by Huss, JA
And then we’re in the stairwell and he’s practically running down the stairs. He kicks the door open at the bottom and doesn’t stop.
Ax and Lars follow us. I can see their feet.
“What the hell?” Lars laughs.
“She’s unreasonable. I don’t care what anyone thinks. We’ll cut through the woods and hit the lake that way.”
“You’re kidnapping me!” I scream. I catch the eye of a group of people. All high-school students. “He’s kidnapping me! Call the sheriff!”
They… laugh.
“This isn’t a joke!”
“Hey, Cooper!” some girl calls. “You can kidnap me instead, if you want. I’m willing!”
“Call the sheriff!” I yell again.
Ax leans his face down so I can see him. Smiles at me. “No one’s calling the sheriff, sweetie. And even if they did, he wouldn’t dare interfere. Orders of the Chairman. Don’t you know what this place is yet, Cadee? You’ve spent your whole life here. They’re all dirty. They all work for him. And if he wants you to live in his house, that’s where you’re gonna live, little girl. Better get used to it.”
Then we’re in the woods and Cooper does not slow his pace or put me down. Just carries me down a well-worn bridle path towards the gate that leads to the student cottages.
I go quiet. Mostly because being carried over a man’s shoulder is pretty high up there on the uncomfortable scale and a sharp pain shoots across my ribcage with every step and it’s pretty hard to breathe.
But also because Cooper’s hands are gripping my ass and the back of my thighs. And even though it’s super inappropriate and I should not find certain spots on my body all afire with tingles from his touch—that’s exactly what’s happening.
“That’s better,” Ax says. He’s walking behind me.
I swipe my unruly hair out of my face and tilt my head up so I can see him. “What’s better?”
“You.” He flashes me a wild grin that makes him look even crazier than I know him to be. “All quiet and tame.” He’s whispering. Not so Cooper and Lars can’t hear him. Just because that’s what he does when he’s being a dick.
I know this because…
“Don’t talk to her.” Cooper cuts off my thoughts.
Ax jogs a few paces until he’s standing directly to my right. “But I think I might like to do nasty things to her, Coop.”
“No. She’s not one of us. She’s a…” He stops.
“I’m not one of you?” I should not feel slighted because Cooper thinks Ax can do better than me, but screw them! “Not a whore? A slutty little puppet you can control?”
“Aren’t you?” Cooper says.
“Whoa.” Lars laughs. “Burn.”
“Well, are you?” Ax whispers into my ear. “Or aren’t you?”
“Fuck you, Ax!”
I’m not normally the kind of girl who swears. Also not the kind of girl who gets carried over the shoulder of a man in the woods. But this walk is so long, I’m starting to get used to the idea of being both.
Ax drops back so he’s behind me again. “You sure about that? You’re flashing your pussy at everyone right now. Those shorts you’re wearing?” He winces, then holds his thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart. “Little bit too short for the over-the-shoulder carry, sweetheart.”
I struggle and squirm in Cooper’s embrace. “What?”
“Ax.” Cooper’s voice is loud and commanding. “Don’t rile her up. We’re almost there.”
“Well, she is flashing her pussy. Not something nice girls are known for.”
“I am not!”
“Take off your shirt, Ax.”
“What?” He laughs.
“Take off your shirt.” Cooper is growling. He’s in a very bad mood. And he’s starting to tire from carrying me, huffing a little more with each step. He might be big and muscular—yes, he is definitely big and muscular—but you can’t carry a hundred twenty pounds over your shoulder for this long without feeling it. “And drape it over her fucking ass so no one can see her damn pussy.”
Oh. My. God. “Can you please stop talking about my private parts like I’m not even here?”
Lars chuckles in front.
But Ax’s face goes serious. “I’m not taking off my shirt. Lars, you do it.”
A few seconds later someone’s shirt goes over my ass, Cooper readjusts his grip on me, and the whole thing starts to feel very… stupid.
