A Hurt So Sweet Volume Three (Elite of Eden Falls Prep 3)

“I’m going to fucking kill you,” I tell him icily. “If you hurt her, you’re dead goddamn meat.”

“Sure,” Lai smirks. “We’ll be long gone by the time you get here. Bye, Booth.”

The call ends and I curse out loud, immediately calling him back. But it’s too late – he’s turned off his phone, and the call won’t connect. Frustrated, I throw the phone at the glass partition separating me from the driver, shattering the glass and breaking the phone. But I don’t give a shit. My heart is hammering in my chest with the knowledge that they’ve done something I can’t take back.

They’ve stopped following my orders. They’ve stopped listening to me. And now Pandora isn’t safe with any of them. I’m afraid I’m already too late to help her.

The next forty minutes pass by excruciatingly slowly. Despite my continued insistence for Kelley to drive faster, it still takes her a little under an hour to arrive at Glass Lake where Julian’s parents’ lake cabin is situated. Once Kelley slows down to a stop in front of the cabin, I’m out of the car before it has even stopped completely, shoes crunching on the gravel as I run inside the house.

The front door is unlocked, but there are no cars in the driveway. Lai must have left with the others, just like he said he would.

The faint sound of sobbing I heard over the phone earlier is still there, and I follow it like a hound on the prey’s trail. The house is pristine, beautifully decorated, but fucking reeks of something I can’t quite define. Like something really fucking dreadful happened in here.

I race up the stairs, following the sound of the sobs until I’m in the master bedroom of the lake house. A small figure is trembling beneath the sheets, nothing but her head looking out from the plush, large master bed.

“Pandora?” I manage to get out, approaching her in three quick, long steps. “What the fuck happened?”

She looks nothing like the snarky, defiant girl I know. She’s a mess – her face streaked with makeup from the party last night, her hair a tangled mess. And she’s naked. They left her here fucking naked.

“Tell me what happened,” I beg, my own voice breaking over the words.

The only thing I need now is an excuse to kill the people who did this to her. I don’t give a shit if they’re supposed to be my friends. My friends would never do this to the girl I…

I shake my head to get the thought out. She doesn’t even seem to notice I’m there, her eyes focusing on the door as she whimpers and sobs, as if she’s afraid someone else is going to walk through those doors.

“Pandora,” I try again, making sure I sound more patient than I feel. “Look at me, toy. Just look at me, fucking please, right here, look at me.”

I guide her chin upward so her eyes can meet mine, and she does as she’s told. Her gaze is glazed over, as if she’s lost in a different world, not quite here with me.

“Toy,” I speak up patiently. “Tell me what happened.”

“E-Easton,” she manages to get out, the mere mention of my nemesis’ name making my fingers tighten into fists. “He lured me here… After the party…”

“And then what happened?” I demand, making her flinch at the sound of my impatient, angry voice.

I take a moment to collect myself, taking a deep breath before I reach for her hand, gently intertwining my fingers against hers. It strikes me that this is probably the first time I’ve been kind and gentle with Pandora. I’m really no better than the rest of them, the guys who did this to her, turned her into a mess I barely recognize.

“Tell me, toy,” I ask her, my voice softer, kinder this time. “Just start at the beginning and tell me what they did to you, okay? And then I’ll get you the fuck out of here.”

“Okay,” she whispers. “Easton brought me here… after the engagement… he, he… he wanted to have sex with me.”

The thought makes me fucking furious and I mutter, “But you didn’t, right, Pandora? You didn’t let him fuck you?”

This time, when her eyes meet mine, she looks more broken than ever before, and the truth hits me like a punch to the face. She did it. She went through with it. She fucked Easton, and he didn’t even have to force her.

The betrayal fucking hurts like a knife being twisted in my back. But I do my best not to let her see it, not just because I want to protect her from my own rage, but because I can’t show her how much this information has hurt me. As far as Pandora’s concerned, I don’t give a shit about her – she’s just a pawn in my games, a way for me to get what I want. I can’t show her she’s anything but that to me, not when I’m not certain what she means to me myself.

“Did you sleep with him?” I ask her, forcing my fingers to remain slack against hers even though I want to choke the answer out of her. “It’s okay, Pandora. Just tell me the truth so I can help you.”

She swallows thickly, looking anywhere but at my eyes. Then, she closes her eyes and nods, a barely perceptible move of her head indicating that she betrayed me, just like Lily Anna fucking did. And with the same guy, no less.

If I were less confident, I’d be questioning what Easton fucking Brantley has on me. But I know there’s nothing comparable between the two of us. I’m everything he’s not, even though he’s just proved to be more calculating and cruel than I’ll ever be.

“Okay,” I choke out. “What happened after?”

“We-we went to sleep,” Pandora whispers. “When I woke up, it was like he was a different person. H-He told me the rest of the guys were h-here… He started g-getting dressed, and Caspian came in.”

“Caspian?” I ask, furrowing my brows. “Why?”