Real Girl (Aston Creek High 4)

Marcus comes to a screeching stop at the top of the driveway and instantly leans over me. He tears open the glove compartment and shoves his hand in, fishing around until he pulls out a small revolver.

My eyes widen as I tighten my grip on the knife. Shit is about to go down.

“Out,” he spits.

Seeing as though you don’t take a knife to a gunfight, I clamber out of the Aston Martin and hurry toward the front entrance. There are far too many stairs for me to manage in my exhausted state but it’s no issue for Marcus as he grabs my wrist and pulls me along, not caring when I trip over my sore feet.

His fist thumps loudly against the hardwood of the door. Once. Twice. Three times, but he’ll never get an answer. Maria and Lucien’s room is way over the other end. There would have been an alert that we entered through the gate but with how exhausting the day has been, they would have slept through it. I can guarantee that they have absolutely no idea that we’re here.

I’m torn. Marcus wants to go all out at Lucien with a gun and I’m kind of excited about that, but what happens if that gun is turned on me afterward. I’m used goods. He doesn’t want me now. Am I a loose end that he needs to deal with? Should I just start running in a zig-zag, hoping he has a shitty aim?

Fuck. I don’t know.

I have my knife and I know where at least fifty percent of the guns are hidden in this house, that’s assuming they haven’t been moved in the past six months. My bedroom was completely overhauled to minimize the accessibility to anything that could be used as a weapon so it’s possible everything else was too.

Coming to the realization that I need to know the outcome of this, I let out a sigh and nod to the third pillar. “The second brick from the bottom is loose. There’s a spare key,” I tell him, officially becoming an accomplice of this shit.

Marcus doesn’t waste a second and finds the key before jamming it into the lock with such ferocity that the whole door rattles on its hinges. I hash in the alarm code and a second later, he throws the door open and instantly hollers through the big house, his voice echoing off every wall. “GET YOUR GOOD FOR NOTHING, SLIMY ASS DOWN HERE, LUCIEN VALENTINE.”

There’s a noise and some banging coming from upstairs before Lucien’s face appears over the railing. “What is all the commotion?” he roars, pissed to have been woken. His facial expression turns to curiosity as he realizes who stands in his home before caution overtakes.

“Your office. Now,” Marcus demands, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along.

I let out a shaky breath.

I need Blake. This is his world too and he’ll know best what I should do. This is way out of my league. I’ve gotten myself into a big fucking mess and now I’m fucked.

Marcus barges through Lucien’s office door and pushes me toward the desk as he helps himself to Lucien’s rum, grabbing the bottle and not giving a shit about the mess he makes while trying to put it into a glass.

Lucien strides in moments later and I don’t miss the gun in his hand.

Fuck. This is not a place I want to be. He must have seen the revolver Marcus walked in here with and from the look in his eyes and the way his sharp glare comes to me, he knows exactly what this is about.

Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck. I can’t be here.

Marcus turns to Lucien and strides toward him, probably feeling invincible with that gun in his hand. Lucien’s hand stays by his side, smart enough not to escalate this if it doesn’t need to be.

Marcus lashes out, curling his hand into a tight fist and hitting Lucien with a devastating uppercut, sending him doubling over as Marcus spits through his teeth. “You took what was mine.”

“I took nothing. She’s a liar.”

Marcus’ glare slices toward me as I step around Lucien’s desk, ready to duck for cover if a bullet was to come flying this way. I’ve already been shot once before and I don’t plan on having to suffer through that again.

Despite Marcus’ lethal stare, I cut my gaze back at Lucien. “That’s bullshit,” I growl. “Do the words ‘I need to take you before it’s too late’ ring a bell? You remember, they’re the exact words you said to me right before you raped me.”

“You’re a liar,” he spits, panicking as he looks back at Marcus. “You couldn’t possibly believe this shit? I told you, she ran away because she found that she had family.”

“I didn’t know I had family until I got to the police station and they searched our names, our real names.”