Carnage by Sarah Bailey

Forty One

Prescott

Fuck Drake. Fuck West. And fuck Francis. Fuck them all.

Rationally I knew I shouldn’t be mad at them, but after the conversation we’d just had, I didn’t give a flying fuck about being rational or sane. I wanted to kick the shit out of something. Take out my anger on anything. Decking West hadn’t made me feel better. The fucker deserved it. In fact, I should have hit him again for good measure. Normally, I wouldn’t care about how far he took things, but Scarlett’s emotional state was fragile right now. She didn’t need West unleashing his psycho nature on her.

I sat at my desk, staring out the window. I couldn’t concentrate on work. All I could do was seethe in anger and hope to fuck Scarlett was okay. She’d not said anything to me about it when I took her upstairs to get dressed. But what could she say? She’d got on her knees and begged him for forgiveness. He’d not given her any other choice. And whilst I knew she felt something for West as she did for me, it didn’t make me feel any better.

I was fucked over the woman. Utterly fucked. She’d made me feel things I’d kept buried. Having her around reminded me I still owned a heart, even if it was black, and she was tugging on its strings.

Dragging my hands through my hair, I let out a huff. What was I going to do? I had to act like nothing had changed. But last night and this morning had altered everything irrevocably. I wanted to protect Scarlett, but I couldn’t. My hands were tied behind my back.

The boys were right. They were and I hated them for it. I couldn’t trust her. Couldn’t allow myself to put my faith in the girl I’d known since I was a kid. She was with the enemy, the people actively trying to ruin us. Trusting Scarlett would be a mistake. A lapse in judgement. But everything I’d done recently with her had been exactly that. I’d ignored my better judgement and allowed my emotions to fuel me.

It was time to lock this shit down and remember why we were here. Why the fuck we were even doing this. To anyone else, it would seem insane and batshit crazy. We’d done all of this for her. Everything we’d achieved was for our girl. To return her to our sides.

My office door opened. I glanced over at it, dropping my hands from my hair and found Scarlett closing it behind her and turning the lock. My heart lurched when she looked at me. Her eyes were haunted and her whole demeanour was somehow more broken than she’d been earlier.

What happened between when she left the office to go home and now?

“Pres.”

Her beautiful voice carried across the room to my ears, warming me from the inside out. Why did she have the power to render me helpless for her?

I didn’t respond. My tongue got stuck to the roof of my mouth trying to prevent everything I shouldn’t say from spilling out and ruining everything.

Her feet carried her over to me and when she dropped to her knees by the side of my chair, I swallowed. She placed her hand on my knee and stared up at me.

“What are you doing on the floor, little lamb?”

“I need your help.”

“And you think you need to be on your knees to ask me?”

She nodded, her eyes turning haunted again.

I didn’t want her down there. During sex, yes, I would have her on her knees for me in an instant, but this didn’t feel right. And why on earth would she need my help?

I refrained from reaching out and stroking her hair, Drake’s reminder about the plan still fresh in the forefront of my mind. No more casual affection or being ‘nice’ to her. I couldn’t allow her to see how much I cared or she might pierce through my damn barriers. She might take advantage of my feelings towards her.

“Spit it out then.”

She looked away, her hand tightening on my thigh. Her touch was not doing my self-restraint any good.

“I can’t… I don’t know what to do.”

“About what?”

“Mason doesn’t like me working for you.”

Of course that prick didn’t like it. He was jealous. The way he’d smirked at West yesterday whilst dancing with Scarlett was like waving a red flag at a bull. And made it very obvious he wanted her for himself. Too fucking bad she was ours.

“So what? You’re a grown woman. Where you work is your choice.”

She blinked before looking at me again.

“I know, but…”

“But what?”

I sounded impatient, but I didn’t see how this had anything to do with me. What did she expect me to do about it? I didn’t need this shit when I was already in turmoil about her and the fucking things we had to do next.

“He… he said some really terrible things to me this morning.”

Her bottom lip trembled and when she looked up at me again, tears welled in her eyes.

Fuck, please don’t cry again, sweetness. I’ll fucking break if you cry.

“Pres… he… he…” she choked out, making me stiffen.

“He did what?”

“He hurt me,” she whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek. “And I’m scared he’ll do it again.”

“He hurt you.”

My tone was completely flat, but she nodded, causing more tears to roll down her face. I didn’t know whether to believe her or not. Why the fuck would she even tell me that? What was her game here?

“You expect me to believe your friend hurt you?”

Her eyes widened and more tears fell. There were more fucking tears. The sight of them made my chest constrict. Were they real tears or ones she was putting on? This morning in my bed they’d been very real, but after everything else, I couldn’t tell what was up or down any longer.

When she didn’t respond to my question, it pissed me off. This woman was a fucking menace to my damn emotions. I couldn’t take this conflict inside me. It was driving me crazy.

“Answer me, Scarlett.” I took hold of her arm and tugged her closer. “You expect me to believe that?”

She let out a pained yelp and winced. I looked down at her arm, a suspicion rising inside me. She didn’t stop me when I laid her arm in my lap and gently pulled up her sleeve. On her forearm, there were finger marks. Fucking faint bruises. I knew for a fact they were not there earlier. Nor did I believe West had been that rough with her. The man might be unhinged, but even he had restraint. He was deliberate about the pain he caused.

