Page 28 of Vendetta

Our life had been nearly perfect from that point on. I had started learning about dad’s business once I turned sixteen, and at eighteen, the entire family had moved to Benbrook so that they wouldn’t be as far away once I started attending Ivybrook Elite. It’s funny just how quickly things can change.

Emory should have been a freshman at Ivybrook this year. She had been forced to change schools for her senior year due to the move, but had quickly made new friends and continued to excel in all of her classes, excited to attend University with me the following year.

Her acceptance letter to Ivybrook had arrived in the mail a month after she died. I still remember walking into the dining room that evening to find David holding my weeping mother in his arms, the letter laid out on the table in front of them. I hadn’t been back home since. I knew that it might make me a horrible son, but I had a different way of grieving. I wasn’t ready to face her again until I was strong enough to offer the support she needed. At least she had David, who understood my need for space during these times. He would take care of her.

Landry showing up at Ivybrook this year had offered me an outlet that I hadn’t known I needed. It was a gift from the universe, placing her directly in my path and basically begging me to take the revenge that my family deserved.

Maybe once I had completely ruined and broken her, I would find it easier to face my mother, knowing that I had done something to right the wrongs that had been done.

My mind turned back to Landry, still sitting up in the penthouse that dad had bought me so that I could have a place to stay in the city whenever we had important business meetings. She had been asleep when I had left earlier, and I imagined that she probably still was. The look of defeat on her face earlier had been so sweet. Fucking with her had brought me such a sick sense of joy. I was getting addicted, constantly trying to figure out how I could push it further and further, driving her closer to her breaking point.

I hadn’t intended to go quite as far with the midterm incident, only having meant to get her tipsy enough to fuck with her presentation. That first day at the pool when she had claimed to be allergic to bottom-shelf vodka, I had assumed she was just acting like her spoiled self. I had immediately known that something was wrong when I noticed the labored breathing and sweat dripping from her brow. Panic had consumed me as I had watched her collapse, my heart having stopped in my chest completely. It hadn’t taken me long to figure out that it hadn’t been a lie, she truly was somehow allergic to cheap vodka, something that I didn’t know was even possible.

I still remember the panic as she had begun stripping in front of the entire class, Atticus and Ryan having to physically hold me back from running down there to cover her up. I didn’tlike Landry, but that didn’t mean she deserved to have the entire school see such a vulnerable moment.

I had gotten updates about how she was doing through the group message, and had gotten Kaptan to take down any videos of the incident as soon as they had started circling around campus. But at the end of the day, I felt more guilt than I cared to admit.

I absent-mindedly stuck my hand in my hoodie pocket as I continued to read through the contract, feeling for the key to the locks on her crate. I paused my reading, my hand meeting nothing but emptiness. What the fuck? I shoved my other hand in as well, feeling for holes and trying to figure out how it could have slipped out.

My entire body turned to ice, my stomach rising to my throat as the realization hit me. I had showered before running to the office, and had subsequently changed hoodies, my dirty one still laying in my bedroom at the penthouse. My heartrate picked up, hitting unhealthy levels as I realized who I had also left at the apartment with Landry.

MOTHERFUCKER.

The girls had left at the same time as me to head back to campus after I had lied and told them that I wasn’t coming back for the night, but I had let Levi and Connor stay knowing that they didn’t have a key to her cage. But if they had somehow figured out that they did in fact have access to one…

I raced out the door and to my car, tires squealing as I pulled out of the parking lot. All I could see was red as I imagined what I would do if either of them had so much as put a hand on her. She was mine to fuck with, mine to torment, mine to break, nobody else’s. I knew what those sleazy fuckers had inmind, and with the amount of alcohol they had consumed tonight, I wouldn’t put anything past them.

Remembering the way they had looked at her earlier made my fists clench the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles turned white. It had taken everything in me not to crack my beer bottle against both of their skulls at each of those looks. I pressed down harder on the gas, my Chevelle easily clearing 150 mph thanks to the modifications that Zayn had helped me install last semester.

Maybe everything was fine and I was overreacting. They had been hammered after all—The chances of them not only realizing that I had changed, but also that I may have forgotten to grab the key were low. But I still felt a sinking feeling in my gut. A foreign emotion ran through me, something new and uncomfortable. It was something that I had only faced once in my life, the night that Emory died.

Except for this time, I would get there in time. I would make sure of that.

CHAPTER 15

LANDRY

“Wakey, wakey, little mouse!”

A loud noise jolted me awake, finding Levi and Connor directly outside of my crate. One quick glance and I knew that they were hammered, their sloppy movements and slurred words indication enough.

“Time to come out and play!” Levi chanted, the two of them bursting into laughter. Fear raced through me, my spine stiffening as my mind raced to figure out how I could get out of this situation. I desperately looked around, hoping to find anybody else in the apartment that I might be able to rely on to keep them in check. But to my horror, the place seemed devoid of any other souls. My mind raced to Cashton. Where was he? Did he seriously leave me here alone with them?

Another loud bang rang out as Connor slapped the top of the crate. My heart raced, panic and despair setting in as the realization hit me of just how bad this situation was.

“Poor thing, you’ve been crammed in there all night. Why don’t we let you out for a bit, you can come have some fun with us.” Levi continued, slurring every word.

I tried to find comfort in the fact that they didn’t have the key to the locks, having seen Connor pass it to Cashton once he had arrived earlier. This would be fine. As long as they didn’t have bulk cutters up their sleeve or something, they wouldn’t be able to get to me.

Almost as if reading my mind, Connor reached into his jeans and pulled out a small silver key, holding it up and flashing me a devilish smile. My heart stopped dead in its tracks, my stomach sinking.

This couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. And I would pinch myself, and wake up, and everything would be okay. There was no way that Cashton would have given them the key. I knew that he clearly wasn’t my biggest fan, but he wasn’t callous enough to let this happen. There had to be some semblance of empathy inside of him, no matter how deep down it may be hidden.

“Where did you get that?” I asked, trying to keep a brave face as my entire body began to tremble.

“Cashton gave it to us.” Connor smiled, his deep voice sounding slightly less slurred than the other male’s.

I hadn’t realized that a part of me had been holding on to a sliver of hope that Cashton might be just down the hall, and that he would hear what was going on and come in to stop it. That little sliver evaporated almost as quickly as it had appeared.

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