Ruthless Princess

by Van Dyken , Rachel

  I gulped as my legs trembled. “Yeah, right.”

  “Another lie.”

  “Junior—”

  “Because we both know that it’s your foreplay too. In fact, I bet you’re itching to grab that knife and aim for my heart. Too bad we’re out of time.” He was looking over my head; everyone was walking in our direction. I looked back at him only to see him an inch away from my face. “Don’t worry, when we get home, I’ll let you hit me.”

  I glared and then smiled. “Promise?”

  He barked out a laugh. “Damn, even your hatred makes me hard.”

  I fluttered my eyelashes, then grazed the front of his pants and whispered, “I know.”

  “Keep doing that, and I’m going to pin you to the nearest tree, and you’re supposed to be playing nice with Tank, remember?” His voice lowered. “Just remember that nobody will ever get you the way I do.”

  “You sure about that?” My voice wobbled.

  “You need it as much as I do.” His eyes flashed. “You’re sick with it.”

  He wasn’t wrong. I hated it when he knew my hot buttons. Already I felt my body burning for his, itching to both punch him, then grab him by the back of the head and force our mouths together while we grind on each other’s bodies until we both find release without even taking our clothes off.

  “Tonight,” I said in a challenge. “I’ll spar with you tonight.”

  His eyes widened in surprise, and then his entire face seemed to go dark. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “Midnight,” I whispered. “Prepare to get your ass kicked.”

  “I’ll be out for blood,” Junior promised.

  “The only blood you’ll be seeing is yours.”

  “We’ll see,” he grumbled, and then everyone was surrounding us, chatting about classes, and pretending to be so normal my head hurt.

  “You guys ready?” Claire rocked back on her feet like she was getting ready to sprint to the other college and sing at the top of her lungs. Yeah, something was definitely not right.

  “Let’s hit it.” Junior turned, but not before I saw him palm the front of his pants like he needed to remind himself that walking with an erection could cause physical harm to his body if he tripped.

  I suppressed a snicker and earned a sharp elbow in my side, compliments of Junior as we walked across campus and toward the new college, ready to meet our normal friends and the guy I was supposed to crack.

  With the sick and twisted relationship of me and Junior hanging between us like an unbreakable thread.

  Great.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Junior

  Watching the girl whom you both loved and hated flirting with someone who could be a sworn enemy while fighting a semi for two hours was sweet hell.

  Tank talked how he walked.

  Fucking slow.

  If we went any slower, we’d be crawling on our hands and knees; he wanted Serena to see everything.

  New student center? Check.

  New freshman dorms? Check.

  Mess hall? Check.

  Finally, we ended up at his dorm, which went over like nails on a chalkboard as he swiped his key card over the slot and explained that they had upped their security during the remodel.

  “Wonder why,” Breaker said under his breath as we all slipped into the main part of the dorm. It was senior housing, which at least let us know how old Tank was since he hadn’t exactly told us.

  He wrapped an arm around Serena and guided her toward the elevator. She leaned into him and stretched her lips in a smile that I knew wasn’t real, but you’d think she just gave him a handjob with how pumped he looked.

  I ground my teeth.

  “Down boy,” Ash said under his breath. “This was your plan, remember?”

  “She never listens to me,” I grumbled.

  “She likes to provoke you. Do you really think she’d say no to a chance to get under your skin? Again?” Ash chuckled and slapped me on the back. “Look, this is good; we get insider information, and we don’t have to kill anyone.”

  “Right, because we already did that, in front of them.”

  On my right, Breaker winced. “Technically, Serena did that.”

  “Yes, because blaming someone other than yourself raises that person from the dead,” I said dryly as we all got into the elevator.

  Claire and Annie were huddled together, staring at Annie’s cell phone. When I looked over their shoulders, my eyes narrowed.

  They were looking at a pair of Wyn boots.

  Seriously? That’s what had them as thick as thieves? A pair of boots that any one of us could get for free and just toss at her?

  Ash’s dad owned Wyn, amongst other things.

  I elbowed him and jerked my head down.

  He glanced over and smiled wide. “You like the new Wyns?”

  Annie paled like he’d just asked if he could lick her boobs. “Um, y-yeah, I mean I could never afford boots like that but—”

  “Sure, you could,” Claire piped up. “Ash can get you some.”

  Ash gritted his teeth and then forced a terrifying smile toward Annie that had her taking a step toward me, but the minute we touched, she jumped a foot.

  Yeah, if she were a De Lange child, I’d put ketchup on Ash’s toe and lick it. The girl was terrified of everything.

  “Th-that’s okay. I could never pay you back.”

  Claire made a noise. “You don’t need to. His dad owns the company.”

  “Surprise,” Ash said dryly.

  Breaker elbowed him again and cleared his throat.

  Ash shot Breaker the barest hint of irritated glance then turned his attention back to Annie. “What size are you?”

  Annie’s eyes went wide as the elevator opened to the top floor. “I’m a seven.”

  “And you like the black over the knee stripper ones?” He just had to say it like that.

