Page 7 of Ruthless Legacy

“You’re a dick,” I hiss, earning me a menacing chuckle. His stubble brushes against my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Throw him in,” he orders, and two guys step forward and take Robinson by his arms and legs. He writhes and struggles in their hold, but they don’t let go and I gasp when they place him a box that I hadn’t seen there until this moment. A box that resembles a coffin. Two of the guys place him in and place the lid on the make-shift coffin and clasp it closed. Inside, Robinson is frantically banging on the lid, begging to be let out. Everyone steps back apart from the two that placed him in there, and they throw dirt on top of the coffin. Robinson pounds harder on the lid, begging and screaming to be let out.

“Cruel,” I state, “making him think he’s being buried alive.”

“No more than what he deserves,” the dark stranger replies as he continues to hold me against him. “You see, we’re in charge around here. What we say goes. We make the rules, and we serve the punishment for those who don’t follow them.”

I laugh. “Have you heard yourself? Your what, like nineteen, maybe twenty. No one of that age has that much power. Let’s call it what it is. You’re bullies. You prey on the weak and vulnerable.”

He laughs a deep, dry laugh. “I think that’s more you and your gypsy family.”

He starts slowly walking us backward.

“What are you doing? You need to let me go,” I hiss, as I struggle in his iron grasp. I watch as a few more of the guys throw soil on top of the box they trapped Robinson in before they follow us and head off in front. Although two of the guys hold back, walking behind me.

“Have to say, she’s quite pretty for a gypsy,” blond guy says, winking at me and grinning.

“Yeah, well, you can look but you can’t touch,” I warn him, flashing my teeth.

“Ooh, feisty too. I like a girl with a bit of fight in her. Makes it more interesting in bed.”

The other guy, Rafe, throws his arm over his friends’ shoulder and looks at me then behind me at my captor who continues walking us backward towards the mansion house. “What are we going to do with her?”

My captor is quite for a moment. “Scarlet is going to join us tonight,” he announces.

Rafe cocks his head to the side, looking surprised. “Really?”

My captor doesn’t answer him, instead he turns us so that we’re both facing forward, and I can actually see where we’re heading. The way becomes easier to see as the lights from the mansion provide some relief from the darkness of the night.

“Which one of you uppity bastards lives here then?” I ask gesturing my head towards the house before us.

“That would be me,” my captor replies. Typical. He’s my fucking neighbour. “The houses up on Hawk Hill are owned by the four founding families of this town. The Alderman’s, the Colling’s, the Ellsworth’s, and the Savage’s.”

The blond guy holds his hands out wide to his side and twirls around in front of us as we walk. “AKA, the Aces.”

I perk up when I hear my grandfather’s surname. It feels strange knowing it’s the family name, but at some point, my dad must have changed it. Hence why my birth certificate says Holton instead of Alderman.

“Let me guess, you’re the Savage,” I ask my sexy as sin captor. The name suits him perfectly.

“You ask a lot of questions, Scarlet, but you don’t just get answers, you earn them,” the blond one explains to me with a wide grin.

I roll my eyes dramatically. “Forget it. I can figure it out for myself. And you three are the ringmasters of this little Aces club.”

“The four founding families were once all very close. Now it’s just the three families,” my captor tells me, and I don’t miss the hostility in his voice.

“But that is all set to change soon,” Rafe says, chuckling, earning him a punch in the arm from his friend. “Just keeping it real for Arch.”

So, his name is Arch. I wonder if that’s short for Archie or Archibald. Nah, he doesn’t strike me as either.

I’m surprised when we don’t head towards the house, but instead continue round the side of the house towards a car that’s parked on the drive. “Where the hell are we going?” I ask, but in answer all I receive is a throaty chuckle from Rafe and the other one. “This is kidnap, you know?”

“Is it though? I mean, you were trespassing on private property, so the way I see it, we have a right to apprehend you,” the blond stranger says with a wink.

My captor unlocks the car and opens the back passenger door and pushes me inside. He leans in and glares in warning. “Behave Scarlet.” He moves aside and his two sidekicks enter the back and sit on either side of me, squeezing me in like a piece of meat in a sandwich.

My captor climbs into the front of his fancy Audi and starts the engine, and we head off into the night to God knows where. The blond guy takes out his phone and whistles and I peer at his screen. Gross, it’s a titty photo. “Typical,” I say dryly.

He smirks. “I don’t even ask for them either.”

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