Play the Game: Hannaford Prep Year Three

by J Bree

  I wince but nod. “I know that. I just… I don’t want him touching any of you.”

  Harley’s fingers flex in mine, a reminder of how close we got to losing him only weeks ago at the hands of the Jackal. Avery gives me a soft look, knowing exactly what I’m thinking.

  “Don’t be so harsh. Annabelle drugging Harley did a lot of damage. Lips is barely sleeping now, and she can’t make perfect decisions every time something happens.” She says and Ash snorts at her.

  “I’m not asking for perfect, I’m asking for trust. We all trust you, Mounty. With our lives. Why can’t you trust us with the same?”

  Tears prick my eyes but I refuse to cry. “And if he’d killed you, Ash? What would I do with myself then? Knowing that he did it for me. He thinks I belong to him, even with me telling him it’ll never happen, he doesn’t give a fuck about what I want.”

  Ash slams the coffee cup on the table and stalks into the bathroom, closing the door quietly, though it sounds like a deafening bang in the silence of the room.

  Harley squeezes my fingers again. “Just tell someone next time. I thought you were dead at the look on Ash’s face when Illi called.”

  My gut squeezes again and I pull away, ready to grovel at the bathroom door until Ash forgives me.

  The Jackal poisons fucking everything.

  Harley stops me and directs me back to bed, undressing me and tucking me in as if I can’t do it myself. It’s only when I end up jammed between Harley and Blaise that I notice how badly I’m shaking. Maybe I wouldn’t have managed undressing.

  Avery climbs into her bed but the glow of her phone confirms she’s not planning on getting any rest. We’re all stuck in the limbo of what-ifs.

  What if Luca wasn’t a plant?

  What if I had woken them up?

  What if I died?

  I startle awake hours later, having not even realized I’d fallen asleep, to Ash sleeping across the bottom of the bed. I’m penned in completely.

  “I think he’s worried you’ll run off on him. He’s asked me to put a GPS tracker on your phone.” Avery murmurs, making me jump again.

  I look over and find her tapping away on her phone again. “I think I fucked up, Aves. I’m really fucking sorry.”

  She nods and smiles at me. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. Ash will too, he’s just… worried.”

  I fight back tears again and nod. When I’m sure I won’t cry, I carefully pull out from between the bodies and crawl over to Ash, curling myself around him. His eyes fly open the second I touch him but he relaxes back once I’m plastered to him, his arms wrapping me up tight as he kisses the top of my head.

  “I’d rather you hate me for going alone than being dead. I’m sorry I worried you but I’m not sure I’ll make a different decision next time. In my mind, I will always be expendable because… I’ve survived it all before. I can survive it again. I can’t face that stuff happening to you and he wouldn’t torture you. He’d slit your throat and bleed you out in front of me. He told me that when he called me down to meet him.”

  Ash nods but doesn’t speak. I don’t think he’s forgiven me, not even close, but I know we’ll be okay. At least until something else happens.

  “Sorry to interrupt your little make-up session, but Atticus just informed me that we’ve been summoned by Senior. He’s told Atticus he knows about his… plans to keep us separated and he wants to meet with the Wolf.” whispers Avery and I groan.

  There are too many threats in our lives.

  I need a week off.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Exams consume our every waking moment for two weeks.

  It’s a blessing really because no one has the chance to panic or argue about the Jackal’s impromptu visit and Avery is so consumed by her studies that she trusts Atticus to put protective measures in place for our meeting with Senior, despite her rage at his deception.

  Harley and Ash become so competitive that I ban them from talking about classwork around me. I can’t cope with the snarking and arguing at all, especially not with Blaise looking green the second they start quoting random lines from our literature readings to out do each other.

  I just need to get him through the exams.

  He’s ready. I know he is. We’ve worked too fucking hard this year, around all the fucking bullshit trying to kill us all, for him not to pass his exams now.

  Avery refuses to let any of the guys sleep in our room for the week, claiming they’re a distraction for me and bad for my sleep, and I don’t have the heart to tell her I sleep better when I know they’re all around me. I’m plagued by constant dreams of Jackal, and what would have happened if I hadn’t snuck off by myself.

