EVIL VILLAIN: A Dark High School Elite Romance (The Royal Court Book 3)

by Rebel Hart

  The car show was surrounded on all sides by barrels turned into a fence with the use of white poles that had been bolted to connect them. Some of the dirty cops that were on guard were standing near the perimeter, and I was hoping that maybe getting closer to them would turn my pursuers around. I ran straight in their direction, even after they locked eyes on me, but then they pulled their guns too.

  “Stop!” One screamed.

  “That’s the one,” the woman who had captured me screamed from behind me. “Grab him!”

  I should have expected that they were all in on it together. Connor had more influence than anyone anticipated. Looking to the left and right, I considered turning around and dodging back into the show, but there were more people stepping away from the screaming, running people, all set for me. The longer I stayed in the show, the worse things were going to get.

  I had to get out.

  So I continued to run straight at the police officers. They had their guns drawn and were screaming at me to stop, but I didn’t slow. Similarly to the man and woman behind me, the cops weren’t shooting, so the public was working to my advantage. Once I was on the other side of that fence, that protection would be gone, so hopefully my limber wouldn’t fail me now.

  I shoved between the two cops that were looking at me, and braced my hands on the top pole of the fence and vaulted myself over. I immediately threw myself into a serpentine movement, and not a moment too soon, as bullets immediately started to fly at me. Outside of the show, the warehouse district was nothing but shadows and shipping containers. Plenty of places to hide.

  “Deon,” the woman who snatched me sang from behind me. “Don’t make me chase you. It’s only going to make things worse.

  I could hide behind any one of the shipping containers, but there was only so much I could do before they found me again. However, the coast was directly in front of me. Thank god I didn’t have any electronic devices on me. I continued to charge forward, despite the people behind me screaming after me not to do what they could see I was doing, and a bullet pierced the silence.

  And then I felt a burning pain in my leg.

  My face hit the dirt before I even realized I was falling. The coast was about ten feet in front of me, but I could feel blood pouring down my shin and the stinging searing my skin. The gunshot wound I’d taken to the stomach courtesy of Connor still throbbed in the middle of the night sometimes. Now I was back to point zero.

  But I refused to go back.

  I crawled up to my feet and continued to charge towards the coast and out onto the dock that was hanging over the water.

  “Deon, don’t!”

  I held up my hand with my middle finger stabbed up, and rushed right off the front of the dock and crashed into the waves below. The forceful tide was attempting to suck me out to sea, but I fought against it to swim backwards, underneath the dock instead. A few pieces of cord were hanging from the dock, so I grabbed onto one and twisted it several times around my arm, and then let my body flow with the rush of the waves, hopefully keeping me from sticking out of the water too much. My leg was screaming in pain and I knew that the chances my fresh wound would end up infected were high, but that was a concern for later.

  Above me, the man and woman who were chasing me charged out onto the dock. Their feet pounding against the wood were so loud and close, but I could barely hear them over the waves and blasting of my own heart. Even though the water was loud, I still held my breath, praying that they didn’t look down.

  “Fuck,” the woman said. “I can’t believe his crazy ass jumped.”

  The man scoffed. “If I was threatening to drag you to Connor Loche what would you do?”

  It didn’t make sense. If they knew how dangerous he was, how could they bring me back there?

  “Well, whatever, there’s nothing we can do. We’re just going to tell him we never saw him,” the woman said.

  “Fine by me,” the man replied. “Let’s go. It’s cold by this fucking water.”

  With that, they turned around and walked back down the docks and retreated until I eventually couldn’t hear them anymore. Even long after they were gone, long after my leg had gone numb from pain, and my arm had gone numb from pain, and my vision and hearing were waning, I stayed there treading water. I tried counting the minutes to myself to keep track of how long I stayed down there, but then I started to shake and lose breath, and I knew I was probably close to giving myself hypothermia.

