EVIL KING: A Dark High School Elite Romance (The Royal Court Book 1)

by Rebel Hart

  I side-glanced Sicily, and though I wanted him to stay behind just in case someone had seen him bugging the classroom, he was smiling and already stepping forward. I nodded at Principal Hix, and we followed him down the admin hallway, into the front office, and finally back into his office. He didn’t shut the door, which made me feel a little better, and leaned against his desk with his arms crossed.

  “I wanted to let you know that you’re off the hook,” Principal Hix said, and my jaw dropped. “I know,” Principal Hix continued. “I’m sure you assumed that, given your background, we would have jumped to the wrong conclusion, but as fate would have it, several students came into my office first thing this morning and confirmed your story. They heard you asking about being tutored and additionally heard Jessica…deteriorate. Some of our staff have confirmed that she seemed out of sorts as of late, so it seems perhaps you unintentionally triggered something in her.”

  “Wow,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  “How could you have known?” Principal Hix asked and then reached out and put a hand on my arm. “I’ve heard you really did try to stop her as well.”

  “I did,” I said.

  “I know,” Principal Hix replied. “I’m glad you’re committed to doing the right thing from here on out. Know that I’m looking out for you. I want you to succeed here. If you need anything, you can come to me.”

  Whether his words were sincere or borne of a large sum of money slid under his door, I wasn’t sure, but they were comforting, nonetheless. “Thanks.”

  “Of course.” He pulled his hand away. “I’m sure you’ve heard already, but there will be different seminars taking place throughout the day. Consider attending some of them. If not for assistance in dealing with this trauma, then perhaps another. The only requirement is that students remain on campus today.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  He smiled. “Thank you. You may go.”

  Both Sicily and I hesitated for a few seconds before turning and heading out of the office. Sicily took a few strides in front of me, nodded in the direction of the stairs, led me down the hallway, up to the second floor, and into one of the abandoned classrooms. He shut the door, and we walked toward the back of the classroom and sat down.

  “Shit,” Sicily said. “I was prepared if things went south, but you’re one lucky fucker.”

  “Prepared? What do you mean?” I asked.

  He waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Wanna hear what I figured out?”

  “Yeah.”

  Sicily pulled out his phone and held it up to me. It was a screengrab of a Snapchat, just a blank, black background, but a few flying money emojis and a message that said, “Let’s not tarnish our school name. Big bucks to keep it quiet, double for anyone who knows anything. DM me for Venmo.”

  “I’m not gonna fucking lie to you, Sic. I have no fucking clue what half that shit means. Why does the money have wings?”

  Sicily laughed. “All right, old man, let me school you. Well, first of all, the money has wings because money flies, you know? We never hang onto it for too long.”

  “Okay,” I replied.

  “Second, this Snap went out to our entire school from Nathan’s Snapchat yesterday. I was left out, I assume, because people know we’re close, but Annika got it. Anyone who DMed, uh, direct messaged Nathan on Snapchat was told to agree to keep their mouths shut. Once they responded saying they would, they were Venmoed… Sorry, Venmo is an app that lets you send money to people. Once they responded, Nathan sent them five hundred dollars! Every single student. Made them even promise not to talk about it with their parents. I talked to a few of the students I saw around the classroom yesterday, and they told me that when they told Nathan they saw it, they were directed to Connor and got an additional grand for their stories. I ain’t no Sherlock Holmes, but I assume some of those kids were the ones who backed your story to Principal Hix.”

  “Hundreds of mini non-disclosure agreements to bury the story.” I shook my head. “That shit doesn’t make any sense. Why does it matter so much to Connor that the story doesn’t get out?”

  “Maybe he just doesn’t want his kid getting caught up,” Sicily said.

  “No. I really don’t think Connor gives much of a shit about me. If he cared about the perception of his kids, he would have done the same thing to bury the story about Nathan and Miss Abrams last year, right? Why didn’t he do it then too?”

  Sicily crossed his arms. “Yeah, shit. I guess that doesn’t make much sense. Got me, boss.”

