Page 35 of Savage Elites

“No, mine,” shouted a voice at the back of the crowd.

Some of the boys cupped their crotches. Others made thrusting motions with their hips. If I hadn’t seen what they had done to Ashley, I would have thought they were bluffing. But these guys were dangerous in a gang.

I placed my hands on my hips. “You can explain to the police when I call them.”

Bruce’s face dropped. “We didn’t do anything wrong. Ashley will tell you.”

“Where is she?”

“We dropped her outside Bianca’s room.”

Panic lanced through my frozen heart as I remembered what Bianca had whispered to me during Ashley’s initiation. She had said Ashley would want to fall down a ditch when they had finished with her. I spun on my heel, walked out of the common room, and headed for the west wing.

“Willow.” Cormac strode at my side. “Slow down.”

“What if those girls are shoving pills or alcohol down Ashley’s throat?”

He wrapped his hand around my arm. “I get that you want to save your sister, but let’s call Miss Claymore or the police.”

“In the time we’re waiting for them to take action, something terrible might happen.”

“I’m worried,” he said.

“About what?”

“You.” Cormac dipped his head. “Making enemies.”

“How can you say that when you fight bullying every day?”

He jerked his head away. “It’s different.”

I shook my head and continued down the hallway. This was one of the times when a person needed to act and deal with the consequences later. What I’d seen had been too extreme to ignore. A less resilient person would lose themselves to drink or drugs after such a horrific assault, and Ashley was no stranger to using alcohol as a crutch.

We walked in silence through the central part of the building. Cormac dipped his head, seeming to be deep in contemplation. Perhaps the events of the evening had triggered memories of Corrine, who had been victimized by the students in not as extreme circumstances.

There was no reply in Bianca or Ashley’s rooms, and I was about to lose hope when Cormac suggested we check my room to see if Ashley had gone there. An irrational thought of Ashley waiting for me in the dark made the lining of my stomach tremble, but I shook off those thoughts and continued down the hallway.

I opened the door a crack. “Ashley?”

She slumped at the desk with her head in her hands, wearing my toweling dressing gown and matching slippers.

“You’re going to say I got what I deserved,” Ashley muttered without looking up.

My throat dried, and I swallowed hard. I had wanted Ashley punished for what had happened to me during her initiation, but not like this. Images of my naked sister, covered in the bullies’ ejaculate, flashed to the front of my memory, and I rubbed a hand over my mouth.

“Do you want me to call the police?” I asked.

Her nostrils flared. “Yes.”

I turned to Cormac, who pulled out his smartphone and backed into the hallway. While he called nine-nine-nine, I stepped further into the room and leaned against the radiator to thaw my frozen limbs.

Pain wound around my lungs and crawled up my windpipe, turning all my words of comfort to ice. I would have offered her a hug, but she probably didn’t want to be touched. Especially not by someone she already despised. I blew out a labored breath and tried not to think of the first time I’d woken in the hospital.

“I feel so dirty,” she whispered.

“Don’t have a shower until the police come.”

“Too late,” she said.