Hannaford Prep: The Complete Series

by J Bree

  It fits me perfectly.

  I'm not so naive to think that the universe will suddenly stop shitting on me just because of my good deed.

  I make it to the chapel for the full school presentation of awards, and I find that seating is assigned. I'm between Avery and Harley, and that is when I decided that karma cannot be a real thing, because how did I deserve that torture? Avery had probably recovered well enough from the assault and would have something to say about my uniform. Would Harley tease me for taking it? Or will he just continue to ignore me for dragging him into my twisted, bullshit world? I’m still walking with a limp after using my bad leg to kick Rory.

  Ugh. Rich dicks.

  I take my seat, and Avery isn't there. I should feel relieved, but my stomach drops like a stone. Is she okay? What if she did have a concussion? Fuck, I should have walked her to the nurse.

  After a minute of stewing by myself, Harley takes his seat and he looks at my bandage with calculating eyes. “Who the fuck beat you up this time?” he says, frustrated and angry, which throws me. He must have not heard from Avery yet. I can't tell him, not with this many students around us. Even if we were alone, I didn’t think I could tell him. Is there a girl code about this kind of thing? Did it count if the girl loathed your very existence?

  Fuck.

  I don't know.

  “Doesn't matter. I'll survive,” I reply. His eyebrows tug into a little frown, but then the lights are dimming, and the stage is lighting up. I think that will be the end of it, but he slumps down in his chair until he can whisper in my ear. “It does fucking matter. I’ve made it clear no one’s allowed to touch you, and I’m yours now, aren’t I?”

  He says it sarcastically, and I flush. There it is; the resentment for what I did to protect him. I should feel angry at him for blaming me, but mostly I just feel guilty and miserable. Okay, I’m a little angry that he didn’t care about being ‘mine’ when I confronted him about Ash getting me thrown out of school. Fuck, I need some time to clear my head. I need a plan for next year.

  I swallow and whisper back, “That just means no one outside these walls can touch you. You don’t owe me anything.”

  He scoffs at me. “Thank God, because I sure as hell can’t afford the diamonds your favors cost.”

  His leg is pressed against mine, so I feel it when his phone buzzes. He ignores it until it stops. Then it buzzes again. And again. And again.

  He curses under his breath and discreetly slides the phone out of his pocket. I look away because I have no interest in snooping. Okay, I do, but I’m also afraid it’ll be a girl texting him and I don’t need any more pain from this guy right now. He nudges me gently and turns the screen so I can read it.

  Courtyard after the assembly. Bring the Mounty.

  It’s from Ash.

  I suck in a breath. This is it; he’s going to make his move and get me kicked out. He’s probably already done it, but Mr. Trevelen wouldn’t pause an assembly just to kick me out. I’m going to walk out there and face the humiliation of my expulsion.

  I screw my eyes shut and try to fight the panic that’s squeezing my chest so hard, I think my heart might explode. I start to count in French, and I miss every word Mr. Trevelen says in his speech. I clap robotically when everyone around me does, and then when Harley stands, he looks down at me with cold eyes.

  I have no choice but to follow him out to face Ash.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Ash is furious.

  He’s standing with Blaise in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded by groups of students who are all eyeing him nervously. Harley frowns when he sees him and then moves quickly to stand with him, so I’m faced with all three of them at once. I stare at Ash, refusing to even glance at the other two, and he looks at me like I’m worse than nothing.

  “How the fuck did a little Mounty manage to hack my accounts and clear all of the video files? I’ll have your fucking head for this. There’s no way you can talk your way out of this with the principal,” he snarls at me.

  I have no clue what he is talking about. He’s right, it is outside of my abilities, and I didn’t do it. I squint up at him, and I must look like the dense Mounty they all think I am before it hits me.

  Avery.

  She wouldn’t even need to hack in. She had all his account details and passwords. It was the only way his data could have been wiped so thoroughly. It was a steep price she was paying for my help, and if Ash found out, he would be crushed by her betrayal.

