Corrupt

I almost started to worry if he was hurt, but he was laughing his ass off.

“What did you guys do?” I asked.

Everyone pulled off their masks, setting them aside, and I watched Will wink at me and shoot me a dashing grin.

“Hold out your hand,” he instructed.

My stomach sunk. Shit. What now?

Reluctantly, I inched out my left hand and watched as he lay something soft and red across my hand, the strands spilling over the sides like a scarf.

He removed his hand, and my eyes rounded.

“Oh, my God,” I gasped, horror heating my blood. “Is this…” I breathed out, trying to wrap my head around it. “Is this from them?”

In my hand, sat a bloodied tooth and a thick rope of long, red hair.

I cringed, acid burning my throat as the weight of what was in my hand suddenly went from nothing to a thousand pounds.

“We took a souvenir from each,” Will explained.

Kai spoke over his shoulder from the front seat. “They won’t ever touch you again.”

“They’ll never even look at you again,” Damon chimed in from the back.

“But won’t they tell someone?” I knew I sounded worried, but my hand was shaking, desperate to get rid of the shit in it.

“Who they going to tell?” Michael started the engine and peering at me in the rearview mirror, smirking. “My dad is in three real estate ventures with the Andersons.”

I sat there frozen as realization hit. Holy shit. He was right.

The law may have failed to protect me, but it also worked the other way around, too. Who were Miles and Astrid going to tell to get justice now?

I let out a smile. No one.

“A ‘thank you’ might be in order,” Damon said behind me.

“I...” I stared at the tooth again, its bloodied root growing cold on my hand. “I’m just a little weirded out.” I offered a nervous laugh.

“You would’ve been a lot more weirded out waking up naked with the cum of ten guys spilling out of you at that party,” he retorted. “Not to mention what they were going to do to you in that bathroom.”

I dropped my eyes, the horror of what’s he’d said hitting me as I stared at the tooth and hair.

“Yeah,” I whispered, in complete agreement.

Last spring, passed out on that bed, what would’ve happened to me after they were done? Would they have invited more to come in and hurt me, one after the other? Pictures? Videos? How many people would’ve violated me?

I clenched my teeth, suddenly wanting them to hurt more. I wanted to kill them. No one should hold the power to change your life forever.

Closing my fist around the objects, I stared hard. “Thank you.”

I heard the click of Damon’s lighter and then an exhale as he blew out smoke. “Your attempt to strong-arm them was cute, though.”

I rolled my eyes, opening the door and quickly disposing of the tooth and hair in the stream of water flowing to the gutter. The remnants of their assault disappeared into the void.

There was nothing wrong with my attempt. Maybe I didn’t chop off body parts, but I’d defended myself. What more did they want?

Slamming the door, I wiped my hand on my black sweatshirt, thinking I should definitely burn my clothes after tonight.

As if sensing my questions, Kai peeked over his shoulder, speaking to me, “When you want to make an impression and you think you’ve gone far enough, go a little further. Always leave them wondering if you’re just a little bit crazy, and people will never fuck with you again.”

I nodded, understanding. I wasn’t sure if I could ever do what they had done, but I knew what he was saying. When your enemies didn’t know your limits, they didn’t press them.

Michael pulled away from the curb, rounding the corner down Baylor Street.

“What took you guys so long?” I finally asked, remembering that they’d waited far longer to come in after me than I’d told them to.

“We waited for his girlfriend to follow,” Will answered.

“Don’t worry,” Kai assured. “We wouldn’t have waited too much longer. You did good.”

I stared out the window, seeing teens laughing and joking around on the sidewalk outside the theater as we passed. Halloween decorations—ghosts with flowing white gauze—blew in the breeze as they hung from the street lamps. Orange leaves spilled down from the trees, and I could smell rain coming.

“Let’s go find some food away from the scene of our latest crime,” Will joked, reaching up the front and cranking up Drowning Pool’s Bodies.

He started rocking out to his air guitar as Michael took a right onto Breckinridge, circling the town square. I glanced over, always enjoying the sight of the park in the town center. The small pond glittered with the white lights from the trees surrounding it, and orange bulbs had replaced the normally white ones in the lanterns, bringing a festive feeling to the square. Halloween flags danced off poles hanging outside the shops along with jack-o’-lanterns and more decorations.

“Hey, stop!” Will shouted. “Stop!”

“What?” Michael called, slamming on the brakes and making all of us jerk in our seats.

Will rolled down his window, and Michael turned down the music, waiting.

“She finished it,” Will said, gazing into the park.

I cocked my head, trying to see what he was seeing, but I wasn’t sure what we were looking at. I glanced to my right, seeing FANE, my family’s store across the street. The glass display cases were all lit up, and even from here, I could see jewelry glittering.