Lust (The Elite Seven #1)(44)

He drops my coin in my palm and nods. “I’ve informed the other’s of your status.”

What the fuck is he talking about?

He takes my confusion with surprise. “The video?” He says, like I know what the hell he’s talking about.

Getting out his phone, he plays with the screen, and then my cell beeps.

My insides coil and the blood drains from my veins.

It’s a video of Chastity and me at the carnival in the back of the magic mirror, or whatever the fuck it’s called.

Me eating her pussy. Rapture caught on her expression as I bring her to climax. Motherfucker.

The film is on a cell phone being held from what looks like just outside the back exit door.

Shame and guilt saturate me. This will kill Chastity.

“You didn’t send me that?” Pride asks.

“What? Fuck no. Where did it come from?”

“No number. I thought you must have sent it from the phone it was caught on. So you didn’t know you were being filmed?”

Is he fucking dumb? “No,” I grate out, my anger flaring.

“Well…shit.”

“Have you shown that to anyone?” Oh god, what if it’s gone viral by someone out to get me, or her, or us both, or just someone caught us and is being a dick.

“I handed it over to The Elite, Rhett. I’m sorry, brother. I thought you had a change of heart.”

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” I roar, slamming my hands against the steering wheel.

“Maybe there’s a way we can track the sender?” he grunts.

“It doesn’t fucking matter now. It’s out there.” I exhale, closing my eyes to ward off the impending headache.

“I’m sorry, Rhett.”

With that, he opens the door and slams it shut on his departure.




Walking through the corridors is a special kind of torture. I see everyone. Usually I’m lost in my own thoughts, but not today. I’m studying every damn person I pass.

Do they know? Have they seen it? Was it them?

Avoiding Chastity is its own form of torment. She’s the one I want to be with in a crisis. I’ll lose her over this. Will she know it wasn’t me? Surely the camera angle proves it.

I drag my feet for the weekly appointment with Lillian. Things are just too fucking weird for her to demand I still come to see her. I’m going to tell her today. It ends. Ask her what she knows about The Elite.

Raised voices sound from her door, garnishing worried looks from a girl in the waiting area.

It’s Chastity’s voice. No.

Pushing the handle, I open the door and my world tilts, my heart imploding. Red blotchy eyes, tear-soaked cheeks, a phone playing the video in her hand. Her cunt stepmother leans against her desk in front of her, arms folded, a smirk on her lips.

“Chas,” I croak.

Her chest rises and falls with her heartbreak.

Getting to her feet, she hands the phone back to Lillian and barges past me.

It’s over. I know it without her telling me, and the loss hits me like a tidal wave, knocking me off kilter.

Slamming the door closed, rage races through my blood like a drug.

“You fucking bitch,” I growl.

With a non-committal shoulder shrug, the whore smirks. “She had to know who she was getting involved with.”

“Like you give a fuck about her,” I snort.

“She’s my stepdaughter. Of course I do. She my husband’s pride and joy,” she sneers the last sentence, hate clear in her delivery.

“No one can compare to his sweet Chastity, even though he tries to find girls who do.” She spits her venom—jealously, hate, vengeance.

“Preserving her innocence is his concern, so it’s also mine.”

“You’ll regret this,” I warn, throwing her own threat back at her. Her cold, beady eyes narrow, and she laughs.

“This meeting is over.” She points to the door. “Close the door on the way out.”

“Fuck you, cunt,” I bark, slinging open her door. I waltz through it, letting it slam against the hinges and bounce back open.

Breaking into a jog, I check the girls’ bathroom and every corner Chastity could have fled to, but come up empty. Pushing out one of the exits, I race down the steps and come up short when Maggie stands in my path.

“Where is she?” is all I say. I don’t need a lecture from her.

“I was going to ask you. She took off like a bat out of hell. She was…” She inhales and exhales. “I’ve never seen her so upset. Broken.”

I broke her.

Getting in my car, I drive to her house and breathe out when I see her car parked badly in her driveway. At least she came home and got here safe.

Banging on the door gets me no answer, so I try the handle, but it’s locked.

Fuck.

“Chastity,” I call up to her window, desperation bleeding into my voice.

Silence.

After four more attempts, she appears in her window, the glass raised up so she can lean out.

“Why are you here?” She sounds so hoarse, so lost, so defeated. I did this to her, made her feel this pain.

“I love you,” I say. Truth is all I have.

“I was a task to you. A dare!” she screams.

“That’s not true,” I plead.