“Can you just put me down? I’ll walk. I’ll go wherever you want.”
“Fuck you, Cadee.” Cooper’s words are low. And final. Like this is the last thing he’s going to say to me. Ever.
And everyone goes quiet after that.
Finally, after what seems like forever, we’re at the marina. He carries me all the way down the dock, under the canopy of his slip, and then jumps into his flashy red speedboat.
With me still over his shoulder.
“Ughhhh,” I moan. Because that hurt! My ribs are so sore.
Then he flips me over so fast my head spins, and before I can find anything to hold on to, I tumble over and land on the floor.
Lars and Ax stand over me while Cooper starts the boat. And before I can even get back on my feet, he’s backing the boat out of the slip.
“Sit down, Cadee,” Ax seethes. “Now. And I’m only gonna warn you once. If you do something stupid, like jump out of the boat? I will go in after you. And trust me, you won’t enjoy what comes next.”
I fall to the side—right into Lars. And his very muscular bare chest. He wraps his arms around my middle and plops down on a long bench, pulling me into his lap.
I elbow him in the neck and scoot over, getting as far away from them as possible.
Then I hear screaming on the docks behind us and… what the hell?
Lars laughs. “Looks like Mona got kidnapped today too.”
And sure enough, one of those weird, hulking bodyguard men who are always following Mona Monroe around is carrying her to a boat as well.
We lock eyes for the briefest of moments, but… I see it. I see inside her in that moment.
She nods to me.
I nod back.
We’re both part of something beyond our control.
CHAPTER SEVEN - COOPER
The boat is loud and the engine whines as I increase the throttle. I have five fucking minutes to get her in that room and send my father a picture and I’m not going to make it.
I wish I could say I didn’t care. I wish I could say he can’t control me like this.
But it would be a lie.
We’re crossing the lake going ninety and the water is a little bit choppy, so we bounce into the waves. Cadee squeals each time. Lars and Ax are yelling. Enjoying themselves.
Why can’t I let it roll off me the way they do? Why do I always get so invested in things?
This is all part of his plan. I don’t know what his end game is yet, but everything about this day is part of his plan.
Maybe he’s infatuated with Cadee?
I mean, she’s not bad-looking. She’s actually kinda… cute. I guess. Not sultry and dark like Mona. Not confident and bitchy like Isabella. Who, by the way, I need to get in touch with about dinner tonight. Cadee’s not even really bookish and quiet the way… well, I’m sure High Court has some bookish, quiet girls around here somewhere. I just don’t know their names.
Cadee is a little mixture of all three.
She has lived through some dark times. No doubt. I’ve seen that first-hand.
And she’s got a mouth on her when you piss her off. So even though she pretends to be all bookish and quiet—spying on students from the safety of the woods all these years—she’s not.
It’s an act.
She doesn’t belong here and everyone knows it.
If she had gone to Prep like the rest of us, instead of being homeschooled by her mother all these years, she would’ve adapted. Conformed to one group or the other. She would know her place.
But she didn’t go to Prep. And she doesn’t know her place.
And yet she is here. Has always been here.
She’s moving into my house today. Like… what the fuck?
Why?
Maybe that’s what my father wants? To put her in her place?
I would be more than happy to knock Cadee Hunter down a few rungs. She holds a secret of mine. And even though outsiders think that money is what drives us, that’s simply not true.
Secrets. That’s the currency of the über-rich. We deal in secrets.
And she’s flush with secrets right now.
This has to be why my father has taken such an interest in her. There is no other logical explanation for why he’s keeping her around and forcing me to stay here this summer.
He has a secret of mine now too.
He knows. He has to know.
I swing the boat sideways and splash what amounts to a small tidal wave over the dock out in front of our family mansion. Lars jumps out before we’ve even settled, and Ax hands him the rope to tie up the boat.
I turn and point to Cadee. “Do not give me any trouble. Hear me? Let’s go.”
