by Elle East
Cruel Betrayal
The Kings of Crestmoore Academy, Book 2
Elle East
Copyright © 2020 by Elle East
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Due to mature content, this book is recommended to readers aged eighteen and over. All characters are over the age of eighteen.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Thanks for Reading!
Also by Elle East
Chapter 1
“Hello, Detective Smith.”
He jumped in surprise and instinctively reached for his gun.
“Wait!”
I brought my hands up defensively, but in the next second he saw it was me and lowered his hand away from the holster. He blew out a relieved sigh, but then instantly became angry.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked gruffly.
“I just needed to talk to you and you aren’t taking my calls.”
“There’s a reason for that.” He walked over and wearily sat down behind his desk. “How did you get in here, anyway?”
We were in his office at the police station.
I took a seat across from him before answering. “Snuck in and borrowed the keys.”
He laughed, and it took me by surprise. I expected him to be angrier. I expected him to kick me out and have me arrested, but I had to try. I was desperate.
“You’ve got some nerve. I’ll give you that, kid,” he said.
He picked up the mug full of cold coffee from his desk and took a sip. His office was covered floor-to-ceiling in messy stacks of paper. I didn’t know how he found anything in there. If one of those leaning stacks fell on him, he’d get seriously hurt.
“I needed to talk to you,” I said.
“Oh yeah? What about? Must be pretty important if you’d be willing to risk getting arrested—or even shot.”
He looked at me with tired blue eyes that were not altogether unsympathetic, and I found that encouraging.
“Listen, I’m sorry about what happened at Crestmoore. I screwed up. I did. I was trying to trick them, but they ended up tricking me instead.”
A flashback sprang into my mind of that painful final moment together on the white steps in front of the school. The moment when they betrayed me. I had thought we were friends again, but it was all just a lie.
I shook my head to clear it. I couldn’t think about that right now.
“I lost sight of the mission and I know that,” I continued. “I fell into their trap. I had no idea what I was up against and they played with me, but I know now. I know who they really are and it won’t happen again. Please send me back.”
The detective shook his head sadly. “Can’t do that.”
“Why?” I asked desperately.
I needed to go back and finish what I started. I couldn’t let them get away with what they’d done to me.
“We sent you there to get information on them, but you ended up letting them fool you into thinking you guys were best friends. You ruined our cover. They know we are on to them now and it’s making the operation ten times more difficult. You screwed up and we can’t risk that happening again.”
He paused and looked at me seriously for a moment before adding, “Your feelings for them clouded your judgement and allowed them to get the best of you.”
His words stung like lashes from a whip, but he wasn’t wrong. I had tried to get close to them to find out their secrets, but the whole time they were only pretending. They saw me coming from a mile away. They’d used my feelings for them to their advantage and turned them against me like a weapon. They’d gotten the best of me—and I couldn’t let them get away with it.
“I know,” I conceded. “I know I screwed up, but I also know how the game is played now. I’m not the new girl anymore. I know that school and I know the Royalty. I’ve been in their private quarters and witnessed their inner workings. Even if they were only pretending, they couldn’t hide everything from me when they invited me in. I can do this. I know I can. Please, just give me a second chance. I won’t screw up again. I promise.”
He looked at me for a long moment before sighing. His eyes moved away and I could tell he was thinking. My heart started beating quicker, and I started to get excited. It looked like he was considering it. This might have actually worked.
“I can be an asset,” I continued quickly, trying to convince him before he changed his mind. “I know the environment, the layout, and I know I can get it done this time. I’m smarter and wiser, and I’m not going in blind anymore. I’ve seen what amazing liars they can be. I’ve experienced firsthand how they can be nice to your face one moment then stab you in the back in the next breath.”
I realized I was rambling, but I didn’t want to stop in case I hadn’t found the right words yet to unlock the door back to that school.
“I understand their world now, and I won’t be caught off guard again. This time I know what I’m up against, and I won’t let you down. Please send me back.”
When I came back to New York from Crestmoore a couple of weeks ago, they had nowhere to put me. Originally, I was supposed to stay with Detective Smith and his son, Dean, but after my disastrous screw up they had canceled my mission entirely. Since I was no longer a part of the operation, they stuck me in a neighborhood orphanage. It was the last place I wanted to end up, and I knew it would have broken my mother’s heart to hear it.
