Penelope … Ricci.
Penelope “Richards” fucking lied to us.
My face darkens as I look at Dylan. “She needs to pay for what she’s done.” I’m fuming, overtaken by raging madness. “We’re gonna find her.”
After everything I did for her, all the fucking people I killed, all the bodies I piled up … this is how she repays me?
I storm off, chucking my cigarette aside. No fucking time to waste.
“You can’t be fucking serious, Felix,” Alistair says as he follows in my footsteps. “You’re gonna work for Dylan’s dad?”
“I don’t fucking care about him,” Felix says. “She burned down the fucking school.”
“So what?” Dylan scoffs, catching up with us. “We’ve burned down plenty of shit. It’s just a fucking building. It’ll get repaired or rebuilt.”
I stop in my tracks and point my finger at him. “This isn’t just about some fucking building. This is about her betrayal.”
He swallows and stares me dead in the eyes. “You trust my father?”
My jaw tightens. “No. But I know where my loyalty lies.”
“The board,” Dylan says through gritted teeth.
“Family above all,” Alistair says, rolling his eyes.
“Wait, you can’t be … no,” Dylan says. “You can’t turn this into a family feud. It’ll be a fucking war.”
I lean in closer. “I didn’t do shit. She did.”
“No. Fuck this. Fuck family,” Dylan growls, grabbing my finger. “My father isn’t telling the entire story. I just know he’s hiding something.”
“Yeah, well, so is she.” I turn around again. “And I’m gonna find out why the fuck she’d do this.”
“You don’t even know if she did it,” Alistair says as I march off. “It could’ve been anyone.”
“Doubt it,” I reply, headed straight for the frat house. “Only one soul alive with that much of a grudge against this school.” I grab my motorcycle, which I only just got some new tires from my garage, and put on my helmet. “It’s her, all right. And I’m gonna fucking find her and punish her for what she did.” I kick-start the engine. “With or without you.”
I race off before they try to change my mind again.
I know what I need to do.
She wants a fucking war? I’ll bring it to her fucking feet.
At the gates, I come across Crystal, one of Penelope’s friends, and I immediately come to a screeching halt. “Did you see her?”
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Who?”
“Penelope,” I grit.
“Yeah, she just ran off down that road,” she mutters, shivering in the cold of the night. “Sorry, I should’ve stopped her.”
I quickly blast off, leaving a very frazzled Crystal clutching her nightgown in my wake.
The wind blows in my face as I drive off the school grounds while more vehicles from the fire department race to the scene. But I pay no attention to the blazing fire behind me. There’s no time to lose. It’s been more than just minutes since that fire started. She could be anywhere by now.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
“FUCK!” I scream against my helmet.
I race down the long road leading down the mountain, checking behind every rock, every tree, every fucking twig to see if she’s hiding there.
“Penelope!” I roar out loud, hoping she can hear me. “When I get my hands on you, I’m going to make you wish you’d never come to Spine Ridge!”
I zigzag down the road, narrowly avoiding a rock that’s sprung loose from the mountain. Sweat rolls down my back as I try to focus with barely any light. In the middle of the night, the only guidance I have is the moonlight scattering across the road.
In the distance, I see something running through the grass, headed for the forest far beyond the road. The reflection of metallic-colored shoes flickers in the light of my motorcycle.
Penelope.
I hit the gas and go even faster, hoping to catch her before she disappears between the trees.
Behind me, fresh, barely used car tires skid across the road, and I can hear from the noise the engine makes that it’s Alistair and Dylan.
But I don’t have time to wait for them.
I stray from the road and drive across the grass, leaving a cleanly cut path in my wake. Right before she runs into the forest, I drive up to her, slide my bike sideways, and block her path.
“Oh no, you fucking don’t.”
I jump off as my bike begins to fall, and I throw myself on top of her. Together, we tumble a few feet down the slope of the mountainous area until we come to a stop in the middle of the grass with only the light of my motorcycle to illuminate the darkness on her face.
She struggles against me, fighting me off. And she loses both her shoes in the process. “Get away from me!”
We wrestle on the ground, rolling through the mud until I finally gain the upper hand and sit down on top of her.
I pin her wrists to the ground and yell, “You thought you could fucking run after what you just did?”
Teardrops stain her cheeks.
I tear off my helmet and throw it to the side, then pounce down on her again. “You burned the fucking school down!”
Her lips barely part. “Prove. It.”
My nostrils flare, and I lean in. Grabbing a few strands of her hair near her neck, I take a deep whiff. “Your hair smells like gasoline. Burned.” I lean back to stare into her eyes. “Just like your fucking heart.”
“Fuck you.” She spits in my face.
I slowly wipe off the saliva and grasp her mouth, forcefully lowering her chin. I shove my fingers inside and swipe them across her tongue. “Fucking bite,” I growl. “I dare you.”
The murderous look in her eyes makes me almost want to smother her in kisses.
But she … she did something unforgivable.
When I pull my fingers out again, I pinch her cheeks together. “You know I won’t let you get away with this.”
