by Sam Crescent
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2018 Sam Crescent
ISBN: 978-1-77339-758-0
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
I want to say a big thank you to all of my amazing readers. Your support means the world to me as I head into this new venture of my writing. I love hearing from you guys and I hope you love Axton and Taylor as much as I do.
Love Sam. X
AXTON
Four Kings Empire, 1
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2018
Chapter One
“Carla, come on, pick up your damn phone.” Taylor Keane glared down at her cell phone, hoping that her best friend would pick up. When it went straight to voicemail, she clicked “end call.” The lake was completely crowded, a bonfire blazing to keep them warm. The cold winter’s night was not enough to stop her fellow peers from fighting.
She avoided high school parties.
The truth was, she avoided every single damn party. There was no point coming here as most people just wanted to get drunk, have sex, and talk about who was screwing whom.
As she glanced around the bonfire, the music was so loud that she couldn’t even hear herself think. Each crowd was so clichéd that it wasn’t even funny. The jocks, the nerds, the druggies, the musicians. She glanced across to the left, and there were also “the four kings.” That was what they were known as. The four guys that came from the richest, most powerful families in King’s Ridge, hence their name, the four kings. Axton Farris. Romeo Delacorte. Karson Cross. Easton Long.
If anyone messed with them in any way, shit happened.
It was the way of life at her school.
Avoiding them was the only way to survive.
She’d seen what happened to anyone who came up against them and lost. They ended up having to leave King’s Ridge for good. Those four families owned the town, the school, everything.
They knew it as well.
They did what they wanted. None of the teachers possessed any real control.
That in itself was the illusion.
Carla had been fascinated by them all of their lives, watching them from afar. Taylor had never seen anything interesting about them. Carla had wanted to be part of their crowd. She came from a family that was not wealthy, and Taylor had heard Carla’s parents many times arguing about money. At times, she didn’t think it was about being in the popular crowd. It was about the money, the wealth, the income, that life that was out of her reach. Whereas Taylor, she didn’t see the benefit of it.
The four kings used their popularity to get what they wanted and their names to keep everyone off their back. Rumors were always rife around them.
Their treatment of women and girls annoyed her as well.
They treated them like meat, something to use and throw away once they grew bored.
The deadliest one, the cruelest one, was Axton. He’d humiliated one of the cheerleaders to the point she had to leave school. He’d posted a video of her begging to suck his cock, which went viral.
Even Taylor had gotten a link, which she’d been too curious to not open up, especially as she’d been surprised to see Axton’s number already in her cell phone.
Again, she didn’t know how it happened, only that it did. Rumors were always a nasty, vicious thing, and she, for one, hated them.
Taylor quickly glanced away, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. If they were at the party then things were going to go bad. Fights, sex, whatever took their fancy. Even car races, which she had no interest in attending.
Carla had been very specific about this party and how much she wanted to attend and had even told Taylor that there was a surprise about something. Carla had been acting strange lately. Every single time Taylor would ask her about it, Carla would close off and brush it aside as if it was nothing.
Taylor hated parties, but Carla had been so different over the past couple of weeks. Her best friend wasn’t the same person, and she didn’t know why. She’d begged Carla to tell her what was going on, but nothing.
Tonight was supposed to be a big reveal, to finally know what was going on with her friend, and so far, said friend was a no-show.
Tapping her phone on her lip, Taylor decided to give her one final call. She listened to the ringtone, and once again, Carla didn’t answer.
“Look, Carla, I’m getting ready to call it a night. You said to meet you here, and well, I’m still here, and you’re not. What’s going on? I wish I knew what was happening.” She moved toward the edge of the lake, glancing down to see the ice covering the surface. In the heat of the summer the lake was always full of kids partying and having fun. Right now, no one would even bother jumping through the ice.
As she closed her cell phone, something bright in the grass caught her attention. Stepping to the edge of the lake, she picked up the cell phone, noticing it was Carla’s. She ran her thumb across the screen, seeing her missed calls and messages.
“What?”
She looked back toward the party, and she couldn’t make out anything out. She stared at the phone, and then turned her attention to the lake. Something floated across the surface.
The lake was no longer still. Even with the moon shining down, Taylor saw something on the surface, bobbing around. It was several feet away, and the moment she realized what it was, she screamed.
Without thinking, she dropped Carla’s cell phone and broke through the thin sheet of ice, rushing toward the body. She didn’t know who it was, but there was no mistaking what she’d just seen with the sliver of moon casting light down.
