by Bella King
Caleb chuckled and took my hand, kissing it and looking into my soul. “Kalila, you’re my one and only, forever. I love you.”
“I love you too, Caleb. You’ll never be able to get rid of me now.”
We both laughed, and the audience erupted into applause. Caleb and I were now married, bonded for life.
Epilogue
Justice is served.
The FBI made national headlines when they busted the largest drug and gun smuggling operation in the country. The following arrests and trials lasted years and kept the entire nation on their toes. I would have liked to be there to see it, but it wasn’t safe for me to return until everything settled down. Caleb wouldn’t let me get anywhere close to the danger, as promised to his father before he passed away.
I was grateful that he was so protective, and doubly so once I found out that I was pregnant with his baby. It wasn’t much of a surprise, but I was thrilled when I found out. Caleb was too, insisting that we have the biggest baby shower known to mankind.
Living in Italy was tough at first because I didn’t speak the language, but Caleb brought in the absolute best teachers to help me learn, and within six months I was able to have full conversations with people. It only got easier from there. It turns out that Italian isn’t that hard of a language to learn.
I gave up my idea of always trying to be the hero. Drug busts are a lame way to do that anyway. I didn’t want to have anything to do with the police force in my city. I just wanted them behind bars. I got my wish when Caleb submitted all the tapes anonymously to the FBI and had Derick and everyone else involved throw in prison for a long time.
It was shocking for a lot of people to find out that the police were involved in the crime of the city. It didn’t bode well for trust, but a new department rose from the ashes of the old, intent on proving that criminal justice could be done correctly. The streets were a lot cleaner after that.
I didn’t want to stop at that, though. I started a youth program in my home city with some of the money we had inherited. To be honest, it barely made a dent in our funds, and it completely changed the way my city behaved. Nobody understood why the city turned around so quickly, but they were grateful that it finally did.
Caleb and I were never bothered in Italy, but he felt the need to spend some time out of the country when his father passed away. I supported his decision, eager to see how things were back home. I didn’t have much of a family to go back to, but I wanted to check on the progress of my home town.
We breezed through the United States incognito. Nobody knew who we were when we arrived, and it was better that they didn’t. When you put hundreds of people in prison, you don’t want people to be able to find you, especially not in the same city that you did it in.
Caleb and I traveled through the country after visiting my home city one more time. It was beautiful there, and I felt a joy from the people that I didn’t think possible. I had achieved more by marrying a mafia boss than I ever had by joining the police force. It was funny how that worked.
The End.
Seduced by Cruelty
A Dark High School Bully Romance
Introduction
Enemies don’t make love like this.
Lovers don’t try to ruin each other’s lives.
Friends don’t betray their loyalty.
Bullies don’t fall in love.
Except at Greywood Academy, they do.
Between the white walls of the school, there was a silent war raging. You could either pick a side, or get washed away in the noise.
I had my fair share of bullying in the past, pushing me to the brink and nearly killing me in the process. I couldn’t go through that again.
Troy was captain of the rugby team. He was handsome, smart, and undeniably cruel. I needed to stay away from men like that, and yet, there was something about him that pulled me in and made it impossible to get away from him.
Soon, I would be way in over my head. Enemies would turn lovers, friends turn enemies, and what little safety I had left in my life would fall away, exposing me to what could only be described as pure hatred.
My senior year at Greywood Academy was shaping up to be a hell of a ride.
This book is intended for adult readers and contains violence, adult themes, and references to self-harm.
Chapter 1
The color faded from his cheeks as the light left his eyes. He slumped over in his seat as the other guys in the classroom laughed and cheered at his limp body. They all seemed so thrilled by this, but I was horrified. Was he dead?
The young man stirred in the seat as another guy jumped out of his chair and poked him with a stiff finger. “Wake up Jeremy. The teacher’s coming,” he urged, dashing back to his desk as Mr. Collins entered the room.
Jeremy woke up, slowly coming back into reality. “Jesus Christ that was strong,” he exclaimed, gripping a bottle of inhalant in his sweaty hand and tucking it into his jacket pocket when he saw Mr. Collins at the front of the room.
I rolled my eyes. This was typical of the guys on the rugby team, huffing cleaning chemicals for a quick buzz before class started. You would have thought that knocking their brains around on the rugby field would be enough for them, but apparently not. They had to find a way to fry the remaining brain cells before the end of the year.
I was pretty much already sick of the guys at Greywood Academy and it was only the first week of classes. I didn’t fit in at this school and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever have any friends here. Probably not, at the rate things were going. I didn’t want to be friends with any of the jocks. That was for sure.
The guys that played on the rugby team were mostly dim-witted as far as I could tell, but there were a few that weren’t. Take Troy for example. He had freakishly perfect grades, was well-liked by students and teachers, and was the top player and captain of the rugby team, which was aptly named The Greywoods.
Most of the girls at the school had a crush on Troy, but as far as anyone knew, he had been single the entire time he had attended Greywood Academy. There was a rumor that he was gay, but I doubted it. As strict and proper as this school was, there was little discrimination shown toward the LGBT crowd and there were several openly gay students scattered around the school.