  On the last day of exams, I am the first to finish our history exam and I spend ten minutes rereading my answers even though I know they’re perfect. The teacher, still the substitute, takes a call and then gestures me to the front. Ash glares as his eyes follow me and I shrug at him.

  “You’ve been called to the principal’s office, Miss Anderson. If you’re finished, you need to head there now.”

  What the actual fuck? Mr. Trevelen must be losing his damn mind.

  I collect my bag from the front of the class, away from where we could sneak looks at our notes, and make my way to the office.

  Something is up.

  I slip my knife into my blazer pocket in case it’s Joey or Senior, and I prepare my defense in my head if it’s some skank running her mouth about me and the guys again to get me kicked out. I mean, Annabelle is taken care of and the cougar was fired so I should be finished with that bullshit but Hannaford knows how to test my very will to fucking live sometimes.

  I’m rehearsing the exact way I’ll tell Mr. Trevelen to fuck off as I arrive to the office. The receptionist is missing and I frown, weaving my way through the partitions until I get to the principal’s office, the door open for me.

  I walk in only to find a gun aimed at my chest.

  ***

  Miss Vivienne looks fucking deranged as she holds the piece in her shaking hands. I stare at her, unblinking and unafraid. Well, I’m a little worried she’s taking the safety off and she’s going to shoot me by accident with all of the trembling she has going on, but one look into those big doe eyes of her tells me she has no real spine for murder.

  “You just couldn’t let him go, could you?” She hisses and I struggle to keep myself from rolling my eyes. Really, bitch? Seriously?!

  “You’re going to go to prison for killing me just so you have a chance at climbing on Harley’s dick? I mean, he’s good but is any dick really worth that?” I say, calmly. I’m waiting for the perfect opening to break the slut’s arm. There, I said it; she’s a dumb slut and I’m a hypocrite. Sue me.

  “Like I give a fuck about that mobster’s dick. I don’t want to fuck him. I want him fucking dead. I want to deliver you to my love so we can be happy together finally. He can’t focus now you’ve betrayed him. He’s fucking gutted you’ve left the fold.”

  She continues rambling, on and fucking on, and it takes me a second to process her word.

  The Jackal.

  The fucking slut was sent here to kill Harley by the fucking Jackal.

  I snap. My patience and her fucking arm. She screams so loudly the whole school will have heard it during the exams and fuck it if I care.

  I hope Avery can clean it up for me. When I have her on the ground, her unbroken arm pinned behind her back with my knee and her own gun pressed against her skull, I lean down to question her.

  “Are you so stupid that you believe Matteo’s lies? What did he tell you, that I’m a defector? That I belong to him?”

  She sobs and whimpers, not planning on answering, so I grab a fistful of her hair and yank until her neck bows beautifully. “Answer me. I’m not a patient person.”

  “He loves me. He just needs you out of the way so we can be together. He found me, he saved me from my husband. Why wouldn’t I help him catch you after what you’v
e done?”

  I shake my head and fish out my phone. I hesitate for a second and then text the group number. I have to trust them this time and contact them before I call Illi.

  I fucking hope it’s the right thing to do.

  Ash texts back immediately. On my way.

  I don’t want him to see the mess I’ve made of Miss Vivienne, I don’t want to risk it triggering some deep dark memory, but I have no way of cleaning her up a bit.

  Fuck it.

  When the door eases open and Ash steps through, barely three minutes later so he must’ve fucking ran here, the look on his face when he sees the gun is bad.

  “That’s not yours, is it?” He snaps, and I shake my head.

  “I’ve just been chatting with the lovely cougar. It turns out we have a mutual friend. Would you like to tell Ash who it is you love so much that you were trying to kill Harley for him?”

  She laughs, spitting blood on the floor from where I’ve broken her nose. “He’d be fucking dead if you hadn’t spent the Butcher in. That dirty roofie would’ve done the job perfectly.”

  I freeze and Ash’s eye flare.

