Corrupt - Douglas Penelope (книги .TXT) 📗

I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest. “I think you believe that.”

Looking at her now, her hair dotted with crystals of water, Damon’s blood on her hands and the bottom of her tank top, and the resolute look in her eyes, I’d never been surer of anything.

No, she wasn’t scared. She’d given into it. She was owning it.

Run or play. Fuck it.

“Where is she?” she pressed again.

“You get answers when you confess.”

“And submit,” Will added.

“To what?” she gritted out, turning her fierce eyes on him.

“To us.” He came around her, looking her in the eye. “All of us.”

“Your tantrum cost us three years, Rika,” Kai charged, baring his teeth. “And it wasn’t easy time. We were hungry and threatened and miserable.”

“And now you’re going to know what that feels like,” Damon added, leaning on the wall and holding his stomach as he glared at her.

Kai hovered down over her. “You’re going to learn how to shut up and look down when I enter a room.”

“And you’re going to learn how to fight and resist, because that’s what I like,” Damon countered.

“But with me,” Will came in close, making her jerk, “you’ll want it.”

She shook her head. “Tantrum? What tantrum? I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

“You come when we say.” Damon leaned on a hand on the island, tensing in pain. “You leave when we say. And as long as you do as you’re told, your debt to us will be paid. Your mother will be safe, and you’ll have money to live. You got that?”

“You’re ours,” Kai told her. “You owe us, and this has been a long time coming.”

“Owe you for what?” she shouted.

“We took you with us that night,” Will charged. “We trusted you!”

“Never trust a fucking women,” Damon grumbled, reciting his father’s words no doubt.

“And I was supposed to trust you, too!” she shot back. “And what did you guys do to me?”

She glared between Damon, Will, and Kai, and I stilled, wondering what the hell was going on.

“What is she talking about?” I demanded.

But Rika ignored me, pushing forward.

“You served three years? Well, I’m not sorry for you,” she growled. “You guys screwed up, but surprise, surprise, you actually had to pay a consequence for once. You’ve never had to own up to anything. There’s no one to blame but yourselves.”

“You don’t know anything!” Kai bellowed, shouting in her face.

She shook her head, a spiteful smile in her eyes. “Really?” And then she shot her glare to Damon. “You were sent to jail for raping an underage girl. Winter Ashby, the mayor’s daughter. The video was proof. What’s there to explain?”

I blinked long and hard, the morning that the videos surfaced flooding back.

I’d woken up on Halloween, the day after Devil’s Night, and discovered that some of our videos had been posted online for the whole fucking world to see.

Which, quite simply, led to my friends’ arrest.

It had been stupid to record the videos in the first place, but we were always careful with it. We kept one phone especially for those nights when we wreaked havoc and wanted to keep a little souvenir. And back then, we thought we were untouchable.

Winter Ashby had been one of Damon’s conquests. She’d willingly taken him to bed the night before, but she’d been underage, and her father was just as powerful as ours.

And he hated Damon’s family.

Which was probably why Damon preyed on her to begin with.

There was no way her father would drop the charges. He saw an opportunity to take down a Torrance, and he did it.

I looked over at Damon, seeing his flat expression as he stared at her.

“There’s nothing to explain,” he replied calmly. “You have me figured out. I preyed on a young girl, and I don’t even remember her face.”

Rika thinned her eyes on him, probably expecting more of an argument, but that wasn’t Damon’s style. He didn’t talk. He acted.

She then turned to Will and Kai, carrying on, “And you guys beat up a cop. Nearly to death. They found him on the side of the road.”

Another video that had surfaced.

“That cop,” Will shot out, moving into her space, “is Emery Scott’s brother. Her abusive…older…brother, and you’re damn right I beat the shit out of him!”

She pinched her eyebrows together. “Emery Scott?”

“Yeah,” Kai joined in. “We caught wind of it earlier that summer, so we jumped him, and I don’t care what you think. We’d do it again.”

Rika knew Emery Scott—went to school with her—and she must’ve remembered Will burning down her gazebo on Devil’s Night. He’d wanted her for a long time, so he fucked with her to get her attention, but when he’d found out she was being abused by her brother, Will, Damon, and Kai beat the crap out of him.

And Damon had recorded it on the phone.

Unfortunately, there were pieces where Will and Kai had flashed their faces to the camera. I hadn’t been there, because I’d been at a basketball camp for most of the summer.

The morning after Devil’s Night, I woke up to a nightmare. My social media was flooded with messages, posts, and even a few news articles that had already been uploaded. Somehow, the videos from our phone had wound up online overnight, and everyone within a thousand mile radius knew about us. Or my friends, anyway.

It wasn’t long before the police were at their houses, putting them in handcuffs, and while we could get out of a lot of things, the realization soon set in that they weren’t coming back. Damon had fucked with a connected girl, and Kai and Will were screwed, as well. You don’t hurt cops, no matter what.

Damon was sentenced to thirty-three months for statutory rape, and Will and Kai pleaded down to twenty-eight months for assault.

And then…after all that…after everything I’d been a part of as well, I’d escaped without a scratch.

No videos with me were posted, and even if they had been, my face wouldn’t have been visible in any of them. I’d always kept my mask on.

It didn’t take us long to figure out who’d uploaded the videos.

“You threw us under the bus, because Michael had hurt you that night,” Kai accused, “but did you really think we weren’t going to come after you?”

Her eyebrows pinched together, looking confused.

“Being a rat is one thing,” Will interjected, “but betraying people who trusted you is unforgiveable.”

“Betraying?” she breathed out, and then looked to me, a question in her eyes. “What…?”

But Will just kept going. “You’re going to make amends,” he commanded. “And if you don’t, then maybe we’ll go dig your mother out of whatever hole we stuck her in to take your place. I’m sure she’s a good fuck. She landed your dad, after all.”

Rika’s eyes flared, and she lost it.

Letting out a growl, she drove forward, launching her body into Will’s and shoving him backward, her hands pushing against his chest, the power of her whole body sending him stumbling back onto his ass.

Shit.

He landed, and I dived around the island, seeing her immediately jump on him and straddle him, her fists flying down on his face as he shot out his hands, trying to shield her.

“Fuck!” he yelled, swinging his arm and knocking her to the floor.

Before either of them had a chance to launch into another attack, I came in front of her, blocking both of them and pulling her off the ground.

She bared her teeth, seething, and tried to dart around me, but I cut her off, shaking my head.

I stared into her eyes, noticing the way she took a step backward, away from me.

Dropping my eyes, I curled my fists. I can’t hurt her. I couldn’t do this.

I no longer cared what she did to us all those years ago or why she did it. I didn’t trust her, but I…

I couldn’t hurt her.

I turned and faced my friends, keeping her behind me.

“Goddammit!” Will barked as Kai gave him a hand, pulling him off the ground.