Chaos by Sarah Bailey

FIfteen

Scarlett

I sat at my desk staring at the wall with tears slipping down my face. My mind was a riot of too many emotions. Nothing felt right or good. It was all so very wrong.

I didn’t have a handle on anything. On my life. On the expectations placed upon me. On the feelings my traitorous heart was throwing at me. It was all too much. I didn’t know what to do with myself. How to even keep breathing any longer. To keep everything together.

And then my phone started ringing, jolting me out of my misery and regrets.

I dug it out of my bag and looked at the screen. My stomach sunk to my feet. Grabbing the box of tissues on my desk, I tugged some out and dabbed my face before answering.

“Hi, Dad,” I said in my best fake happy voice.

“Scarlett, I hear from Mason you have moved out.”

I didn’t like the tone of his voice. The judgement in it. This conversation wasn’t one I wanted to have after all the shit I’d dealt with.

I stood up, knowing I still had to go sort out my stupid boss’s lunch. Grabbing my handbag, I walked over to the door. Thankfully, no one was in the hallway when I walked out.

“I have.”

“For what purpose?”

I almost faltered in my steps. What exactly had Mason told him? And why had it taken almost a week for him to do it?

“I felt like I could work faster if I was closer to them.”

The lie wasn’t hard for me to tell. I’d been lying to my parents for years. It was safer for me. Got me in less trouble. I didn’t have to be scared he might hit me and leave bruises all over my body. The body that had been broken far too much already after my accident. The doctors had said I’d been very lucky the damage hadn’t been worse. Not sure what’s worse than having a broken pelvis that had to be bolted together with metal rods. Not to mention the fact it had left me with internal scarring. I was still sore over the fact they’d destroyed my ability to have children even though it meant I could walk again. One day, I would have to deal with those emotions, but not today. Not when my life was all fucked up beyond belief.

“I see. And what progress have you made?”

I walked by the reception lobby towards the lifts. The desk was empty but after what happened between West and Tonya, it hardly surprised me.

“I think they’re starting to trust me.”

Hitting the button for the lift, the doors opened almost straight away. I trotted in and pressed the button for the ground floor. Then I looked myself over in the mirrored walls, finding my face an absolute mess. Hooking my phone between my shoulder and my ear, I dug a makeup wipe from my bag to clean myself up.

“Do you have anything useful yet? Something we can use?”

“I don’t exactly have access to their confidential data, Dad.”

“What good is you living with them then?”

The quiet irritation in his voice set me on edge. Even though I was miles away from him, safe from his fists, it didn’t stop my instincts from flaring up and telling me I was in danger.

“I’ve been supervised at all times in their penthouse.” It wasn’t strictly the truth, but he didn’t need to know that. “What do you want me to do?”

“Use your brain, Scarlett. Look around when they’re asleep.”

Whilst it had occurred to me, my issue was I slept next to Francis who would notice if I left the room at night. He wasn’t exactly a heavy sleeper. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep in one of the other’s rooms. Drake and West terrified me. The less said about the current state of my relationship with Prescott, the better. With my dad’s phone call, there’d been no time for me to process anything Prescott had said to me.

“I’ll try. That’s all I can do.”

“Get me results or you know what will happen.”

I swallowed, balling the used makeup wipe in my fist. He would drag me back to the estate and lock me up again. He’d keep me there for the rest of my life if he could. And all I would face was more abuse. My only option was to stay with the Horsemen and try to do as my father said even though I no longer wanted to.

It was absolutely insane, but I had no desire to hurt the men I was with no matter what they’d done to me. No matter what my parents said they’d done to them. It was something they couldn’t prove anyway. It’s why they need me. And I hated them for it.

“Yes, Dad.”

“Good. I expect a full report in a week.”

He hung up without saying goodbye. I sighed, dumping my phone back in my bag. What did it matter if I no longer had any makeup on? It was better than it running all down my face. And now I had to work out how to get my parents something by next week. What a fucking joke.

The lift doors opened. I walked out onto the ground floor, dumping the wipe in a bin on my way and waving at the receptionist. When I got out onto the street, I made my way to the local sandwich shop Drake liked and put in an order. After five minutes, they handed me over a bag and I paid using the company expenses card Drake had given me. As I was leaving, someone put their hand on my arm. I almost jumped out of my skin at the touch. Looking to my left, I found the last person I expected to see. A flood of conflicting emotions raged through me like wildfire.

“Mason?”

The sight of him brought back last weekend when the Horsemen had made me think I was killing my only friend. When I’d screamed at him and let out my long-buried feelings towards the only person I’d ever felt close to in the past ten years. And here he was, standing there very much alive. Relief flooded me, but it was warring with my other feelings of disappointment, regret and pain.

