Page 444 of Filthy Elites

“Yeah, I just had that horrible feeling of being watched, do you know what I mean?” I wrinkle my nose, hating that I sound like an idiot.

“Oh my gosh, I get that all the time when I get out of the pool at night and have to walk back up to the house. It’s creepy.”

I can’t help but smile at my sweet, ditsy friend. “Really creepy,” I laugh, stabbing my fork into my lasagna and ignoring the lingering sensation of eyes on me.

FOUR

Sebastian

The information Claygave me about my little bird is running on a loop through my head.

Starling Kennedy, sixteen, born September 4 in Maine. Her mother’s name is Cassidy Clark, thirty-two, author writing successful thriller novels. Father, Derek Kennedy, forty, lives in Maine, owns and runs a lobster fishing boat. Starling lives with her mother in a small house slap bang on the border between North and South Acres. Their mortgage is more than they can afford and Cassidy takes other writing jobs in between publishing novels to help pay the bills and her credit card debt. They don’t own a car, although both mother and daughter have their driving permits. Starling works at the Yummy Tummy diner in South Acres and rides the bus to and from work. She works three or four nights a week and most weekends for minimum wage. She must give all her wages to her mom because she only has twenty-five dollars in her checking account.

Her parents divorced when she was two years old, around the time Cassidy published her first successful book and bought the house they currently live in when they moved to Green Acres. Starling only sees her father once a year for a couple of weeks during the summer break, when she works on his fishing boat.

She has one friend, Courtney Ortega, fifteen, daughter of Larrissa and Michael Ortega. Cheerleader. They live in a decent house in North Acres, and Courtney has a substantial trust fund which she will gain access to once she graduates from high school.

Courtney’s family driver collected Starling from her home and drove her to and from school every day during their freshmen year. Now Courtney has her driver’s license, she instead picked Starling up from her home this morning.

Starling is an average student, passing all of her classes with an average of aBon most assignments. Her mother paid two years tuition up front when she enrolled Starling in the school and if their financial situation does not improve, my little bird will have to transfer to the hellhole public school in South Acres for her junior and senior years.

All of these facts paint a picture of the girl I’ve been obsessing over for the last year, but even knowing all these things about her, I still don’t knowher.

I don’t know if she keeps her hair long and wears it in a braid every day because she doesn’t want to waste money on a haircut, or if she just likes it that way. I don’t know if she resents her father for never coming here to visit her or if she’s happy she’s only forced to see him once a year. I don’t know if her creamy thighs are as smooth as they appear, or how they’ll look with bite marks all over from where I plan to bury my head between them and lick her virgin pussy.

I don’t know enough, and I need to change that. The ban on her has been lifted and it’s time to claim her, to make sure that the entire school knows she belongs to The Elite, to me. She’s too beautiful to be left unprotected, that little fuckwit Elliot Williams already tried to touch what’s mine today. He’s lucky I only ordered an ass kicking, not for him to have his fucking hand removed.

The juniors and seniors already know that Starling is off-limits. They don’t know why, but they were warned the moment she stepped onto my radar that she was untouchable, that she had The Elites’ protection. Thank fuck Logan is in her homeroom, he saw Elliot shove his hand upmylittle bird’s skirt and dragged the asshole off her. If he hadn’t, if that fucker had touched her, had breached her or even got the scent of my little bird’s pussy on his skin, I’d have killed him.

As it is, he’ll probably be pissing blood for a few days and he’s going to have to find a new school. Or maybe I’ll let him stay so he can act as a warning to everyone else at GAA about what happens if you touch The Elites’ property.

My body heats with awareness as she walks into the cafeteria, her arm looped through her friend’s. She’s so beautiful, so perfect, so utterly mine. Even though she doesn’t know it yet.

I want to go and get her, to have her sit on my lap while I feed her, but instead I watch as they head to an empty table on the other side of the room. Last year she wasn’t a temptation, because the freshmen eat in a different dining area, but now she’s here, her cell in her hand, laughing, and I can’t tear my eyes away.

Clay’s research is always one-hundred-percent accurate. So when he told me she and her mother ate a lot of Italian food, I contacted the kitchens and made sure they altered the menu just for her. I’m pleased to see that he was right, as the server delivers the lasagna I arranged to her table. I watch as she cuts off a slice and eats it, her eyes closing, her smile wide. She likes it. I’m glad. She’s skinny, but I don’t think it’s deliberate. Not like her friend who orders a salad and stares longingly at my little bird’s lunch. According to Clay’s research, she usually gets home late and gets up early, working as many hours as Henry, her boss, will give her.

She’s exhausted, but I can fix that. I can look after her, take care of her. I’m only seventeen, but I know that Starling is mine, that our age is irrelevant. The way I feel about her might perhaps be called obsession, but I prefer to think of it as all-consuming desire. Whatever it is, it’s time to make her understand she’s mine.

When she stills and looks around, I know she can feel my eyes on her. I want her to know she’s being watched, but I don’t want her to know it’s me who can’t look away. Not yet. Lowering my gaze, I carefully keep her in my periphery until she goes back to eating. The moment I know she can’t see me, I allow my gaze to lift to her again and I don’t look away for the rest of lunch.

If I could, I’d have moved myself into her classes, or her into mine, but I can’t. I’m still a senior and she’s a sophomore, but just because I’m not in the room doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes on her. Being one of The Elite is like holding the keys to the kingdom and everybody wants to be us. It was almost too easy to recruit someone in each of her classes to surreptitiously keep watch over her. Of course, they don’t actually know why they’re watching. As far as they’re concerned, they’re just doing a task for me, like passing out assigned seating charts for each class so my little bird is exactly where I want her to be, in full view of the security cameras that are fitted in each classroom.

I’m not a complete psycho; I don’t sit in a dark room watching her on a computer screen all day, I have my own classes to attend. But I do have access to all of the security recordings and livestream and if I wanted to peruse the footage of her English class, I could.

By the time the last bell of the day rings, I’m more than ready to claim her and feel her full pouty lips against mine. I’ve been imagining how excited she’ll be when I make her my queen for over a year, and today is finally the day. I’ve been patient, but I won’t wait a moment longer.

Her friend has cheer practice after school today, which means my little bird is without a ride home. There isn’t a school bus, GAA is more likely to offer a car service than a communal bus so without her ride, she’s stranded here.

I want the whole school to see her with me, to truly understand how off-limits she is, but that can wait until tomorrow when I walk her into the school holding my hand. Taking my time, I stroll down the halls, my eyes constantly searching for her, my dick hard, eager to make her mine. She’s sixteen, legal, but as far as Clay can find, she’s never had a boyfriend before. I’m glad I’ll get to be her first, her only.

By the time I reach the main doors, I’m concerned that I haven’t found her yet. She could be in the library, or watching Courtney from the bleachers, but I assumed she’d wait out front for her. Pulling my cell from my pocket I type out a message into the group chat I share with the other Elites.

Me: Where is she?

Evan, Clay and Hunter are my brothers in every way except for blood. Our parents are friends, we grew up together, holidayed together, plan to go to college together. We’re a team and although they don’t really understand my obsession with my little bird, after a year of watching, they feel almost as protective of her as I do.

Evan: She’s not in the gym, the friend is at practice but there’s no sign of Starling.

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