Carnage by Sarah Bailey

Forty Two

Drake

I stared down at Prescott’s message with concern. After our argument earlier, I didn’t think he’d be in the mood to talk to me, let alone call a meeting. He’d been seriously pissed off, and quite frankly, I didn’t blame him. It’s not like I wanted to rain on his parade, but we couldn’t deviate from our plans. Not when there was no alternative.

Setting my phone back down on my desk, my eyes flicked to the door. Francis strolled in, waving his phone at me.

“Did you read Pres’ message?”

“I did.”

“What do you think he wants?”

I shrugged.

“Fuck knows. I just hope it has nothing to do with her.”

Francis gave me a look as he folded himself into one of my armchairs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You and me both.”

West walked in next, looking around the room before he let out a huff of annoyance.

“Where is that narcissistic fuck then?”

“Don’t start on him,” I warned. “We’ve already had enough shit today without you two fighting again.”

West rubbed his jaw.

“Wouldn’t mind if he hit me again.”

“I mind. Do not antagonise Pres, you hear me?”

He rolled his eyes but gave me a nod, seating himself on the sofa near Francis, who gave him a sharp look. We didn’t need to dissolve into punching each other’s lights out. The four of us were supposed to be a fucking team, not fighting amongst ourselves.

A minute later, Prescott walked in. He shut the door, dug his hands in his pockets and leant up against it. He looked down at the floor for a long moment before he sighed.

“We have to do something about Scarlett.”

Francis scoffed.

“Well, there’s a fucking surprise. I knew this was about her.”

I sent a glare his way, telling him to shut up without words. After I’d had to shut down his damn conscience earlier, the least we could do was to hear Prescott out.

“Go on, Pres,” I said. “We’re listening.”

Prescott raised his head and met my eyes head-on.

“You’re not going to like what I have to say.”

I leant back in my chair.

“Do I ever like the ridiculous schemes you drag us into?”

He smiled, but it was a sad one.

“No, but you trust me to get results, which I always do.”

I spread my hands. When it came to business, I trusted Prescott’s judgement implicitly, even if I thought he was reckless as fuck at times. He didn’t steer us wrong. When it came to Scarlett, it was another matter entirely.

“She isn’t a game, Pres.”

“Don’t I fucking know it.” He cracked his neck and shoved off the door, but didn’t move away from it, his eyes flicking over to West and narrowing like he was concerned the guy would try to leave at any moment. “We need to bring her here… to stay with us.”

“What the fuck?” West interjected, sending a death glare Prescott’s way. “Why the hell would we do that? You don’t invite the girl who wants to bring us all down into our fucking house to live with us.”

Prescott put his hand up.

“Jesus, calm the fuck down, I’m getting to that.”

“You better have a good fucking reason.”

Prescott visibly steeled himself, his mouth thinning into a narrow line. And I knew what he said next wouldn’t be good.

“Mason hurt her.”

“What?” Francis said, sitting up and dropping his arms from his chest.

“Mason fucking well hurt her. He left bruises on her arm.”

For a moment, we were all silent, then West was out of his chair and stalking towards the door. Prescott pressed himself back up against it, giving West a warning look.

“Move out of my way.”

Prescott shoved West back.

“No. You are not leaving right now.”

“Move. Now. I’m not kidding.”

“You cannot go after him, West.”

West growled and clenched his fists.

“He put his fucking hands on her. He’s a dead man walking.”

“Trust me, I want to beat the crap out of him too, but we can’t do that and you know it.”

For a second, I thought West might pull Prescott away from the door, but he huffed and paced away.

“Fuck!”

I didn’t want to point out that we’d all put hands on Scarlett nor how West had threatened her this morning. It was a double standard, but she was ours and we were the only ones who were allowed to do what we wanted to her. Another person doing it, man or fucking woman, I would be out for blood like West was right now. But I had to remain calm because there was more to what Prescott had told us.

“How do you know about this?” I asked, ignoring West’s angry pacing a few feet away from me.