“So what?” she growls. “I don’t fucking care anymore.”
I don’t like that tone. Like she’s given up.
But she isn’t fucking allowed to give up until after I finish with her. “Why? Why did you do it?”
She shrugs. “You all deserved to go to hell for what you did to my sister.”
“Goddammit, Pen, I already told you we didn’t make her jump. Just because she broke up with us doesn’t mean anything. And the school didn’t have anything to do with it!” I yell back.
A wicked smirk grows on her face but quickly dissipates. “This school had everything to do with it. And seeing it burn is the highlight of my life.”
Fuck. Dylan’s right. She’s just as crazy as we are.
Did I just not notice? Or has she just always hidden this side of her?
The car comes to a screeching stop behind us, and I peer over my shoulder. Dylan and Alistair jump out and run to us. And Penelope thrashes around underneath me to try to escape, but I keep her in my vise grip.
“I won’t allow you to run away again,” I growl.
“I’m not the fucking enemy!” she shrieks, still flailing around with her legs.
Dylan swiftly grabs one foot while Alistair grabs the other.
“Well, hello there, Pen. So nice to finally see you again,” Dylan says. “Had a nice barbecue?”
She smirks gleefully. “I was taught by the best.”
He gloats. “Why, thank you.”
I smack him in the arm. “This ain’t a fucking joke. You know what she fucking unleashed with this fire.”
“Unleashed?” She scoffs. “Oh, fucking tell the world what I unleashed, Felix. Are you gonna tell them about the body you dropped in front of everyone in the school?”
Dylan frowns. “Uh … what is she talking about, Felix?”
“Yeah, tell him, Felix,” she taunts.
But she knows as well as I do why there was a dead body in that hallway. “I did what you asked. A contract is a contract. A body for a body.”
“Bullshit. You just wanted to remind me that I can’t fucking get away from you, just like I can’t fucking get away from you now.” She writhes underneath me.
I slam her down onto the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs. “I did that for you.”
She stares at me for a moment, blinking rapidly, like she’s digesting my words.
But none of them seem to land. “You think you can hide from the world, but I will expose all of you.”
She fights me off again, but I grasp her hands and shove them into the grass. “You lied to us. Your last name isn’t Richards. It’s Ricci.” I stare into her eyes. “Your family is notorious for destroying every fucking crime family they come across. And now you tried to do it to us too.”
“I’d clap for you for finding out, but my hands are kind of busy right now,” she muses.
My fingers squeeze her wrists. “Stop fucking around.”
She raises her brow. “Why? So you can tell yourself I deserve this?” She starts to rage. “You’re just like your father. He murders his wife, and you murder your girlfriends!”
How dare she? How fucking dare she bring my father and mother into this?
I plant a fist into the ground right beside her head. “My father killed my mother to protect me from her!”
Her pupils dilate, and she stops thrashing. For a moment, all we can do is stare at each other, into the void of our own making.
“What?” she mutters after a few seconds.
I didn’t want to be reminded of that day.
I never do.
But she’s managed to drag all my weaknesses to the surface, and that’s on me.
“You have no fucking clue how much our family does for the people we love.” My teeth grind together, and I tilt my head back to meet Dylan’s gaze. “Tie her up.”
“What?” she rasps.
Dylan nods and runs back to the car only to return with some rope we always keep in the back for emergencies such as this.
Penelope starts fighting me again. “Give it up, Pen. You knew this was coming the moment you decided to burn the place.”
“Fuck you! I’m gonna scream the entire way. I don’t fucking care where you take me. I’ll yell until my lungs give out.”
Dylan throws me a tape roll. “Thanks. Gonna need this because she won’t shut up.”
Tears well up in her eyes as she focuses on Dylan. “I thought you all cared about her, and you fucking drove her to her death along with your father!”
“My father?” Dylan mutters.
“He spoke with Eve the night she—”
Right then, I smash the tape over her mouth. Fuck this nonsense.
“What did she just say?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I say. “She’s making up shit just to avoid responsibility.” I turn to look at them as they tie up both her legs. “But we know the truth now. She’s been trying to take our families and us down from day one.”
Alistair frowns. “You really think that’s why?”
My face darkens. “Bring her to the car.”
Penelope moans and groans through the tape, but her words are gibberish, and I’m not gonna remove the tape to listen to what she has to say. Not until we return to our safe spot; the Skull & Serpent Society.
“Catch,” Alistair says as he throws me the rope, and I tie it around her wrists.
Then we carry her to the car.
She wriggles around in our arms, but it’s no use. With ease, we push her into the car’s back seat, and I shut the door while Dylan and Alistair hop inside.
I fetch my helmet from the grass and haul my bike off the ground. “I’ll meet you there,” I yell at Dylan, who rolls his window back up, and the car speeds off.
As I jump onto my bike, hooting owls make me pause. Something about being out here during the night is ominous. Something is off, but I can’t put my finger on it.
All I know is that I should’ve trusted my gut.
Once a rat, always a rat.
And I kick-start the engine and race off.
