“We’re never going back there,” Aiden promised, guiding me toward my school-assigned locker. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. But I don’t want you marrying one of those assholes.”
“What if I pick Marcello?”
He shrugged. “He’s okay, I guess. But we don’t know him. Don’t let that pretty face fool you. The Salvatores are fucking snakes. This marriage benefits them more than you.”
Our grandfather hadn’t disclosed why this marriage was so important. But it had something to do with our family owing the Salvatores a favor.
We stopped at my locker, where three Salvatore brothers awaited my arrival. Damian leaned against a locker, arms folded over his chest. His black Astor Prep jacket was open, and a gold tie dangled loosely around his neck. Thinner than the other three, his pale skin made his blood-red lips stand out.
A shiver rushed down my spine as his green eyes locked with mine. Damian looked like a vampire prince and not the sparkly kind. He was more like one of the hot brothers from that TV show our mother never let us watch.
Bastian stood beside him, shoving a hand through his dark caramel hair as his gray eyes focused on me. Luca glared at me like an annoying pest he wanted to stomp beneath his expensive dress shoes.
Aiden’s locker was on the opposite side of the school. The Salvatores had influence at Astor Prep and ensured we never shared a single class or lunch period.
So Aiden couldn’t protect me. I was on my own with these three.
I smiled and flicked my curls over my shoulder. “Good morning.”
Kill them with kindness, my grandfather had said the night before. Don’t let them get under your skin. Those boys are like pit bulls. You stare them in the face until they back down.
Being raised in a sheltered environment didn’t make me stupid or naive. Although the Salvatore brothers were monsters, I saw them for what they were and would not let them affect me.
No one said hello to me.
That was fine.
At least I tried.
Ignoring their hardened stares, I slipped between Bastian and Damian. I entered the numbers on the locker keypad and unlocked the door. What a vast improvement from my last school. Everything here was digital and barely required any physical books.
Aiden placed my messenger bag on the top shelf, blocking Damian and Luca from my path. He was used to getting picked on for being poor, so he did what he knew best and went after the biggest bully first.
Aiden got in Luca’s face. “If you hurt her, I will kill you.”
Luca didn’t flinch.
A sexy but creepy smirk tugged at his mouth. “And how do you plan to do that, Wellington? You can’t cut every class without jeopardizing your future at RISD.”
The Salvatores’ connections at the Rhode Island School of Design opened doors. It was my dream school.
After my therapist suggested I try art to cope with all the trauma, I fell in love with painting. Aiden took up sculpting, and it turned out he was really fucking good.
While other kids our age attended parties, our mother locked us in the house, leaving us plenty of time to obsess over attending RISD, planning our escape. But after I got an early rejection, my dreams seemed impossible until our grandfather adopted us.
Marrying a Salvatore was worth it. Or so I told myself every day, especially when they were at their worst.
CHAPTER 7
DAMIAN
Alex had become my new obsession. As she walked the hallways at school, alone and scared, she didn’t know I was following her.
Stalking my Pet.
Carl Wellington plucked Alex from one version of Hell and threw her headfirst into another. Luca told everyone in town she was coming and to steer clear of her at Astor Prep. Students passed her with curious looks. No one with any common sense spoke to her.
They knew better.