  My head hurt. It was like I had half of the pieces of a puzzle, and none of the pieces I had fit together. As the day progressed, I tried my hardest to make everything make sense in my mind, but no matter how I arranged the clues I had, nothing made a continuous story. The only real conclusion I could come to was that Nathan and Connor were more mixed up in what had happened with me and Miss Abrams than they were letting on, and they probably had something to do with the last time something like this happened to me too. It’d been such a long time since I thought about the first body that I saw splat to the ground, but now I was painfully grinding back over the details. There had to be something, a little piece of minutiae that I missed that would help me connect the dots, but all I could think about was Cherri and making sure she was okay. That was all my brain could focus on at the time. If there was a clue to gather, I missed it.

  After the bell rang to end second period, all the seminars were suspended so that all the students could go to lunch. The meal was free for the day, and the school had called out for pizza and pasta instead of the traditional school lunch. Students were asked to sit as soon as they got in the lunchroom, and volunteers shuffled plates to them to avoid lines and additional stress. Sicily and I took our regular seats, and pizza was carted over to us a few seconds later.

  “My god, I’ve been looking all over for you.” I looked up and saw Annika flying into the lunchroom. She threw herself down into a hug before grabbing my face. “Are you okay? You were supposed to call me last night.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I…” I sighed. “I called Cherri. I had to hear her voice.”

  “Sure,” Annika replied.

  “Wait,” Sicily said. “What? You can’t tell your current girl about your ex, man. That’s bad decorum.”

  Annika waved her hand in his face. “Shut up, Tank. How’s she doing?” Annika asked. “I kind of screamed at her yesterday. I felt bad as soon as I got home.”

  “You yelled at her? Why?” I asked.

  Annika sighed. “I was so terrified about you going back, and I thought about Gray Jr. I think I just got triggered by the whole thing. I told her it was her fault, well, half her fault.” She reached over and smacked Sicily over the back of the head. “I blamed this moron for the other half.”

  “It’s neither of their faults,” I said, annoyed. “I made the decision to go, and that woman wasn’t wrapped tight. No one had control over it.”

  “I know. I’m sorry,” Annika said.

  Sicily held up his hands. “Hey. Where’s my apology?”

  She reached over and smacked him again. “You still deserve ridicule for being shifty.” Sicily frowned but didn’t argue, and Annika looked back at me. “Is it true that you’re no longer suspected of it?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Some students confirmed my story, so it’s fine.”

  She let out a sigh of relief. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. So… You and Cherri?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t really know yet.”

  Annika rubbed my face. “I’m hoping for the best.”

  I smiled at her. “Thanks.”

  “Okay,” Sicily said. “Can one of you please tell me what the fuck is going on?”

  “Mind your own business,” Annika hissed. “Do you guys think… Whoa.”

  Annika’s eyes went wide and she motioned behind her. Sicily and I followed her gaze over to where Cherri was wandering into the cafeteria, looking like she was running totally on auto-
pilot. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were wrinkled, and her makeup was smeared. It seemed like everyone in the cafeteria noticed her walk in, and they all stopped and stared at her as she came to a stop in the middle of the open area.

  “Oh, she does not look good,” Sicily said.

  “Deon,” Annika hummed, and it started me into action.

  A volunteer was in the middle of working up the courage to approach her when I grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back, and walked up to her myself. “Cherri?” I reached out and put my hand on her arm, but the second I did, she jumped back from me so violently that she crashed into someone else and sent them clattering to the floor. “Whoa!”

  She looked down at them, then looked up at me. “Deon?”

  “Hey. What happened?”

  She rushed into my arms and collapsed against me. “Can we leave?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  I looked back over my shoulder at Sicily and Annika and then led Cherri out of the cafeteria and continued right out of the school. A few staff tried to call for us to stop, but others hushed them and let us go. I helped Cherri into my car and drove away from the school, taking her to the park Sicily had brought me to the week before. Cherri didn’t say or do anything on the ride over. In fact, if it hadn’t been for her here and there sniffles, I might have thought she stopped breathing. I parked the car in the lot near the park, climbed out, and walked over to Cherri’s door. I opened it carefully and knelt down next to her.