  It was a struggle, but I managed to drag myself back out of the water. The car show was no longer lit up, and either because it ended or because of the pursuit, it had been shut down. The warehouse district was abandoned and quiet, so I limped my way along the edge of the shipping containers until I could cross back through the warehouse district and eventually to the main road. I had no phone or way to get a hold of someone, but finally, I saw a few people walking near the edge of the road. They kept their distance from me, which was fair, so I held up my hands.

  “Please. Can you just call me a cab?”

  None of them responded to me, but one did press a few buttons on their phone and lifted it to their ear. I was briefly afraid they were calling the cops, but then I heard him say, “Hey, can I get a cab? Right outside the warehouse district on Melcost Lane. I’m a big guy with red hair and I’m soaking wet. You can’t miss me. Cool, thanks.”

  I nodded. “Thanks.” Then I dropped and sat on the edge of the road and waited. The people, though they never got closer or spoke to me, stood nearby until the cab came, and then waited as I climbed inside. “There’s a $200 dollar tip if you can get me home. I fell in the ocean and lost my wallet.”

  The man looked at me through the rearview mirror at me. “I will call the police if you don’t pay.”

  “I swear. Just get me home, and my mom will pay you.”

  He nodded, so I provided Felicity’s address, and we started off. I nearly faded from consciousness a few times and I was shaking violently, but eventually the cab did get me back to Felicity’s house. I kept looking around, afraid that I’d been followed, but for the time being, no one had come. As soon as the cab pulled up, those of Venom’s men who had been watching the house surrounded it with their guns drawn, but I quickly climbed out and called them off.

  “Can someone please give this guy $200? I’ll give it back to you,” I asked.

  “Don’t worry, D,” one of the guys, Max, said. “He reached into his wallet and pulled out a few hundred dollar bills and handed them to the driver. “More money for your trouble and to keep your mouth shut, huh?”

  The cab driver nodded his head dramatically. “I was never here.”

  “Good man,” Max replied.

  The cab screeched away and I limped my way up the walk to Felicity’s front door. I knocked and it opened almost immediately, a teary Felicity appearing on the other side. “Oh thank god,” she whined and pulled me into a hug.

  “You were right. I shouldn’t have gone,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she replied. “Let’s not worry about that right now. Come inside before you catch death.”

  All I could do was laugh at her phrasing. Little did she know how close I’d come.

  17

  Cherri

  Alistair and Avery both got out of the car in order to walk me up to the door. Because I hadn’t spoken to my parents in six months, neither had any of my friends. Avery and Alistair were the two people I considered my ‘real friends’ from The Royal Court before everything changed, so my parents had gotten used to seeing them around. When I asked Avery to drive me back to their house so that we could have a chance to talk, both her and Alistair got excited about the idea of being able to say hi for the first time in half a year.

  I lifted my hand to the door and went to knock, but then stopped. My keys were in my pocket, and my parents didn’t take them away from me. Even though it felt awkward, I used them and let myself, Avery, and Alistair into the house.

  It was a little after eight at night, b
ut I could hear the quiet drone of the television coming from the living room. I led the way towards it and walked in to where my parents were sitting on the couch, my dad totally passed out, and Gus was sitting on the floor, also half-asleep.

  “Cherri,” my mom said, and then she smiled. “And look who else you brought.”

  Avery lifted her hand with a smile. “Hey, Rebeccah.”

  The voices stirred my dad and Gus, who awoke and looked over. “Cherri!” Gus yelped, jumping up and running over. He slammed into me in a big hug and I squeezed him back as tightly as I could. “I missed you.”

  “I just saw you a few days ago,” I replied, but Gus squeezed tighter.

  “I know. I always miss you.” He was such a sweet kid, and I had to imagine still traumatized by my sudden disappearance, so I took this statement with the weight it held and kissed him on top of his head.

  My mom stood up and walked over, offering both Alistair and Avery hugs, then she turned to me for one. “Hi, baby.”

  I hugged her back. “Hey, mama.”

  “To what do we owe this unexpected visit?” my dad asked, sitting up on the couch and stretching.