When I called at Christmas, I couldn’t bear to add to her stress so I didn’t tell her. She was already stressed out from being in jail, so I didn’t want her to find out that her only child had ended up in the one place she never wanted me to go.
It had been so nice to talk to her again, and I’d almost cried when I heard her voice. She sounded so frail and far away. I told her I was going back to Crestmoore once winter break was over and that made her happy. I never wanted to lie to my mom, so I needed to convince Detective Smith to let me go back so that it wouldn’t be a lie.
“I can do this,” I repeated. I had already convinced myself I could do it, now I just needed to convince him. “Just give me another chance.”
“You’re persistent. I’ll give you that.”
“I am, and that’s why I’ll get this done. You have my word.”
This was the fourth time I’d come to the police station to try to see him, but it was the first time I’d broken into his office. He sighed again, and I could tell I was wearing him down.
“You already fucked up the investigation so badly we lost the element of surprise,” he said, and my heart dropped.
“It won’t happen again.”<
br />
I couldn’t stay at that orphanage much longer. I needed to get out. Even though it was my birthday in a month and I’d be free then, at the moment a month seemed like an eternity.
“We’ve already reassigned the case to someone else. We are sending them back in your place to pick up the investigation where you failed.”
“Who?” I asked indignantly.
“Dean.”
My heart constricted painfully at hearing his name. The last time I saw him he was walking away from me after learning I’d made out with the Kings. I hadn’t heard from him since, and I missed him.
He took another sip of ice-cold coffee and leaned back in his chair. He looked so tired. The gray and black stubble on his weak chin was long and patchy, like he hadn’t had time to shave for a week. I could imagine being a New York City police detective was probably one of the most stressful jobs in the world, and a wave of sympathy overcame me all of a sudden.
“Fine,” he finally said.
“Seriously?” I asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. It’ll be better to have two agents on the ground working the case. The two of you will help keep each other focused. Just don’t screw up again.”
My heart soared. I could barely believe it. I stood up quickly and reached my hand out to him.
“Thank you. Thank you. You won’t regret it!” I said enthusiastically as I shook his large, calloused hand, and caused the coffee he held in his other hand to spill slightly. Against his will, a small smile passed across his lips.
“I won’t let you down!” I said.
I could barely believe it. I was going to get another shot. I had thought about nothing these last few weeks other than getting back to Crestmoore and finishing what I started. I was getting a second chance, and I wasn’t going to waste it. I was going to get my mom out of jail, and I was going to make the Royalty pay.
“Ok, ok, sit back down,” the detective finally said, and I quickly took a seat. “We need to make a few more arrangements, but this doesn’t change our timeline. In two days, you and Dean are heading back to Crestmoore.”
Chapter 2
The ride over on the ferry was super awkward. Dean and I sat next to each other, but we weren’t saying much. We’d left New York early that morning as the dawn was breaking over the empty, gray streets. He hadn’t acknowledged me except for a nod of his head and a terse, “Hello.” And then we spent the next few hours in silence.
Despite the fact he was clearly still upset with me, I couldn’t help but acknowledge he looked really good. The pale winter sun was beating down on him through the glass. How had he gotten even more handsome in the intervening weeks? How was that even possible?
He sat next to me dressed in a long, black coat that stretched tight across his broad back. His thick, brown hair was a bit longer than the last time I saw him. He must have been too preoccupied to keep it in his normal closely cropped style. It looked like it curled at the ends, like he had naturally curly hair. I didn’t know why but for some reason it seemed adorable that this guy who was always so put together, so even, so in control, that he would have unruly hair.
I looked away from him. It was painful to be so close but yet so far away at the same time. I felt like there was so much we weren’t saying and it was creating a chasm between us. I couldn’t blame him though for being upset with me after everything that had happened before Christmas, but I just hoped he would forgive me someday.
In the distance, the island rose just over the horizon. At the sight of it, my stomach clenched tightly into knots. Everything that happened to me there rushed back all at once. The bullying, the tricks, the deception. The thinking I had my best friends back again, only to be stabbed in the back at the last second. I had been so naïve.
The Kings had been right about one thing. I hadn’t understood their world, but I did now. And I would never trust a word they said to me ever again. My old best friends, the boys I had grown up with, those three were well and truly dead. I had to let them go.
