AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not the bathroom,” I shook my head, hoping that I was doing a good job of portraying a horny Society girl who wanted to play with the help, “isn’t there a storeroom or something?”
The man in question grinned down at me as he stepped back into the hallway, tugging me along with him.
“They can’t see us.” I whisper-shouted after him, and thankfully, I didn’t need to say more because he seemed to get the gist. He walked us down the passage, shielding me from the camera with his body, never once considering that he was headed towards danger.
They always underestimated me.
He opened a storeroom two doors away from the bathroom, pushing me in first to ensure that the camera didn’t catch sight of me. It made me wonder how many Society heiresses did this - how common it actually was.
His hard body pushed into me as he brought his lips crashing down to mine. I opened my mouth to reciprocate, only to be accosted by the scent of tobacco and cheap liquor. This wasn’tMack.
Fuck, I needed to keep my head in the game. I squeezed my eyes shut and kissed him back, hating every second of this man’s tongue in my mouth. Soundlessly, I pried the injection from my bag without removing his lips from mine. He grunted in pleasure as he pushed deeper into the kiss, his fingers working their way upwards into the nape of my neck, sliding into my hair.
Tears leaked from the corner of my eyes, which just fucking irritated me because I wasn’t a crier. I needed to get this over with.
My hands slid beneath his shirt, and the man before me groaned in pleasure. I pressed the injection against his smooth, taught stomach, and his body jerked at the feel of the needle. His elbow locked around my neck - my throat, and it was all I could do to hold on and wait for the insulin to kick in.
He understood what was happening, and there was nothing I could do as I was forced to stand in his arms as he shook, sweating - his body fighting what I had filled him with. My neck ached, my throat burned, and the only consolation I could find was that his tongue was no longer in my mouth.
Finally - fuckingfinally- his body collapsed, the storeroom so small that he hit the door going down.
Without missing a beat, I pulled the seal from my bag, heating it up with the flame as I went, and when it was finally hot enough, I pressed it against his forehead, trying to ignore the smell of burning flesh that seemed to permeate the air of this small space.
When the deed was done, I fled, changing my sparkly flats for my docs, flinging my hoodie over my clothes because I needed to getaway. I ducked my head down as I ran through the passage, darting into Joe’s where it was crowded and sweaty, and once I was behind a pillar of people, obscured from view, I slipped the hoodie from my body, removing my docs with a dexterity I didn’t feel before finally stepping out of the bar and back into the hallway.
The elevator was silent as it took me to my floor, relief shook through my body as I stepped into my suite to find that Mack hadn’t yet returned. In truth, the whole thing took less than half an hour, but I could still taste his tobacco in my mouth - still feel his body pressed against me, and without giving it a second thought, I threw myself into the shower.
The sobs wracked through me, and I fucking hated that I stood here beneath the spraycrying. Was this it then? Was this my line? My uncrossable boundary? Did I finally find it?
No. I knew it wasn’t. I knew that I would do whatever it took to exact my revenge, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t mourning the loss of Mack’s taste on my lips - of his scent permeating my body. It simply meant that I hadn’t enjoyed crossing that boundary, but just as soon as that thought took root in my mind, I dismissed it, needing to feelonlymyself on my skin.
I scrubbed my flesh, scrubbed until my skin was pink and raw, ensuring that I washed my hair twice,just in casehis scent lingered. My body hummed with the need to crawl into Mack’s bed - to wrap myself up inhiscomforter - surround myself withhisscent, but I pushed those frivolous thoughts away, climbing into my own bed as sleep beckoned me into its abyss. Perhaps tonight I’d see her face - I’drememberwhat she looked like, and howgoodshe was.
Because, here, it was so easy to forget.
Chapter Sixteen : Pulling Back on the Upswing
Mack
Istoodinthebasement, fighting to hide my boredom. The only thing that enticed me down here in their fancy gym was the boxing ring. Real gyms - where people bled and muscle memory was built, didn’t look all neat and polished. Did they actually think they had something to teach me when there weren’t blood stains on the floor?
The sight of the boxing ring - even if it was far more polished than the one back home - sent a pang through my chest, reminding me of all the times I had spent in the ring with my father and brother. I knew it pained my da that I was here - that we weren’t given a choice, and while I didn’t begrudge him or my grandpops, I didn’t want my brother to have to experience this. I wanted him wild and free - I wanted him to carve his own path in life, even though I knew that he would never stray from the family and what we did. Even when we took him shooting, there was something soft about him - something I wanted to preserve because after a rough day at school, he’d come home and bake cookies with Ma, serenading her as they worked. When he read something interesting, he’d always pull that tidbit out over the breakfast table to share with Da.
He was the best of us - the most pure, even when we were knee deep in violence.
Still, I hung back and watched The Society women file in, each dressed in Lululemon and God knew what else - as if a fight wouldonlyoccur when you were dressed for it. It was ludicrous, really. Raquel bounced near the front of the room, large floor-to-ceiling mirrors reflecting our truth back at us. Aria stood near her, staring at some military grade asshole that Paul had brought in to train us. He was buff, filled with tattoos, and dirty blonde hair, and looked like he’d be more comfortable on my turf than here. It didn’t take long for the pretty Society boys to enter - Ajax and Joshua Penn leading the pack, and as luck would have it they hopped into the boxing ring, as if these fucktards knew what to do. It was almost laughable.
I forced my gaze away from them as I waited forherto arrive, if only to see what she would do. I figured she knew how to fight, but would she show them or hide her skillset? When I returned to our apartment on Saturday, she was wrapped up in her bed, sound asleep, and by the time Sunday rolled around, she was already out of the apartment when I woke up. It was almost as if she was avoiding me, which was ludicrous because she was the one who proposed this setup. The Society added combat training to the roster, and today was the first lesson, which meant that I’d gone more than twenty-four hours without Marissa in my bed -which wasn’t the fucking agreement.
And so I stood there, lurking in the back as I waited for her.
I waited until she arrived, and even when I didn’t want to look - to take her all in, I couldn’t tear my gaze from her. Because even dressed in Lululemon - or whatever the fuck she wore - even as she looked every inch The Society girl as the others, I wanted to watch and see what she did - wanted her to show them that she was so much more than what they made her, what they expected. She wore purple leggings and a sports bra, and the flesh she showed on her stomach made me want to fucking stab someone - because they shouldn’t belooking at her.
If these Society fucks thought that I was going to stand there and go through whatever punching exercises that O’Grady fucking had in store for his class, they were delusional. Instead, I planted my ass against the wall and watched them.
Only, that wasn’t true because it wasn’tthemI was watching.
She was strategic in her positioning, standing in the middle of the crowd. I knew the drill - knew that if she stood at the back, O’Grady might spend more time on her because he would assume she needed the help - was standing at the back because she wasnervous- because she didn’t knowwhatshe was doing. If she stood in the front, he may spend equally as much time on her because she would be deemedenthusiastic, and so she stood in the middle.
