Our Secret: A College Bully Romance (Golden Crew Book 1)

by Belladona Cunning

  “This is about her, isn’t it? You still love her!” Her cheeks pinken with anger, and that familiar vein in the side of her neck protrudes.

  She is so far off base. At least, you hope she is, dick.

  I groan. “Fucking. Hell. Do you hear how cliché that is?” I mimic a girl, raising my voice to that of a whimsical tone as I feather my hands near my cheeks. “‘The old girlfriend is back, so it must mean that’s the reason my fuck buddy doesn’t want me anymore.’” My expression dead ass drops to nothing as I shove a shoulder into the wall and push off, walking toward her. I get down to her level, seething between my teeth, “It’s because you act like a territorial bitch, knowing you have no claim. That is the reason why this arrangement is no longer working.”

  “But you said you loved me!”

  I burst out laughing until my belly hurts from the action. “One, I was drunk. Two, I’ve only ever loved one person, and that backfired royally, so … I’m not going there again. And three, sorry for being a dick, but I was horny, and you were available.”

  Her hand slams across my cheek. The pain barely registers, but nonetheless, I felt it. Her chest rises and falls in quick, hurried movements, and her eyes spit fire at me.

  Running a thumb along the corner of my mouth, I wipe away a smidge of blood. I gather up my saliva, the coppery taste already coating my mouth, and spit it onto the floor. “I deserved that. But I’ll tell you now that that’s the only time it will ever happen. Now, beat it. I got shit to do.”

  Honestly, I have nothing of any significance, but she doesn’t have to know that.

  Instead of redressing and getting the hell out, she pisses me off—to the point my blood boils—when she throws herself on me. Shoving her away, I look at her like she’s crazy, and right now, with her hair and wild eyes, she is.

  “Back the fuck off!”

  Her jaw ticks in fury. “You’ve done way worse, Hunt. She’s still alive right now, isn’t she?”

  A dark cloud settles over my body. It takes a real bitch to bring that up at a time like this, and that just further proves that Cass and I are through.

  “You were nothing more than free pussy. Someone like me is not capable of love, so stop searching for it. And if you ever, and I mean ever, bring that up again, he will find out about the little trip you forced me to take you on,” I blaze, putting a finger in her face. “I did nothing. You said it was a routine visit. So don’t you dare lay that at my feet!”

  “Please,” she begs, grasping at my arm. “Don’t do this. You’re mine. You belong to me.”

  I shove her off, then nearly rip off the shower handle as I turn it off. “Don’t you mean, with you?”

  Flustered, she retorts, “Yes, that’s what I mean.”

  Lies. I shake my head. “Every person I know is such a goddamn liar. Fuck’s sake, it doesn’t take selling your soul to tell the truth! Get the fuck away from me and crawl on someone else’s dick. I’m done.”

  The entire time I get dressed, Cassandra stands there in the shower, unmoving. She stares at me with this calculating gleam in her eye, and that’s when I know, without a doubt, she won’t go quietly. I just wish I knew what was in it for her, and what her end game is.

  CHAPTER 18

  My stomach swirls with sickness at the thought that I alluded to Maverick’s existence, even if it was in sort of an encrypted way. Hunter doesn’t know I was speaking about him. Then again, Hunter’s family name has a way of gathering information on someone if they really wanted it.

  I’ve been painstakingly precise with not allowing anyone the knowledge of Maverick’s existence. The only people besides my family who even know he’s mine are the doctors, the people in the financial department of this school who deal with admissions and housing, and the man I am about to speak with.

  Three people. That’s it.

  No aunts, uncles, cousins—no one else knows that Maverick is mine. And, with everything that has happened since I came to GOU, I’m inherently glad of my protective instincts.

  Stepping into the main building, I make my way down the hall and check in with the Dean’s secretary. You hardly ever hear about the Dean wanting to speak with a student, so whatever he wants to see me about must be important.

  I sit down on the bench and wait. After only a few moments, his secretary calls for me.