She opens her mouth to protest, but I grab her by the arm and tug her to the side of the boat. Lars reaches for her, pulls her out, and then we’re walking down the dock towards the house.
The side of the mansion facing Monrovian Lake is technically considered the back of the house, but it’s really the only side that counts. The only side people can see. The side meant to impress. And in that respect, it does its job.
The Valcourt Mansion was first built in 1821. Of course, it didn’t look like this. I’ve seen photographs from as far back as 1832 and while I’m sure it was nice for the time, I would not call it stylish—an imposing Tudor made of dark gray stone with the characteristic half-timbers on the second floor filled in with dark gray stucco.
I love this house. I have always loved this house. And when I was a kid it made me feel like a king—or at least a prince—because the elaborate gables, severely-pitched roofline, arched doorways, and stone chimneys really do make it look like a castle.
The real front of the house is on the other side facing the narrow black-top road that weaves through the forest of old sugar maples and tall tulip trees. But this is a gated neighborhood of only two dozen sprawling mansions that all face the lake like our place. So no one gets to see that side, except for the kids in the club.
I drag Cadee through the high archway that leads to the main door and hold it open to let everyone pass through before closing it behind me.
“This way,” I say, once again grabbing Cadee by the upper arm. I’m late. There’s no way to fix that. I just want to tick this task off my list and forget about Cadee Hunter until I’m forced to consider her again.
I drag her down the long hallway that leads to the guest suite at the end of the southeast wing and then throw open the door to the suite and shove her inside.
“Stand right here.” I push her until she’s in the middle of the room and then take out my phone to snap a pic. I send it to my father via text message.
He replies a few seconds later with the message: That took forty-seven minutes.
I don’t reply. Fuck him. Deed done. Task over. “Listen to me very carefully, Cadee Hunter.”
She’s looking around the room. Taking it all in. But when I snap at her, she finds my gaze. “What?”
I point at her. “Stay here. Do not leave this room. If I see you in the hallways, or the kitchen, or anywhere inside my fucking house but this room right here, I will end you. Understand me?” I don’t wait for her answer. I just turn around and start heading back to the other side of the house.
Ax and Lars didn’t follow us. They’re probably in the kitchen.
“Wait!” Cadee calls. “What am I supposed to do here?”
“Don’t ask me,” I growl. “You’re not my problem anymore.”
“Cooper!” My brother Dane’s voice bellows through the house.
“Shit,” I whisper. I stop in the hallway and look back at Cadee. “Do not fucking move. Do you hear me?”
She looks… scared. Terrified, actually. The reality of her situation finally kicking in. But she nods, suddenly compliant.
“Close the door, stay quiet, and do not leave that room.”
She nods again. And she closes the door.
The lock is clicking when Dane rounds the far corner of the hallway. “There you are. What are you doing here? I thought you were on your way to… where were you going again?”
“Fuck you. Go home, Dane. Your wife is waiting.” I make sure to bump his chest with my shoulder as I pass and then head towards the kitchen to find Lars and Ax.
“Hey. I’m talking to you.” Dane catches up with me and grabs me by the arm. Exactly the way I was grabbing Cadee.
I stop and look down at his hand. Then my eyes track up to his face. We’re the same height now. I finally caught up to him. Dane and Jack are only one year apart so they have always been equals. But I am three years younger than Dane and four years younger than Jack. And while Jack and I have always gotten along, things between Dane and I have never been equal.
Middle-child syndrome?
No. He’s just an asshole.
He doesn’t let go of my arm even though he must surely see the anger in my eyes. “Why are you here?”
“Ask Dad.” I pull my arm out of his grip and turn back towards the kitchen.
But he grabs me again. And this time I don’t hold it in. I let that anger out through the end of my fist. It crashes into his face, and then we are in a full-on brawl right there in the hallway.
He grabs me around the middle, hoists me up, and then throws me down onto the dark-gray slate floor so hard, I think the slate tile cracks underneath me.
