"I-I'm confused," was all I could say. I didn't have any feelings for Jace, but I didn't want to be too harsh towards him. "Out of everyone here, why would you like me?"
"What isn't there to like about you? You're pretty, you're popular, and you're related to the Rossi brothers. Anyone would be lucky to date you."
"Uh thanks, but there's plenty of other people who'd kill to date you. Why don't you give them a chance?"
"They're too easy for me, and I prefer a challenge. Anyways, you're much prettier than all of them."
"Is that all you see in me and others, just our physical appearance? You can't measure someone's worth just by how they look, Jace."
"Well, I did mention that you're also popular."
"That's ridiculous. Would you still be interested in me even if I turned out to be a bitch and treated half the school like garbage?"
"At this school, only your popularity matters. After all, the only reason people send their children here is to build connections with other influential families. Anyways, most popular people here are bitches, so it wouldn't bother me that much."
"Look Jace, what I'm trying to say is there's more to someone than their social status and appearance. Next time you ask someone out, maybe do it because of their personality or character. I'm not interested in dating you."
"I really wish you weren't so abrupt with your answer Sierra. Perhaps you'll change your mind after you hear what I have to say."
"No thanks, I find your company quite revolting at the moment."
"You better shut up if you know what's good for you." What the fuck, this wasn't the Jace from before. Either he had a facade or something tipped him off the edge.
"I don't know who you're trying to fool, but there are cameras all over this school."
"Not in this specific area," he winked. "Anyways, I guess I should show you what I'm talking about." He handed me a phone with a video.
The video consisted of Adrian getting injured by other people, who I presumed to be enemies of Stefano's mafia. Then, the realization hit me: how was Jace able to obtain this footage?
"Were you the one who recorded this video?"
"Well, obviously."
"And you decided to record instead of helping him? I thought you guys were friends."
"What are you, stupid? You really think I'm friends with those people? The only reason I associate myself with them is for their connections."
"Whatever you're doing, I want no part of it."
"You have no choice, unless you want what happened to Adrian to happen to your other brothers. If that's the case, who should I start off with? Maybe Gavin?"
"Stay away from my family, you piece of shit. I don't know what's gotten into you, but I want no part of what you're doing."
"Listen, if you don't agree to go out with me, I'll do much worse than what happened to Adrian."
"As if that could happen," I scoffed. That was a bad choice.
In an instant, he threw a punch to my stomach. Since I was caught off guard, I fell backwards, being unable to block.
"What the hell, I thought you were the school's golden boy. Where did that go?"
"I don't even know what you're talking about. The people who call me that are too stupid for their own good. Now are you going to go out with me or not?"
"Hell no, I'd rather go out with Chloe than be with you."
"Well that's a shame," he responded. "I guess I'll just have to tell Nikolai when to ambush your brothers again. You're really selfish, Sierra, you know that right? I can't imagine having a sister who doesn't have my best interests at heart."
"I can't imagine having a brother who's actually a psychopath," I muttered before Jace's jaw clenched and he kicked my shin. God dammit, me and my fat mouth.
"I didn't want to do this, but you left me no choice," Jace snarled before shoving a syringe in my arm. As I felt myself becoming unconscious, one thing was certain: Jace Parker was bad news.
Jace's POV
It's pathetic, that Rossi girl and her brothers. Her brothers think I'm their friend while she thinks I'm an angel because of how others perceive me. Yet, none of that matters right now. I wish she was foolish and accepted my offer, then I wouldn't have to drug her.
I made sure to disable the school's cameras before meeting up with her, to erase any traces of me being linked to her unconscious state. Then, I dragged her into one of the bathrooms while wearing gloves to prevent my finger prints from appearing on her body. It was such a shame since she was a pretty girl.
I took out my phone and called David, who was one of my associates and another student here.
"David, find a way to meet me in the bathroom. When you get here, we'll move Sierra's body. Her brothers have been pissing me off lately, so this will teach them a lesson," I said after dialing the phone.
"Will do."
A couple of minutes later, David arrived.
"Where are we moving the body, Jace?" he asked. "Anyways, I'm pretty sure the whole school has to attend an assembly now, so we should be fine with sneaking out Sierra's body."
Cole's POV:
"Hey Cole, have you seen Sierra anywhere?" Skylar, who I assumed was one of Sierra's friends, asked.