  “Uh, I actually have to talk to you guys about some stuff, but Avery and Ali just wanted to say hi,” I explained.

  Alistair put his arm behind my mom’s back and pulled her into another side-hug. “I’m hoping we can have a homemade Rebeccah dinner sometime soon.”

  That lit my mom up. “Of course! I’d love it! You just say the word and it’ll be done!”

  “We’ll have to do it soon because Ali and I are leaving for New Haven in a couple of months,” Avery said as she beamed. “I got accepted to Yale. Full ride!”

  My mom and dad gasped loudly, then my mom threw her arms around Avery. “Oh sweetheart! Congratulations! I always knew you’d knock ‘em dead.” There was probably a part of them that was sad they were missing out on the college experience with me. It wasn’t like I wasn’t going to college. It wasn’t like I definitely was either.

  I had no idea what my plan was. I was just focused on finding Deon.

  “Thank you,” Avery said, then pulled away. “So, yes. I’d love dinner soon. To celebrate!”

  My mom nodded. “I’ll make whatever you want. You just tell Cherri what and when and it’ll be done.”

  “Okay!”

  Alistair put his hand on my head and ruffled my hair like I was some little sister. “Well, we won’t take up any more of your time. I know you have things to discuss. If you need us to come back for you, just let me know.”

  “Thanks, Ali,” I replied.

  Avery and Alistair offered a final round of hugs to my mom, Gus, and my dad who finally wandered over, then they offered me warm smiles and good lucks, and left.

  “Are you hungry, honey? There are leftovers if you’d like. Dad made his fresh fried rice,” my mom said, already charting a course for the kitchen.

  “I’d love that,” I replied.

  I wasn’t hungry at all. In fact, I’d gorged myself on pasta at the restaurant, but the idea of getting a mouthful of my dad’s home cooking was too good to deny. Looking back over my shoulder, I smiled at my dad. “You comin’, daddy? I got some stuff I wanna talk to you guys about.”

  My dad had his hand on Gus’s back, and Gus was already starting to drift again even though he was standing straight up. “Yeah. Let me just get this kid to bed. He can barely stand up.”

  “No,” Gus whimpered. “I wanna stay with Cherri.”

  “You know what?” I said, walking up to him and putting my hands on his face. “I’ll stay over tonight. Once I’m done talking to mom and dad, I’ll come up and snuggle with you just like we used to do, okay?”

  Gus nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

  I released him and my dad led him off towards the stairs and I turned into the kitchen instead. My mom was just setting a bowl of the heated fried rice down on the kitchen, and the smell of the spices was comforting. I sat down at the island stool behind the bowl and dug in immediately. The taste was even better than the smell and it simply reminded me of home. Not necessarily the large home we were in currently, or the smaller one we used to live in in North Postings, but just being around my family and loving one another regardless of the circumstances.

  “Okay,” my dad said, walking into the kitchen. “That was easier than I thought it’d be.”

  “Really?” I said. “He was damn near asleep standing up.”

  He chuckled. “I guess that’s true.”

  “So, what did you want to talk to us about, sweetheart?” my mom asked.

  I set my fork down and slid the bowl aside. “Well, it occurred to me that there is still a lot you guys don’t know about what’s going on with me right now. Not just now either, but why all that stuff happened during my spring semester.”

  My mom tilted her head. “I thought you said it was because your friend died.”

  “Kind of, but it’s more complicated than that… way more.” My parents exchanged a brief side-eye and there was something in it that was mysterious, but I didn’t ask. There was already too much in my brain to worry about for the moment. “Well, in the interest of making a long story short, but also kind of long, Deon isn’t dead. He’s alive, although we don’t know where he is.”

  “He’s alive?” my mother asked. “Why would you lie about something like that?”

  “It wasn’t a complete lie,” I replied. “I did think that Deon had died, that’s what Nathan told me, but I had a feeling he wasn’t, and then Nathan finally came clean about a month ago that he’s still alive and out there somewhere. I was so angry with him for lying to me, and for dragging me away from Deon in a situation when he almost died that I cut off the entire Royal Court and turned into a demon. I’m so sorry.”