Breaking into a swim, Taylor felt the cold deep in her skin as she moved toward the body. It didn’t matter though. She needed to see what was floating in the water. The moment she got close, she saw who it was, and she cried out.
“No, Carla, no, no, no. What the fuck?” She lifted her friend’s face, but she was so cold, so still.
The music had stopped, and as she headed toward the bank where she came from, she saw several people waiting for her, watching. Someone had a flashlight and was shining it onto her.
“Someone, get an ambulance.” She yelled the words, struggling to speak past the cold. As she got to the surface, someone helped pull Carla out. She didn’t know who helped her, but she was out of their arms and kneeling over her friend.
A flashlight shone down on Carla’s pale face. Her lips were already blue.
“Carla, what did you do? Come on, Carla.” Taylor felt her tears welling up, and she pressed two fingers to her friend’s neck, finding no pulse.
Releasing a sob, she held her hands together and began to do CPR, pressing down five times before breathing in her mouth. No one was helping her, and everything felt numb. Carla was not dead.
She wouldn’t accept that.
Breathing into her friend’s mouth, Taylor worked her chest, refusing to let this be over.
Time passed, and suddenly the ambulance was there. She was pulled aside. Someone held her arms, keeping her at bay. She watched as the men worked over Carla. She answered their question as best she could. What the hell was happening?
For a couple of minut
es, the two paramedics worked over Carla without success, and when she saw them shake their heads, she screamed at them. Pulling away from whoever held her, she knelt down beside Carla.
“Come on, Carla, you’re fine. You’re perfectly fine. Nothing is wrong. You can’t give up.”
“Who are you?” one of the men asked.
She didn’t answer them as she pulled her best friend into her arms. She kissed Carla’s head, holding her close, trying to get her warm.
“You’re not dead. You’re not dead. It’s okay. It’s okay.”
She rocked with Carla in her arms, humming, trying to calm her own nerves. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she ignored the cold and whatever was going on around her. The music had stopped, and everyone had walked away.
Her best friend couldn’t be dead.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“What’s her name?” She heard someone speaking in the background, and she closed her eyes, not interested in whatever anyone had to say.
“Taylor,” someone said.
“Taylor, you’re going to have to let her go.”
Through blurry eyes, she looked up to see one of the paramedics staring at her. Next to him was a cop.
“You need to let her go.”
She shook her head.
“I can’t. She promised she’d be here. She shouldn’t be dead. No, she can’t be dead.” She held her friend tightly to her. There was no way Carla could die. It just … she was so young. They were eighteen. Their whole lives were ahead of them, and it just wasn’t possible for her to be dead. Taylor couldn’t handle this. Not right now. Not with so much for them both to do. They had a list they wanted to do, to accomplish together, and there was no way it could be all over now. Not now.
She’s dead.
You’ve got to let her go.
Even as she tried to fight the paramedics, she knew they would have to use force, and she couldn’t handle that.
Nodding her head, she lowered Carla’s still body to the ground and stood back, watching as they covered her body. Someone placed a blanket over Taylor, and she didn’t even realize she was shivering or shaking.
She was so cold.
How did her friend end up in the lake?
What had happened?
There were so many questions that were unanswered.
“We’re going to go to Italy, and you’re so going to find a guy to make all of your kinky fantasies come true.”
Italy.
Seeing the Grand Canyon.
Bungee jumping.
Seeing the United Kingdom.
College.
Drinking.
They were all plans that they’d made together, and yet, they weren’t going to get the chance to do them together because there was no time.
Carla was dead.
Gone.
She watched the ambulance pull away, and then her parents were there.
“Oh, honey, we came as soon as we heard.”
Taylor didn’t know why they were there, and she didn’t question it. Wrapping her arms around her mother, she felt them both try to comfort her.
This was senior year.
Death wasn’t supposed to happen, not to Carla.
She didn’t know what happened next. Her parents took over, and rather than fight them, she let them do what they did best, take care of her. This lake would never be the same again, not to her.
School.
She’d have to go to school.
Would they call her weird names because she’d held her dead friend? That she didn’t want to let go?
Staring out of the car window, she didn’t really see anything. Feeling someone’s gaze on her, she found Axton, one of the four kings, staring at her. He was standing with the other three of his boys. She couldn’t look away from his dark gaze, watching her. There were times when she looked at him that she had to wonder if he was real or not. Was he as evil as people said he was?
As he was the self-proclaimed leader of the four kings, the other three boys were gathered around him, waiting.
What were they waiting for?
Her mind was a mess right now. She’d held Carla’s dead body in her arms. Her best friend.
Dead.
Never coming back.