  Her face is an impenetrable mask of emotionless agony. That’s the best way to describe it. Her eyes are bright with annoyance and pain, while the rest resembles a stoic mask. I want to ask her if she’s okay, but I know if it comes out to be something personal, she’ll probably be embarrassed that I pointed it out. So, I refrain, mustering a smile in return.

  I go to step by her desk, but to my surprise and utter shock, she puts her hand out like she wants to stop me for whatever reason. Peering down, I watch as she battles with herself. Her hand opens and closes before she seems to finally come to a decision, and her hand relaxes at her side. With a sigh, she waves me onward and goes back to the papers strewn across her desk.

  Okay, that was weird, I think to myself as I push open the Dean’s door. Since he already knows I’m here and she said he’s ready for me, I see no use in being redundant and knocking on his door.

  “You wanted to see me?” My words die off on a garbled choke when I get a gander at who sits behind the Dean’s desk.

  “You are one slow bitch,” Cassandra groans, shimmying in the Dean’s chair to get comfortable.

  Probably because I’m stupid and a glutton for punishment, I shut the door behind me and step farther into the room. Whatever she has to say won’t be for anyone else’s ears except mine, unfortunately.

  Now I know why the secretary was giving me that look. The Dean didn’t want to see me. He probably doesn’t even know I’m here.

  “Who did you blow to be in here alone?”

  Her nose scrunches up in disgust. “The Dean is my stepfather, you disgusting twat. And he did need to see you.” She grins, checking her cuticles. “But he had to step out rather quickly. You know, to check in with my mom.”

  Oh, no. My face falls. If the Dean is her stepdad, then that means …

  Pure, unadulterated mischief glimmers in her satanic eyes when she sees me piecing it together. She gently puts her feet down on the floor and then pushes up from the desk. Sauntering around the edge, like a cat trying to coerce a tom, she plants her svelte hip against the front of her stepdad’s desk.

  “At the risk of sounding superfluous, what do you want?” I deadpan. It’s hard to play indifferent when your adrenaline is pumping a mile a minute.

  Even though I didn’t agree to her deal, I’ve still kept my distance—not for her, but for me. I needed to focus and get my head in the game as far as Maverick coming to live with me. But that wasn’t good enough, it seems. Now, she wants to push her weight around more. I’m so over this bullshit, I could snap!

  “We have a problem. A big problem. Remember what I said the last time?”

  “You didn’t say shit,” I sneer. “Your lackeys held my head underwater and nearly drowned me in the goddamn toilet. And for what? Because you can’t keep your man in control?”

  “Step off, or things will get ugly,” she warns with her eyes narrowed into tiny slits. “Don’t think I haven’t had people peeping in during classes and shit. I see the way you speak.”

  A dry cackle of laughter falls from my lips. “About school, you psycho. Jesus Christ.”

  Jolting up from the desk, she shoves me back into the door. “Step off, teen mom.” My eyes widen as I suck in a sharp inhale. “Oh, yeah, I know all about that little bastard of yours. I’m warning you now if you won’t stay away from Hunter, all bets are off, bitch.”

  “Did you just …” A vicious laugh shudders my chest, terrifying even me. My eyes land on her, hard and angry. “Did you just call my son a bastard?”

  Cassandra Radcliff is about to die.

  Fire blazes through my entire body. I use all my weight, shoving her back into the
unforgiving desk, screaming, “Don’t fucking talk about my son! Hunter means nothing to me, and this pissing contest is just fucking pathetic. I was never the type to get caught up in the elusive allure of the Golden Crew, and I’m still not.

  “So, if you feel threatened, honey, that sounds like a goddamn personal problem, and maybe you should look into that. Because I’m telling you right now, the next time my son’s existence falls off your tongue, I’ll cut it off.”

  My entire body rebels at the thought of cowering to her, so I refuse to do so. Mainly why I didn’t succumb to her bullying in the bathroom that day. I am a born and bred hellraiser, and I’ll be damned if some skinny bitch thinks she can step into my face and tell me what to do.

