Page 499 of Filthy Elites

“What do you fancy? Burgers, sandwiches, waffles, pancakes, French toast,” he offers a little desperately.

“Prisoners don’t normally get a choice,” she snaps.

“You’re not a prisoner,” I snarl.

Her scoff is derisive and dark. “I’ve been a prisoner since the day you declared I was yours. You tried to wrap it up in a pretty girlfriend bow, but if you take all the glitz away, I’m still here against my will. Why don’t you just tell me what I’ve got to eat and I’ll eat it, so I can go and sleep.”

Hunter’s shoulders slump and he moves silently around the kitchen, pulling together the ingredients for a sandwich as we all silently watch. He slides it in front of Starling and she picks it up and slowly eats, opening the bottle of water he places in front of her and drinking, until both the plate and bottle are empty.

“Can I go to bed now?” she asks.

I nod and she kicks off her shoes, bends to pick them up and leaves. I listen as she climbs the stairs, not relaxing until my cell beeps to notify me that my bedroom door has been opened.

“This is so fucked up,” Clay growls.

“You need to let her go, this isn’t going to work, she fucking hates you, all of us,” Evan says sadly. “She’s my sister, man, and she really fucking hates me. I don’t… I’ve never had a sibling before, I don’t…” he trails off, his expression defeated.

“Was she like this in Maine? This angry? What about friends? Is there anyone we could bring here, to make this easier for her?” Hunter asks.

“She didn’t make any friends, it was just her and her dad. We can’t bring him here, he hates me, she told him everything,” I admit.

“She must have some friends, there must be someone,” Clay says.

“According to the guards I had in the school, she didn’t. She went to school, did her work, but she was a loner, never engaged, never went out, never really spoke to anyone unless she absolutely had to.”

“You need to let her go, get her a place at the school she wanted to go to in Maine,” Evan tells me.

“No,” I snarl. “She’s mine.”

Shoving back his chair and jumping to his feet, Evan parts his lips, ready to yell at me, but Hunter speaks first. “She’s broken, we broke her. This girl isn’t the same Starling we knew, this isn’t the same Starling you fell in love with.”

“Then we fix her,” I shout.

“You need to give her space,” Clay suggests.

“She’ll run, she’s planning her escape already, her eyes are always searching for a chance to get away. You can’t stop her from going home for the holidays and once she leaves, unless you do something to fix this, she won’t come back,” Evan says.

“So we don’t let her go,” I snap. “We take her home to Green Acres for the holidays, she needs to fix things with Cassidy anyway.”

“I’m not sure that’s fixable,” Evan sighs. “Starling only takes Cassidy’s calls on her birthday and Christmas, the rest of the time she just doesn’t answer. Cass cries so hard every time it goes to voice mail that my dad told her to stop calling. We destroyed their relationship and I think forcing Starling to come home will only make things worse.”

“We really are the fucking monsters she thinks we are,” Hunter laughs darkly. “We have until winter break to fix this, if we haven’t, then I’ll drive her to the airport myself and pay for her tuition for her new school. We ruined this girl, we did this and if we can’t fix it, then none of us deserve to have her in our lives.”

When Hunter storms from the room, I stay stuck in my seat, trying to process what he just said. He’s right, this is all our fault, but I know I can’t and won’t give her up, even if I’ll never deserve her. One by one, Evan then Clay leave, until it’s just me sitting alone in the kitchen, considering my sins and what I can do to atone for them. By the time I push the door open to my bedroom and step inside I have a plan in my mind, a way to make her want me, to make her need me the same way I need her.

As I strip out of my clothes and climb into the bed beside her, I vow to fix this, one way or another, there’s no other option.

SIXTEEN

Starling

My eyes opena few minutes before my alarm goes off and I groan, stretching my arms and legs as sleep dissolves from my muscles, only the pain of yesterday’s activities pulsing between my thighs. I can feel the heat of Sebastian’s body behind me and I freeze, hoping not to wake him as I roll toward the edge of the bed.

“Where are you going?” he asks sleepily.

“For a run.”

“No.”

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