Carnage by Sarah Bailey

Forty

Scarlett

The whole way back to the flat, I kept running over what happened this morning in my head. What West had done shook me to my core. The fact he’d threatened to bleed me was a line I didn’t think he would cross, but it turned out I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about when it came to him. The man was unhinged and terrifying. One minute he’d be fine and the next he’d go full-on psycho on me before returning to normal again. And yet… and fucking yet, I wanted to know him anyway.

Maybe I was certifiable, because no normal girl wanted to get close to a man like him, let alone the rest of them. But I couldn’t help it. Something about Prescott, West, Francis and Drake drew me in. I recognised them on a fundamental level. It didn’t make any sense. How could it? They didn’t know me from before. If they did, they would have said something. They would have told me.

I sighed as I unlocked the front door of the flat and trudged inside. Kicking off my heels, I walked into my bedroom and discarded my clothes. Walking over to my wardrobe, I selected an appropriate outfit for work. A three-quarter length sleeved dark blue blouse, black wide-leg trousers and a pair of nude heels. I’d just finished drying my hair and perfecting my makeup when Mason barged into the room with a face like thunder.

“Where the fuck have you been?”

The venom in his voice made me take a step back. He’d never spoken to me like that in all the years I’d known him. After last night, I thought he might have calmed down, but clearly not.

“Excuse me?”

He descended on me, taking me by the arm and getting up in my face. I swallowed when I saw the rage in his dark eyes and the vein popping in his temple.

“Where have you been, Scarlett?”

After the shit I’d been through with the Horsemen this morning, I was not in the mood to entertain Mason and his jealousy act. That’s what this was. I couldn’t deny it any longer. He didn’t want me near the Horsemen. He knew they wanted me. And it pissed him off.

“Where do you think I was?” I spat back, wrenching my arm out of his grasp.

“I swear to god, Scarlett, if you tell me you spent the night with them…”

“Or what, Mason? Or fucking what? You don’t get to walk in here and start on me first thing in the morning. This has nothing to do with you.”

I shoved past him, knowing I needed to get back to work. No way in hell I wanted to be later than I already was. Mason didn’t like that at all. He grabbed my arm again and spun me around. His grip was harder this time, his fingers digging into my skin. It made me let out a whimper from the pain. And he didn’t stop at the noise like I expected him to.

What the fuck?

Mason had never handled me this way before. Not once had he got remotely physical with me. He knew better. I wanted to tell him to stop, but I was frozen on the spot, too shocked to do a thing about it whilst he squeezed my arm tighter. It was like he was trying to hurt me. To make me feel his anger.

“This is my fucking business and you know it. Did you spend the night with them?”

I’d had enough of this. All of it. Something inside me snapped. My emotional breakdown in Prescott’s arms, West’s threatening behaviour, the way it’d made me want him to take me on that dining room table and punish me for talking back to him, how fucked up that all was, and now Mason. It was too much for me to handle. Too much for me to keep a lid on.

“Yes. Yes, I fucking well did. I spent the night with Prescott and guess what? I don’t regret it. And you know what else? Huh? You know what fucking well else? All four of them fucked me last week. And I don’t regret that either.”

Mason reared back with my words as if they were a physical blow.

“What did you just say to me?”

I pulled my arm from his fingers again, not wanting him to touch me any further. West’s words about no other men being allowed near me rang in my ears. I took his warnings seriously. And in all honesty, I had no interest in being touched by anyone else but him, Prescott, Francis and Drake. I didn’t care if they hurt me, but I sure as shit cared about Mason doing it.

I rubbed my arm where his fingers had clasped it, hating him for it.

“You heard me.”

For once I didn’t care what I’d said to him. I didn’t give two shits. I was done. Mason could go fuck himself.

“You had sex with… all of them?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. If he was going to start up with how I shouldn’t have sex with four guys, he could save it.

Mason turned away and dragged his fingers through his hair. It was almost as if I’d broken his mind when I’d blurted that shit out. As if he couldn’t believe I would do such a thing. The problem was, Mason didn’t know who I truly was, because neither did I. There was a part of me kept in a locked cage. She was rattling her bars, screaming at me, telling me to break her out. And I wanted to. I wanted that girl back.

“Why? Why would you do that, Scar? Why would you let them touch you in that way?” His voice was quiet, but in no way calm. It shook with his words. His questions.

“I didn’t exactly have a choice.”

His eyes met mine. The concern and anger in them had me digging my nails into my elbows.

“Did they force you? Are you telling me they raped you?”

“No! They didn’t force me to do anything.” Well, they kind of did, but you liked it. “Do you think I’d be standing here telling you I don’t regret what happened if they had?”