  I didn’t back down when she had me nearly drowned in the toilet, and I won’t now. Playing smart is not the same as cowering, and that’s what I was trying to do by getting out of this school. Even though I hate her with a passion burning like the seven layers of hell, I agreed with her. Hunter is not my responsibility. We have a past, yes, but we have no intimate future.

  He doesn’t want me. Words cannot be taken back from the cosmos once they’ve been uttered, and he screamed them in my face.

  Stepping close, she gets into my personal space, and it takes everything I have to be the bigger person and not stomp her ass all over the place. If I do that, I can forget about getting into another college, let alone one with a daycare program. Whipping the Dean’s daughter? That wouldn’t look good on my record.

  “Don’t push someone’s buttons unless you’re ready to deal with what you turn on,” she snaps, and the innuendo behind her words is simply too much to pass up, even in a situation like this.

  I’ve never been to the point where I am now. Where I don’t give a shit anymore about what happens. I don’t care about what she or Hunter or any of their friends can do to me. Or what they threaten me with.

  That’s where I am right now, and while that may be risky, I am thriving.

  Shifting backward, I cock a brow in fascination. “I didn’t know you swung that way, honey, but sorry, I’m strictly team dick.”

  She looks taken aback until she realizes how stupid she made herself look and tries to hurriedly fix it, which inadvertently makes it worse. “Th—I didn’t mean it like that. You’re putting that in my mouth.”

  I put my finger next to my cheek, making a poking motion. “Putting what in your mouth? Don’t poke buttons. Remember?”

  Now, I know I shouldn’t be pissing her off because she has something on me no one else does. But she crossed a line when she brought up Maverick, and I’m too much of a raging bitch to allow her to get away with that.

  She crossed another line when she called him that disgusting name. I refuse to shy away from anyone who thinks it’s okay to speak about a baby in those terms.

  And, you know what, this makes me realize Jenna was right all along. If I leave now, everyone will believe I’m a coward, and I can’t take the heat. I’ve been a single mom since day one, heat is the only setting I know.

  Meeting Cassandra glare for glare, she must realize the same thing I do. She turns up the heat of her bitchy glare, which really just makes her look constipated. Her face turns a shade of red that’s really disconcerting. “You are finished here.”

  “I’m terrified.” I fake tremble, infuriating her further.

  If I’m going to be the person whose life goes up in flames, then I’ll be the only one pouring the gasoline. This is my life, and I’ll be goddamned if anyone has a say in how I live it. I may have lost my fire there for a little bit, but I refuse for someone like Cassandra Radcliff to win.

  Shoulder checking me, she seethes, “Keep one eye open, trash.”

  It would be so easy for her to squeal to Hunter about Maverick. Because if she knows about Maverick, then it’s not hard to put two-and-two together who his father is. Considering the only person I’ve ever been with is Hunter, and she likely knows that being the stalker bitch she is, something tells me her silence speaks volumes for her intentions.

  Unlike last time, I’ll be ready. It was foolish to think I could run from my problems. Sooner or later, it’ll catch up with me. Again. And from the looks of it, it’s going to be sooner, so I might as well hit that bitch wide open. Might as well get ready for it now and start planning my son’s arrival, because I will need to do some major planning to make sure he’s safe if I’m staying. I don’t believe people would be so cruel to pick on a toddler, but I won’t put it past them.

  Since walking into that auditorium and seeing Hunter, I’ve been planning how I should integrate Maverick into my life here at GOU without Hunter finding out. It was always going to happen, just a little stealthier than I’d originally planned. Of course, it would be hard, but it wasn’t completely impossible.

  Hunter only cares about himself, so it wouldn’t have been hard to hide a tiny child. And that’s what I was hoping for—his ignorance. Except, Cassandra, the wicked bitch of the east, just had to go and throw a long, jagged ass monkey wrench in my plans.

  She thought I was getting too much of Hunter’s attention before? Well, she’s really going to hate me if this blows up in my face. Because I refuse to fail, run away, and let her think she won. I will do it or bust a goddamn gut.