The island rose up out of the ocean as we got closer. The first time I saw it, it had been green and orange with the beginning of the Fall leaves, but now it was blanketed in white snow. It looked dead and imposing. At the top of the hill, the Crestmoore building rose up, cold and dark red, to tower over the island and watch who came to its shores. I gulped. Maybe this was a mistake, but it was too late.
The ferry docked smoothly, and Dean and I stood up.
Here we go.
We got off and walked down the gangway onto the dock. Dean didn’t even bother checking for his luggage like I had the first time I came. He walked as if he just knew they would take it to his room. I just shrugged, and we set off.
The air was crystal clear and bitingly cold. It stung my cheeks, and I buried my face deeper into my soft tartan scarf. I had had to give back all my school clothes at the end of last term when I got back to New York. The police had bought them for me so they were property of the city and they wanted them back. Luckily, they hadn’t disposed of them yet so I was able to take them back when Detective Smith allowed me to continue my assignment.
We walked in silence through the stillness. Everything was so quiet. We couldn’t even hear the sounds of the ferry anymore once we were on the path. It all felt so eerie. We started up the familiar hill and despite the thick blanket of snow the grounds had been expertly maintained and the walkways were completely clear. We had no trouble walking up the path and quickly reached the perfectly swept white stairs.
My stomach clenched in dread. This was where it happened. My ultimate humiliation. My ultimate betrayal. I snuck a quick glance at Dean to see if he was thinking about the same thing. The hard line of his stubbled jaw and his narrowed amber eyes told me he was. This was where we last saw each other before this morning. This was where he’d run up to me and held my arms. He was so relieved to see me… until he wasn’t anymore.
I hurried up the stairs quicker, so we didn’t have to be there any longer than necessary. I was going to make the Kings pay for what they did.
The campus was completely deserted. We didn’t see a single soul as we walked across the path and were swallowed by the school building. Classes started in a couple of days, so I guess everyone was waiting until the last second to come back. They probably wanted to enjoy their mansions and servants and trips to the Caribbean for as long as possible.
I was immediately overcome by how huge and coldly beautiful the school was. No matter how many times I came here, I didn’t think I’d ever get used to it. Dean didn’t look as impressed as I thought he’d be. Maybe he was just too busy being stressed about coming to a new school and all the stuff we had to do here. In front of us was a gigantic, almost impossible task and the only other person he had was me—the girl who he felt betrayed by. Kind of a messed-up situation for both of us.
But this was the beginning of a new year and a fresh start for me at Crestmoore. I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes I did back in September, because I was smarter and wiser now—and I knew where the administration office was this time.
“This way,” I said as I started to walk towards one of the halls.
My voice echoed around the cavernous space and made me feel self-conscious. I didn’t know why, but I had the sudden urge to whisper so no one would notice two intruders had just entered the exclusive inner sanctum of the wealthy and privileged.
We walked down the deserted hall, our footsteps echoing off the marble. What a lonely sound, I thought. When we got to the administration office, the headmaster wasn’t in so his assistant greeted us and took our phones. I hadn’t been able to afford to buy a second one, so my only way of communicating with the outside world disappeared when she placed our two phones into a safe in the headmaster’s office.
She took us over to the office manager who gave us our room assignment and handed Dean his welcome package.
“Does his have a map in there?” I asked her.
“Of course,” she said.
/> “Do all welcome packages have a map?” I couldn’t help asking.
“Of course,” she answered sharply.
I could tell she was getting annoyed at my questioning. To her it was as if I was asking the most obvious thing in the world like, does a week have seven days? Or, do humans need food to survive?
My welcome package didn’t have a map, and that had caused me all sorts of problems—and gave the Queens an excuse to start talking to me. I couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran through me. The Royalty had been plotting against me from the very beginning and I hadn’t seen it coming.
We left the office and headed to the Bell Tower. Dean was at the school under the guise of being another scholarship student so we were living in the same building, which made me both excited and nervous. If things continued this way between us, then it was going to be super awkward seeing him every day in the hallways, but at the same time I was excited to be close to him. He was the only person I had here because I’d lost all my other friends. Without him, I’d be alone.
On the way there we finally saw other students. There was only a couple of them, but I recognized them from some of my classes. Their eyes went wide when they saw me coming and their mouths dropped open. They openly stared at me like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Then the next second they recovered from their shock and started snickering. I could feel Dean get tense next to me when he noticed their reactions. I tried to ignore it and hurried passed them, but their mean, quiet laughter followed me all the way down the silent hallway.