I had a neutral opinion of Troy upon seeing him for the first time. He was handsome, tall, and muscular, with a jawline like a model and eyes the color of the sky on a winter morning. That didn’t change the fact that he played rugby with a bunch of douchebag idiots, so I didn’t have the same type of admiration for him that some of the other girls at Greywood Academy had.
For me, Troy was just Troy, and I preferred it that way. I didn’t need to form opinions of people during my final year of high school. It was best for me to just get in and get out, like so many others had done before me.
I had recently turned 18, but that didn’t make a lick of difference in the eyes of my parents or teachers. People act like becoming an adult means that your life changes instantly. The truth is, nothing changes at all. You can buy cigarettes and put your nudes online, but you’re still going to get bullied at school by boys that want to ruin your life.
I had to transfer from my last school due to bullying. I was tormented daily by a group of guys until I couldn’t even bring myself to go to class anymore. It was horrible, and I was terrified that it might happen again.
That was one of the reasons why I wanted to keep my distance from jocks like Troy. I didn’t think he bullied anyone, but things could get ugly quickly when you become a target, and even people that normally don’t bully can get pulled into kicking you while you’re down. High school is a cruel and unforgiving place.
I don’t know what had made me such a big target for people to pick on in my last school. I wasn’t much different from the other girls, or at least, I didn’t try to be. We all wore the same uniforms because it was a private school, we all attended the same classes, and all of our families were quite wealthy. T
here was no reason that I should stand out at the last school that I had attended, and yet I had.
It could have had something to do with my shyness and unwillingness to get involved in social circles. I found that they were often too dramatic and wrapped up in things that ultimately didn’t matter. High school wasn’t all there was in life, and I felt like some people just didn’t understand that yet. Life would be tough for them later on, but for now it was tough for people like me.
That was behind me though, and this year was something new for me. Greywood wasn’t like the other school I had been to. It was a lot more polished and perfect, designed to prepare students for prestigious universities, such as Greywood University where most of the graduates ended up, and the life beyond. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it would be worth the effort to graduate and be accepted there.
Greywood Academy was also a smaller school, where people seemed to know each other quite well. Since I was new, I immediately caught people’s eyes, and it wasn’t long before someone introduced themselves to me in class.
“Psst, hey new girl,” a young woman with curly blonde hair and impossibly blue eyes leaned over and whispered to me while the teacher droned on about American history.
I had been desperately trying to focus on Mr. Collin’s mind-numbing lecture, but it was no use now that someone was trying to talk to me. I gave up and turned my head to this girl. “What’s up?” I asked.
“Are you 18 yet?” She asked, mischievously shifting her eyes from side to side as she spoke.
“Yeah, why?” I responded.
“Awesome, you can buy me cigarettes then. Menthol ones, any brand really. I would love you forever,” she said with a grin.
I was a little taken aback. “You want me to buy you cigs? I’m guessing you’re not 18 yet,” I replied.
The young woman chuckled. “You know what’s fucked up? I am, but my parents, I swear to god, are watching all the transactions on my credit card.”
“You can’t just use cash?” I asked, confused.
She shook her head, glancing up at the teacher before leaning in again. “If I take out cash from the bank, my parents are going to want to see receipts. They’re really up in my business. That’s where you come in. I just need you to run down to the shop across from the school and buy me a pack. I’ll get you back though. I can buy you lunch.”
This was a lot to process from someone that I didn’t even know. “What was your name again?”
“Oh, Cindy,” she said cheerfully, reaching out her hand for a shake.
“Faith,” I replied, shaking her hand. “I guess I could get you some after class if you’re really that desperate.”
Cindy nodded her head up and down rapidly, her curls bouncing wildly. “You’re the best, Faith. We’re friends now.”
Mr. Collin’s deep voice bellowed out from the front of the room. “Cindy, I don’t want to have to tell you this again. No chit chat in my class.”
Cindy bolted upright in her chair, flashing me a goofy smile before turning back to the teacher.
I smiled back at her, amused by her bubbly antics, and went back to struggling to pay attention to Mr. Collin’s American history lecture. He sure knew how to make it boring.
Chapter 2
“What kind, dear?” The woman behind the counter asked me as I requested a pack of cigarettes.
Fuck, what had Cindy said? Mint? I scanned the various colored packs that lined the wall behind the cash register. “Uh, the minty ones,” I replied.
The woman raised an eyebrow and grabbed a pack of menthols with a green stripe running alongside the package from behind the counter. “You know, smoking is bad for you,” she cautioned.
I had to laugh. I think I had heard that a thousand and one times already, and Cindy probably had too. That wasn’t much a deterrent for a young woman exploring the wonders of adulthood though. I had no intention of smoking these, but I didn’t really judge others for their habits. What other people did with their own bodies was the least of my worries.
The woman frowned at me because of my laugh. “Let me see your ID,” she said after scanning the pack.
