Cruel Riches: A Dark Bully Romance (The Kings of Crestmoore Academy, Book 1)

by Elle East

  “Those guys are such assholes they deserve whatever happens to them. I can’t wait until they go to jail. I don’t feel guilty. They are nothing like how I remember them. My old friends are dead.”

  I looked back at Brett in horror. He wasn’t looking at me; he was staring straight ahead with a dark scowl on his face.

  “I hate them.”

  I felt like my world was falling apart. Those were texts I had sent Dean when I was at my lowest moments, when I had felt so alone and only Dean had been there to comfort me, encourage me. He was the reason I hadn’t given up.

  “I like you, Maddy. When this is all over, I want to take you out on a proper date. Dean, I feel the same way and would love that!”

  All the students, including the teacher, turned to stare at me. I couldn’t do anything to stop it, I just sat there helplessly as condemning words continued to pour out of the speaker.

  “You’ve helped me so much while I’ve been here. You have no idea what your texts have meant to me, they’ve helped keep me going when I wanted to quit.”

  There were the sounds of angry words in the background, a struggle and then the speaker cut out. It was too late. The damage was done. Everyone was staring at me with looks that were alternatively shocked, angry, or amused.

  The teacher, Mrs. Daniels, finally cleared her throat. “Well… never mind that. Let’s get back to the lesson.” She started teaching again.

  I looked back at Brett to try to gage his reaction. He looked angry and wouldn’t meet my gaze, which wasn’t a good sign. I might have just fucked everything up. I sank down into my chair. It felt like everything was falling out beneath my feet when I had only just found solid ground.

  The headmaster came on the speaker to apologize to everyone and said that it had been a misguided prank and that it was taken care of. I miserably sat through class until the bell rang and we were dismissed.

  I saw Brett hurry out of class and realized that he wanted to avoid me—that also wasn’t a good sign. My heart broke further. The amazing connection that we had all built last night looked like it had been ruined by a couple text I had sent for one person’s eyes only.

  I stormed out of the classroom and angrily began searching the halls. I was on a mission to find one guy. Despite the truce, people went back to calling me names. They looked at me with such disgust and anger it almost made me nervous. I guess they didn’t enjoy being called rich, spoiled brats. I tried to ignore it as I looked.

  I found him right as he was walking into his next class. I ran up, grabbed him by the arm and spun him around. He looked surprised and then when he saw it was me he looked down in shame, unable to meet my gaze.

  “What the hell, Manuel?!”

  He couldn’t look at me.

  “I’m sorry, Maddy.”

  “You said you fixed it!” Rage and betrayal coated my words.

  I thought he was my friend. I thought I could trust him.

  “I know, but the Queens… they made me. They said they’d get me expelled if I didn’t… I’m sorry.”

  “I trusted you,” I whispered, I didn’t trust my voice to speak any louder at that moment.

  “I didn’t want to, Maddy, but they made me… I worked so hard to get into this school. I had to. I’m so sorry.”

  He walked into class with his head bowed and I was left standing there alone.

  I went through the rest of the day in a daze, absorbing none of the lessons and just praying for the end of the day to come quickly. The Kings were avoiding me, but the Queens gave me smug smiles whenever we made eye contact. I wanted to punch that smug look off Victoria’s face, but I was too upset and worried to be truly angry just yet—that would come later, right then I just wanted to talk to the guys and see where we stood.

  After my last class I rushed over to the Kings’ apartment. I noticed that Brett and Grayson weren’t in last period so I thought they might already be home. I rang their buzzer and waited. After an unbearable few seconds that stretched on into eternity, they finally buzzed me up and I raced into the elevator.

  I burst into their suite and found them standing there in solidarity, like a wall barring me from coming too far into the apartment. I stopped short and stared up into their unreadable faces. Less than nine hours before they had been so open with me, so unguarded. Less than nine hours ago I had kissed them all goodbye in this very apartment, but now there was a chasm between us.

  “Listen, I’m so sorry,” I started.

  “Victoria had your phone bugged,” Archer stated flatly.

  “I know. I thought I had it fixed but I guess not.”

  “You didn’t think it was suspicious that she’d just give you a brand new phone after you’d known each other for a couple days?” Grayson asked.

  “Of course I did, and I thought I had it fixed, but I guess I put my trust in the wrong person,” I said sheepishly.

  I felt like such an idiot.

  “Who was that girl reading out my texts?” I asked because I didn’t recognize her voice. It wasn’t one of the Queens.

  “Victoria put a freshman girl up to it,” Grayson explained.

  I looked down. Embarrassed.

  “I’m so so sorry, I didn’t mean for anyone to see those… obviously.”

  “We know,” Archer said. “We’ll take care of it.”

  I looked up hopefully.

  “Really? Thank you!”

  “And we are still going to help you with your mom,” he continued.

  “Thank you! Thank you so much!!”

  I reached forward to hug them but they all stepped back and I stopped short.

  “Don’t mention it,” Grayson said flatly.

  “Look, what I said about you guys—” I started.

  “Don’t mention it,” Archer repeated. “It’s fine.”

