Chaos by Sarah Bailey

Twenty Four

Scarlett

I didn’t know why, but every time I left my office this week, Tonya was lurking in the hallway. It was like she was watching me. I didn’t like it, but I had said nothing to the Horsemen. Knowing if I did I would be signing her death warrant because of West’s threats, I kept my concerns to myself. The only saving grace was that she hadn’t made any further remarks to me. In fact, she barely acknowledged my presence unless it was to say good morning.

Tonya was the least of my concerns. All day my father had been blowing up my phone with calls and texts demanding I give him an update. With everything going on between me and the boys, going on a night-time spying mission hadn’t been top of my list of priorities. I always fell asleep before Prescott or Francis as I was spending alternate nights in their rooms. Being with them kept my nightmares at bay. I didn’t wake up screaming or whimpering every night any longer. It was the first time in a long time I’d been at peace, even if I should be on high fucking alert around these men. Didn’t matter if I loved Prescott and he loved me, there were too many secrets and lies between all five of us. I could feel them hanging in the air, almost suffocating us and keeping trust and honesty from surfacing.

I couldn’t put off the conversation with my father forever. When the penthouse was silent, I crept from Prescott’s bed out into the hallway and downstairs. My feet carried me to the view of the cityscape from their open plan living space. I tugged at my sleep shirt, my phone clutched tightly in my hand, staring out over the tops of the buildings spread out before me. Something deep in my heart resonated with this place. It felt more like home than Kent ever did. It was where I’d grown up, that much I knew. In the weeks I’d been here, I’d grown used to the background noise accompanying the place. It was never silent and still.

At first, I hated it. The noise made my nightmares worse and left me feeling more alone than ever. And I’d felt completely alone for the past ten years in my prison. Then the sounds of the city became comforting. They reminded me I’d escaped for the time being. I’d found my freedom. And now, here with the Horsemen, I was in a different cage. One I wasn’t sure I wanted to escape. Not when I’d fallen in love. But I loved someone who kept secrets. I could never fully trust any of them.

My fingers went to my chest, rubbing the sore spot where my heart lay beating. I wanted to crawl back into bed with Prescott. I wanted him to kiss away my pain. To call me his little lamb and do dirty things to my body. Never in a million years did I think I would end up needing the man I’d been sent to destroy. I think I needed all of them, even if I was terrified of West and Drake was a locked vault. Then there was Francis who made me feel safe. He’d chased away my demons. He made it okay for me to go on after the night I’d killed a man. It should haunt me. Somehow, when he’d taken care of me that night, he washed away the horror, guilt and regret. He’d re-written my narrative.

I sighed. I wasn’t okay with what I’d done, but I had to go on living. There was no other choice.

Raising my phone to my face, I stared down at the screen before I dialled my father’s number. He would be pissed off, but what could he do? I wasn’t a miracle worker. I wrapped my other arm around my middle and stared outside as the phone rang.

“Scarlett.”

“Dad.”

“Where have you been?”

The quiet calm of his voice had my limbs trembling. It was the precursor to the rage. An anger I knew all too well. It would result in fists of fury and my battered body being thrown in the concrete room. I hated the place with a passion. Many times I’d wanted to burn it all down. To take a fucking match to the building and watch my prison disintegrate. But it was wishful thinking on my part.

“With them. I couldn’t exactly answer when they’re watching me.”

“You couldn’t answer my texts?”

“I’m sorry, things were hectic today.”

Learning how to lie effectively had been an early lesson for me. It hadn’t always worked, but it kept me out of trouble half the time. The other half? Well, the less said about it, the better.

“That’s not good enough, Scarlett.”

Nothing I did ever was for Stuart Carver. Sometimes I wondered why they’d even adopted me in the first place when they’d never loved me. I was a burden to them and they never let me forget it. It hadn’t started until after my recovery. After I learnt to walk and talk again. After my injuries had healed and my body was almost whole again. No, they’d been loving and caring then. But things gradually began to change. The loving parents morphed into… monsters. And I hated them for it. Both of them.

“I know.”

My voice was quiet and meek. My body wouldn’t stop trembling. Fear was rushing through my veins even though I knew he couldn’t physically hurt me from here. His words would crush me though. Destroy my spirit. He’d ruin my hard-earned progress towards finding myself again.

“Living away from us has made you forget your place. I don’t think you’re ready for freedom. If I didn’t want to nail those bastards to the wall, I would make you come home right this instant. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“They think they can hide in their ivory tower forever. Well, they’re wrong. You are going to find out the truth for me and you’re going to do it fast. This has gone on long enough. It’s going to end with you. All of it. You’re going to end them.”

A tear slid down my cheek at the thought of ending Prescott. I couldn’t. My heart wouldn’t let me.

No, I won’t end them for you. I can’t. I love him.

