by Josie Max
Not only was the mayor not around, but neither was his wife. As for Knight, he was around but rarely came out of his room and when he came out, he locked his door.
The sexy jerk must have known I would snoop.
“It’s not like that. I want to find Knight’s gym locker.”
She grabbed my arm, stopping me. “Whoa there, newbie. I thought I made it quite clear that you avoid Knight at all costs. He’s the devil.”
I nibbled my bottom lip wondering if I should tell her. Part of me was hesitant because I didn’t want my only friend possibly getting hurt. She might want to help, and then she’d be involved. What if the mayor went after her, too?
But I felt alone for so long. My friends from my old school had yet to reach out to me. And when I texted them several times, there was no response.
“If he’s the devil like you said, then I think he has his eyes set on me.”
“Duh.” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “I thought it was obvious given how he treated you last week.”
I shook my head. “No, I mean something more than just making school life difficult. He told me on Friday he didn’t want me to leave.”
Arabella’s eyes widened. She pulled me behind a set of lockers and lowered her voice. “When exactly did he say that to you?”
It was now or never.
“Something happened when you dropped me off on Friday. Something involving the mayor and his friends. And let’s just say what he did to me was the opposite of treating a guest with respect.”
“Violet. Did he hurt you? Did Mr. King do something that we need to go to the police about?”
I bit my bottom lip and nodded. Then I went and explained exactly what the mayor and his buddies did to me on Friday but stopped short telling her how Knight walked in on us.
She wrapped her arms around me and for the first time since before my mother died, I felt comfort and warmth. Arabella hugged me and whispered, “There’s a rumor about the mayor and I didn’t know if it was true.”
I pulled back. “What?”
“He only ran for mayor because he wanted a way to control the police so no one found out about his . . . fondness of young girls.”
My hand covered my mouth. I felt sick and Ava instantly flashed in my head. No wonder Knight told her to hide in the attic if she heard the mayor coming.
I closed my eyes as hot tears brewed. “Shit.”
“Did he, you know . . .” Arabella trailed off.
“No. That’s the thing. Knight showed up right in time and then took me into the house.”
She tilted her head. “What do you mean, took you in the house? You are already living there.”
“I stayed in the pool house and wasn’t allowed in the main house.”
“Ugh, the more I hear about the mayor, the more I think he needs to stop being re-elected and thrown into jail. What he did to you was wrong and you need to get out of that house. Stay with me if you have to.”
It was tempting and I wanted to say yes so badly, but then my thoughts would drift to Ava. She may not be my sister, but I understood what it was like to live in the home with a monster at that age.
“I can’t. The mayor may be disgusting, but there’s more to that sleezy-rapey dirt bag than you think. That’s why Knight wants me to stay. He thinks the mayor may go after me if I run. And since he owns the police, he easily could.”
Arabella took a step back. “Fuck. That is messed up. Okay.” She rubbed her forehead. “Okay, we’ll work with what we have.”
“We? No.” Placing my hand on her shoulder, I shook my head. “It’s me. I don’t want to risk you or anyone else. Keep this to yourself, okay?”
“Violet, he’s obviously dangerous, and from what I know about Knight, he’s not much better.”
“Maybe if I find out why Knight wants me in his house, then I can figure out . . .” I trailed off as a thought wormed its way into my head, and it involved my mom’s death.
“What? Why he’s such an asshole? I can tell you why.”
“He’s rich, handsome, and a future billionaire. Of course, he’s an asshole,” I said before she could.
Arabella shook her head. “That’s not the reason. He got his nickname two years ago when his parents died. Think about it. He had the best parents in the world; I know, my dad complains all the time about some of the parents here. I know who has shitty parents and who doesn’t.”
“Your dad liked the Kings?”
She made a ‘hmm’ sound before she said, “I guess so. I don’t really remember, but I used to be friends with Knight. And Seraphina, if you can believe that.”
My mouth fell open.
“No freaking way. Why? I mean, how? I mean, why and how?”
“It was different when we first came here. We were all so innocent.” She sighed. “Ahh, the youthful years.”
“What changed?”
“Anger, hormones, tragedy. Knight lost his parents. Briggs mom remarried and his new stepdad is a beast. While I don’t know this for sure, I have a feeling Caleb’s parents don’t exactly do things by the book. Why they had kids, I’ll never know. They aren’t the most loving people.”
I nodded. Tragedy and tough times could change people, I knew that all too well.
“As for Seraphina, I don’t know what’s her problem. She became obsessed with Knight as a sophomore and turned into the shallowest bitch I have ever met.”
“I guess Knight used to be a nice guy?”
“Yeah, it’s too bad he turned into such a jerk. But just because he was nice years ago doesn’t mean he won’t fuck you up if he catches you going through his things.”
“Maybe you’re right.” My eyes slid over to the end of the hallway, to the front door of the boys’ locker room. “I guess since I’m here, I’ll head to the library and get some studying in before school starts and all the kids arrive.”