  “We understand,” Brett added.

  Despite them saying that they understood, they all still seemed upset. They were being cold and distant with me again; it was what I was afraid of. Their masks were back on.

  “We’re very busy right now,” said Grayson.

  “Oh,” I said, a little taken aback. “Ok.”

  “We’ll talk to you soon,” Archer added.

  “Ok, sounds good,” I said, though I didn’t feel very comforted by his words. “I’m really sorry again.”

  “Don’t worry about it, we’ll still help you,” Archer stated, then motioned towards the elevator.

  I got the hint and left.

  I went back to my room and sat there in misery. I couldn’t even text Dean anymore for comfort because I knew my phone was bugged. I took it out of my pocket and in a fit of anger I threw it on the ground and smashed it to pieces with my heel.

  Chapter 32

  I had emailed the detective telling him that I had what he needed on the Kings and that they were willing to confess. He said he would come to the island right away. I should have been happy, I was going to get my mom out of jail, but everything felt hollow.

  So there I was, waiting on the white, stone steps in the blistering cold looking down on the harbor where I had first arrived at the island four months ago. The Kings had agreed to meet me there and I could see the ferry coming in the distance. It was almost over.

  I buried my face deeper into my tartan scarf. The water was choppy, the sky gray, the trees bare, the grass brown, it seemed like an appropriate setting for what was about to take place.

  I felt the Kings walk up behind me. I turned away from the water to look up at them. They were all so devastatingly handsome against the gray surroundings that I couldn’t look at them, it just made my heart hurt in a bad way. They stood a couple steps above me, shoulder-to-shoulder in a silent line, and stared out at the ferry. I turned away from them to look out too.

  I knew from the past couple days that trying to talk to them would be pointless; they wanted nothing to do with me right now. They assured me they were still willing to help, they said that they “wouldn’t abandon an old friend”�
��and that stung because I knew it was a direct jab at me.

  So there we were, after everything. The four of us standing silently staring out to the ocean, our black coats contrasted against the white stone.

  The ferry docked a short time later and when I saw who was getting off I swore.

  “Fuck,” I mumbled under my breath.

  Dean was walking off the boat with his dad.

  They saw us and started walking up the hill. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, I went down to meet them.

  “Hi,” I said as I got closer.

  The detective greeted me with a brisk nod, but his eyes wouldn’t leave the three intimidating guys standing about halfway up the stairs, hands in their coat pockets, looking like they own the world. The Kings oozed power, you could just feel it whenever you were around them. They were young, but I couldn’t imagine anyone of any age not being intimidated by them.

  “Maddy,” Dean said as he came up to me and gently grabbed my upper arms in his large hands.

  I could smell his cedar and sage scent. His face was full of concern and when I stared into his eyes, it brought back all those emotions I felt for him. It was one of the most intimate touches we had shared and I couldn’t help but get swept up in it a little, despite our surroundings, despite the fact that the three guys I had made out with very recently, and were also falling for, were watching us. When did my life get so complicated?—I guess it had been complicated for a long time.

  “Are you ok?” he asked sincerely.

  I glanced back at the guys, who were giving Dean death stares. I looked away quickly.

  “Yes,” I breathed.

  “I was worried because you haven’t texted me in a few days. I came because I just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong.”

  “I’m ok. Now. I’ll explain everything later. Let’s just get this over with.”

  We climbed the stairs with the detective towards the Kings. They stood silent and still as stone statues.

  When we got to them the first one to speak was Grayson.

  “So this is the famous Dean we’ve heard so much about.”

  Grayson sneered and I could tell that Dean was taken aback.

  “Boys, I’m Detective Smith,” the detective held out his hand to the Kings.

  They looked at it but none of them removed their hands from their pockets to shake it. The detective slowly lowered his.

  “Ok, fine. I’ll get straight to the point. It’s our understanding that you boys are involved in some illicit activities and I’ve come here because I understand that you wish to assist the investigation by confessing.”

  “We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Archer said, stone-faced.

  “What?!” I couldn’t stop myself from shrieking.

  The detective was flustered. “Maddy said that you guys wanted to confess…”

  “We have absolutely no idea what you are talking about,” Grayson said flatly.

  It felt like the ground was falling out beneath my feet. As I looked at them I realized that they had no intention of confessing, they probably never did. How could I have been so stupid??

  “But we came here because Maddy—” the detective started.

  “We aren’t sure what Maddy has told you, but she doesn’t speak for us. We aren’t close with her and she certainly would not be someone we’d tell anything incriminating to,” Archer said calmly.

  The detective turned to look at me in confused irritation.

  “Maddy, you said—” he started.

  “They told me! I swear! They told me about dealing drugs and I saw it on their phone! I have pictures.”

  I reached into my pocket before I realized that it was empty. My broken phone was already on the way to the dump.

  The three Kings scoffed in disbelief.

  “Drug dealing??” Grayson said in disgusted astonishment.

  The other two laughed.

  “We are filthy rich, why would we bother dealing drugs?” Archer asked with a snicker.