  “You gave Annabelle the roofie?” I say, my hand steady as I press the gun into the base on her neck.

  The slut chokes on her own blood a little more as she gurgles out, “I drove her down to the Bay myself. We had struck up a lovely friendship before you ran her off. Now I have to answer to her parents, they blame me for not knowing where the fuck she went.”

  The door slips open again and my other two guys walk in. Blaise frowns at me for a second and then leans back against the door like he’s holding it shut. I doubt anyone will disturb us if the scream hadn’t sent them running but I guess I should’ve locked it by now.

  Harley pulls up a chair and then helps me off of Miss Vivienne, peeling her off of the floor and dropping her into the chair. I can’t look at him right now because all I’ll see is the thick tube down his throat and black circles under his eyes that had been permanent while he was in the hospital.

  Miss Vivienne is going to die.

  She’s going to die bloody.

  “How about we call your little friend, hmm? How about we ring him and see if he wants to collect you.” I say handing Harley the gun and directing the guys until Ash is guarding the door, Blaise is covering the cougar’s mouth, and Harley’s finger is steady on the trigger.

  I lean forward until I’m right in her face. “I didn’t defect from him. I’m the fucking Wolf of Mounts Bay, and that sadistic fuck sent you here against the Twelve to die for him.”

  She shakes her head, sobbing behind Blaise’s hand and I hit dial.

  I hear him breathing as he answers but he doesn’t say a word.

  “Your little girlfriend is dead.”

  Her eyes widen at me and she tries to shake free from Blaise but his hand is steady. I’m glad it’s him holding her. His trust in me is so complete that he’s willing to get blood on his hands because he knows I’ll clean it up.

  The Jackal’s voice is the same one he uses when he’s trying to sweet talk me. “Like I give a fuck about some cougar pussy. I wouldn’t put someone in that building with you, little Wolf, unless they were disposable to me and we both know every pussy I’ve ever had is disposable. Yours is the one I want to keep.”

  Pathetically, tears fill her eyes. I cannot understand what these women see in Matteo. How can they look at him and not see the monster under his skin?

  “I told you I’m not interested.”

  “And I told you, you’re mine. I’ll kill every fucking man that touches you. You think the Butcher can keep them safe? The Crow and his fucking spies? Little girl, I was born in hell and I fought my way to the throne. If I want you, I’ll fucking have you.”

  I stare over Ms. Vivienne’s head to my guys and say, “Enjoy the throne for now. It’ll be mine before this is all over.”

  I hang up to the sound of him laughing.

  Ms. Vivienne is sobbing behind Blaise’s hand now, big heaving gasps like she’s heartbroken. I can’t stand the sound of it. She’s just as fucking weak as the rest of the rich skanks at this school, only she thought she could win over the Jackal.

  He doesn’t have a soul to win.

  My phone pings and I jerk my head for Ash to answer the door, murmuring quietly with Avery until she hands my bag over. He shuts the door and drops the bag at my feet. Ms. Vivienne’s eyes land on the bag and the sobs dry up in her throat.

  “Let her go, Blaise. Go wait outside, all of you.” I say, and I unzip the bag slowly, enjoying the way her eyes track that movement. I’m not a sociopath but fuck it if it doesn’t feel satisfying to finally get rid of this bitch.

  I dig around for the plastic sheeting, spreading it out with steady hands. It’s much easier to be patient and prepared than to be rash and attempt to clean up evidence later.

  Ms. Vivienne watches while I prepare for her death and the sobbing starts up again until she’s fucking hysterical. Ash grimaces and grabs Blaise’s arm, pulling him out the door until I’m left with Harley. I sigh at him which he totally ignores.

  “Do you ever listen to me? I’m not trying to hide this from you, I just don’t think you should have to watch it.” I grumble, tugging my uniform off and then slipping the plastic jumpsuit over my lacy lingerie. I’ll have to get Ash to pick me out some more.

  Harley’s eyes don’t falter from where he’s watching Ms. Vivienne. One wrong move and I think he’ll break her neck. “Blaise is green and Ash has a history that makes killing women hard for him, even when they’re treacherous sluts. I don’t give a fuck. She pulled a gun on you, she’s gotta go.”