I hated lying to my friend, but the less she knew, the better. The devil was playing a part; that much I knew. Why else would he pivot so quickly from making my life a nightmare to helping me? He needed me for something, and I had to discover what that was.
This was my life being toyed with, not Arabella’s. I wasn’t about to rope her into my problems.
“Okay. Well, I’m going to the gym and check out the cheerleader try-outs.”
My head went back in surprise. “You want to be a cheerleader?”
“Oh, god, no.” She snort-laughed. “There’s some people in school, myself included, that like to taunt the cheerleaders. It’s like a rite of passage. If they can’t hack it, then they have no business being a cheerleader.”
There was a dark side to Arabella.
“So, just the cheerleaders?”
She waved her hands out in the air. “No. We do all the team tryouts, sports and otherwise. Football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and the chess team.”
I held back a laugh. “Okay, seems harsh, but I get it.”
I waved bye to her and moved down the hallway away from the gym. Once I got to the end, I waited until I saw her enter the gym. Then I turned around and headed back. The entrance to the boys’ locker room was on the left of the gym entrance, right next to the girls.
I glanced around and saw no one was around, so I opened the door. Peaking inside, I lowered my voice and yelled out, “Hey.”
There was no response.
My heart thundered between my ears as I scurried inside. Glancing around, I was happy when I discovered the lockers were exactly the same as the girls’ locker room, which were mini versions of the lockers in the hallway—and that included the name on each locker.
All I had to do was find Knight’s locker. I kept going down the first row. Nothing. Then the second row. Again, no sign of King.
Finally, the last row in the middle was the one I was looking for. I almost squealed in glee, but my excitement was short-lived.
There was a padlock on it. The only locker in the gym changing room with a lock.
Since the
girl’s lockers had no locks, I assumed it was like that in the boys. I never thought Knight would bring in his own.
I pounded my fist on the locker. Dammit.
I was so close. Maybe there was a way to get the key from him for the lock. An idea popped into my head that made me smile.
Looked like I needed to play a game of princess and the evil queen once I got home.
THIRTEEN
Violet
“WHAT ARE YOU SO HAPPY about? These back to school rallies are mind-numbingly dumb. Their only purpose is to re-establish the pecking order and give the popular kids a chance to suck their own dicks. Oh, God, I’m so great. Yeah, that’s it, please, tell me how wonderful I am.” Arabella made many gestures with her hand as if she was sucking a dick.
I couldn’t help but laugh, especially as more people turned to glance our way.
Even stares from the students couldn’t stop the smile on my face. I got the key to Knight’s gym locker from the help of his sister. That girl was clever and from what I had witnessed, could manipulate her brother into almost anything.
“Oh, look. Arabella is doing a reenactment of how Violet begs for food from the mayor,” Seraphina called back to us before her bitches started cackling.
I narrowed my eyes at her. Why did she mention the mayor? Did Knight tell her what had happened?
“That’s funny because I thought she was showing me how you begged your plastic surgeon to make your tits look like two rhino asses putting on sweaters for the winter.”
She gasped.
“You have no idea who I am, do you?” she said in her best spoiled-brat voice.
I groaned, “Yes, you won’t shut up about it. ‘Look at me, I’m balloon-tittied Seraphina, with the crystal headlights and bubble-gum brain. One day I hope to marry a senator and turn a blind eye when he pays to fuck whores because doing me is worse than nails on a chalkboard.’”
Arabella belted out with laughter, as did most of the surrounding people.
“You’re such a bitch. It’s sad you try so hard with Knight when I’m the one fucking him.”
My jaw tightened. I shouldn’t care who Knight was fucking, but something about it made me angry.
“You two are perfect for each other. The devil and his ankle bitch.”
“Ankle bitch?” She snorted. “Oh, Violet, I think you’ve done too many drugs. You’ve lost it. That means nothing.”
She was sitting two rows down from me and to my right, so I leaned closer. “Oh, that’s right, you never went to my school in South Green Hills. An ankle bitch is someone who clings to a man’s ankles, taking whatever scraps he cares to give. Then licking his dirty feet because that’s as close as she’ll ever get.”
“Damn,” Arabella yelled before exploding into more laughter.
“You’re a cunt and after this rally, you’ll be the laughingstock of the school, trash!” Seraphina bit out before turning back around and having her bitches console her wounded, spoiled heart.
“It’s fist-bump time.” Arabella held out her fist. “That was epic and worth sitting through a hundred boring rallies to witness.”
I gave her what she wanted and chuckled. Seraphina needed to be put in her place.
“Has no one ever told her off before?”
“Oh, no. She’s the queen of the school. And her father own half the town, so technically, most of the people here either work for her dad or have property her dad had sold them. Her father owns a bus line and that organic and natural foods grocery store chain, Earthy Foods. It’s like he has his hand dipped in every pot you could imagine. And her mom is the social queen bee of the town. Because her parents are so powerful, the people don’t dare knock Serphina.”
“I guess you’re the only good person at this school.”
“I’m not perfect.” Her eyes slid over to where Knight and his friends were sitting, close to Seraphina.