“No… but I don’t understand.” He reached his hands out to me, but I took a step back, not wanting any more physical contact with him after the way he’d manhandled me. “You didn’t need to take it that far.”

I shook my head. He had no idea what the Horsemen were like. He didn’t know the allure they held for me. The way they demanded things from me. How I was helpless, trapped in their web and my need to be closer to them. How being around Prescott made me feel safe and wanted. He made me feel… seen.

“I did what I had to, Mase. I did what I fucking well had to. I’m earning their trust the only way I know how. The only way that’s going to work.”

“No. No, it’s not.”

“You don’t know them!”

He poked a finger in my direction.

“I know they’re no good for you. They’re making you think if you give up your body to them, they’ll trust you. Well, that’s bullshit and I won’t have it.”

He paced away again.

“I’m done with this, Scarlett. I’m fucking done. It’s gone too far. The fact you let them have sex with you tells me they’re getting inside your head, making you believe shit that’s not real.”

His fists clenched at his sides before he looked at me again.

“I’m calling Stuart and we’re pulling the plug on this shit.”

I staggered back, my arms falling to my sides as his words sliced right through me.

“No. You can’t do that. You can’t, Mason.”

He’d promised me I’d never had to go back. That he’d do anything in his power to keep me away from the estate. How could he go back on his promise now?

“I can and I will.”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. I couldn’t let him call my father. Not when it would only send me back to my prison. There were bars on my fucking bedroom windows, for crying out loud. Not to mention the place they locked me in when they thought I was being insolent. I trembled, the memories flooding my vision. The anger and rage in my father’s eyes when I told him no. The bruises he left. The way my mother would turn a blind eye to her husband’s temper tantrums. And how Mason knew the truth, but he didn’t do a single fucking thing to stop it.

Yet, despite all of that, he’d been my only friend for the past ten years. He’d held me when I cried and patched me up when the beatings went too far. I didn’t hate Mason for not stopping it. His hands were tied just as much as mine.

“Mason, please,” I choked out. “You know what will happen if I go back there. You know. Please, don’t call him. Don’t do that to me.”

The agony in Mason’s eyes decimated me. I couldn’t move. If he did this to me, I would never forgive him. Never. Now I’d had a taste of freedom, I would fight tooth and nail to keep it.

“I have an in with Prescott, okay? He’ll give me what I need, I promise. Please, just give me a little more time. I’ll get them to trust me enough to let me in.”

There was no way in hell I wanted to use Prescott like that, but the threat of my family was too damn terrifying for me not to. He couldn’t protect me from them. No one could. And I didn’t think Prescott would anyway. We might be building something, but it was on lies. I wasn’t being honest with him and I was damn sure he wasn’t being honest with me either. Yet, it didn’t matter. My feelings overrode my common sense. My connection to him was a thread I wanted to tug on until it all unravelled and the truth laid bare before our feet. And if I had to damn myself for him, I would.

Mason lowered the phone. His gesture filled me with relief. If I could convince him to give me another chance, I could work this out, couldn’t I? Somehow I had to make the Horsemen trust me. And get me the fuck away from this shit. I didn’t care if they were all a little psychotic and possessive over me. I was safer with them, wasn’t I?

Don’t kid yourself. You’re no safer with them than you are here with Mason or back with your parents.

“You have until Monday, Scar, you hear me? Until then. I don’t want to call Stuart. I don’t want you to go back there, but you get me something to work with and I won’t tell Stuart what you did with them.”

I nodded, going over in my head how I could persuade Prescott to trust me.

“I promise, I’ll make it work.”

“Good.”

“I have to get to work.”

He gave me a grunt, the conflict in his eyes clear, but he wasn’t going to stop me from going. He’d given me a lifeline and I was going to grab it by the horns.

I left the room, pulling on a coat and snagging my bag before leaving to get the tube. The whole way to Fortuity, I was trying to work out how the hell I would approach this conversation. I rubbed my arm, wincing at the pain from Mason’s grasp. He’d betrayed me today. He’d physically harmed me and threatened to send me back to my parents. In all honesty, I wanted to get away from him as much as I did my parents.

When I got to the building, I went straight upstairs to my office and hung up my coat. Then I pulled up my sleeve and looked at my arm. There were the beginnings of faint bruises on it. I put my hand to my mouth. They reminded me too much of my father. Of what he’d done to me. How could Mason think this was okay after all the times he’d taken care of me? He’d taken it too far. I didn’t think I could forgive him for this.

I steeled myself. There was nothing I could do now but throw myself at Prescott and hope to god he had a heart in there somewhere. Because I had no idea what the hell I would do otherwise.