  I held my breath while Annie flinched and then hid her phone back in her purse. “Well, yeah I mean my adoptive mom might freak out but—”

  “I like it,” Ash said in a voice that was a bit gruff around the edges. What the ever-loving hell was going on with those two? “I mean…” He shook his head. “A little rebellion is good. Just promise you won’t wear them with a damn cardigan.”

  Claire looked between them and beamed. “She won’t, right, Annie?”

  “Right.” Annie bit down on her lower lip her big eyes stared through Ash for a few minutes before she whispered. “Thank you for being so nice.”

  I’m pretty sure Ash just had a stroke at nineteen.

  Nobody called him nice.

  He was a cold-blooded killer.

  And yet she just gave him a meaningful compliment that I know he felt all the way into his icy soul.

  “I’m not nice,” he said in a clipped voice before he followed Tank out into the hall.

  The building was new; everything was new.

  All the doors had little whiteboards on them that you could write on; it seemed like a typical college dorm.

  But as we walked down the hall, I noticed that doors slowly started to open as if word had gotten around that we were on the floor.

  My phone pinged.

  And sure enough, I’d been tagged on Twitter.

  Serena had been tagged on Instagram.

  We were suddenly everywhere from people who had taken pictures of us, so it was a lot like walking in slow motion as people jerked open their doors and blatantly stared.

  It seemed oddly familiar, at least the students did.

  And that’s when I realized.

  Every last one of them looked like they could be my cousin.

  Serena tensed as Tank stopped in front of his door.

  She looked over her shoulder, slowly reaching for the knife in her thigh at the same time I grabbed my gun and held it casually at my side.

  Breaker did the same.

  Followed by Ash.

  They needed to see we were armed even if
we were outnumbered five to fifteen.

  One of the girls squeaked and closed the door.

  It was clearly a co-ed dorm. Great.

  A guy who looked about my age stepped out from his room and crossed his arms, hatred dripping in his gaze. He locked eyes with me, and I suddenly felt shame.

  The hell?

  He shook his head slowly, then mouthed the word. “Traitor.”

  I gripped my gun so tight I nearly pulled the trigger.

  With a curse, I stomped over to him and slammed him against the wall.

  People started screaming around us. “What the hell did you say?”

  “You know!” he roared, his eyes blazing. “You’re a traitor to your own blood!” He spat on the floor between us.

  I barked out a laugh. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I slowly let him go. “But I’d tread carefully, I’m the one with the gun, and it wouldn’t be wise to fuck with mafia royalty now would it?”

  “I’m already dead anyway,” he said in a calm voice. “What difference does it make if you kill me now or later?”

  I sighed. “I’m not here to kill you.”

  “Then why the hell are you here?” He gritted his teeth. Damn, he looked like family. It was hard to even glance at him.

  Harder than to look at myself in the mirror, even though he’d never know that reality I faced every day.

  If I could bleed myself dry, I would.

  “We’re hanging out,” Ash said in a smooth voice behind me as he put a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll have to forgive Junior. He doesn’t like being taunted.”

  I released the prick and stepped back.

  The guy nodded his head toward Ash. “You’re Senator Abandonato’s son?”

  “I am.” Ash crossed his arms. “Why? You wanna pick a fight with me too?”

  “No.” He gulped. “You’ve done nothing to offend me.”

  “Yet.” Breaker smirked.

  “And you…” He looked at Breaker. “…the Capo’s oldest?”

  “And brightest.” Breaker did a little bow. “Then again, you already knew that.”

  “Nixon’s.” He looked at Serena and then at Claire. “But you, I don’t know.”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t look at her if you want to live,” I snarled in a harsh voice. “She’s under the protection of the Petrov-Sinacore Family.”

  He paled a bit and backed up.

  Of course, the Russian name did it.

  “And you?” I just had to ask. “What’s your name?”

  He said nothing.

  “That’s what I thought.” I slapped him on the shoulder and then turned my back on him.

  The minute I was facing away from the guy, he muttered under his breath, “De Lange.”

  I turned to lunge, but Ash held me back. “Not here, not now, man.”

  I jerked away from him. “We’re leaving. Sorry Tank, another time, let’s go, Serena.”

  Tank’s face fell. “Sorry guys, I didn’t know it would be a big deal.”

  My laugh was ugly. “A big deal? You do realize that you just gave that guy a death sentence, right? All because you wanted Serena to see your bed.”

  The guy was already going back into his room. I shared a look with him and sighed. “Pack your shit.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “I said…” I clenched my teeth. “Pack your shit.”

  “Hell no!” He shook his head. “I’m not packing my shit, so you can shoot me behind the building!”

  I frowned and then burst out laughing. “That’s hilarious. Ash, when was the last time we just up and shot someone on a campus?”

  “That would be, never.” Ash grinned. He leveled a gaze on the guy. “But I’d do what he says.”

  “I’m dead if I do, dead if I don’t.”

  Breaker sighed. “We’re not killing you.”

  “Lies!” he spat.

  “Hell, who raised you to be so resentful of the five families? You should be on your knees, thanking me for this kindness.” I snapped. “Grab your shit and come with us.”

  “Where are you going to take me?”

  I glanced around the scared faces and sighed. “Where you belong.”