  I could just tell him. I could tell him every intimate detail of his sister’s assault; just how close she had come to being raped. But when I open my mouth nothing comes out.

  After years in the foster care system I have seen so many kids who had been molested, and it was truly horrifying. How far away from my humanity would I fall if I use this against Avery? They may all be monsters, and I know I am too, but I don’t want to be. Someday I will be a fully-fledged adult out in the world, and I refuse to let this school turn me the way it has every other student.

  “Get fucked, Beaumont.”

  Silence. The entire area holds its breath.

  Ash opens his mouth to rip me to shreds, but then it snaps shut. His face shutters closed, the anger dissolving. His eyes dart to my left and narrow, but not in the same vicious way he'd been directing it at me.

  Blaise crosses his arms over his broad chest, and Harley straightens. I realize Avery must have arrived, because no one else gets the boys’ attention so completely. She steps up beside me, and her fingers wrap around my wrist gently, using her body as a shield so no one else can see. Her hand is cold and clammy, but her voice is firm.

  “Lips didn't clear your accounts. I did.”

  Gasps ring out across the courtyard. I look around and see we have the attention of the entire class. The gaggle of girls that usually follow Avery around are darting quick glances between the twins, unwilling to get on Ash's bad side, and I want to snap at them. Gutless. I know in my heart she’s right, none of them would have rushed in to help her. They would have let Rory rape her and then gossiped about it later.

  “Avery, what—” Ash starts forward, his eyes haunted, and I glance over to see the white bandages over his sister’s face. They look professionally applied, nothing like the amateur job I did with my scraps. Ash doesn't care about the accounts at all now that he's faced with his injured twin. It would be totally sweet, if he hadn't just been on the edge of ending my school career and my opportunity at a decent life.

  “You would know if you had answered your phone, but you didn't, so now you can deal with the consequences. Lips, is mine.”

  Blaise’s eyes dart between us, and my face begins to flush. Someday I will be able to handle his eyes on me, but clearly today is not that day.

  “What the actual fuck?!” Harley sputters out, and I try not to laugh at the sound. I had never heard any of them sound unsure, and yet all three of the boys were gaping at us both.

  “Okay, I get it. I should have answered. You don't need to take on trash just to get back at me, Floss,” Ash says gently, aiming to placate her. His hands are outstretched toward her, like he wants to pull her in to him and hold her in the safety of his arms. My angry shield cracks a little at the sight.

  Avery's eyes narrow when he uses her nickname, and instead of answering, she slips her arm fully into mine where everyone can see. I try not to flinch, because if I push her away now, it will only make things worse for me. She doesn't get the chance to destroy him, though, as the far door leading into the courtyard opens and Rory walks out.

  Ash does a double take when he spots the scratches down his cheeks and the black eye. He looks back, and I watch as he takes inventory of all the marks on Avery, and then, as if an afterthought, the ones on me. I watch as everything clicks into place in his head. It's clear to everyone what has happened. Harley’s face turns thunderous. Blaise’s cool and unaffected mask finally drops, and his jaw clenches.

  I watch as Ash’s entire bo
dy begins to shake, the need to break and smash and destroy whoever has touched his sister so strong that the other students begin to back away slowly, and Blaise steps up to join him, his eyes dark swirling pits. Harley calls out to Rory, and when he turns fearful eyes on them, he signs his own death warrant. The guilt is written on every fiber of his being.

  “Where did you get those from, dickhead?” Harley says, gesturing at the scratches. He has always hated Rory, but now his voice is dark and taunting. There is blood in the water and sharks are beginning to circle.

  “We had a misunderstanding. It's not a big deal.” Rory sounds arrogant, even with the quaking look on his face, and it makes me see red.

  “I hope your broken ribs puncture your lungs and you drown in your own blood,” I hiss at him. I would say more, but Avery starts tugging me away. She doesn’t want to watch her brother mete out his physical punishments and I’m honestly not sure if Rory will make it out alive.

