Wicked Ugly Bad (A Kinda Fairytale) (6 page)

“That’s
what I’m trying to do!”

“No
offense, but you’re doing a piss poor job.  Now, it’s not all your fault.”  He
held up a hand forestalling her protest.  “After all, what does a Good girl
know about staging a jailbreak?”

“I’m…
not…
Good.
”

He
leaned forward to inhale the scent of her hair.  “You sure smell Good.”

So
did he.

Scarlett
blinked rapidly at the thought.

Marrok
moved his head to keep eye contact when she would’ve looked away in awkward
confusion.  “It’s alright.”  He whispered.  “I should have handled it better.  Even
through those damn drugs they were giving you, I knew who you were.  I just
didn’t understand why
you
didn’t know and it pissed me off.  I didn’t
understand that you couldn’t
possibly
figure it out.”

Scarlett
swallowed.  “Figure what out?”

“Poor
Letty.”  His tone was all warm honey and promises. “You’ve spent your whole
life locked in a castle being Good, haven’t you?  You’ve never been near any
real
Baddies, at all.  You have no idea how we operate.”

“I
come from a notoriously wicked family!”  She insisted.  “I’m telling you, I’m
very, very
Bad
.  Look at what I’m doing, right now.”

“Baby,
I see you.  I see you talking about trust, and saving the Four Kingdoms, and all-for-one-ing
it with the rest of these idiots, when you
should
be figuring out a way
to save your own cute little ass.  It’s so erotically Good, I feel like you’re
just torturing me with how adorable you are.”

He
had to be messing with her.  No one ever called ugly stepsisters “adorable.”  “When
I torture you it will be painful, not erotic.”

“Oh,
I’m hoping it’ll be both.”

Scarlett
pulled back, refusing to be taken in by the seductive smile he leveled at her. 
She crossed her arms over her chest and cleared her throat.  “Alright, this
isn’t getting us anywhere.  If you have something to add to this escape plan,
feel free to speak up.”

“Please,
do.”  Avenant muttered.  “The woman clearly needs all the help she can get.”

“Well,
first off, we’re not fucking around with a computer system.”  Marrok arched a
brow at Scarlett, resuming his normal sarcastic tone.  “Seriously, you watch
too many movies.  None of us have any idea how to hack into security mainframes
and erase encrypted video files.  Especially, not him.”  He pointed at
Avenant.  “I guarantee Prince Asshole didn’t commit his own cybercrimes.  Any
money he electronically stole from his poor oppressed people, he had some
other
poor oppressed person electronically steal
for
him.”

“My
people loved me!”  Avenant lifted a shoulder in an arrogant shrug.  “And when
they
didn’t
, they paid for their disloyalty.  That’s how you build
real
citizenship.”

“And
how you wound up here.”  Esmeralda said sweetly.

Scarlett
disregarded their bickering, a skill she’d fine-tuned through many looooong
group sessions with them sniping at each other.  “Fine, Wolf, how do you
suggest we fix this mess, then?”

Marrok
leaned over to grab Ramon’s star-shaped lighter, which had fallen on the
floor.  “We use nature’s eraser.”  He held out his hands “ta-da!” style.  “Arson.”

Everyone’s
afraid of The Big Bad Wolf.  And for good reason.

Psychiatric
case notes of Dr. Ramona Fae

Why
would fate give him the goodiest Good girl in the Four Kingdoms as his True
Love?

It
just didn’t make any sense.

When
he’d thought Scarlett was evil, Marrok been bewildered by how… pure she seemed,
but at least he could comfort himself with the knowledge that she was probably
faking her naiveté.  Now that he knew she was
Good
, though, he felt like
he’d been handed a spider web made of crystal and told not to break it.  It
would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so damn frustrating.

Letty
believed in happily ever afters for Baddies, for God’s sake.  What was he
supposed to do with someone like that?

Marrok
glanced down at her and stifled a sigh.

Still…
wolves could always scent their True Loves and this girl was definitely his.  Everyone
in the Four Kingdoms was born with a True Love and most Bad folk had some kind
of innate knowledge when they met their other halves.  No one knew exactly why,
but Marrok suspected that it was a protective measure to keep them from accidently
harming their True Loves before they realized who they really were.  Bad folk
weren’t so great at
not
killing people who annoyed them and True Loves could
be pretty damn annoying.

From
the second Scarlett had shown up in the Tuesday share circle, Marrok had known who
she was and it had severely pissed him off that she’d so clearly rejected him. 
That she’d watched him warily, and tried to ignore him, and pretended not to notice
their connection.

Except
she hadn’t been pretending.

The
woman had no way of recognizing him, because she was Good straight down to spotless,
yet kinda of scheme-y, soul.  Good Folk couldn’t sense much of anything beyond
their own moral superiority.  It was a biological fact.  Plus, his aggravating little
True Love was doubly blind because she didn’t even
know
she was Good.  …Of
course, she
also
didn’t know how to be Bad.

No
one had prepared her properly for either world.

What
kind of damn idiots had raised this girl that they didn’t notice she wasn’t wicked,
ugly or Bad?  That they’d allow her to be dumped in prison with men like him? 
Seriously, what the fuck was he supposed to do with a woman like this?

And
things would be even worse now that the drugs were out of her system.  He
hadn’t been lying to Scarlett earlier.  Now, the other wolves would be able to
scent the Good on her and her kind weren’t real popular in the WUB Club.  It
was a wonder she hadn’t been eaten already.

This
stupid escape plan really was their only option if Marrok was going to keep her
alive.  And --against his better judgment-- he was
determined
to keep
her alive.  He’d fucked up enough in his life.  He wasn’t blowing this, too.

Trevelyan
would be laughing his ass off if he saw this.