“I thought I would miss you.”

I pulled away from him and moved out of the way of the door so we wouldn’t block anyone trying to come in.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Drake’s words from earlier in the week had stuck with me. He’d warned Mason to stay away from me. If they found out Mason was here and I’d seen him, there would be hell to pay.

“I needed to see you.”

“How did you know I’d be here?”

“I’ve been watching you all week, making sure no one ever came here with you.”

I rubbed my face, hitching my handbag strap higher on my shoulder. The whole idea of him keeping tabs on me gave me a rather sick feeling in my stomach.

“What do you want?”

His brown eyes were full of concern and sorrow.

“Did I really hurt you?”

My eyes went to the shop window.

“Yes, you did. I had bruises on my arm.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Meeting his eyes felt impossible right then.

“You scared me, Mase… and I never thought there would come a day where you would do the same thing he does to me.”

To his credit, he didn’t touch me. I would’ve flinched back away if he had.

“I’m so sorry, Scar. I didn’t mean to.”

“But you did. You threatened to take me back there,” I hissed, finally looking at him again. “Did you think I would trust you after that?”

“Is that why you went to them? Told them you were scared of me?”

I took a step back, not liking the way he was looking at me nor how he’d spat the word ‘them’. The Horsemen might be dangerous and twisted, but they weren’t out here trying to actively hurt me in the way Mason had, and the way my parents would do if I went back. At least, I didn’t think they’d made me kill a man to hurt me. They did it to prove a point.

When Prescott told me he hadn’t wanted to hurt me, he’d meant it. No matter how angry I was at him, it didn’t change the fact he hadn’t lied to me about their reasoning. He hadn’t sugar-coated it for my benefit. And it was one of the only reasons I hadn’t outright told him I didn’t want to be with him any longer. Well… and the fact I’d fallen head over heels for the man. My stupid heart wouldn’t allow me to lie to myself any longer or pretend it didn’t belong to Prescott. I wasn’t even going to question how I could feel this way about him and want Francis at the same time. Not to mention my conflicted feelings towards West and Drake.

“What else did you expect me to do? You gave me a fucking ultimatum. I had to make sure you didn’t take me back.”

“That’s not fair, Scar.”

Was he seriously trying to act like I was the one being unfair right now?

The fucking cheek.

“Not fair? What’s not fair is everything you and my parents have forced on me, that’s what’s not fair, Mason.” I tried to keep my voice low as people were staring. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m safer with them than I am with you. And trust me, I wish that wasn’t the case.”

Mason flinched. It served him fucking right. He should know the truth. I feared him now. I was terrified he would take me away from the Horsemen. They had no reason to come after me if he did. Or did they? I’d been sure Prescott had wanted to say more to me before I ran away. I could see it in his blue eyes. The pain and agony in them reflected in my own.

“You’re not safer with them at all. Why can’t you see that?”

I stepped closer and lowered my voice to an almost whisper.

“They might be fucked up, but they don’t lock me in a room, bloody, bruised and beaten to the point where I pass out because I said the wrong thing to them. They aren’t cruel for no reason. And you enable it by not doing a single thing about it. Don’t come here again, Mason. They will hurt you if you come near me. You’re lucky I’m not going to tell them about this.”

I didn’t give him a chance to respond, walking around him and out the door onto the street. Nothing about what I’d said to him felt good, but I wasn’t going to stick around and listen to him rail against the Horsemen. Whilst I knew my rationale for staying with the boys was probably way off, I was more scared of my father than I was of them. Yes, they’d made me kill, but I wasn’t fearing for my life when I was with them. I wasn’t scared it might be the last time I took a breath because my father took it too far. I’d already almost died once on the night of my accident, I wasn’t about to let it happen again. No, I would do everything in my power to stay away from him.

I should tell Drake I’d seen Mason, but it wouldn’t be worth it for either of us. Besides, I did not want a repeat of the belt incident any time soon. Maybe his punishment should have reminded me of what my father had done to me, but it didn’t. Everything between me and Drake was about a battle of wills and had a sexual undertone to it. Deep down, I knew I played up on purpose to see what he would do. A part of me couldn’t help but want to push his buttons. For some reason, I trusted him not to go too far when I shouldn’t trust the man at all.

As I made my way back to Fortuity, all I wanted was to curl up in a ball and escape for a few hours, but I had to work for the rest of the afternoon.

Today had been absolute shit so far.

Could it get any worse?

Knowing the Horsemen, the answer to that was… yes, yes it definitely could.