“She showed me,” Prescott replied, eyeing West with a wary expression on his face. “And she asked me to protect her from him.”

“You believe her?”

His eyes flicked to me.

“Of course I fucking believe her, Drake. There are finger marks on her arm. West didn’t touch her like that this morning so who else could have done it? Huh?”

I drummed my fingers on the arm of my chair. Whilst I didn’t think Prescott was bullshitting us, I didn’t trust Scarlett.

“She wants you to protect her.”

“That’s what she asked for.”

“She must be desperate if she’s asking you for help,” Francis said with a snort.

Prescott turned his gaze onto Francis and I flinched at the venom there.

“Fuck off, Francis. If it wasn’t for you, none of us would be in this situation in the first place.”

His words caught West’s attention. He glared at Francis as well.

“Pres has a point on that one.”

Francis jumped up and clenched his fists, giving both of them a wounded look. This was getting out of hand way too fast.

“Oh well, yes, just blame me when it was you who fucking well—”

“Would you three stop it,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and level. “That’s not fucking helpful.”

All three heads turned to me. I almost sighed. This was getting us absolutely nowhere. Slowly, I rose from my seat and leant on my desk with both hands.

“We can’t invite her into our home, Prescott, that’s asking for trouble.”

Prescott stepped away from the door and put his hand up.

“She said she’d do anything we ask in return. You should have heard her. She’s desperate. I don’t know what the fuck went on with her and Mason this morning. I can hazard a guess at him being pissed over her spending the night with me. They argued last night as well. It’s another reason I brought her back here.”

She told him she’d do anything we asked. It was… unexpected. Was she really that desperate to get into our fold? Were they putting pressure on her? I could well imagine they wanted results from Scarlett, but it’d only been just under a month since she’d joined Fortuity.

“I’m not leaving her with him,” he continued. “I know it’s fucking dangerous to have her here. Do you really think I would ask you three to allow her to stay with us after this morning if there wasn’t a real threat to her safety?”

“As if she’s any safer with us,” West scoffed.

I sent a glare his way.

“We can’t trust her, Pres.”

“Test her. She said she’d do anything. I don’t really give a shit how you want her to prove herself, just fucking do it. I want her here where we can keep an eye on her and that cunt can’t hurt her again.”

The vehemence in Prescott’s voice had me pausing and actually taking stock of what he’d said, of what he was suggesting we do.

“How is testing her going to prove anything?” Francis asked. “She still answers to them.”

None of us spoke for a long minute. Francis was right, but Prescott was also right. We couldn’t leave her with Mason. Not if he’d hurt her the way Prescott said he had. Even I wasn’t willing to leave our girl with a man who was capable of that. And we couldn’t do anything about Mason, as much as I would love to take the cunt out. If we touched him, the house of cards would come tumbling down. They’d know we knew what they were up to. We would no longer have the upper hand after moving mountains to gain it in the first place. I was not willing to take the risk.

How could we test her though? We couldn’t outright tell her the truth. It would only end in tears. Scarlett needed to remember what happened herself. It was the only way she’d ever take what we said as real and true. But I didn’t know where to even start with another suggestion.

I had to find a way out of this but didn’t change the facts.

Scarlett wasn’t trustworthy.

She answered to our enemies.

And she could be telling us this to worm her way into our inner circle further. To find out our secrets. But she wouldn’t fake bruises, would she? I could believe a lot of things about Scarlett. That wasn’t one of them.

“I know how we can kill two birds with one stone,” West said, giving all of us one of his manic grins.

West’s ideas and suggestions were usually batshit crazy. You never knew what you were in for when it came to him.

“How?” I asked.

“Pres said she will do anything. I say we push her boundaries far beyond anything she could ever imagine, and in turn, it will give us something we can hold over her in case she tries to run back to them.”

I raised an eyebrow. If we had something we could hold over her, it would make it safer for us to have her here.

“Go on then, tell us what crazy idea you have in that fucked up brain of yours.”

West’s smile turned deviant. I knew whatever he suggested, Scarlett would hate every moment of it. And perhaps… it was exactly what we needed.