Page 18 of Revenge of a Queen

Elle watches him for a couple of seconds before turning my way, her smile from Jace still lingering on her lips. A smile she used to save for only me. She doesn’t notice me at first even though the hallways are emptying quickly. I use that to my advantage and fall in with a group of people heading the same way as her. As we get to a set of double doors, some freshman stops to keep the door open for her and she flashes him that same smile and I can no longer take it.

“Spread your legs for him too?” I snap and the freshman looks at Elle apologetically before scrambling away. Pussy.

She takes a deep breath before answering me, “What do you want, Marcus?”

Oh, so we are back to Marcus now. “I want you out of my school, Elle,” I reply with as much emphasis on her name as possible.

“Well, that isn’t happening. Anything else I can help you with?” she snarks back at me.

“I don’t know. What's the going rate for North bred whores these days?” and she flinches at the word whore. I feel a bit like an asshole, but then I remember how she broke my heart and I squash those feelings down quick.

“Call me a whore one more time and you will regret it. I promise you,” she says slowly through gritted teeth.

I mock a laugh, “Is that a pinky promise?” I say holding out my pinky finger to her.

Her eyes don’t leave mine as she reaches out and snaps my finger back quicker than I can pull it away. I feel the snap but don’t allow her the reaction of my pain. I smile gleefully as I grab her and push her back against the wall ignoring the pain as I curl my fingers around her arms to hold her in place.

“Remember when you said you were already broken, little King?” I whisper leaning in close, so my words are delivered right against her ear. I feel her skin break out in goosebumps beneath me “Well, I’m gonna test that theory.”

“Come for me or my family and you won’t live to see another day, Marcus,” she replies coolly, and I don’t miss the undertone of the threat.

“You’re dumber than I thought if you think I’m scared of Asher Donovan,” I snap back at her, losing some of my cool.

Before I can even feel her move, she has my arms gripped in hers and has flipped me around and pushed my face against the glass of the doors with her trusty knife at my throat. Fuck that shouldn’t be hot, but it is. The fact she has just handled my six-foot two body into submission without even breaking a sweat is impressive.

“All the men in this town really need to fucking learn that I am the real threat around here,” she spits through gritted teeth. “Last warning, Marcus. You’re either with me or against me.”

“And if I’m against you?” I ask trying to ignore the raging hard on I am now sporting.

She releases me and steps back allowing me to turn around and take her in from head to toe. The look on her face is completely murderous and sexy.

“Then prepare to fucking lose,” she says before she turns and leaves me alone in the hallway staring after her.

Chapter 10

ELLE

This week is a fucking shit show. The fact I haven’t spilled blood in Hallows High’s fucking hallways is a miracle within itself. I have been towing the line between calm and chaos all week. The only time I allowed myself to slip was when I broke Marcus’ finger on Tuesday. Not my best reaction in hindsight, but he's lucky that's all he walked away with. Now I know what it feels like to stab a guy in the dick, the urge to do it again is strong. You’d think the love I have for him would make dealing with him easy, but in fact it's the opposite. What is it they say about a woman scorned?

Everywhere I turn, I have to suffer through watching Marcus with his fucking girlfriend. At least that’s what everyone is calling her. Every time I hear it, I imagine different ways to murder her. Not like any of this is her fault, my rage is firmly directed at Marcus, but of course the gods cursed me to love him too much to hurt him. What kind of sick sense of humor do they have? Pair that with the fact that Jace has entangled me in some sort of fake boyfriend situation with him and it’s safe to say I am going fucking stir crazy.

After I threatened Marcus the other day, he has been hellbent on being in my line of sight any chance he fucking gets. I am growing more than tired of it. Thank fuck it’s Friday because having to endure your period and high school bullshit is definitely some new sick kind of torture, that I don’t enjoy.

I choose to forgo the cafeteria for lunch. If I have to suffer through one more day where Marcus gets a fucking lunch time lap dance, I might just fork my own fucking eyeballs out. Thankfully, the guys understand my need to flee and have agreed to ditch the rest of the day with me, in favor of hanging out at home. We are going out tonight, so it gives us time to put some plans in place.

Cooking up revenge plans is still at the forefront of everything, and there has been a lot of shit going on since we blew up Elliot’s warehouse. We have noticed an increase in his men poking around the South Side asking questions. We have been keeping a low profile, aka not killing anyone else, while still doing required recon work. Being patient is shitty as fuck, when all I want to do is bleed out every fucking rapist I come across, but we have to think of the bigger picture.

Tonight, we are hitting the old warehouse on Riverside again for another party. We have a little business, but the outing is mostly for pleasure. Apparently, Jace thinks I need to ‘chill’, like it isn’t his fault I am so on edge. The little show he has been putting on for Marcus all week has me worried that he might slit his throat in his sleep, I mean it’s not like they don’t share the same house. When I said this to Jace, he just burst out laughing and told me that I still don’t know anything. Whatever the fuck that means.

I told the guys that they are welcome to join me at home, but that I will be getting ready at Taylor’s. I have endured far too much testosterone this week and I need some girl time, thankfully they agreed.

Asher will also be joining us tonight, I hope, I have barely seen him this week which in part is my fault, I guess. His father has all their men on a tight leash after the unfortunate fire and that includes bringing Ash to heel as well. I would gut Elliot just for the way he treats his son.

The house is quiet when we arrive. It's Friday afternoon so Zack is at the office and Cass has gone with Helen and Arthur to visit the twins again. I make a mental note to plan to tag along with them soon. It’s been a couple of months since I have seen them and I’m starting to miss the two of them.

The guys follow me inside and up to my room, they aren’t strangers here anymore, and it's nice to see how comfortable they are around me and my home. I guess it’s nice for me too. This is what I crave with Marcus, this easy friendship where we can just hang out like old times. It hurts my chest when I think about how we will never have that again.

Lincoln takes a seat at my desk as usual while Jace just dives onto the bed, into my mountain of pillows.

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