Scarlett stared at me, her tear-streaked face evidence of her misery. Betrayal was written all over her face. Her friend… fucking Mason had betrayed her trust and hurt her.

“He did this to you? This is how he hurt you?”

“He was so forceful with me. He’s never been like that, but he was so enraged and I couldn’t stop him. I’m… I’m scared he’ll do it again. I can’t stay with him. I can’t…”

I couldn’t take her words or the way she looked at me. The cunt had hurt her. He’d bruised her skin. And for what? It wasn’t part of a fucking game like when me or the others did it. No, he’d lashed out at her in anger.

“Come here, little lamb.”

Scarlett hesitated, but I opened my arms to her and she crawled into my lap. I let her rest her head on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered on a sob.

“Shh, don’t apologise.” I stroked her hair, trying to soothe my girl.

“I can’t stay with him. He wants me to quit. He doesn’t want me to be here with any of you.” Her hand curled around the back of my neck. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“No one is taking you away from me, you hear me? No one. You’re mine and I won’t let anyone else have you.”

She shifted, burying her face in my neck and let out a shuddering breath as if my words brought her some relief. I shouldn’t have said those things. Scarlett was my weakness. The one damn person in this world who could pierce through my armour and render me unable to do anything but give in to her. And yet I had no idea what the fuck to do about this situation.

I couldn’t make Scarlett any promises. Not when we had a plan to stick to, but if she was going to get ripped away from us again, I couldn’t have that. None of us could. If Mason was hurting her, I didn’t want him anywhere near our girl. She wasn’t safe with him. She wouldn’t be safe with us either, but that was hardly the point.

“Do you trust me, Pres?” she murmured against my skin.

“Do you want my honest answer?”

“Yes.”

I leant my head against hers.

“No, I don’t.”

There were already enough lies between us, this didn’t need to be another one. I didn’t trust her because I couldn’t afford to.

“Does that mean you won’t help me?”

“What exactly are you asking me to do, sweetness?”

She pulled away so she could meet my eyes. I couldn’t help reaching up and wiping away her tears with my thumb.

“Protect me from Mason.”

I searched her face, reading between the lines of her words. The implications of them. Was she doing this to get closer to us or did she want me to keep her safe? Was it both? I couldn’t just invite her into our lives, our fucking sanctuary. Inviting the enemy in any further would prove disastrous. Having her working here was already precarious when we all knew she’d been sent to destroy us. It was impossible to give her that… wasn’t it?

“Do you fully understand what you’re asking of me, little lamb?”

“I know you don’t trust me. I get that. And I’m willing to do whatever it is you need me to… anything, Prescott, I’ll do anything you tell me to, just please, get me away from him… please.”

You’ll do anything, will you? Anything at all?

I wasn’t sure I believed that. We had set out to test how far she’d go to settle their vendetta against us. It’s not like we didn’t know their plans. We knew. We had been two steps ahead of them this time. Laying the fucking trap and reeling them in. Forcing their hand. Making them use their greatest weapon against us.

Her.

Scarlett.

She was their weapon.

But they had no idea of the lengths we were willing to go to return her to us. To sever her connection to them. To have her back by our sides where she fucking well belonged.

“I’m not going to make you any promises… but I will speak to the others.”

“Pres—”

“No, little lamb, it’s that or nothing, do you understand? I cannot offer you anything else.”

For a second I thought she might argue with me, but she bowed her head.

“I understand.”

“Good. Now, go back to work before I have Drake in here giving me a hard time about keeping you from your duties, hmm?”

The only way I could resolve this was by speaking to Drake, Francis and West. She’d basically thrown herself at my mercy. Told me she’d do anything. If I put that to them, then maybe they’d do something about it. Perhaps we could use it to our advantage. Drake might have been adamant about sticking to the plan, but it didn’t account for this outcome.

“Okay,” she whispered.

She crawled out of my lap, stood and straightened out her clothes. I got to my feet with her and pulled the box of tissues on my desk towards me. Plucking one out, I took her face in my hand and dabbed away her tears. She would need to fix her face herself, but I wasn’t going to send her out there with tear tracks.

I threw the tissues in the bin but didn’t release her. Instead, I brought her arm up to my face, tugged up her sleeve and watched her as I pressed kisses to her bruises.

“No one is allowed to hurt you like this,” I murmured. “No one but us.”

She trembled, her eyes widening at my statement.

“You’re mine, little lamb. I protect what’s mine.”

The implication was there. I would do my best to protect her if I could.

“Yours,” she breathed.

And fuck if it didn’t make my heart hurt. We stared at each other for a long moment. There was no way in hell I could stop myself from feeling things for this woman no matter why she was here. I couldn’t stop myself from falling.

I dropped her arm and directed her towards the door before I said something which would fucking damn me. She walked away, unlocking the door when she reached it and tugging it open. She paused there and looked back at me.

“Whatever happens, thank you for trying.”

I didn’t have time to say anything to it as she walked out of the room. My breath left me, the heaviness of it settling over my lungs. This was a fucked up situation, but when had our lives ever not been fucked up.

Grabbing my phone, I opened up the group chat between the four of us and typed out a message. One way or another I had to convince them doing something about her situation was in our best interests. I wasn’t going to let her stay with someone who had the potential to abuse her. I couldn’t allow it and if I knew anything about the three of them, they wouldn’t either.

Prescott: Meeting in Drake’s office. Right now. No excuses.