Chapter 17: Vicious Prince: Chapter 17

The best-laid plans start with a scheme. It can be something as simple as planting a seed for trouble.

Like I did yesterday.

Teal has been ignoring me since I announced my threesome plans with Claire and her friend. When she thinks I’m not watching, she glares at my back.

She can’t resist glaring. It’s in her personality and the only way she can purge away her emotions.

Sometimes, her brows will furrow when I’m in her peripheral vision, as if she can’t comprehend what’s going on. She realises something is wrong, but she can’t figure out how to fix it.

What she doesn’t know is that she’ll fall in line sooner or later.

My fucking line.

I spent the entire evening with Knox at their house last night, making sure she didn’t go out for whoever the fuck is on her contacts. I’ll do something about those suckers later. It’ll start with erasing them from her life and end with no future contact with them.

For now, she needs to admit her fault, realise what she’s done, and promise she won’t do it again.

There’s something about Teal aside from how real she is. She also goes bonkers when she doesn’t understand shit. This situation isn’t something Google can answer for her, just like it can’t answer my questions about her. There’s nothing about her and Knox on the internet except the fact that they’re Ethan’s foster children. The whole thing is suspicious as fuck, and while Knox isn’t any help, there’s another family member who is.

I find Elsa right before her track practice, the only time the fucker Aiden leaves her alone.

She’s on her way to the pitch when I wrap an arm around her shoulder and fall in step beside her. “How is my favourite Ellie?”

“You have many Ellies?”

“Just three.” I grin. “And you’re the best out of them all.”

“You’re incorrigible, Ronan.”

“Your compliments warm my heart.”

She looks me up and down. “Shouldn’t you be at practice?”

“It got cancelled. Don’t tell King.”

“Why not?” she whispers, as if this is an elaborate plot.

“He’s a dick all the time, while I only get to be a dick now and again.”

She laughs, poking my side. “Don’t let him hear you say that.”

“Our secret. My life depends on it — seriously.”

“If you know that, why do you keep provoking him?”

I lift a shoulder. “Because it’s fun.”

“Fun, huh?”

“Speaking of fun or the lack thereof, I still cry into my pillow every night because you refused to marry me and threw me to your foster sister.” I feign sadness. “I thought I meant more to you than shallow fun, Ellie.”

“Hey, Teal is great.”

“Is she, though?”

“She is. She’s just misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood, really? Surely you heard about the horror story she started at school yesterday?”

She smiles awkwardly. I hit the nail on the head with that one. “She’s just protective and doesn’t like being provoked.”

“Do you think she wants this whole engagement thing?”

“She said she does.”

I don’t miss the way Elsa’s face scrunches as she says those words. She doesn’t believe her.

That’s…interesting.

“Do you think she’s lying?” I feign nonchalance.

“No, but…” She stares up at me, biting her lip. “You’re my friend, too, and I think you need to know this.”

“Know what?”

“I think Teal has always had a crush on Agnus.”

Fucking Agnus again. The next time I see that man, something childish and out of character will happen — or criminal, depending on my mood.

“For the record, I like you best, Ro.” Elsa pats my hand that’s dangling on her shoulder. “Agnus is manipulative as hell, and I don’t like that he’s important to Dad’s business. If I have to pick a side, it’ll undoubtedly be yours.”

I place a hand on my heart. “I knew you loved me. Now, about that threesome Aiden shouldn’t know about…”

“Stop it.” She chuckles.

“I swear my dick is bigger than his.”

“How would you know that?”

“Shower, Ellie. Ever heard of it? Aiden and I have taken them together more times than I could count.”

Her cheeks redden. “I didn’t need that image.”

I waggle an eyebrow. “Yes, you did. Now, let’s plot the fun we’ll have without him.”

“Without who?” Aiden’s voice cuts into my plan like a devil’s sword. He yanks my arm off Elsa’s shoulder and plants himself between us as he holds her to him by the waist. “From today onwards, you’re not allowed near Elsa when I’m not here.”

“Question is, how would you know if you’re not here?” I taunt. “Nice jersey.”

He cuts me a glare and I grin. He changed into the team jersey and shorts before he found out practice was cancelled. Since I’m still in my uniform, it means I knew all along and didn’t tell him.

Pushing Aiden’s buttons. Good times.

“Elsa was just agreeing to the threesome,” I continue. “You’re welcome to watch.”

Elsa motions at me to shut up, seeming worried about my safety. I expected Aiden to threaten my life and remind me of the grave he’s been digging for me since the beginning of the year, but he smirks instead.

The fuck? Is he immune to it now?

No, come on. Provoking Aiden so he shows his non-poker face is one of my recent favourite hobbies.

