“She did.”
He turned his head towards me, a deadly glint in his eyes.
“Pity her fake little submissive act doesn’t fool me. That woman is fucking with us.”
I rubbed my chin.
“I did wonder why she was being so forward with me.”
He scoffed.
“Did you forget why she’s here?”
In the moment, I had. Scarlett had successfully distracted me with her words and her closeness. The way she’d pretty much insinuated she would be interested in being a sacrificial lamb had me thinking of all the deviant things I wanted to do to her.
“No.”
West narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Like you can talk. You growled at her. What are you, a fucking animal?”
He flashed his teeth at me.
“We’re all animals, Pres. Beasts who crave violence and kinky fuckery. You’ve spent too much time in those suits acting like a pretentious prick to appease the masses. I think all that praise they shower on you has gone to your head. Maybe you need to screw it the fuck back on before she winds you around her finger.”
I leant back in my chair and folded my arms over my chest. Whilst he might have had a point about what just happened, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how right he was. The psychotic fucker wouldn’t make any bones about gloating if I told him he was correct about Scarlett.
“At least I’m not out here smoking weed all day and breaking guy’s hands with a hammer after one encounter with her.”
West’s amber eyes darkened with annoyance.
“Fuck you.”
“I’d rather be fucking her than myself, would be far more enjoyable.”
I swear to god he was going to launch himself over the desk and strangle me.
“You not got enough pussy to be getting in right now? I’m sure Tonya would gladly take you up on the offer.”
I made a face. I was well aware of her intentions towards me but she was one woman I wouldn’t touch. You would have to give me a pretty good incentive. The woman reeked of desperation and was a little snake. The only reason we kept her around was because she knew too much. Drake couldn’t get rid of her because of who she was. I would do it in a fucking heartbeat, but I didn’t want to cause Drake trouble with his family.
“Fuck off, West. I would rather break my own hand than touch her.”
“A little extreme.”
“Oh no, should I get you to break it for me?”
“I’d do it in a heartbeat, you just need to ask.”
I stuck a finger up at him.
“No thanks, rather not end up permanently mutilated. We both know you have no fucking restraint.”
West’s maniacal smile made me grimace.
“I had some with her, didn’t I?” He waved at the door.
“Only because you have a soft spot for her.”
His smile faded.
“I do not have a fucking soft spot for anyone. You just wait until we take her, I’ll show you how little restraint I have with that woman.”
“That woman? You can’t even say her name, can you? Ha, you are so predictable. Trying to deny how you really feel about her when we all know the truth.”
I knew I shouldn’t have provoked him. There was a part of me that loved to watch West explode because it amused the shit out of me, but it was also hazardous.
He was across the room in a flash and hauled me up off my chair by my tie. The rage in his eyes betrayed how much Scarlett’s mere presence had affected him. He slammed me up against the wall behind my desk and glared.
“You are playing with fucking fire, Pres. I swear to god you want me to punch your damn lights out.”
“I see I touched a nerve.”
His fist wrapped around my tie, pulling it tight against my neck. West would beat the shit out of me, of that, I had no doubt. It wasn’t the first time any of us had come to blows with him. He’d even decked Drake once. I secretly thought Drake had deserved it after he’d gone behind West’s back and got him banned from his favourite underground fighting ring. Even Francis hadn’t wanted to interfere with West’s outlet. He craved violence and it gave him a good excuse to beat the shit out of people. It was only when he’d almost killed a guy Drake had put a stop to it. We didn’t need to bring down that kind of heat on us.
“Jesus, Pres, what did you do to provoke him this time?”
Both West and I turned our heads finding Francis standing in the doorway. Neither of us had heard the door open.
“Me? I’m innocent.”
Francis scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“Innocent is not a word I would ever use to describe you. In fact, it shouldn’t even be in your vocabulary given how un-innocent you are.”
West stepped back, letting go of me. I huffed and smoothed down my clothes.
“What do you want, Frankie?” West grunted, pacing away with his hands dug in his pockets.
“Nothing that concerns you.”
West cocked a brow.
“No? Well, I’ll leave you two little bitch boys to it then.”
He stalked out of the room, deliberately barging past Francis, who stared at his retreating back. Then he turned and came into the room.
“You really did a number on him.”
I shrugged and took a seat behind my desk again.
“Oh, that? Reckon it had more to do with Scarlett being in here than me… though I will admit I didn’t help matters.”
Francis gave me a look.
“What was she doing in your office?”
“Bringing me a cup of tea.”
I snagged said mug and brought it to my lips. She’d used the right one. It was dark green with a white horse which looked as if it was decaying and the words The weak yield to Pestilence were below it. I’d bought us these mugs as a joke. Even West used his despite his misgivings about the name we’d been branded with.
“Is that all?”
I smiled.
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“No wonder you pissed West off, you’re in one of those moods.”
He made air quotes with his fingers. I popped the mug back down and leant my chin on my fist, fluttering my eyelashes at him.
“And what kind of mood is that, Francis?”
He pressed his mouth into a thin line. Maybe I was in a mood. Knowing I shouldn’t have allowed Scarlett to get under my skin had me deflecting. None of them needed to know about the way she’d affected me today. They’d only give me shit over it. I had to do better. Didn’t matter how much I wanted her. How desperate I was for her to remember me. I couldn’t let my guard down.
“You want to cause mischief and I’m not having it. You can fucking rein it in because we need to talk business, unless you forgot we’re supposed to be working right now.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes and put my hand out, waving at the chairs in front of my desk. Francis probably wanted to talk to me about money and it was always fucking boring. He should just fund what I asked him to without arguing with me over it. I’d never steered us wrong.
I put Scarlett to the back of my mind. What I’d discovered about her today could wait. Business came first, I supposed, and the knowledge she’d not been with a man before wasn’t going to give me pause over what we planned to do with her. But… I would have to inform the rest of them sooner rather than later. No point keeping secrets over it. No point at all.