  “I told you, I don't want your protection,” I murmur. I can't be too loud about it in case any of the students hear and it gets back to Ash.

  “This isn’t payment, it’s a white flag. And an olive branch. I want to be your friend.”

  I stop dead in my tracks. I can hear screaming and yelling starting in the chapel, and I flinch. Memories of my time in the Game surface, and I shove them away. I don’t have time to deal with my own issues right now.

  “What?”

  “I don't have friends either. I want one, and I want one as fierce as you.”

  “You can't just—Blaise is your friend.”

  She shakes her head dismissively, and I roll my eyes at her. Had she not just seen their reactions to her injuries? I’d kill to have them defend me like that, to have my back and expect nothing but friendship in return.

  “No, he’s Ash’s friend, and he both loves and respects me well enough, but he will always defer back to him. I want a real friend that's mine.”

  “You can't just claim me. I'm not property,” I sputter, and my voice is louder than I intend on being. I glance around, but the halls have deserted. Everyone wants to watch Rory die. I kind of do, too. Mostly because there’s something about watching justice being served that makes my dark heart sing. Plus, the boys were hot at the best of times. Watching their fists fly and beat Rory bloody? Um, yes, please. I just need a pair of earplugs to drown out the yelling, and I’m good to watch the whole damn thing.

  Avery huffs and pulls me into the study den. There's a group of students packing up, and at her sharp look, they hightail it out of there.

  “I know you don't trust me, and I deserve that. I'm going to give you something as insurance, so we know we’re both in this for the right reasons. That is, if you want a friend?”

  I do. Desperately really, but how can I trust this girl that looks like an angel but is really a crossroads demon, bargaining and making deals with mere mortals for their souls? She can be just as twisted as Joey; they are siblings, after all. I know in my heart she isn’t a sociopath like him, but she could be just as ruthless. She could survive the Wolf, my mind whispers unbidden. She’s probably the only girl I’d ever met who could.

  “Why did Joey call a ceasefire?” she asks with a raised brow. It’s a test, one last hurdle to leap before we can be friends. Could I do it? Could I take the leap?

  “We have a… mutual acquaintance. Joey thought this person was under his thumb, but he was wrong. He was told that under no uncertain circumstances could he harm me again.”

  Avery leans forward and whispers in my ear, “The Jackal?” and I nod. A smile flits at the corners of her mouth.

  She hands me an envelope. I open it and, after leafing through the papers for a second, I scrunch it up hurriedly. I’m holding the missing piece of the puzzle. I’m holding the records of the Beaumonts’ mother’s death. Alice Beaumont, nee Arbour, was murdered.

  “Why the hell—”

  “That's your insurance. It would destroy both me and my brother if that got out. I've spent years keeping that out of people’s hands. Everything I do is to keep Ash and the boys safe. Everything I did to you was to keep us safe.” She doesn't look sorry at all, like my year of torture was reasonable. I don't know what to do with that, or with the envelope in my hand.

  “I want a friend I can trust to have my back completely, and no girl has ever looked at me as anything other than competition or a way to get in with my brothers. You took everything I threw at you, and you're still here. Unbroken. Are you in, or not?”

  God help me, but I was so in. My hands begin to shake.

  “I don't want you to speak to them for me. The boys.”

  “Well, I don't want to speak to them at all, so you're safe there. I promise I won't tell them to be nice, but if we're friends, then I'm on your side from here out.”

  I bite my lip. I want this so bad, and the envelope in my hand makes me believe this is legit. I might regret it later, but I nod.

  “Friends it is, then.”

  “Best friends. Now, how do you feel about helping me destroy Rory’s entire existence for what he did to me? I'd love your input.”

  I smile and tuck the papers into my satchel. I can hear the sounds of teachers breaking up the beating, and Avery’s eyes have that wicked glint in them. A shot of excitement shoots through my blood. This could be fun.

  “I have a few ideas, actually.”

  “Let’s just agree that from here on out, we only ever tell each other the truth. If we can’t discuss something, then we come out and say so.”

