Elite (Eagle Elite #1)(65)

“Stop! Phoenix! STOP!” I dug my heels into the ground, but he just laughed and pulled me harder. I tripped over my own feet and went sailing into his arms.

“That’s more like it,” he said gruffly. “You think you’re so perfect just because of who your family is? Do you even know who I am?” He jerked my head close to his mouth and yelled it into my ear. “And all because of you I’ve lost the chance to be with Nixon’s family! My connections? Gone. My money. GONE! Wanna know why?”

I tried to shake my head.

“Because the De Langes aren’t a for sure thing. Our money isn’t good enough. But Nixon’s? His name? It’s freaking gold and you went and ruined everything by batting your damn eyelashes. You’re a freaking whore just like your mom…”

He slapped me across the face and pulled me through the door into the Elect headquarters.

I hoped in vain Tex would be in there with Mo. They’d been inseparable since they started dating. But it was empty. I started pressing buttons on my cell in hopes that it would call someone, anyone.

“What are you doing?” Phoenix grabbed my phone just as it rang. “Answer it. Tell him you’re fine.”

I shook my head no.

Phoenix pulled out a knife. “Answer it or I’m going to make a permanent mark on your face.”

With shaking hands I took the phone and answered. “Hello?”

“Trace?” It was Chase. “Are you okay? Nixon said you left class and… Trace are you crying?”

“No.” I tried to keep my voice chipper.

“But you texted 911, usually that means you’re either upset or someone called you a whore again…”

I gulped, my eyes on Phoenix’s knife. “Um, Chase, I gotta run. I’m going to go back to my room to take a nap.”

Chase was silent. “Trace.”

“Yeah?”

“How hot is it in Arizona?”

“Scorching,” I answered tears blurring my vision.

“Shit.” Chase hung up.

I handed the phone back to Phoenix who threw it against the wall, shattering it into pieces.

“Think you know all our little secrets just because you’re an Alfero?” Phoenix pushed me against the wall and laughed. “Where’s Nixon now? Is he going to save you? Where was he when your parents died? Oh right, he was too young, unable to do anything. Just like he won’t be able to do anything now.”

“Why?” I choked out trying to buy time. I had no idea what he was going to do I just knew that for some reason he hated me and wanted to hurt me.

“Why?” His eyebrows rose as he licked his lips and then spat on me. “Because you’re a dirty whore. Because you’ve ruined everything I’ve worked for years to build. Because the minute Nixon broke me away from the Elect, nobody in town will do business with us. I’ve been ordered by my father to take care of things in any way possible. This is my way of doing that. Can’t have family secrets rearing their ugly heads just because Nixon decided he had a heart, now can we?”

“Nixon will kill you,” I said in a shaky voice.

Phoenix punched the wall above my head. “Not if I kill him first.” His laugh was dark, crazy actually. Was he high on drugs? His hands moved from the wall to my shoulders and in an instant he was ripping my sweater from my body. With sickening dread I knew exactly what he was doing to do.

He wasn’t going to kill me. No. That would be too kind.

He was going to make me into the whore everyone already thought I was, and he was going to destroy me. Take the one thing that was only mine to give.

“A thousand bucks says you’re a virgin…” His hands moved to my blouse and very slowly he began undoing the buttons until my shirt fluttered to the floor along with my sweater. I’d never been so scared or embarrassed in my life.

He leered at me.

Frantic, I clenched my fist and let it fly, hitting him in the jaw. Staggering back, he cursed and then grabbed my leg as I tried to run away.

“I like a girl who’s rough.”

I tried kicking him in the stomach, but he pushed my leg against the ground and then jumped on top of me lifting my skirt in the process. I couldn’t help the tears streaming down my face, or the fact that my scream wouldn’t come out of my mouth. It was like I wasn’t actually living through this, like my soul had left my body and I was watching it happen to another person.

His hands touched my thighs and I prayed to God that he would knock me out before any more of him touched me.

With one final surge I tried to buck him off me scratching his face and whatever else I could do. He hit me repeatedly across the face until it no longer hurt.

My head fell to the floor. The strength was gone. I couldn’t fight. My brain told me to, but my muscles wouldn’t work.

He pulled my skirt up past my waist.

I prayed again.

Phoenix blew me a kiss and then moved his hands to my underwear.

Something pounded the door and then I heard cursing. My eyes were blurry from tears, my face swollen from being Phoenix’s punching bag.

Two blurs entered the room shouting and threw Phoenix off me.

Chase was immediately by my side. He threw a jacket over my exposed body and tucked my head into his shoulder while Nixon threw Phoenix against the wall.