  “In the ground?”

  “Eagle Elite University,” I said softly.

  A hush fell over the crowd.

  And a few of them met my gaze like maybe they could trust me, maybe they could trust us to keep our word.

  And keep our word we would.

  Because as much as the De Langes had a death sentence over their heads, I realized one thing in that moment: it wasn’t fair that I was alive just because I got a new name when they were stuck with theirs.

  “Any of you want to follow; you have ten minutes.” I leaned against the wall as several people ran back into their rooms.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Ash hissed.

  “What our parents should have done.” I sighed. “Keep your enemies closer and all that…”

  Serena and I shared a look, she nodded her head once, like she approved of me not killing everyone and for the first time in my twenty-one years, I felt like the made man I was. I felt like I was the new generation of the mafia, and I felt like my dad would be proud of my choice to keep the battle on our own turf.

  “If they cross us—” Breaker looked around as people started packing up duffel bags.

  “They won’t,” I said. “Because they know what happens if they do.”

  “And what? We just waltz back over to Eagle Elite and let them know they have fifteen more students?”

  “Of course.” I smirked. “Because we run the fucking world, and it’s about time everyone knows it, the bosses included.”

  Within minutes everyone was packed; twelve De Langes came, including the random guy who had tried to pick a stupid ass fight he would have lost.

  They were silent, untrusting as we walked them from their campus through the black iron rod gates of Eagle Elite, and you’d think we’d just invited the devil onto campus with the way students stared.

  I know what they saw, more mafia.

  Except we had no clue if these guys even knew how to fight. For all we knew, they were all adopted, their parents dead.

  I was the only connection they had.

  Shit.

  I stopped in front of the Senior dorm and slid my card against the slot. The dorm mother came running to do my bidding, but she was in her thirties and knew the drill, thank God.

  “Got some fresh meat for you. Get them settled, wave all registration fees, and have them fill out their schedules.” I turned to the grumpy guy. “Name?”

  “Lance.” He gulped. His eyes clouded with uncertainty.

  “Lance here…” I slapped him on his back. “Is going to be your liaison with the rest of the group. Whatever he says goes unless it’s illegal or gets people killed.” I was really giving them a lot of power. “And Lance?”

  “Yes.” He gulped.

  “Betray me, and I slit your throat while your friends watch, and then one by one they’ll have the same fate, do you understand me?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Good.” I sighed. “I’m placing men outside the building for your protection not to keep you in, but to keep others out, Tank’s gonna stay and contact me if you need anything, we’ll be in touch.”

  With that, I left.

  It wasn’t lost on me that Serena walked by my side like my queen with Ash and a very silent Claire behind us. Breaker was in his spot in the back as always.

  When we got to the car, Izzy was on her computer, typing away, while Maksim was in the back on his phone. “Am I seriously finding student ID’s for all of them right now?”

  “Yes?” I grinned.

  She rolled her eyes. “All right, I’ll just be up all night, nothing new. Glad none of you died, now can someone please take me home?”

  “I got you.” Maksim interrupted with a wink.

  She flushed a bit and then whispered, “Okay.” />
  When they were gone, I shared a look with Ash. “Anything going on there?”

  “Well, if there is one or both of them will die, so let’s hope not because I’m really attached to my sister, and if Maksim touches her wrong or even breathes wrong, I’m cutting his dick off.”

  “Graphic,” Claire muttered next to him.

  “What?” Ash shrugged. “She’s too young.”

  “She’s your twin dipshit.” This from Breaker.

  Age talk just reminded me how young Serena and I had been. So I just mumbled, “Yeah,” then got into my car.

  By the time I got to Serena’s house, I was wired, adrenaline pulsing through me, because in a few hours, I was going to get to work off this aggression, and I hoped to God she was ready for me.

  Because I sure as hell was ready for her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Serena

  I put on a pair of black spandex pants and a hot pink sports bra, then threw a loose white tank on and pulled my hair back into a tight braid. The last thing I needed was for him to grab my hair while we were sparring.

  My blood buzzed beneath my skin as I made my way down to the gym.

  My parents were both sleeping; I checked about a billion times and prayed that my dad wouldn’t hear the soft click of the basement door as I headed down to meet Junior.

  Darkness wrapped itself around me as I made my way down the stairs and into the main gym where Junior was already wrapping up.

  Of course he was early.

  And it looked like we weren’t using gloves, fantastic. He truly wanted to draw blood.

  Funny thing about that, I kind of wanted to kiss him for what he did today, I wanted to tell him I thought it was ballsy, it could blow up in his face, but the fact that he took that chance for them was huge.

  Though I really would not want to be him when all the bosses found out in a few hours.

  If he wanted to bleed, all he had to do was wait until Phoenix learned his son not only failed to kill any De Lange survivors, but he’d invited them to live with us.

  I almost laughed at that.

  He was either very arrogant, stupid or had a soft spot that he refused to let anyone see—anyone but me because I’d known it was there all along. Music pumped from the sound system; I knew my dad wouldn’t hear because the dungeon, as we liked to call it, was soundproof—for very obvious reasons.