Page 359 of Poor Little Rich Girl

“Alec—” I step forward to warn him, but I’m too late. Alec cries out as he reels, gripping a deep cut on his shoulder. Blood seeps between his fingers. Mackenzie swipes again, catching Mark on the cheek. She grips the edge of the trunk and tries to haul herself out, but the other guys swoop in and pin her down. Mark tears the knife away.

My ears ring, the noise drowning out Alec’s cries for me to help.

They drag her out. She spits and thrashes, kicking up sand and dust into their faces as she struggles to escape. She’s still Mackenzie, fighting to the last. I didn’t know Howard Malloy’s princess could be so scrappy. Not for the first time, I wonder what has happened to her since the day five years ago when she ruined my life. Where has she been? Where are her parents? Who has turned her into this…this…

Goddess of hellfire?

“Hello, Mackenzie Malloy.” Alec leans in close. She spits at him, but she’s so weak that her spit runs down her chin. I can’t help but wish she’d got him.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Those ice-blue eyes of hers widen as she takes in her surroundings. They circle every face in the crowd, and I know she’s taking stock of exactly who’s present. I can see the wheels turning in her head.

She settles on me. Her icicle eyes cut straight through my skin, digging into my chest, stabbing at the hollow place where my heart should be. She shouldn’t be able to affect me like this. For five years the only thing she made me feel was hate, but as her eyes lock on mine and refuse to let go, I’m overcome by a new sensation. A feeling I didn’t know I was capable of.

Loyalty.

Which is fucking stupid, because I owe this girl nothing. Less than nothing. But as those pale blue orbs bore deeper and deeper, hollowing me out, scraping away every last piece of what made me Noah, I understand that we’re more alike than either of us wants to admit. We’re both trapped in a hell of our own making.

Mackenzie, why did you betray me?

“You’re not such hot stuff now, are you?” Alec sneers. He grips her shoulders, his nails digging into her skin. Two of our friends hold her arms, trapping her between them – this tiny girl who’d dared to stand up to him. “You’re a fucking psycho out-of-control ghost slut, you know that? Your thugs scared Noah’s mother so badly she’s in the hospital.”

“Boo-hoo,” she spits back. “You all should have thought of that before you hurt my friend.”

“Your friend should know to stay out of our business. Clearly, whatever hole you’ve been in the last four years hasn’t taught you any manners. We don’t want twisted psycho bitches at our school, and it’s time you were put in your place.”

She speaks with real venom, her body trembling with emotion. I presume she’s talking about George, but whatever Alec did to her, it was ages ago. It wasn’t Mackenzie’s fight. She didn’t brand Alec over George, did she? That would require Mackenzie Malloy to feel empathy for someone other than herself, and that seems…impossible.

“Bend her over the hood,” Alec barks.

They slam her on the hood of Alec’s Cobra, forcing her hands wide and her neck down. The metal had to be hot from the sun, and she squirms and cries out as they press the skin of her cheek against it. Her phone slides out of her pocket and drops into the dirt. She kicks her legs, so Dave grabs her ankles and pins them, too.

And then Alec grabs her ass.

He grabs her ass.

That one gesture is a bucket of ice water over my head. My ears buzz. It’s the warning my dead brother has been screaming at me ever since I got into the car with Alec.

I know exactly what he intends to do to her.

“You started this war, Malloy. You’re only getting what you deserve.” Alec leans over and rasps in her ear. Bile churns in my throat. “You’re going to take each one of us until you know your place. You walked into Stonehurst like you owned the place. Today, I own you.”

His hand slides down her hip, toying with the hem of her skirt, trying to shove it up as he leans his weight on her.

“Fallen isn’t wrong – you grew a damn fine ass, Malloy.” Alec exposes her. She’s wearing a tiny little led G-string which in any other situation would have sent me wild with lust. “I’m going to make it mine today. Would you like that? My big cock sliding in your ass? That’s what you get for messing with my face.”

A whimper escapes her lips.

That whimper breaks something inside me.

The ringing in my ears rises to a crescendo.

Alec pulls back suddenly and claps his hands. Relief sags through me. Of course, he wasn’t really going to hurt her. He just wanted to frighten her. That’s all he said we were doing. So at least—

“Noah. You can do the honors.”

Fuck no.

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