  “Baby,” I said quietly. “What happened?”

  She didn’t look over at me but quietly whispered, “Nathan just raped me.”

  26

  Deon

  I was stuck between being so enraged that I could have killed anyone around me and being so sad for how hurt Cherri was that it made me want to cry. For a long time, much longer than I could track, we both just sat there in total silence. I had my hand on Cherri’s, but I didn’t want to move for fear of freaking her out. Someone had hurt her, my girl, the girl I loved more than myself. The one I’d fought so tirelessly to get back to. I let a petty frustration at how entangled she was with Nathan keep me away from her,, and without me there to protect her, Nathan hurt her in a way she’d probably never fully recover from.

  I couldn’t wait to get my hands around his neck.

  “Cherri,” I said softly. “Can you tell me what happened? I’m sorry to make you relive it.”

  Cherri didn’t respond. She stayed staring forward, but her body shook beneath mine. I knew Cherri was no pushover, so I had to imagine she would have put up a fight if she felt like she could. Did he pull a knife on her? A gun? Was there someone else there to keep her from fighting back? My blood boiled, imagining one of the members of The Royal Court letting something happen to her. I’d probably end up fighting my way through all of them. Anyone who had anything to do with Nathan hurting Cherri was going to suffer.

  “He…” Cherri started quietly. “He made me.”

  “I know,” I replied softly. “Did he… Did he have a weapon?”

  Cherri shook as she nodded her head. “A gun.”

  Tears welled up in my eyes, half from sadness, half from anger. “I’m so sorry, Cherri. I’m gonna take care of it, okay? He won’t hurt you again.” She went back to being clammed up and not responding. The fear that had gripped her was too much to look at, and in a way, I couldn’t help but feel like I wasn’t the one she needed. “Where’s your phone?”

  Her hand folded out of her lap, and her phone was in it. The screen was shattered but still lit up when I gently pulled it out of her hand. As I pulled it out, I could see her hands were cut and bruised, but I tried not to look too hard at it. Instead, I tapped the screen. Her phone was locked, as to be expected, so I entered her birthday into the passcode bar.

  “It’s yours,” she said softly, still not looking at me. “Your birthday.”

  That killed me much more than it should have, but I entered my own birthday into Cherri’s phone, and it unlocked immediately. Carefully, avoiding making the screen damage any worse, I tapped the contact book and scrolled until I found Avery’s phone number and hit the button to call her. It only rang once before it answered.

  “Cherri! Oh my god, I’m freaking out. Where are you?” Avery yelped.

  “Avery,” I said. “It’s Deon. Hang on.” I held the phone out to Cherri, but she wouldn’t take it. “It’s Avery, baby. She can help.” But Cherri wouldn’t move, so I lifted the phone back to my own ear and stood up to walk a few feet away from the car. “Avery.”

  “Deon, what the hell is going on? Is Cherri okay?” she asked.

  I looked at the shell of Cherri in the passenger’s seat of my car. “No, she’s not.”

  “Oh god. What happened?” There was already a shake to Avery’s voice.

  “She told me that…” I had to bite my own lip to keep my emotions back. “Nathan raped her.”

  Avery gasped, and then I could hear her start crying. “Shit. I should have gone after her. I shouldn’t have let her go alone. I…” She started to sob, and a few tears slipped from my eyes as well. “Hello?” a male voice said.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Hey. Deon, right? My name is Alistair. I’m Avery’s boyfriend and Cherri’s friend. Did Nathan…” He growled. “Fuck.”

  “She needs to see Avery,” I said. “She’s just frozen right now.”

  “Yeah. I can bring her to you. Where are you?” he asked.

  “Do you know where Proper Park is?” I asked.

  “Yeah, we’ll be there in five minutes,” he said, and the line went dead.

  I walked back over to where Cherri was still sitting, frozen in the passenger’s seat. I knelt next to her and set her phone back in her lap. “Avery’s on her way with Alistair. Was that okay that I called them?”

