Page 5 of Ruin

Let’s spend the summer in The Pit.

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The party is almost over, and she’s still not here. A part of me thought she wouldn’t turn up. There was just something about her don’t give a damn attitude.

Am I going to enjoy breaking the wall she’s built? Yes, I am.

She fucking burned my baby, and now I’ll burn her.

I know she wasn’t the only one there that day. The others will get what’s coming to them as well. But I saw her watching the flames, and I caught the smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

I have no idea why she’s after me. The first time I ever saw her was on her first day of school. Yeah, I know I’m popular—everyone knows me—but I’ve always made it a point to know everyone here. Even if I don’t talk to them, I want to know who’s around.

She’s new. Neither I, nor my brothers, have ever done anything to her, or any member of her family. So why go after my baby?

The other thing I like is that she can’t talk. I wonder how much I can break her, before she tells me whose idea it was to set my car on fire.

I feel Stephanie’s lips brushing my skin at the back of my neck. “You worked hard over the summer. Your body’s changed.” Her lips reach just under my ear. “I like it.”

She has no idea what hell I went through to get this body. The fucking scars from the fights are proof of that. My cage was my gym. I used that room in every way I could to build up my body, make it strong, make it so nothing hurt. I still have to laugh because, no matter what, the fights I had down there, they fucking hurt.

Cain and Lincoln made sure I didn’t die in that cage. In the beginning, I got the crap kicked out of me so badly I was still coughing up blood after two days. It took me about three weeks before I could even start to fight back. Cain took me to a private room to train me. One thing’s for sure, that man has a fucking iron fist. No matter what I did, he won every single time. But he taught me well. He showed me how to protect myself, where and how to punch.

He asked if I wanted a weapon, and I said yes before he even finished the question. A knife, the ability to take a life slowly or quickly, had me excited. Fuck, did Cain teach me how to make the most of it? Hell yes, he did. He spent a week telling me where someone would bleed slowly, where it would hurt the most, but not kill them. It was the best week I had down in hell.

I didn’t get it as bad as Cain because he looked after me. But one thing is for sure, without him, I wouldn’t have made it out alive. There were times I would zone out from what was happening around me and just stare at my hands. The hands which killed more men down there than I ever wanted to. Stained in blood, Cain kept telling me, it was them or me.

Stephanie moves around me and settles on my lap as I lean back on the sunbed. Her hands move over my chest, pausing when she reaches a few of the scars. I grab her hands, letting her know to stop touching me.

“I’m sure your hand can touch something else.” I glance down at where she is sitting, already knowing that before this party ends, I’ll have fucked her mouth and pussy. She’s the cheerleader no one else touches because they know she’s mine, but she also knows I’ll never be loyal to her. I’m too young to be loyal to anyone. I want fun.

Stephanie leans in closer, kisses my lips, and whispers. “My mouth wants it.”

I turn to Mason, who’s lying down on the sunbed next to me, with a woman I don’t recognize. It’s the usual high school crowd, plus a few college guys I know. I don’t know any of them well, I’ve seen them a few times when talking to my brothers.

“How was hockey practice?” he asks me. I nod at Hayden and Miles as they join us, then I push Stephanie off me. She mutters a curse under her breath and storms off toward the cheerleaders and hockey team on the other side of the pool.

“Good, but that fucker, I might kill him. Keeps trying his luck with Lileah.” I nod over to Pike. “Lileah doesn’t help, always flirting with him.” I watch my sister laughing with her friends. She’s never been the cheerleader type, always sticking with the same two friends since we were kids, the daughters of our mom’s best friends. The three of them are inseparable, and I swear Charlie is the one leading her down the wrong path.

They all look over at her, shaking their heads. “Her friends are doing shit, but we won’t let her get involved,” Hayden says. “She’s going to try and push our buttons.” Hayden then turns to me. “Did she show up yet?”

“Can you see the freak in black anywhere?” I scan the garden. I mean, you’d spot her a fucking mile away.

Mason and Miles both start laughing. They were pissed, but now they think it’s funny because they know how much it cost me to fix my car up.

“What’s this?” Miles takes my pad from the side table and starts looking through it. “Are you crazy?” He shows Mason and Hayden.

“It’s the list. She owes me a lot of fucking money, and I’ll get every cent back. One way or the other.” I take the pad off him and smile at my list. “How much do you think a hand job should cost?” I’ve made the list, but I haven’t added prices yet. If anyone can help me come up with more crazy shit, it’s these three.

Hayden takes the pad again, and the three of them look at it. “Strip tease, every Friday night she has to be in the bedroom naked.” Hayden throws a few ideas for me.

“Threesome,” Mason shouts. I know she won’t do it, but you never know. Slap a big enough price tag on, and she might, just to get out of the hell I’m about to put her through.

“Naked, or sexy photos sent every morning.” Miles adds with a grin.

I snatch the pad off them to add these to the list I already have.

She’s not here, but tomorrow at school, she will wish she was. If she thought I was joking with her today, she’s about to learn I wasn’t.

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