  My dad crossed his arms. “I don’t understand. What do Nathan and Deon have to do with one another.”

  “Right, yeah. I’m sort of starting in the middle of the story and I probably should be starting at the beginning.” I reeled my brain backwards trying to find a good starting point, and landed on the most important fact. “Well, I suppose it needs to be said right away, my friend Deon from our old neighborhood is Connor’s son.”

  Both my parents’ jaws dropped and eyes nearly came out of their heads. They seemed so much more shocked than Cherri expected them to be. “What do you mean?” my dad asked. “What about Nathan?”

  “Nathan is his son as well. They’re half-brothers, sharing Connor as a father. Deon’s mom is Ciara, who he lived with back in our old neighborhood, and Nathan’s mom was Alicia,” I explained.

  My mom took a nervous breath. “Was?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Alicia is dead. Connor killed her.”

  I could see the gears of fear turning in my parents head as the words left my lips, but it was my father who managed to speak first. “Why would he kill his own wife?”

  “The same reason he’d try to kill his own children, because they’re threatening his power and existence,” I said. “Also, and please don’t freak out, but… he’s trying to kill us too.”

  My mom crossed her arms. “What?”

  “Who’s ‘us?’” my dad asked.

  “The entire Royal Court, but specifically Nikita and me, because we mean so much to Nathan and Deon.” I shook my head, annoyed. The words I was saying weren’t coming out in a way that made sense. “Let me back up.” I took a deep breath. “When we lived in the old neighborhood, I met Deon and… I fell in love with him. The day that we went for our first date, this body literally dropped from the floor in front of us. We just naturally assumed that it was a jumper, but the cop thought we’d killed him for some reason. Deon said we should run, so we did, and I didn’t find out until the beginning of senior year that Deon ended up confessing to it, but he didn’t do it, I swear. He confessed just to protect me.”Again, my parents side-glanced each other and my father in particular looked very nervous. “Okay. What is that?”

  My dad looked back at me
. “Well, you finish first, then I’ll tell you.”

  That freaked me out, but I believed he would explain when the time came. “Well, not long after Deon went to prison, you got promoted and then I was introduced to The Royal Court. It sounds like Connor orchestrated my meeting Nathan. When Nathan and I started to drift apart last year, specifically because Deon came home, Connor started to melt down about it. He flipped out, killed Alicia, tried to kill Nathan, and framed Deon for that teacher that killed herself.”

  My dad’s head dropped into his hands and my mom rubbed his back. “Chris. It’s not your fault.”

  “It is my fault. You told me not to accept that promotion and I did anyway,” my dad replied.

  “Daddy, moving us to South Postings had nothing to do with this. Connor was going to do what he wanted regardless, that was just the avenue he chose,” I said.

  “No,” my dad shook his head. “Not that promotion. The one that brought us to Maine to begin with.”

  “W-what?” I said. “What do you mean?”

  “Connor promoted me rather suddenly, saying that the transfer from our original office to the one in Postings was necessary. How ironic that you would end up near Deon,” my dad said.

  “Cherri, you know that we think you are so much more than just how beautiful you are, but think of Alicia. You share similar qualities. You’re as pretty as a model and would look good on anyone’s arm. I’m beginning to think Connor handpicked you for his son,” my mom explained.

  My dad looked up, weary-eyed. “And for some reason, when things didn’t work with you and Deon, he promoted me again, and suddenly you ended up with Nathan.”

  “Deon told me that he went to live with Connor for a year, but he refused to stay and eventually came home. Ciara, Deon’s mom, had a bunch of information about all of the affairs that Connor had been having, and was able to use it to get him to back off of trying to take Deon from her. Shortly after that, we came here and I met Deon. Then this thing happened with this weird body and Deon getting framed for it, and then you got promoted and we moved,” I said. “That means…”