So, I go with it and snap my fingers. “This means you’re cool with it, right? Ellie, I meant it about the size, and —”

He cuts me off. “How is your fiancée, Astor?”

I smile. “Probably performing some satanic rituals.”

“Hey!” Elsa scolds me.

I pretend to grin back. What Elsa doesn’t know is that I need to keep up the façade, need to make everyone believe I don’t give two fucks about Teal — even she needs to know that. She needs to realise there’s no way in fuck she’ll become my weakness like Aiden is parading his around in the form of Elsa.

I don’t have weaknesses. I have people.

Lots of fucking people who fill every corner of my life.

So what if Teal stands out from that crowd? So what if I’ve been looking for her during lunch break and haven’t found her? I won’t show it or ask about her.

She’ll be the one who’ll admit her fault and come back to me, not the other way around.

I’m an earl’s heir. We never show our true emotions.

“I see,” Aiden muses. “That must be why she’s with Cole then. You know, for pointers.”

What the fuck is she doing with Cole?

As if reading my mind, Aiden’s smirk widens. “You know his rituals. They can get…interesting.”

“Uh-huh.” I don’t know how I manage to get that out with how firmly I’m gritting my teeth.

“They’re in the garden, near the back.”

Cole is with Teal in the garden, where he usually reads alone like a creep. What is he doing there with her?

And what is she doing with Cole instead of coming to me?

“I didn’t ask.” I smile at Aiden.

“I’m just saying. They were cosy.” He’s talking to me, but his lips are whispering the words against Elsa’s forehead. “Send me updates.”

And then he disappears with his girlfriend down the hall, and not in the direction of the pitch.

For a second, I stand there, processing Aiden’s words. He could be lying to get a rise out of me, but that’s the problem: he doesn’t — lie, I mean. He likes chaos, but not to the point of making things up.

Cole and Teal are cosy.

I run a hand through my hair. Fuck!

“Hey, Ron.” Claire’s soft voice barges through my head before she grabs me by the arm. “You look tense. Do you want me to loosen you up? Reese would help, too.”

I stare at her face, but I’m not seeing her. My dick is so flaccid, Ron Astor the Second is about to start weeping — and not in a good way.

Claire and her friend do shit for me now. I never even planned to fuck them, and my challenge to Teal yesterday was only that — a challenge. I never planned to act on it. I’m almost sure she never meant to act on her threat either.

So what the fuck is she doing with Cole?

“Later, Claire.” I push her and her disappointed expression out of view as I hurry to the other entrance of the school and towards the garden.

I try telling myself Cole isn’t her type. She prefers older and fucked up.

Still, cosy. Aiden said cosy. What does cosy mean? They’re sitting together under the tree and reading poetry? They’re talking — which is as cosy as Teal would get? Maybe they’re writing their own book titled How to be Fucked Up, and Other Questions.

Even as I tell myself that, my blood boils with every step I take. They’re not even in view and I’m about ready to cut a bitch and murder a fucker.

I try not to think of small things, like the fact that Cole was the first one she openly greeted when she first transferred to RES.

Or how when we watch games at Aiden’s house, he’s the only one she’ll willingly sit beside, and how she even listens to him when he speaks.

He’s not her type.

Then I recall the fucking fact that he’s the one who accepted her into his club and that he knew she’d be there that night. A coincidence, the bastard said.

There’s no coincidence with Cole. He plots everything to a T then pretends it’s been a coincidence all along.

The fucker.

My feet come to a stop of their own volition. Sure enough, Cole and Teal are sitting on the same bench, reading from a book.

They’re reading from the same fucking book like in some period drama.

Teal tucks her hair behind her ear. It’s useless. Her strands are too silky and will fall over her face in no time. She smiles up at Cole, and the fucker smiles back as if this is some sort of cheesy teen film.

My vision turns red.

I don’t care if this is planned by Cole and Aiden; they’ll all learn their places — starting with Teal.

A hand grips my arm, stopping me in my tracks. I stare down at Silver’s calculative features, her bitch mask in place and ready for trouble.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Aiden sent me a text to meet him here.”

Of course he did. That arsehole is out for blood while he’s shagging his girlfriend somewhere.

“He’s not here,” I mutter while gritting my teeth.

“I can see that.” Her gaze doesn’t leave Cole and Teal as she releases me and folds her arms.

“What are you going to do about it, queen bee?”

“What makes you think I’ll do anything?”

“Come on, Silver, it’s me. We both know you’re plotting trouble in that pretty little head of yours.” I grin. “How about a collaboration?”

She raises a brow. “A collaboration?”

“Cole and Teal think they can play everyone, but they didn’t consider us, did they?”

Her lips curve in a smirk, and I smirk back.

I warned Teal. I told her she’s fucked, but she didn’t listen.

If words didn’t put her in her place, action will.