  “We have no clue what she’s talking about, but if you want to question us further, it would need to be in the presence of our lawyers. We came here on her request, if we had known we were going to be accused of a ridiculous crime we wouldn’t have come without legal representation,” Brett said and it was the most I had heard him say at one time.

  I looked into his face desperately but the cold look I saw there chilled me to the bone. They had set me up.

  The detective turned to me in frustration. “Do you have any proof of this?”

  I looked down. Defeated.

  “No.”

  The detective breathed out an irritated sigh. “All right, let’s go, Dean. Coming here was clearly a waste of time. Miss Baker, my office will be in touch regarding your situation.”

  He turned and left, walking back down the stairs towards the harbor.

  The five of us were left standing there. Dean turned to me.

  “Are you ok?” he asked.

  I didn’t know what to say.

  “Oh, hey, Dean,” Grayson called over, and we both looked up. He had a cruel smile on his face. “Did she tell you that while she was saying how much she likes you and how awful we are and how much she hates us, she was also making out with us? She’s fooled around with all three of us. I already know she didn’t tell you, but just thought you should know.”

  “What? Is that true?” Dean asked in confusion.

  He turned to me and my eyes must have told him everything he needed to know. He looked hurt to hear it from them and it broke my heart. I was going to tell him in person when I got to New York. I didn’t think he’d care about me making out with anyone; we weren’t serious—we’d never even been on a date—but seeing the hurt on his strong face made me realize that this wasn’t casual for him. And he especially didn’t enjoy hearing that I had done it with the guys I was complaining bitterly about to him.

  “Ok, I’m going to go, Maddy,” he said softly.

  “Dean, please,” I begged quietly.

  “It’s ok. You didn’t do anything wrong, but I just need to leave.”

  He turned and followed his dad down the stairs and once again I was left alone with the three Kings. I looked up to them, tears stinging the corner of my eyes.

  “What the fuck was that??” I said angry and beyond hurt.

  They were all matching Grayson’s cruel smile.

  “Oh come on, Sunny,” Archer said, and I flinched at the name which now sounded like a curse rather than one of my favorite memories. “Are you really that dumb?”

  “We knew what you were after from the start. Did you really think you were being stealthy? We knew before you ever got to Crestmoore that the police were going to send someone here to try to spy on us. Our families have powerful connections in high places,” Grayson said.

  “You aren’t as smart as you think you are. This is the second time you’ve turned on us. It used to be the four of us, but you’re not worthy anymore.” Archer continued to twist the knife in my side.

  I couldn’t believe what was happening, but I should have known that it was all too good to be true. At Crestmoore nothing was that straightforward or easy, it was full of layers, full of people working against you without you even realizing it. No one was what they seemed. A sea of beautiful people with ugly insides that they kept carefully hidden.

  As if the moment couldn’t get any worse, I saw that the Queens were walking down the stairs towards us. Grace was holding a large canvas in her hands and as they came closer, I realize what it was and, even though I didn’t think it was possible, my heart sunk even lower. It was my painting—the one I had spent hours and hours of work on with Grayson—and it was destroyed. Someone had gone over certain parts in black paint, making it look intentional but at the same time ruining the effect I had worked so hard to create.

  “We were just fucking with you. Did you really think we’d jeopardize our empires? And did you really think we’d give them up for you?” Arc
her said mockingly.

  “Did you really try to pay for my mom’s cancer treatments or was that just another lie?” I asked Brett angrily.

  “Oh, no, I did do that, but that was before I realized you weren’t worthy,” Brett growled and I winced. “I know better now.”

  The Queens reached us and all the Royalty stood together above me as one terrifying force. It was at that moment that I realized just how united they were. They had always been working as one.

  Grace threw the painting at my feet and it landed against the stone stairs with a hollow sound.

  “You lost by the way,” she sneered.

  My best chance at getting my mom out of jail had just vanished, my three old best friends had just betrayed me and I didn’t know if Dean would ever talk to me again. Wrong timing, Grace, I thought, I don’t give a shit about an art contest right now.

  “We are going to make your life a living hell as long as you are here,” Victoria said callously.

  I’m already holding back tears but I’m determined not to let myself cry in front of these assholes. I’m not going to give them what they want. They’ve been winning their whole lives and they don’t deserve it. They were born lucky, born into unimaginable wealth and privilege, but that didn’t mean that they deserved it.

  I tilted my chin up to them defiantly.

  “I know you guys are up to something.”

  They all laughed like what I had just said was hilarious.

  “Well, duh,” Grayson chuckled.

  “You can’t take us down,” Brett said calmly and my eyes snapped to his.

  He was as cold and unmoving as the stone we were standing on.

  “Watch me,” I growled, and that sent another round of laughter rippling through them.

  “Go home, Trailer Trash, you’ve embarrassed yourself enough,” Victoria said dismissively.

  “Fuck you, Victoria. Fuck all of you. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I was practically seething. These people had made my life hell and now they were taunting me. They thought they were too big to fail, too big to ever be brought down to earth, but they didn’t know me—the guys thought they did, but if they believed I’d give up then I guess we never really knew each other like I thought we had.