He’s swinging at my face and I’ve got my hands around his throat, ready to choke him unconscious if I have to, when Lars and Ax appear and start pulling us apart.
I get to my feet first because Dane is too busy trying to swing at Ax, but Ax won’t take that shit and he swings back, chopping Dane in the throat so hard, he stumbles backwards gasping for air.
We watch him for a few moments, all of us waiting it out to see if he’s really gonna die from that blow, or just cough and wheeze his way into submission and eat his humiliation.
It’s the latter. Thank God. Because if he truly needed saving, I don’t think I would do it.
“You’re gonna… pay… for that.” Dane croaks the words out between gasps of air and points to Ax with an accusatory finger while his other hand holds on to his throat like that’s gonna help.
Ax makes a move, always up for some violence. But Lars and I pull him back. “Fuck you, Dane,” Ax spits. “Any time you want more of this, you let me know.”
Dane looks at me as I push Lars and Ax back towards the kitchen. “You’re gonna pay for that too. I know what you were doing last night. I know more about you than you think, Christopher.”
“Right back at you,” I snarl. I back away. I’m not afraid of him. We can do this all day if he wants. But I’m not about to turn my back on this asshole. “I’m here. Under Dad’s orders. So if you don’t like it? You take it up with him. Otherwise you better keep your distance from me. I’m not that kid you used to beat up anymore. And trust me, brother. You’ve got payback coming.”
He glares at me, then squints a little, maybe trying to figure if that threat is real or not. But the important thing is that he says nothing. So I just back around the hallway where Ax and Lars are waiting.
We walk backwards a few paces, waiting to see if Dane will follow us. He stops in the entrance to the hall we’re standing in, wipes some blood off his lip and says, “You better watch your backs.” But then he continues down the hallway towards the other side of the house and disappears from view.
We turn and walk towards the kitchen.
“Jesus Christ.” Lars laughs. “You two haven’t changed a bit.”
“Watch m
y back?” Ax seethes. “I fucking hate that asshole. He better watch his back.”
I pace the length of the kitchen, which is located on my end of the great room that faces the lake. One side is all high-end industrial appliances, black soapstone countertops, and gray cabinets and the other side is the sitting area with a massive stone fireplace flanked on either side by built-in bookshelves with several seating areas in the middle.
There is an entrance to the main part of the house on either side of this room. And that’s what I’m focused on as I pace. Checking to make sure that Dane doesn’t go back to the wing where I put Cadee.
He doesn’t. And finally, after about ten minutes of this—long after Ax and Lars have made themselves at home with snacks and are watching a baseball game on the huge ninety-eight-inch TV mounted over the fireplace—I hear the front door slam and I take a seat in a chair.
I sit on something, realize it’s the glossy blue and gold folder my father gave me, and pull it out of my back pocket.
“What’s in there?” Ax says, stuffing cheese puffs in his mouth.
I slap the folder onto the coffee table in front of me, then smooth the crease down and open it up. Lars plops down on the couch opposite the table and Ax joins him.
We study the papers.
“Well, this doesn’t look good,” Lars says, probably thinking about our own rush three years ago.
It was a fucking nightmare. Dane was running it that year. He was King and I was just a little princeling who needed to be put in his place.
“No,” I agree. “It doesn’t.”
Ax leans back into the couch cushions with a sigh. “I thought that shit was behind us.”
“Apparently not.”
“So where’s Cadee fit in?” Lars asks, taking the folder and shuffling through the papers.
“I think she works for us. Kitchen help? I think.”
“Oh, hell yeah.” Ax perks up. “I’m gonna have some fun with that little tart this summer. If I have to be stuck here, I will make everyone pay for it. It’s gonna be senior year of high school all over again.”
Lars chuckles, then slides the packet over to me. “Could be fun. How many?”
I pick up the folder and scan the names of the incoming college freshmen. “Dude. Mona is on here.”