“Now, have you got what I asked for?”

I shook my head, dreading the word I had to utter.

“No,” I whispered.

“Why. Not?”

The deadly tone he’d used had me putting my free hand to the glass to keep myself upright.

“They’re always watching me. Always.”

“They’re not watching you now.”

I flinched. No way I wanted to sneak around whilst I was on the phone with him. I wouldn’t even know where to start. I knew where the boys’ bedrooms were and downstairs they had a gym, but if there were other rooms, they hadn’t shown me them. Besides, why the hell would they have kept evidence of what my dad accused them of doing? It wouldn’t be very smart. The Horsemen weren’t stupid. They couldn’t have got to where they were now otherwise.

“What exactly do you want me to find, Dad? A way to get past their security? The layout to their penthouse?”

“All of it, Scarlett. Everything. I need everything. Taking those bastards down is paramount, do you hear me? They need to die for what they’ve done.”

What you think they’ve done.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

I needed to placate him somehow. His voice had gone up several octaves.

“Trying is not good enough. You haven’t given me anything. I’m beginning to think you have no intention of doing what you’ve been told.”

“I do, I swear.”

I’d known this would be bad, but I couldn’t help my sinking stomach and the sick feeling coiling in it. Knowing he couldn’t get to me with his fists was the only thing keeping me from collapsing on the floor in fear.

“You’re weak, you know that? You’ve done absolutely nothing for me. Nothing. We’re no further forward at all.”

“We are. I’m closer to them than anyone else could ever get, Dad.”

“It’s meaningless if you can’t find a damn thing on them. You are fucking useless, Scarlett. You always have been. Lord knows why we even paid for your private fucking healthcare when you’re nothing but a disappointment.”

His voice was so loud now. I couldn’t deal with it. I was shaking all over, wanting this to end.

“We’ve given you everything and this is how you repay me?”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Sorry? Fuck sorry. You are going to do as you’re told, do you hear me? No more excuses. None. Get me what I need.”

A hand clapped on my shoulder. I jolted and spun around so fast, I made myself dizzy. My hand reached out blindly and landed on a solid chest. My dad was still shouting in my ear, but I barely heard what he said. My eyes raised as my head cleared. I found indigo blue ones staring down at me.

Oh, fuck!

“If you don’t do what I tell you, I’ll bring you home. I’ll bring you back here and then your life won’t be worth living, you hear me?”

My mouth parted, but I couldn’t say a damn thing. And no doubt Drake could hear the volume of my father’s voice through the speaker. Probably why he plucked the phone away from me and put it to his ear.

“I’m sorry, Mr Carver, but Scarlett needs to get back to bed. She’s had a very busy day.”

Drake hung up the phone. I snatched my hand back from his chest and stumbled into the window behind me. My phone dangled between his fingers and he stared at me with an unreadable expression on his face. I’d never been able to decipher Drake’s moods, but now I knew I was in trouble.

“Can I have my phone back?” I whispered, putting my hand out.

He placed it between my fingers without hesitation. I slipped it behind my back, holding it there because I was scared he’d change his mind and take it away from me.

“I… I was just…”

What the hell could I even say?

“Talking to your family.”

I nodded, unsure if he was going to ask why my father had been shouting at me. It’s not as if I could tell him. They couldn’t find out what I was really here for. The threat of my father was all too real for me. He would hurt me in unimaginable ways if I revealed the truth to the Horsemen. If I ruined everything.

Drake cocked his head to the side before he stepped closer. I sucked in a breath when he cupped my cheek with his large hand.

“You’re shaking.”

I hadn’t stopped. My body was on high alert from my conversation with my father. I couldn’t get rid of the sickly feeling I had inside. The horrific memories of the concrete room kept resurfacing in my mind.

“I’m… I’m fine.”

We both knew it was a lie. I couldn’t afford to say anything else.

“No, you’re not.”

And with that, I found my face smashed into his hard chest and his arms encircling me. My body was stiff, wondering why on earth he was being nice and not questioning me about what he’d heard. Surely it should his first concern, shouldn’t it?

“What are you doing?” I whispered into his shirt, my arms hanging limply at my sides with my phone still clutched in one of my hands.

He didn’t respond as his fingers traced lines down my spine. The motion was soothing, but I was too jumpy and unnerved by the whole thing to relax. Did he think I was going to melt and tell him everything? Was it why he was doing this? I couldn’t help my suspicions given all our interactions with each other.

He must’ve realised this wasn’t working. I wasn’t going to calm down. I didn’t have that sort of relationship with him. I didn’t feel safe letting go. Not in the way I did with Prescott and Francis. Drake was made of stone compared to them. And I didn’t particularly want to be comforted by a fucking statue.

The awkwardness between us when Drake let me go settled over the room. It was almost suffocating. He stared at me with those damn beautiful but terrifyingly cold indigo eyes of his. I wanted to be away from him. Away from all of this.