I fished around in my handbag for my ID, pulling it out and presenting it to the woman. She nodded and read out the total. I paid with my card and left the store, walking back across the street to Greywood Academy.
I hurried back into the school, taking care to be quick enough as so not to miss the next period. I spotted Cindy by her locker and walked up to her with the cigarettes in hand.
“Oh my god, thank you so much,” Cindy gushed as I handed them to her. “Did you get a lighter too?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you needed one.”
Cindy laughed and pushed my shoulder. “Don’t be so apologetic, girl. It’s not like I told you to get one. It was my fault for forgetting.”
I shrugged. “Well, if you want me to get you one, you’ll need to wait until after the next period because I don’t want to be late for class.”
“Nah, don’t worry. I’ll probably bum one off the jocks later. You can join me if you want,” Cindy said happily.
“I don’t smoke,” I responded.
“You don’t have to. Most of the rugby team doesn’t either, but we still hang out on the bleachers after school to shoot the breeze. You’re welcome to join us,” she replied.
Hanging out with a bunch of guys that huffed weird chemicals in class didn’t sound like a pleasant way of spending my afternoon after school, but I also didn’t want to end up a reject like at my last school. I reluctantly agreed, giving Cindy a half-hearted smile before retreating to my next class.
I initially thought that Mr. Collins was the most boring teacher at Greywood Academy until I sat down and began listening to my mathematics teacher, Mrs. Snow, drone on about pre-calculus concepts as though doing math without a computer was still needed in the modern world. I thought not, but math was still a major part of our curriculum, nonetheless.
Mrs. Snow was a stunningly beautiful woman, with a bright white smile and long wavy brown hair. The was a hint of something sexual about her at all times, so while I just couldn’t bring myself to pay attention to her ramblings about how to do complex equations with letters instead of numbers, I still followed her every movement in fascination like everyone else in the class did. At least we had that to entertain ourselves with.
I glanced over to see Troy sitting in class, scribbling down notes in his binder seriously while everyone else drooled over Mrs. Snow. I guess I had to respect him for that. He was the only one who was actually interested enough in what Mrs. Snow was saying, not how pouty and red her lips were.
A hand shot up in the back of the classroom, and everyone turned to see who it was. It was the jock Jeremy from my previous class who had killed some brain cells before Mr. Collins had come in. Mrs. Snow paused her lesson and pointed at him to speak.
“We have a rugby game tonight after school. Can we leave early to practice?” He asked stupidly.
I rolled my eyes. Why was it that guys like him always thought they could have special privileges just because they played sports? It didn’t make them any more gifted than anyone else at the school, and besides, unless you were a famous athlete, you wouldn’t amount to much in life by charging around on the green with a ball in your hands while people tried to break your neck.
Mrs. Snow was more lenient than I would have been, because she smiled sweetly at Daniel, one of the jocks, before addressing the whole class with. “If you’re on the rugby team, you may leave early today.”
A few people, obviously from the crowd that was not on the rugby team, made groaning sounds while the rugby players scrambled out of their seats, snatching up their personal belongings before rushing out of the room loudly. They laughed, shoving desks as they left the room. Mrs. Snow smiled at them as they left, waving a hand before turning back to the class and continuing the lesson.
I found it odd that Mrs. Snow was so nice to the jocks. I kn
ew that they were going to be hanging out on the bleachers with Cindy, not practicing for a game. Either Mrs. Snow was a huge sports fan, or there some something else going on here that I didn’t know about. I looked around, but nobody else seemed surprised. I guess that was how things went at Greywood Academy.
I noticed that Troy hadn’t left the room with the other rugby players. He was on the team, but he was very attentive in class and hadn’t left early despite having been given permission to. Maybe he wasn’t like the other sports guys after all.
Once Mrs. Snow wrapped up the impossibly dull lesson on math derivatives, I packed up my books to find Cindy so that we could hang out with the rugby team. I might be able to get a chance to speak to Troy that way. I was becoming more interested in him as the day progressed. I wanted to know if he was worth my time or if he was like all the other players.
Chapter 3
I didn’t see Cindy near the lockers, so once the final bell rang to signify that school was over, I dipped out to the courtyard around the back of the school to find her. I quickly spotted her out across the rugby field, smoking a cigarette while chatting with some of the rugby players.
When Cindy saw me, she waved for me to come over. I jogged across the field to meet her, arriving at the bleachers to find that Troy was already there.
“Hey guys,” I said awkwardly, raising my hand and looking around at the jocks.
A few of them made disgusted faces at me but I ignored this. I wasn’t expecting them to be especially good mannered people.
Cindy jumped down from the bleachers and came up beside me, flicking her cigarette into the grass. “Guy, this is Faith,” Cindy said proudly. “She’s new to Greywood Academy.”
Troy rubbed his chin and cocked his head at me. “You’re a senior?”
I nodded.
Troy chuckled. “That must mean you’re 18. Old enough to get stuffed by the team.”
His words shocked me. I didn’t know what to say, but what he had said left a very bad taste in my mouth. I thought he might be different from the other, but maybe I was wrong.