  I grab her by the hair and lean down until I’m at eye level with her. The tears don’t work on me, not at all. The second she told me she gave the dirty pills to Annabelle she’d sealed her fate.

  “The second you climbed into bed with the Jackal you killed yourself. If I delivered you back to him, he’d cut you into pieces first just to hear you scream. I don’t get off on that shit so I’ll kill you first even though you deserve all the pain in the fucking world for what you’ve done. You’re welcome.”

  Then I get to work.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  It takes five hours to deal with the problem.

  Once she’s dead and her heart stops pumping I’m able to do what I need to with minimal mess. I send Blaise to go pick up a couple of black tubs while Avery runs interference so no one stumbles on us while I work. Harley and I argue when he tries to help and eventually he agrees to sit on a chair by the door and just watch. He niggles at me until I explain what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it, teaching him the optimal way to dismember a corpse for transportation and an easier cleanup.

  There’s still a fuck-tonne of blood.

  The smell is fucking vile and once the body, plastic sheeting, and my suit are all sealed in the tubs we open all the windows and I scrub the floor with bleach, killing the smell and any leftover DNA that might have spilled over. Once that’s over with Harley cracks the door and snaps at Blaise to grab a tub while he grabs the other one. Ash takes both of my bags and slings them over his shoulders. We head down to the staff carpark together to stash the tubs until we can hand them off to Illi in the morning.

  “What the hell is in this thing to make it so fucking heavy?” Blaise grouses, and Harley shakes his head at him.

  Ash snarks, “I’ve seen your exam marks, so I know you’re not that fucking stupid.”

  Blaise blinks at him and then at me. I sigh. “We have to get rid of the… problem somehow. Rolling her up in a rug would have us all in juvie in a second.”

  Blaise scoffs. “Avery would never let that happen… fuck, is the cougar in here? Disgusting! How the fuck did you bend her into it?”

  Harley bursts out laughing but it’s more of an are-you-fucking-kidding-me sort of sound. “She didn’t bend her. She hacked the cunt into pieces. You wanna fuck a member of the Twelve then you should know your girlfriend isn�
�t scared of getting her hands dirty.”

  Blaise blinks. Then again. Then finally he looks are me and says, “With that tiny knife? Fuck, that seems like a lot of hard work.”

  Fuck me.

  Is he for real?

  “I have a bone saw. Can we just move this shit quietly and get this over with? Avery is going to have a fucking fit if we’re not back soon.” I say and they all grunt in agreement.

  My leg is aching by the time we have both of the tubs loaded into the Maserati. It’s a tight fit and when Harley starts bitching about the lack of space Blaise snaps back, “Well, I didn’t pick it for its trunk size! How the fuck was I supposed to know we’d be moving… this shit. I’ll buy a fucking truck for next year.”

  I groan. “I don’t want to think about next year. Let’s just get back to Avery.”

  Ash stops me and then slowly checks every inch of my skin for signs of the work I’ve just done. I’m thorough, so I’m not worried, but he turns me and pulls at my clothes until he’s sure I’m blood-free.

  I crack a joke in an attempt to lighten the mood. “I could just blame my period if I’ve missed a spot.”

  He glares at me and then slings his arm around my waist, helping me to walk with my sore leg. “You’re so fucking strange, Mounty.”

  I scoff at him. “So the joke is strange but the work isn’t? You’re just as twisted as I am, Beaumont.”

  Avery is twitchy when we arrive in the dining hall for dinner. She scans my body, much like her brother had until she’s satisfied I’m unharmed. I smile at her a little crookedly but I’m still mostly human. The new and improved Lips, the one who wears the skin of the Wolf even while I’m at school, she doesn’t need to be coddled. She isn’t wary of touch anymore.

  I’m so fucking glad I have my family.

  Blaise pulls a face when Ash asks him what he wants for dinner and I ignore their snarking. I can’t eat now, not until tomorrow at least and for once they don’t push me.