“Are you going to tell me what that was about?”

I shook my head.

“Secrets aren’t going to win you any favours, Scarlett.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

His eyes narrowed.

“I’m sure that’s what you want me to think.”

“I don’t need you to think anything because it’s none of your business.”

He’d made things worse by hanging up on my father. Now I was going to be in bigger trouble. Maybe I should throw this fucking phone off the roof. Let it smash on the ground so my father couldn’t call me any longer. Would I be free of him then? Or would he find a way to get to me?

Could I trust Drake to keep me safe from my father? Could I trust any of them? I had no idea, and it’s why I kept my mouth shut. Why I couldn’t tell him my father was an abusive piece of shit who’d sent me here to find out the truth and destroy them.

“Are you scared of him?”

The question cut me. I wanted to say yes, but I couldn’t.

“Do you really think I’m going to tell you, of all people, anything about me? You don’t care. You literally don’t give a shit about me other than how you can use me. So no, Drake, I’m not going to stand here and answer your questions. You haven’t given me any indication you actually have any feelings whatsoever, so fuck you.”

His jaw ticked at my words, but he didn’t respond. Deciding I’d had enough, I shoved past him and walked towards the stairs intending to go back to Prescott. I was no longer upset, I was mad. So fucking mad at Drake for being an unfeeling dick. He might have tried to hug me, but it wasn’t real. He did it because he thought it would placate me. Then he could fucking butter me up and make me answer his questions.

What I didn’t expect was to have him come after me, grab my wrist and shove me up against the wall next to the staircase. And I certainly didn’t expect him to lean into me, those indigo eyes dark with repressed emotion.

“You think I don’t care about you?” he hissed, wrapping my hair around his fist. “You have no idea. No fucking idea at all.”

My mouth was claimed in a hot, searing kiss that made my toes curl. Drake attacked it like he was starving and I was his sustenance. I was utterly helpless against the onslaught. My fingers gripped his waist, pressing my phone into him because I had nowhere else to put it. His body was hard and unyielding, keeping me pinned to the wall so I couldn’t escape him. And right then, I didn’t want to.

His tongue tangled with mine, demanding everything from me. His large hand gripped my thigh, pulling it up and wrapping it around him. It only brought his body closer to mine. The heat of him was everywhere, burning me up. A needy, high-pitched whine echoed in my throat. If Drake tore my clothes off and fucked me right there, I wouldn’t have objected. To be honest, I probably would have encouraged it.

“You’re maddening,” he muttered in my mouth. “Utterly maddening.”

Then he bit my lip so hard, it bled. I cried out from the pain, but it was muted when he sucked my lip in his mouth. When he tasted my blood. My eyes flew open, staring into his intense ones. The possessiveness and desire in them had me trembling. It’s like the floodgates had opened and I was seeing the real man hiding beneath all those layers.

He released my lip with an audible pop. I blinked before licking along the inside of it. Tasting what he had. The metallic liquid spread across my tongue, making me wonder why he found it so alluring.

“Go back to Pres, Scarlett,” he all but demanded, his voice hoarse and gravelly.

Drake backed away, looking distinctly harassed by the whole experience. Almost as if he couldn’t believe he’d lost control. But I’d seen it and felt it. He couldn’t hide from me. From us. If I pressed him, I was in no doubt he’d shut right back down and go back to being cold and unfeeling.

Even as everything screamed at me to go to him. To take off my clothes and offer myself to the statue of a man who gave me whiplash, I didn’t. I pulled myself away from the wall and walked upstairs.

My feet carried me to Prescott’s bedroom and I slipped inside. He was still asleep, his hand resting on his bare chest and the moon bathing him in its light. My heart hurt at the sight of the man I loved. I put my phone on the bedside table, crawled into bed with him and curled myself around him, pressing a kiss to his chest. He stirred, wrapping his arm around me and holding me against his body.

“My little lamb,” he breathed, nuzzling my hair.

“I love you,” I whispered into his skin.

I did. So fucking much. Being with him made everything else melt away. My stupid altercation with Drake. The kiss… fuck, that kiss. I’d never been kissed with such intensity before. Well, in all honesty, I’d only kissed two other men, and they were both pretty demanding, but Drake… I didn’t know how to even go about describing the passion hiding behind those indigo eyes.

Prescott didn’t ask where I’d been. He tucked his hand under my chin and pressed a kiss to my mouth. He whispered how much he loved me before cuddling me to him and falling asleep again. His presence soothed me and calmed my racing heart.

I fell asleep hoping he would ease my throbbing pussy in the morning because I couldn’t deny I was turned on to high heaven by a certain man who’d utterly confounded me tonight. And I had no idea what the hell I was going to say to him next time we saw each other.