I wonder what was going on there.
I didn’t have time to ask as the rally started. The principal came to the middle of the gym and announced various upcoming events.
Arabella and I kept talking and ignored what was going on until I heard the words Winter River University.
“What did he just say?” I asked.
“My dad’s talking about the senior fall field trip. It’s just to a local college.”
I had never heard of a school taking a field trip to a university before.
“Did he say Winter River?”
Arabella nodded. “Yeah, the seniors take a trip there every year. I mean, since the Kings founded the university back in the seventeen-hundreds, they always invite Green Hills Academy to Winter River University.”
My fingers touched my parted lips.
“I thought it was Knight’s mother’s family who had all the money.”
She leaned closer. “The Sagets, sure. But they didn’t become wealthy until the last half of the eighteen-hundreds. It’s the Kings who descended from French royalty. A cousin of King Louis XV of France came here before the Revolutionary War and bought up a bunch of land. Brought the castle over from Europe, stone by stone.”
“What don’t you know?” I giggled.
“New girl, I know everything.” She waved her hands around the bleachers. “It’s a benefit to being the principal’s daughter and resident history nerd.”
“There are lots of perks with that. You think your dad would adopt me?”
The room darkened and a hush came over the room.
“The film teacher made this over the summer. The Green Hills Academy history. A short film about the founding of the school,” the principal announced.
I nudged Arabella with my shoulder. “Did you help with this?”
“No, and I’m kinda pissed Ms. Brill would take me out for coffee and use my brilliant mind like that, but then take all the credit.”
We chuckled as the film began. The production was high quality, but the acting was high school drama club level.
We were in the middle of laughing about the telephone wires clearly on display in the background of a scene that took place two centuries ago when the film stopped—as if it had been purposely edited that way and a dark and grainy film took over.
I narrowed my eyes to see what was happening. The location seemed familiar. That’s when it hit me.
That’s my bedroom in the pool house.
“What the fuck,” I mumbled.
Arabella leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Is that you?”
“Y-Yes.” My throat dried up as I barely got the word out.
My ears burned and I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. It was me getting undressed in my bedroom. The camera was angled from above, coming from somewhere on the ceiling.
In the footage, I had my shorts off and was about to take off my top when the chanting started.
“Take it off. Take it off,” the students yelled and as if on cue, I did just that.
I lifted my hands to my face. Grateful I was wearing a bra on screen, but I knew what was coming. That bra would not stay on for long. I didn’t want to see what came next.
Someone had done this. Someone had filmed me. And the only someone who had access to that pool house and went to Green Hills was Knight.
I lowered my hands and scanned the bleachers for him. He was gone.
Everyone had their gaze hypnotized to what was on the screen, except for one person. Seraphina.
She winked at me and mouthed, “Whore.”
I gritted my teeth and got up. There was no way I would stick around to continue to be humiliated.
I stumbled down the steps with voices continuing to yell around me.
“Nice tits, trash.”
“I got five bucks; will you strip for me?” I kept my head down, racing down, and then scurrying toward the gym door.
Once I was out in the hallway, I inhaled. It had felt like I was suffocating in there.
I slumped, leaning against the wall. Looking around, I was thankful I was alone out here.
I had started the day with a newfound energy. Ava had played along with my game of finding the secret key to get my bracelet, which was just my way of getting her to tell me where her brother’s gym key was hidden.
It wasn’t a deception I was proud of. Tricking a little girl for something wasn’t who I was. But I had to find out why Knight wanted me around.
I turned my head. The boys’ locker room door was right there, and everyone was in the gym.
While they laughed at my privacy being violated, I would violate the privacy of the person responsible. That put a smile on my face.
I made my way to the boys’ locker room door. Opening, I yelled in with no response.
Once inside, all I could hear was the muffled boos from the gym. Someone must have stopped the video. I shook my head when I noticed they didn’t stop it until I was nude.
When I walked to the back and found Knight’s locker, I dug into my jacket pocket and held up the tiny silver key.
I was about to unlock the door when I heard the gym door creak open. Slipping the key back into my pocket, I dashed toward the showers. Slipping inside one of the showers, I closed the curtain and waited.
“That dumb bitch.”
My brows shot up in surprise. I had expected to hear a boy’s voice, but I heard a girl. A very specific girl. Seraphina.
There was a clicking noise and then she said, “I’m calling you because I told you to keep a lookout at the door.”
There was a pause before she continued, “I don’t care if Briggs wanted to talk to you. You keep watch or I’ll tell everyone about your abortion.”
I covered my mouth.
“Oh, boo fucking hoo. I don’t care if your dad made you. Maybe that will teach you not to sleep with the help. Now shut up and keep watch.”
Seraphina stopped talking and the creak of the door to the boys’ gym door let me know someone else was coming.
“Hey, baby,” Seraphina said in her nauseating baby voice.
“Seraphina, what are you doing here?” Knight asked.
Shit. I took a step back and wondered if I’d ever get out of the shower.