  I’m sitting in Avery’s room and watching while she packs. It took me three minutes to pack my entire room up, and Avery had moaned about how jealous she was I was finished. I was kind enough to point out that, she actually has the opportunity to own things, which is something I’m more than jealous of. It’s utterly ridiculous how quickly we’ve fallen into a relaxed hangout.

  There are boxes everywhere, suitcases full of clothes, stacks of boxed-up shoes that are taller than we are, and still Avery is shoving random items into bubble wrap. I expected her to pay someone else to do this.

  “I guess I can handle that,” I say, shoving a fistful of popcorn into my mouth and flicking through her record collection. It’s mostly classical music and scores from ballet recitals, but she also has every single Vanth Falling record, first editions and signed, and I’m trying not to tuck them under my arm and make a run for it. I put one on, and she cackles at me from the bathroom where she’s trying to pack the equivalent of an entire Sephora store’s worth of makeup and hair care products. Ash wasn’t wrong; she has a lot of stuff.

  Avery arches an eyebrow at me and grins, “I don’t expect you to tell me all of your secrets tonight. I was thinking while we’re on break, we can text each other one secret a day. When school starts again in the fall, we can do the same each morning. It’ll be a fun little bonding experience.”

  I shrug in return as I tap my fingers along with the song. Some things can’t be sent digitally; texts and emails can be hacked. I’m sure I don’t have to explain this to her, and I guess it’s a way to ease into things. “I’m not sure you’ll ever know it all. There’s stuff I’ve done… I’m a dangerous person to be around. You need to know that from the get-go, so you can tap out now if you need to.”

  She flops back on her bed dramatically. Her face is no longer the blank mask I’ve seen every day; it’s open, and a little vulnerable. “My cousin is a mobster’s son. My brother is a sociopathic murderer. My father is… my father is true evil. Whatever you have following you, we can sort out together, the same way I’ve worked at sorting everything out for Harley. I’m all in, Lips.”

  I sigh and crawl up to sit on the bed beside her. Maybe we will get there. Maybe I’ll offer her the same protection as I’ve given Harley. Ugh, thinking about him makes my chest ache and leaves me with too many questions. Seeing as this is my first opportunity to get some answers, I ask her, “Where does Harley go during the summer break?”

  It
’s Avery’s turn to sigh. “He goes back to his grandfather’s place for two weeks each year. It’s part of a seedy deal the old crook cut with a dirty judge. Then he either stays with Blaise, touring or whatever, or I get him a hotel. He can’t come to our house; my father would never allow it.”

  “Wouldn’t he know you’re helping him, though? Where else do you get your money?”

  She laughs and pulls out a black nail polish from the box she was just packing, tugging my hand until I let her paint my nails.

  “My mother and Harley’s mom were twins; did you know that? Twins run pretty strongly in our family. They were heiresses themselves. If you trace our family line back far enough, you hit Russian royalty. My grandparents disowned Aunt Iris when she ran off with Éibhear O’Cronin; they were horrified their blue-blooded daughter had been seduced by the handsome degenerate.” She fluttered her eyes and pretended to faint, and I giggle for probably the first time in my life. “So my mother was the sole heir. Now my father, the asshole, had a prenup to say that all finances were to stay separate, because her hundreds of millions were nothing compared to his billions. When my mother died, her will said the money was to be split and shared three ways.”

  “So you and your brothers each have a share of the millions and no parental supervision on how you use it? Fuck, you are the luckiest kid in this school.”

  She grins and tips her head back. “My mother left her money to Ash, me… and Harley.”

  My jaw drops.

  Avery grins and nods. “Best day of my life was seeing that murderer’s face when he realized he was getting nothing.”

  “So then why doesn’t Harley have the money?”

  “His grandfather stole it. Sort of. His grandfather had custody of Harley when my mother died, so he had it put in trusts and bonds and offshore accounts, then told Harley he could have it the moment he swore in. He’s using the money as leverage to get Harley to join the family business.”