Page 17 of Revenge of a Queen

CHERRY: What are you doing?

CHERRY: Wanna come over?

CHERRY: Are you picking me up?

CHERRY: I’ll guess I’ll see you at school

Fuck me. I knew picking a girl to show Elle I don’t need her wasn’t really my best idea, but fucking hell. I didn’t think about how this would pan out. Now not only am I dealing with Elle and her lies, but also a clingy fucking girl, who thinks she has finally locked down a fucking Rebel. Things are just going from bad to worse, but can I really back down now? I saw the way Elle looked at her yesterday, how her hand would flinch to reach for her knife every time Cherry’s hand stroked down my chest. I shouldn’t have enjoyed it, but I did.

I could tell she wanted her gone, but if she is going to play games with Jace, then I need a partner to go toe to toe with her. Who is a better candidate than Cherry? Honestly, probably fucking anyone but it’s too late now. I pocket my phone and get on my bike and head to what I am sure is going to be another fucking awful day. My little King wants a war. She’ll get one.

It isn’t long before I get to school and am both exasperated and excited at finding Cherry there waiting for me. I don’t want to use her like this, but I don’t have a choice. She thinks she has a chance with me, but I can’t even touch her without feeling like I am betraying Elle in some way. After what she has done, how fucked up is that?

I think about ignoring her until later, but then I spy Elle sitting on the hood of Linc’s SUV, with both Lincoln and Jace by her side. Seeing my brothers flank her like this would have made me happy before, now it just pisses me the fuck off. So, I do what any self-respecting, scorned male would do, I act like I don’t fucking care.

Cherry only sweetens things when she sees me and runs at me as she shouts, “Baby!” before throwing herself at me until her body is flush against mine. I will for my body to react, to have even a flicker of a fucking erection to anyone that isn’t Elle but nothing, nada. I am starting to think he is the biggest traitor of all. What kind of dick only gets hard for a fucking liar?

I shutdown my thoughts and begrudgingly put my arms around Cherry, at the same time I lock eyes with Elle. She looks murderous. I shouldn’t be giddy about that but I am. That feeling lasts all of two seconds when I see Elle go to slide off the trunk and Jace grips her thigh to keep her in place while speaking closely to her so only they can hear. Oh fuck no.

I grip Cherry to my side and storm over to them before I can even think about it.

Jace cuts in before I can even speak with a sarcastic tone, “Morning, brother,” he says with a smile. For the first time ever, the word brother sounds like an insult instead of an endearment and I fucking hate it. This isn’t us, this is not what we do.

Before I can even respond he turns his attention to Cherry and continues, “And good morning to you too, Miss Daniels. So nice that Marcus here has finally got himself a girlfriend,” He says with a smugly sweet smile aimed at me.

He gets his intended reaction when Cherry squeals loudly, “I know! I just can’t believe how lucky I am that he finally noticed me.”

The way she says finally has me swinging my gaze her way considering two days ago I had no idea who she was. I don’t have time to think about it any longer before Jace continues on, “Yeah, love really is in the air round here,” he replies to her as he swings his arm around Elle. “Isn’t that right, princess?”

Elle is staring at me intently, like she is willing me to stop these childish games and just talk to her, but we are too far gone for that. We aren’t Ells and River anymore, we stopped being them when she started piling on the secrets and lies. There is no going back to how things were before, there is just before and after. Now, we exist only in the after. I do my best to ignore the obvious attempt to rile me up, but Cherry doesn’t help things.

“Oh wow, you two make a gorgeous couple!” She says complimenting them like she didn’t get called a pornstar by Elle, just yesterday.

“Yep,” Jace says, popping the P obnoxiously. “I saw what was right in front of me and snatched it up,” he adds as he glares at me and I snort.

“Good luck keeping hold of her, liars get bored easily,” I respond with a smug smile and she frowns before schooling her expression and locking her eyes on Cherry who just scoffed in outrage at my statement.

“Excuse him, Cherry, he’s forgotten the manners I know his father taught him,” she says with a sickly-sweet smile and I tense at the mention of my dad. Oh, is she really going there?

“Well, only you know why he isn’t around to keep me in check, little King,” I bark back at her and I see her tense from here before she lets out a low breath and looks to my brothers.

Ignoring me, she speaks to them, “Come on, let’s go to class,” she says before sliding off the hood and barging past me and ending our verbal sparring. I try not to feel the pang in my chest as she walks away from me but it’s there, just like it always is. I turn back to my brothers who look at me with disappointment in their eyes. It just confuses the fuck out of me, but I don’t have time to decipher it before they leave to follow after her.

I don’t know what stings more, watching her walk away from me or watching my brothers go with her. I don’t know when it happened but it’s here right in front of me, I wanted a Queen and now my brothers have got one. I always knew she could be, but I guess I was wrong about who her King would be.

Cherry cuts into my thoughts as her hands slide up my chest and it takes everything in me to suppress a flinch.

“Wanna skip class? I bet I could think of something more fun to do,” she says, smiling up at me, in what I am sure is her best seductive smile, but it does nothing for me.

I don’t hesitate before I shake out of her embrace and turn to follow after my lying Queen. “Rain check, Cherry,” I throw over my shoulder without looking back at her.

The only thing on my mind is getting to the bottom of whatever is going on with Jace and Elle. As if thinking about her and Donovan wasn’t fucking bad enough. I stalk after them pushing people out of my way as I go and giving zero fucks about any of them. Now is not the time to be dealing with any bottom feeders vying for attention. No, the only person getting my attention today is my beautiful, little liar.

I am going to watch every move she makes until I uncover the rest of her secrets. If she can lie about having a child and a relationship with Asher fucking Donovan, then I’m sure there are plenty more truths that need to be uncovered.

I watch her, them. Taking note of every movement and filing it away. Lincoln is his usual serious self, and he looks like he is talking to them both sternly about something and Elle is growling at him while Jace just laughs. Lincoln shakes his head before giving Elle’s shoulder a little squeeze and heading off to class.

Jace stays behind and whatever he is saying has Elle laughing. It makes me want to paint these shitty hallways with his fucking blood. She grabs books from her locker and nods her head my way indicating where her class is. Before she turns to leave, Jace locks eyes with me over her shoulder and pulls her into a hug with a smug smile on his face before dropping a kiss to her head and turning to leave.

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