  My dad didn’t raise a chicken, and I reject the idea of showing Maverick that if the going gets tough, it’s okay to tuck tail and run. He’s going to be my little fighter.

  No. Fuck Cassandra. Fuck every son of a bitch who thinks they have a say in what I do, whom I talk to, or where I go.

  It’s sink or swim, baby, and I refuse to drown.

  CHAPTER 19

  The second I walk into business ethics class, I know something is up. Instead of sitting in their seats, everyone is standing in pairs of two with a sheet of paper in their hand. They talk animatedly with their partner, and that familiar sickness starts squirreling around inside my stomach.

  “Ms. Rose,” Mr. Erikson calls, gathering my attention.

  Turning in the direction of his voice, I see him leaning on his desk with both hands braced against the hard, unforgiving surface. He gives me this strange, secretive glower. Mr. Erikson never really liked me all that much because of the whole seat debacle on the second week of school, and I can’t say there’s any love lost on my end, either.

  “You’re with Prince.”

  I grumble under my breath. It seems no matter how hard I try, I can never get away from that butthole. Yes. Prince is a butthole with a capital B.

  “Sure,” I reply, my voice filled to the brim with sarcasm. “That’s a smart idea.”

  “Ms. Rose!” he scolds, his piercing voice making me cringe.

  Huffing, I stomp over to his desk and take the paper he’s now holding out to me. Without peering in his direction, I mumble, “Well, let’s go.” I take off out of the room.

  I’m not sure where we’re supposed to reconvene, but I can take a guess at where we’re heading. When we do these partner things, we always go to the stadium so we can break up into our groups and have a little privacy while we do our work. The classroom is simply too small, so Mr. Erikson believes it’s a good idea to take over a sports field. You know, to make everyone comfortable by not having us all up each other’s asses.

  It doesn’t really matter to me. I’m stuck with the guy I want nothing to do with. A football field between us wouldn’t give me the adequate space I need, and now I’m forced to sit right beside him.

  “What happened to leaving?”

  I don’t reply. Something tells me he’s just trying to spring a trap, and I need to be the smarter person and not fall for it. Epic fail when looking back on previous other instances.

  And I’ll be super honest—just because I hate his past and present actions, it’s hard. Acknowledging him is ingrained into my very DNA, and it’s difficult trying to rewrite the sequences.

  Each structure has a strand specifically for Hunter. I know it’s crazy, and some would even say it
’s stupid—but they haven’t lived my life. No one knows the things Hunter has done to brand himself so deeply that it’s difficult to see only the pain and not what else he’s done.

  “Still not talking to me?” Hunter’s voice is like sin and chocolate. You can’t help that it draws you in, but then when you get that first taste, you’re a prisoner forever.

  Releasing a sigh, I veer off the field and head toward the bleachers. Soda cans, candy wrappers, and half-eaten hot dogs grace the ground. I can’t hold back the look of utter disgust at how people treat stuff that’s not theirs. Legit, there are trashcans near each end of the bleachers, and two right in the middle. There’s no need for this.

  Scooting trash over with my foot, I hesitantly sit down. I mean, it’s not that dirty, but it’s still far from clean. “So,” I take out the paper and start reading the first question. “Which principle of ethics do you think is more important for a business?”

  Ignorant question, really. Hunter doesn’t get to choose how he runs his business. He’s due to inherit his dad’s kingdom, and the business practices have already been instated for quite some time. Even if he wanted to change things up, it’s already too late. People are used to the way they do things now.

  While Mr. Erikson makes us pretend we have our own business, this man truly does. Technically. So, I’d say it’s probably hard for him to take an educated guess as to what he would base his business on.

  Hunter sits down in a huff. “Gonna be like that?”

  Everything in me deflates at hearing the hurt lingering in his words. “Let’s not do this.”

  “Do what, Harloe? Huh?” My eyes jerk to his, watching as he wrestles with whatever he's feeling inside. It's difficult seeing him like this because he's always been so strong and untouchable. “You’re going to leave. Again. Tuck your goddamn tail between your legs and take off like a chickenshit.”