Marrok’s
jaw firmed.  He had to get Letty out of there, no matter what it took.  Good or
Bad, you only got one True Love, so this redheaded pain-in-the-ass was vital to
him.  Granted, he’d always imagined that his True Love would be some
delightfully evil she-wolf, who laughed as she broke hearts and severed limbs,
but Little Miss Save-the-World would have to do.

At
least, she smelled nice.

“This
is never going to work.”  Scarlett whispered.  “We should come up with a
different idea.”  She leaned closer to him to peer around the corner of the
hall.  The security office was only ten feet away, but it was bolted from the
inside with a camera setup to record anyone who came close to the door.

Since
she was too distracted to notice that she was almost touching him, Marrok took
the opportunity to lean down and breathe in the scent of her hair.  The spiced
apple fragrance shot right to his groin.

“Of
course it will work.”  He murmured.  “I’m a master criminal.  My plans always
work.”

“Really? 
Then, why are you in jail?”

Despite
himself, Marrok’s lips twitched upward at her bitchy tone.  At least, it was
something
. 
“My evil stepsister set me up.  I swear.”

Scarlett
leveled a look of death in his direction.  Good or not, the girl did have a
delectable mean streak.  “Just remember who’s in charge of this escape,
alright?  I’m going along with this part of the plan with some
extreme
reservations.”

“Uh-huh.” 
Marrok barely heard her words, his attention on watching her lips move.

His
sexual fantasies had been getting increasingly graphic lately and some of the
best ones starred her mouth.  The girl probably had no clue what to do in the
bedroom --which was a shame because the she-wolf vixen of his imagination had
always been incredibly limber-- but his body didn’t care about Scarlett’s lack
of skill.  He just
wanted
her.  All his instincts told him to claim her
right now, rebelling at the unnaturally long wait he’d already endured.

What
other wolf could spend six weeks locked in a confined space with his True Love
and not even
touch
her?  He deserved a damn medal for his restraint. 
Not that she appreciated it.  God, he couldn’t have found a more difficult girl
if he’d tried.

“Are
you listening to me?”  She demanded.

“Nope.”

She
made an exasperated sound.  “I
said
I’m in charge.  Just do what I tell
you, alright?”

“This
just turned promisingly kinky.  Do I have to call you Mistress?”

Scarlett
gestured towards the security office.  “Just get on with it.  And remember not
to murder anyone.”

“No
promises on that front.”  He grazed her temple with a kiss, his smile growing
wider as she jolted.  Then, she quickly remembered she hated him and shoved him
away.  “Stay right here where I can see you.  Understand?”  He said.

She
blinked up at him in confusion, still not getting it.

He’d
been discreetly keeping an eye on Scarlett from the first day she’d shown up in
the WUB Club, making sure that no one so much as cut in front of her in the
cafeteria line.  If people in the WUB Club knew how importing she was to
Marrok, she’d already be dead.  He had so many enemies that Scarlett would a
target just because she belonged to him.  Especially among the other wolves. 
He’d either played Wolfball against or with most of them, and his brethren weren’t
great at leaving rivalries on the field.

God,
he hated his fucking job.  Coming to the WUB Club was like an annual vacation
he took when he just couldn’t stand it any longer.  Only this visit, he’d found
the one person who could finally change
everything
for him.

If
he could keep her alive, Letty would save him from his life.

He
knew it with everything in him.

Marrok
didn’t want the girl more than two feet from his side until they were safely
outside the prison walls and away from all the insane killers who hated her
kind.  Then, he’d be willing to renegotiate the distance to a generous four
feet.

Well,
maybe three.

Marrok
pointed a finger at her, his voice growing serious.  “Don’t do anything stupid,
helpful, or violent until I get back.”

She
glowered up at him, looking irritated and flustered and very, very innocent.  Jesus,
how could he have ever thought a woman with eyes like that was evil?  Even
narrowed in anger, the blue of them was as clear as a wishing well.

“I’m
not stupid, helpful, or violent, you jack…”  She stopped mid-swear.  “Wait. 
What’s wrong with being helpful?  How is that an insult?”

“See,
you wouldn’t ask that if you were really Bad.  Now stand back and let the
professionals deal with the crime spree.”  Marrok playfully waggled the bottle
of cleaning fluid he’d pilfered from the supply closet using Ramona’s key.  “You’re
in good hands, Red.  At least three of my felony sentences were for arson.”

“What
about the other forty-six?”

“Forty-
seven
. 
Fifty counts of Badness on my record.  Easy number to remember.”  Marrok
untwisted the top of the bottle and inserted a tightly wound rope of paper
towels.

“Don’t
worry.  After I take the crown from Cindy’s head, I’ll make sure you get a pardon.” 
She promised.

“Last
time I checked, a crown was also attached to a certain dickhead in tights.  You
planning to take him for yourself, too?”  Hopefully not, since Marrok would be
dead in the ground before he let that royal ass-wipe touch his True Love.

“I
can handle Charming.”  She assured him.

“The
guy has the IQ of a banana, so I’m sure you
can
handle him, but…”

“He
does not!”  She interrupted hotly.  “Charming is a sensitive and intelligent
man.  He’s very interested in villains’ rights and other social justice
issues.”

Marrok
edged into the hallway.  “He told you that?”

“Yes,
as a matter of fact he
did
.  Many times.”

“Then,
he was trying to get laid.”

“Oh,
he was
not
.  He’s very sincere about…”

Marrok
cut her off.  “…about getting laid.  While you were explaining your crackpot
theories, I’ll bet sincerity was coming out of his ass.  Trust me, he was mindlessly
nodding and picturing you naked.”  At the other end of the corridor, he could
see Avenant waiting with Benji.  Marrok gave a signal and he swore he could
hear the Prince of the Northlands sighing from twenty feet away.