Page 9 of Ruthless Legacy

Chapter Four

All at once, I’m back there again, seeing the car plummet down the hill and into the water. Watching helplessly as it sinks down into the murky water, taking my parents with it. I sit there struggling for breath and bleeding out, helpless to do anything. The sound of the water roars in my ears and the coldness bites at my skin as it makes contact. I’m frozen in panic, and the suddenly two arms reach for me, grabbing around my waist and pulling me upwards. I reach my hand out towards the car as it sinks into the river. I scream to my parents. I scream for someone to help them. I gasp as I come up above the surface of the water. “Go back, go back, they’re dying, my parents, please go back,” I scream, pounding on the chest of my saviour.

“Go back for who, Scarlet? What the fuck are you on about?”

Realisation hits me like a cold slap in the face. I’m not in the car with my mum and dad. I’m in the sea at Hawk Bay. I pound on his chest as I fight the angry tears threatening to fall down my face. “You fucking bastard.”

“I though you said you could swim,” he says angrily as he holds me against him, the force of the waves trying to take us further into the sea.

“I can,” I hiss. “I just haven’t been in the water for five years, not that it’s any of your business, arsehole.”

He looks down at me puzzled. His dark hair is slicked back aways from his face and it places his chiselled cheek bones on display. Even soaking wet he is a beautiful monster.

“Lean on my back and put your arms around my neck, I’ll get us out of here,” he orders me, and wanting to get the fuck out of the water as quick as I can, I do as he asks without any argument. “I’ll fucking kill Georgie for this,” he promises, and he says it with such conviction that I don’t doubt he will.

We reach the beach, and he drags my heavy and soaking wet arse down on to the sand. I suck in heavy breaths as I try to calm my racing heart. From where he sits beside me, he looks down at me and brushes my wet hair from my face, and just for a second or two, there’s nothing but the two of us on the dark beach with the sound of waves crashing against the rocks. I am cold, wet, and extremely pissed off.

He grips my chin with his fingers. “Why didn’t you just admit you have a fear of water?”

I scoff, “Why should I share anything about myself with you fucking vultures? You judge me, make presumptions, but you know nothing about who I am.” I shiver. I’m fucking freezing.

“Holy fuck. Is Little Red alive?” His blond friend comes running towards us, the torchlight shining in my eyes, making me cover them with my arm.

“Stop shining that fucking light in my eyes, Seb,” Savage orders him.

Seb, as I now know him to be, crouches down on his claves before me and looks me over. “Holy shit, girl. You sunk like a rock. I thought you were a goner for sure.”

I shiver and wrap my arms around myself for some warmth. “Believe me, I’ve survived worse.”

“See, I told you the little tramp would be fine,” a whiny voice says, and I turn my attention to the little bitch as she comes into sight with her two friends and the third member of the Aces. I see red. This is all her fault; I storm her way and pull my fist back, then I smack her clean in the face. She squeals and covers her face with her hands. I’m furious and I pull my fist back again to give her another one, when two arms wrap around my waist and lift me off the ground.

“Put me down and let me fucking kill her,” I demand, worming around, trying to get out of his grip.

“Just calm down, Scarlet, we need to try and get dry before we get hypothermia. I’ll deal with Georgie tomorrow.”

Georgie gulps at his words, as Seb checks her face. “Stop moaning. You’ll likely have a shiner, nothing more. Besides, you fully deserved that. Now go home and keep your fucking mouth shut, Georgie, you hear me?”

She glares at Seb, but nods he head and backs off towards her friend who both swarm her, making a fuss over her, as they walk off into the night.

I yelp when I’m lifted off my feet. “Wrap your legs around me, Scarlet,’ Savage orders.

I want to protest and tell him I can walk, but my legs feel like jelly and I’m shaking like a leaf. I can’t feel my legs, or my arms, and my teeth are chattering. Winding my legs around his middle, he strides up the beach.

We walk for what feels like an age before the black car comes into view. Seb and Rafe climb in the front and Savage places me on the back seat, buckling me in, before he walks around the back of the car to climb in beside me.

“Crank that heat up man, as high as it will go,’ he orders as he pulls his soaking wet hoodie over his head and then his t-shirt follows. He looks over at me and swears when he sees me shivering. “Fuck, Rafe, grab a blanket out of the boot, she’s a mess.” He reaches over to me and grabs the bottom of my hoodie.

“Get off,” I say weakly in protest, smacking his hand away.

“You need these wet clothes off, Scarlet. We need to get warm and dry as quick as we can.”

I’m too weak to fight him as he lifts my hoodie over my head, throwing it beside us. He reaches for my foot and pulls off one soaked boot and then the other, and then he undoes my flies and tugs my wet jeans down my legs. He pauses when he sees the four-inch scar on my right fly, and I glare at him daring him to even think about commenting. Then I’m in my bra and knickers in a car with three strangers in the middle of the night. My eyes bug out of my head when he pulls his jeans of and passes them to Rafe who, with a brief concerning look at me, hands him a thick white blanket.

Savage whistles to get my attention and beckons me with his head. “Get over here, Scarlet.”

I shake my head vehemently as I sit there in my underwear, shaking, my teeth chattering. Suddenly his hands are around my waist, and he lifts me and deposits me, facing him, onto his lap. He wraps the blanket around us and pulls me tight against his chest and rubs up and down my arms to generate some heat. I’m so cold and tired that I let my head fall onto his shoulder. “Okay, go, get us to my place,” he orders, and the car moves off, away from the line of the forest.

I close my eyes, feeling exhausted, and groan when he lifts my head. “Open your eyes, Scarlet. You need to stay awake. You hear me?”

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