Looking away, Taylor stared down at her lap, the blanket held tightly in her fist. She was so cold.
Shivering, she closed her eyes, resting her head against the window.
“It’s going to be okay, honey. We’re taking you home.”
Her mother reached out, touching her knee. She glanced down at the touch and felt nothing. There was nothing.
She took a deep breath before releasing it.
“I’ll tell you tonight. It’s going to be fun. You’re not going to believe it.”
“Come on, Carla, I hate surprises.”
“You’ll love this one.”
“She wasn’t supposed to be dead,” Taylor said. Carla was happy. She’d been laughing, smiling. People who were happy didn’t die like that.
She’d seen Carla’s wrists. They’d been cut, slashed up, bleeding out.
No one who was happy did that.
Was Carla happy?
She knew her friend.
They’d been together since playschool.
There’s no way that Carla would have taken her own life.
No way.
Something pushed her over the edge.
What the hell was the big reveal tonight?
Wiping her face from the tears that didn’t seem to stop, Taylor couldn’t help but think something else was going on here. She had to find out why Carla did what she did. Nothing made any sense to her.
Her parents pulled away from the party and from everything that was going on. She didn’t recognize anything as they drove home. She was numb. Completely broken. What the hell just happened?
She couldn’t stop replaying that moment in her head of when she looked out at the lake. Of the body floating on the surface.
No one spoke in the car, and that alone terrified her. They weren’t speaking.
Silence.
She hated that more than anything.
It was why Carla had been such a great friend. She knew how to fill up the silences. Her laughter, constant jokes. Just the way she was, and it always made her laugh. Right now, though, there wasn’t any laughter.
Far from it.
Tapping her fingers on her leg, she tried to think of something, anything, but just turned up blank.
Arriving home, she felt nothing.
Everything was so completely numb.
Like her body.
A frozen pit of nothing.
She didn’t know what to do or what to say. Everything was just still within her. She couldn’t process what had happened. She’d pulled her dead friend out of a freezing lake, and now nothing made sense.
Carla was gone.
She had to keep saying it over and over in her head to make sure everything was fine. There was no way this was happening. She pinched her thigh, and still she didn’t wake up from this dream.
“I spoke to her parents. They’re going to arrange the funeral as quickly as they can,” her mother said.
Taylor wiped away the tears. This was the last thing she wanted to hear.
Climbing out of the car, she didn’t say anything or respond as her parents called her name. She ran upstairs, going straight to her room. Her reflection caught her eye, and she saw her clothes. They were dry now, but she’d been in the lake.
Rushing to the bathroom, she leaned over the toilet and threw up. Gripping the edge of the bowl, she threw up everything she’d eaten that day, and she was sure even some of the lake water.
Resting her head against the edge of the seat, her stomach empty, her mind filled with stupid ramblings, all the same. All about Carla.
This couldn’t be happening.
Not now.
They had so much to do.
Standing up, she removed her clothes and step
ped in front of the sink. In the distance she heard her parents knock, but neither of them entered.
They didn’t know what to do or what to say.
Staring at her naked reflection, Taylor grabbed a toothbrush and began to scrub at her teeth, to rid her mind of the memory of what happened today.
Up and down, left and right, backward, forward. Any way she could clean, she did. They had to be clean.
They felt dirty.
She hated this feeling.
Clean teeth were so important.
Good hygiene.
Why are you thinking good hygiene right now?
It seemed so pointless.
Turning on the shower, she stepped beneath the water.
Carla won’t brush her teeth again.
Carla won’t take a shower.
There are a lot of things that Carla will never do again.
Turning the heat up, Taylor stayed beneath the spray. Her body went red from the heat, but she didn’t move. Her skin got warm, but she felt nothing.
Her body, her feelings, it was like she didn’t have any.
Where was the pain?
The sadness?
The anger.
The pit inside her was empty.
No fire.
No nothing.
Carla had taken a part of her away with her.
****
Axton Farris told the cops everything he knew while his friends did the same, speaking about the party, why there was alcohol on the premises. He gave the cop a pointed look. He was a young cop, couldn’t be older than twenty-five, and yet it was Axton that held all the power here, not the law.
They all took payment to look the other way.
He held no respect for them.
If there was a guy at his feet right now, bloody from his fists, and he told them the guy had walked into a wall repeatedly, they’d make a note and walk away. They were nothing. He was the power in this town. The four kings, and everyone knew it.
It’s why he could do the shit he did.
Watching the cop note down everything he said, he waited for his friends to be done. Their parents didn’t come to pick them up, not like other kids.