"Uh no. I thought she was with you and your friends?" I replied. "Is she not with you guys?"
"Last time, I saw her, she went with Jace. I think he wanted to ask her a question. Yet, I haven't seen either of them. I'm just a bit nervous since Sierra's not the type of person to be absent for a long period of time. Literally, it's been fifteen minutes since I last saw her."
"I'll ask Jace if he's seen her. Thanks for bringing this to my attention though."
"No problem. When you find Sierra, let her know that the girls and I are going to be sitting in the back row for the assembly."
"Will do."
As much as I tried to hide it, I had a bad feeling for some reason. Like, something bad happened to Sierra. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but Skylar was right: Sierra wasn't the type of person to leave for an extended period of time. Even worse, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that one of our family's enemies had something to do with this.
"Hey Jace, have you seen Sierra?" I asked. "Skylar told me that she last saw Sierra with you."
"I did talk to her for a bit, but then she excused herself to use the bathroom. I thought she had cramps or something, so I just let her be."
"Uh, alright, if you say so. Anyways, it would be best for us to go to the assembly now."
"Will do. I'll be sure to let you know if I find Sierra though." With that, Jace left me alone.
Something was definitely off with Jace. As much as he tried masking his emotions, I could sense that he was hiding something. Whatever he was hiding, I knew it had to relate to why Sierra was missing.
However, I had no solid proof that he was linked to Sierra's disappearance, and if I tried resorting to any questionable tactics, I could cause a bigger problem than intended. Therefore, I left the situation as it was, but I called Stefano to inform him of the problem.
"What the hell do you want? I just finished a meeting," Stefano chided.
"Uh, I can't find Sierra. One of her friends told me that she was last seen with Jace, and Jace told me that she went to the bathroom. I think he's lying though."
"That goddamn bastard. Anways, call Gavin and try to find Sierra. I'll send the school an excuse letter stating that you had personal matters to deal with. I don't care what you have to do, but find our sister." With that, he hung up.
If only I'd known what was to come.
Sierra's POV:
I woke up to find myself tied to a chair. How original, I thought. So, I was basically kidnapped by a so-called member of my brothers' mafia and put into a place in God knows where. I wanted to cry at the painful irony, I really did, but I wanted to survive first. I put up with too much bullshit in my life to die here.
The first step in surviving a kidnapping, according to random people off the internet, was to gain my kidnapper's trust. Yet, I knew I had to act resistant at first. It would be too suspicious if I suddenly acted amicable to the people who wronged me.
After waiting for God knows how long, I heard footsteps entering the room. I almost wanted to vomit when I saw Jace's face.
"So sleeping beauty finally woke up," he sneered.
"Where the hell am I? How long have I been gone for?"
"Calm down. I'm not going to say where we are, but you've only been gone for about six hours."
"Why would you be here? Isn't it going to look suspicious for you not to be back in New York?"
"We're still in New York, love. As a matter of fact, we're in one of your brothers' safe houses. Isn't it ironic? We're in a place that they'd least suspect. Best of all, it's only a ten minute drive away from their house." God, this guy was an amateur. What kind of moron would admit where we were?
"How long am I gonna be trapped here for?"
"That's for us to know, and for you to find out, dear. Don't worry though, you're not going to survive to come back to your brothers."
Joke's on you, Jace, as I found a tracker installed on the necklace that Jett gifted me.
Author's Note:
Hi guys *shyly waves* it's been like a year since I last updated. I just suck at time management in general, and I feel guilty that I can't keep a consistent updating schedule unlike so many other amazing authors on this platform. Y'all deserve so much better, but thank you to those of you who somehow deal with my shitty updating schedule.
Anyways, when writing this story, I realized how much of a dumpster fire it is. A lot of other stories relating to the genre have a lot better pacing, better characters, and better execution overall. I'll be honest, I kind of wanted to just scrap this story because of how bad the writing and execution are. But, that's not fair to those of you who've been reading this story since day 1 and have yet to know the ending.
As a disclaimer, I feel like this story will probably be 35-40 chapters, with possible bonus chapters to address unanswered questions or just to make the story feel more complete. I have to put it out there, though, that this story's has like no climax and is pretty underwhelming compared to a lot of other great books on this platform.
I think in the future, I'll probably write a story in the same/similar genre, but it'll have better execution, be faster-paced, and just less cringey in general.
Thanks guys for reading this, and I hope all of you are doing well <3