She didn’t answer, so I slapped her again.
“I don’t know. I don’t know.” Chloe’s hands went to her nose where blood was oozing from her nostril.
“Not a good enough answer.”
I was done. I was tired. This person, this thing, she’d made my life miserable, hacked off my hair, killed my best friend, and helped my father do it all.
I hated her.
There was no way I could let her get away with it.
Something came over me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was like I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t even stop myself. Fingers wrapped around her neck again, I squeezed, only this time, Chloe saw real fear as I didn’t let go. I didn’t stop. She had to die. She had to pay for what she did to Heather.
My best friend didn’t deserve the end she got, and someone had to pay. That someone had to be Chloe. She caused it. She had to suffer.
My body was numb.
Was this why I didn’t tell William immediately that I loved him? I knew I was going to go down for murder?
I had no idea. I couldn’t stop.
This was what needed to happen.
All of a sudden, my body was pulled off Chloe. The force of it made me let go of her neck, and I heard her deep breath.
Arms still held me back, but mine were outstretched as I tried to get to her. “No!”
“Enough!”
I looked up into the harsh face of Lucas, Gideon’s dad.
Clenching my hand into a fist, I slammed it against his face. He wasn’t expecting it, but he also wasn’t the one holding me.
“Get off me. Let me go.”
I saw them before the one holding me could block the view.
Four men came into the garden, and none too gently, they roughly grabbed Chloe and began to lead her away.
My view was obscured as I was turned away to stare across the pool.
I heard Lucas talking to someone with a deep voice.
“She will be handled accordingly,” the voice said.
“What about … Sian?”
I held my breath. I was going to kill Chloe. I was going to exact my revenge and make her pay for what she did to my best friend.
They’d stopped me. I gritted my teeth as tears filled my eyes.
“We’re aware of her situation. You will keep better control of her. Otherwise, her compensation package will be revoked. Good day to you, gentlemen.”
With that, I heard footsteps and he was gone.
The moment he left, the hands that held me were gone.
I whirled around to hit Justin. He’d been the one to hold me. “Fucker!”
He dodged my punch.
Thrusting my hands against his chest, I shoved him hard, but he didn’t move.
“What the hell? What the fuck?” I screamed each word at them, slow, steady. “Why did you do that?”
“You may think you’re ready to commit murder, but you’re not ready for the consequences.”
“You don’t think I would do a jail term for killing that bitch?” I asked. “She was going to get what was coming to her. How could you stop me?”
“You’re not ready to handle that. Any of that,” Lucas said.
“What gives you the right to think you can decide this? All you do is meddle and take a look at your own fucked-up life.”
He winced, but I didn’t care.
“She worked with my dad! She killed my best friend and tried to help to bring down The Society.”
“And she will pay accordingly.”
“She deserves to be dead.”
“Which is why The Society isn’t run by a bunch of teenagers.” Lucas advanced toward me, and as I swung for him again, he grabbed my fist and applied enough pressure to make me cry out. “You’re too irrational to see the quickest way to a solution doesn’t make it the right one. People like Chloe need to learn to suffer. She’s had it cozy for a long time. She doesn’t know what a life on the streets is like, but her involvement with Alexander has sealed not just her fate, but that of her family’s. Every single shred of power will be stripped from them. What kept them on top will be gone. They will be in the gutters, begging for scraps.”
“Do you think someone as pretty as Chloe will be in there for long?” I asked. “She is living, breathing, and she is beautiful.”
“They disobeyed The Society. On joining them, they knew the rules, Sian. Chloe knew what she was getting herself into. Because of that, they will pass judgment and Chloe will never know a moment’s peace or happiness. To defy them, there are always consequences, and they make sure the person pays. Believe me, you don’t want to be on their bad side,” Justin said.
I didn’t know why I stopped arguing with them. My anger didn’t disappear. Tears filled my eyes. It was like I couldn’t breathe.
Covering my face, I sobbed against my hands, trying to understand what I was going to do. Why I was going to do it. None of this made any sense as I cried into my palms, trying to understand what the hell had just happened.
I was going to kill Chloe.
Lucas came to me first as I collapsed onto the ground.
Taking deep breaths, I tried to focus my breathing, but nothing would work. My panic had gone into new territory, one that scared even me. With my hand on my chest, I breathed in and out.
Lucas forced me to look at him, to listen to his voice, but his words began to slow down, and then I fell back, staring up at the sky, which was such a pretty blue before everything went dark.
****
Gideon
I watched over Sian as she slept.
Our dads had given us a rundown of what she tried to do and, I didn’t blame her. How could I?
She was hurting, even though I knew that wasn’t a good enough excuse for her to go to try to kill Chloe. She hadn’t succeeded. My father warned me she might be a bit pissed off.
So I waited.
William, Dante, and Mateo had all been in here at some point, watching her, waiting. I didn’t know if we were waiting for her to go full-on crazy on us.
Rubbing my hands together, I stayed perfectly still, listening to her breathe. I knew the moment she woke up.
At first, she didn’t move, didn’t make a sound. Her body was perfectly still.
She’d had a panic attack. One that had nearly stopped her from breathing.
“Hello, Sian,” I said.
Slowly, she sat up in bed. Her hair was all over the place as she ran a hand over her face, trying to clear the fog. “Hey,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“Do you have any recollection of what you tried to do this morning?” I asked.
She didn’t try to deny it. “You already know, so why ask?”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” She threw the covers off her body and turned away from me.
“You’re sure?”
“Fuck off, Gideon. What do you want me to say? I nearly tried to kill Chloe today but your dads stopped me. They have some kind of superhero complex and wanted to save the bad girl?”
“They didn’t give a shit about Chloe, Sian. They stopped you for you.”
She snorted. “Please, they probably stopped me for themselves and because they have been told by their precious Society.” She mocked the last word. Her voice went high-pitched, and I couldn’t help but smile.