Scars (The Triad 1)

ELLIOT

It had been one very long week since Scarlet took over the damn house. She pranced around like she owned the place in long T-shirts that barely covered her ass and nothing else. Sebastian followed her around the house with his eyes like a lost puppy. Tristan was barely any better, but at least he hadn’t stuck his dick in her…yet.

Every time she came into the room, a smile on her face and a bowl of cereal in her hands, her eyes would flit to each one of us as she smirked and decided which one she would sit next to. It was like she had us in rotation, and every time it was my turn to have her attention, I would just grit my teeth and try my best to ignore how she smelled like lilacs and petrol. She was constantly driving around the grounds on the quad bikes, and that scent followed her around for the rest of the day.

It’s not that I had anything against Scarlet herself or that I wasn’t attracted to her. But that girl was gunpowder and lead, and I was just waiting for her to get under all of our skin and then blow up in our faces.

We were in Tristan’s office, and she was still asleep. That girl would sleep for the entire day if we’d let her. Then again, with Sebastian in her bed every fucking night, she probably needed it.

“Elliot,” Tristan said, bringing me back to the room.

“Yeah?”

“We need to make a move with her family. We need to decide how we are going to handle this.”

I sighed and ran my hands over my face. “Are we sure we want to keep her around instead of just giving her over as a way to keep their fingers out of our pies?”

“Hah! Phrasing,” Seb laughed. I rolled my eyes.

“Honestly,” Tristan said, leaning forward on his forearms, “I think it’s the best way to guarantee they’ll stay under our thumb. It’s like having a permanent hostage. A constant bargaining chip in our hands. They’ll know if they fuck up we can just use her.”

“Fine. How do you want to do it, then?”

“Let’s set up a meeting.”

“They’re going to want proof we have her,” Seb chimed in.

“So, we take her with us,” I said, leaning back into my chair.

“No way are we taking her and putting her right in the line of fire,” Seb said, his hackles instantly raising. Protective bastard. Tristan sighed and shook his head.

“I agree with Seb. Taking her would give them the perfect chance to just shoot her on the spot. Or take her. We are going to have to leave her here with some of our most trusted people. We can give them proof in the form of a live video feed or something.”

I groaned inwardly. I didn’t really see this plan working. I didn’t trust her. I didn’t trust anyone other than the two guys in front of me. And the fact that they had let her in so quickly worried the shit out of me.

We had known her for less than forty-eight hours before Sebastian was fucking her and Tristan had welcomed her in as a part of our circle. Granted, he hadn’t let her start working on anything that would give her any ammunition against us, but he was having her train with me every day. He was letting her become more of a threat.

And every time she sauntered into the gym in her sports bra and biker shorts, I damn near lost my mind. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to knock her out or throw her on the ground and fuck her into the mat until she was screaming my name. I realized those were drastically different trains of thought, but she seemed to bring out the worst in me, and I wasn’t quite sure why that was yet.

“I’ll get in contact with them today to try and figure out when is a good time to sit down and talk this out like adults. I want to get Scarlet as comfortable as possible with us, start earning her trust so that she can earn ours.” Tristan stood and walked over to his desk.

“Interesting way to look at it.” I earned a couple of hard glares at that. “Look, I know I’m the odd man out here. You guys both seem to trust her to a certain extent, and you trusted her pretty quickly.”

“I never said I trust her,” Tristan cut in.

“I trust her,” Seb said. That earned him a look from Tristan.

“You guys literally said yes to her after only knowing her for two days. Don’t you think that’s a little quick?”

“I was able to build this…whatever this is… on intuition, Elliot. I trust my gut. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be where we are today. I’m not saying I trust her, because I don’t. I would never trust someone that quickly. But what I saw in her, El…” He shook his head. “She’s beaten, bruised, and really fucking down on her luck. Her own fucking family definitely wanted her out of the picture. She just wants a place to belong. Why can’t we give her a chance to belong here?”