  She nodded her head. “Yeah. Thank you.”

  It was a relief hearing her talk, even if it was just in spurts. “What do I do, Cherri? How do I make it better?”

  She stared forward and didn’t say anything again, and it defeated me. Nathan had broken Cherri beyond what I could do to help. My hands balled into fists at my side. Once Cherri was in Avery’s care, I was probably going to end up doing something that’d land me back in prison for the rest of my life. With no other option, I just sat quietly with Cherri. For the entire time, she didn’t move. She didn’t speak. I wanted to hug her, hold her, comfort her, do anything to take the pain away, but I knew nothing would undo what had already happened, so I just sat in front of her, powerless and angry.

  Finally, another car pulled into the parking lot where we were, and it had barely come to a stop before Avery was hopping out of the passenger’s seat. I stood up and backed away, and Avery reached in and wrapped her arms around Cherri. For the first time, I watched Cherri fold. She collapsed against Avery’s grip, and then the sounds of them both sobbing filled the air. I turned and walked a few feet away, and my anger exploded. I lifted a garbage can up off the floor and chucked it across the lawn, sending garbage cascading everywhere. I turned and punched a tree, cracking the bark under my force. The rage inside me was building at an impossible speed, and if I didn’t get my fist to Nathan’s face soon, I was likely to start taking out my anger in worse, more dangerous ways.

  “Hey.”

  I whipped around, and a tall man with a goatee and long, light brown hair that fell well past his shoulders was standing there. I’d seen him around the school and in different gatherings of The Royal Court. Alistair, one of Nathan’s princes.

  “He fucking…” I gritted my teeth. “He raped her.”

  “Yeah,” Alistair responded. “Please, please tell me you’re gonna kill him?”

  My eyes widened. “Kill your king? You’d be okay with that?”

  Alistair looked almost as angry as I felt. “I’ll fucking drive you.” He looked back at Cherri and Avery, and I noticed that they were no longer crying. Avery had managed to coax Cherri to turn around, at least, and they appeared
to be talking. He looked back at me. “Cherri’s the best one of us. She means a lot to Avery and me. I’ll…” He sniffed in. “I’ll never forgive myself for letting him hurt her.” He shook his head. “Nathan’s a fucking brat, but he’s not a rapist. Well, he wasn’t. Whatever snapped in him snapped hard.”

  “Well, I’ll snap his neck for consistency,” I said.

  “Ali!” Alistair turned, and Avery had gotten Cherri out of the car. “We need to take her home.”

  Alistair and I walked over to where Avery and Cherri were standing, and I was at least marginally relieved when Cherri reached out for me. I opened my arms, and she walked into a hug, and I held her tight. “They’re gonna take you?” I asked, and Cherri nodded her head against my chest. I looked up at Alistair. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

  Alistair shook his head. “I won’t, trust me.”

  I unwrapped Cherri and rubbed the side of her cheek. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  Cherri nodded. Alistair wrapped an arm around her and walked her over to his car. Avery stepped up to me, her eyes red and swollen. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, “but it won’t be good.”

  Avery nodded. “Just…bear in mind that I don’t think Cherri could handle losing you again.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “Good,” Avery said. “Then you should know I told him you were here and looking for him.”

  Anger fled back into my body. “Good.”

  “Don’t kill him, but…” She looked directly into my eyes. “If he couldn’t walk, that wouldn’t be so bad.”

  The fury of a best friend, it was almost enough to frighten me. “Consider it done.”

  27

  Cherri

  My eyes stayed locked into Deon’s until I couldn’t hold his gaze anymore as Alistair backed out of the parking lot. Avery was next to me with her arm wrapped around me, and I hated that I couldn’t get my bearings enough to talk to Deon more. In truth, I didn’t really want to leave his side. Avery just wanted to help, and it probably was a good idea for me to go home, but the further I got from Deon’s side, the more uncomfortable I felt. It wasn’t a matter of protection. I just wanted to be with him. I wanted him to hold me and take away all of the feelings of Nathan on my skin I had left.