Page 35 of The Good Girl

She stops, flipping me off with a smile. “Fuck you, Douchbag.”

“Anytime, Princess.” And I mean it. I would take her sassy attitude and name calling over the strange silence of earlier any day. I love how…normal it feels being around her. I love that she’s standing in my bathroom undressing like this is our everyday life, and I want it to be. I want her.

Crossing her arms, she stares at me for a minute as she realizes that the intimacy between us is building. Raising her eyebrow, she finally hisses, “Get out.”

“Fine,” I sigh and reluctantly leave.

She closes the door behind me, but doesn’t lock it, not that I’d barge in anyway. She was going to come to me. Keeping an ear out for the shower turning off, I ring Atlas and check in with the others.

“Was he dead when you found him?” I ask quietly as I dig a pair of shorts and a T-shirt out of my wardrobe for Lena to wear after she was done getting rid of all traces of that fucktard Sam.

Atlas laughs down the line. “Pfft, no. Just passed out. What a pussy.”

“Is he dead now?” I say, trying to keep the anger out of my voice. I don’t want him to know how tonight’s little episode had my blood boiling because while Atlas is on our side, everyone only ever acts in their own self-interests in this town. I’m happy that he’s there for us today, but next week he could be the one cutting our throats, and that’s just the world we live in.

“Of course, I can’t believe you’d ask.” I can imagine his smug face as he says that. Murder is nothing to him—he sees a problem, he takes care of it.

“I just had to check.”

“Is Elena okay?” His voice is softer, and I know that he’s genuinely concerned on one level. Elena is the ultimate good girl, and she always has been. Growing up, she’d always tried to do the right thing, to behave as her father expected her to, and while the rest of us rebelled and did what we wanted, she lived in her gilded cage like a songbird that had its wings clipped. Not for long though.

“She’ll be fine,” I reassure him.

“She did a fair bit of damage. Sam’s face looked like a smashed-up pumpkin. I didn’t think the class vice president had it in her to be so vicious.” The admiration is clear, and I feel a bristle of pride. I was forcing her out of her shell.

Smirking, I reply, “We only see what she wants us to see. And if that doesn’t sum up The Society, I don’t know what does.”

He laughs again. “True that. Money and power, corruption, murder, and secrets. Man, we’ve got it all.”

The background noise from the water running suddenly stops as I whisper down the phone, “Shit, I think I just heard the shower turn off. I gotta go.”

“She’s at your house? Naked?” I hear Tabitha shout from the background, fucker must’ve had me on speakerphone. Hunter makes a cheering noise and I hear Attie’s laughter from somewhere in the distance. Even Clay sniggers. Well, there’s nothing like a bit of team bonding over disposing a body.

“Bye, guys,” I say with a chuckle as I hang up.

Elena comes out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam, and I swear it’s like something out of an eighties porno as she leans against the doorframe, drying her hair with the towel.

“Are you going to give me those or do you want me to walk around naked?” she says when she catches me staring. Lifting a hand, she stops me from answering. “No, wait. That was a stupid question. Don’t answer.”

She takes the shorts and T-shirt from my hands and quickly gets changed in the bathroom before coming back. I’ve perched myself at the end of the bed, and instead of sitting beside me, she sits on the floor hugging her knees. The silence has returned, but it doesn’t last long.

“It’s my fault. I was trying to make you mad. I was trying—” she whispers, and I can feel shame and guilt in her words when there should only be anger. She didn’t do anything, he did.

“I was mad. Furious,” I reply with a wry smile. I didn’t get jealous over just anyone. This was Lena. And Lena was my everything. She was the color in my fucking grey life.

Shaking her head, she mumbles, “I deserved it.”

“If I ever hear you say that again, I’ll rip your tongue out with my teeth. Understand?” Leaning down, I grab her chin, tilting her face up to mine.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Elena

“You are Elena Montgomery, a daughter of The Society. You demand respect. Don’t let anyone treat you like you’re nothing.”

I don’t know why, but his words seem to spark something inside me. I always felt like I was a pawn. That I was powerless. Except I’m not. He’s been telling me that all along. It’s like a slow burn all over my skin as I lean up into him, my mouth meeting his. Tristan stood back and let me do what I needed to at the party. When I was covered in blood and bruises, he didn’t treat me like a fragile little flower.

“Lena,” he groans against my mouth as my hands slide into his hair.

---