by V. L. Silva
There was rich and then there was filthy rich. Somehow, I found myself in the world of the latter.
Awareness tingled over my skin. I looked up and my heart knocked against my ribcage before it completely gave out. Axel sat in the center of a group of guys looking just as powerful as he had when we’d met. He was laughing with a good-natured smile on his face as someone in the group was speaking. He was just as beautiful as I remembered. Even under the harsh gym lights that never made anyone look good he glowed.
He glanced in my direction. Our eyes caught but his gaze kept moving and I was left feeling lost. Didn’t he recognize me?
I stumbled to a stop but was forced back into motion by Carolyn’s stern guidance.
“Here we are!” Carolyn said. She held out her hands towards a table that was overrun with pictures, streamers, balloons, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. A pride similar to motherhood shined in her eyes. This was her creation, her cardboard baby. I looked at the collage and had to admit it was really nice. The images were powerful shots of students raising their voices and banning together for various events and causes.
That’s what I loved about marketing. It was a voice that delivered more than words, but a feeling.
“Just sign your name right there.” She pointed to the sign-up list.
I laughed and picked up one of the flyers. “Let me read about it for a moment.” I was definitely leaning toward PR but now that I’d seen what else was offered my interest was piqued.
“Of course, but you should know we have our own special hangout on campus with a private bathroom and arcade.”
“Great.”
“And the culinary club cooks our lunch on Fridays. The department is run by a renowned chef, so it’s always amazing and it can be fine-tuned to any dietary restrictions you have.”
I nodded as I tried to read the PR flyer and the various positions on staff.
Carolyn moved to stand by me. “Additionally─”
“Fine, I’ll sign up.” I bent over to do just that.
She laughed. “Excellent.”
“I’ve never seen you before,” a distinctively male voice called from behind me.
I straightened and realized just how close he was standing. His ominous dark eyes bore into mine.
He sounded offended that he didn’t know me.
“She’s new,” Carolyn said in my defense.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Why? Are you campus security?” The words left my lips before I could call them back. A beat later, I realized I wouldn’t have called them back even if I could. Today was the first day of my junior year and I was about to set a precedence for how I was going to be treated.
The guy’s grin was menacing. “Name.”
Was that a command? I looked for Carolyn and stopped when I noticed Axel was beside her. His hand was on her shoulder, silencing her. Carolyn looked like she was holding back the fires of hell. I marveled at his power. Currently, he had it restrained, but I’d seen a glimpse of it the night we’d met when he’d called my boss.
That incident had gone into the cons side of my list of reasons not to attend Barnet.
Axel’s expression was mocking and cruel. “I believe he asked you a question.”
I choked on my next breath. This was our first exchange in two months and he’d decided to attack me.
.Even after hearing he was in charge of the student population, I’d believed I’d get a free pass. After all, he was the one who’d invited me here, right?
Guess I was wrong.
My cheeks burned as I felt the line being drawn in the sand. Axel and I would not be on the same side of things. “He didn’t ask me my name. He demanded it.”
The chatter began to fade around us and the music lowered until it came to a stop.
Carolyn tried to fight his hold but he held tight. His knuckles whitened even as the tilt in the corner of his mouth remained. “Give him your name.”
So now the order was coming from him.
If he thought that was any better he was wrong. “You already know my name, Axel. So, why don’t you give it to him?” I turned back to the sign-up sheet and ignored the eyes that were digging into the back of my skull.
I knew what my words implied, that Axel and I shared a past that was a lot less innocent and far more dramatic than what had actually happened. It had been one night but now everyone was going to think we shared a story of Shakespearean proportions.
Whispers crescendoed, elevating before they settled back down.
A shadow fell over me. A pair of crisp-cut khakis were in my peripheral. I inhaled and recognized the expensive musk.
Leaning against the table, I twisted my head around and swept my hair out of my face.
Axel’s gaze roamed to my ass before climbing back up. His eyes were hard. “Obey me.”
“I’m not a dog. I don’t take orders.”
“Are you sure? Could’ve fooled me.” It was another hard blow. I didn’t know if he was calling me a bitch or saying that I took orders. I hated both in equal amounts. As the room laughed I imagined what they were picturing, me on my knees, worshiping this man as though he were a god.
Silas’s chuckle cut like a knife. “Axel, who is this girl?”
I straightened my spine and squared off with him. Silas wasn’t as tall as Axel but he was taller than me. He was also thicker in the arms. His shirt could hardly contain his tan muscle. His hair was tapered on the sides but the front curls were long enough to fall just above his eyes.
Even though I wanted this scene to end I refused to be the one to back down. “If you want to know my name, ask nicely.”
Silas tilted his head and his hair fell. “If she won’t say, perhaps we should give her a name.”
Axel slipped closer. “I have a suggestion.” He reached past me and his arm grazed my back.
I jumped back like I was stung.
He grabbed one of the cookies off the plate. He grinned and I knew what he would say before he said it. There was no stopping it. “Cookie.” He wolfed the thing down whole and the muscles between my legs clenched.
“Nah, that’s too sweet for her,” Silas said.
Still holding my gaze, Axel replied, “Oh, trust me. She can be very sweet.”
I was mortified. “Stop implying that we had sex.”
“I’m not implying anything.” He grabbed another cookie.
“Hey, those are for people who sign up to be on the PR team,” an irritated Carolyn replied.
“I’m taking Hope’s cookies.”
He wasn’t going to stop. I couldn’t win this fight. I was drowning while he stood tall and looked down on me with complete triumph.
The sexual innuendos had to stop and I knew exactly what that could cost. My pride. I turned and rushed out a side door that was marked emergency. I didn’t meet anyone’s eyes as I walked the sidewalk that led back to the front.
I took deep breaths and still it wasn’t enough. I felt sick and alone and ready to keep running until I was completely off the campus and back at my old school.
He’d said my name and now everyone would think it meant something, that I had probably meant something to him for a night or longer, but I knew the truth.
I was nothing.
I blinked back tears as my rose-colored vision finally cleared and I realized just how unprepared I was, not only for Barnet but for him.
I’d expected him to greet me with kindness but instead I was met with the sword of his tongue. I didn’t have to guess what they meant for me in a place like this. The school was clearly his domain. Carolyn had seemed like the sort of girl who didn’t concede easily yet he’d held her back with nothing more than his hand.
Apparently, Axel set the laws and I couldn’t count how many I’d broken.
I felt broken.
My feet came to a halt at the mental disclosure. It was unacceptable. I couldn’t break. This school was my ticket to freedom. My mother’s ticket to freedom. The p
eople who walked this campus would have influence over the rest of my life and I was not a coward.
Carolyn’s words from earlier came back. She said the board wouldn’t have given me the scholarship if I didn’t deserve it. I had to believe that was true because nothing else was acceptable.
I took another step and mentally left behind any infatuation I’d previously had with Axel. As far as I was concerned, he was dead to me, just another distraction, and I didn’t need his bad energy in my life.
4
Axel
I fucked up.
The little scene in the gym had thrown my entire plan off of kilter, scrambled the board, and shifted the players.
Keeping my gaze steady on Diana, I waited for an opening. I waited for her to look my way so I could activate my smile and get her back on the offense.
She was ignoring me. The only signal I had that she was aware of my gaze was her fisted hands and tapping foot. Knowing she was aware of me was the only thing that helped me beat back the anger that had been steadily rising for the last hour.
I’d planned every step of this year out from the beginning to the end, down to the specifics of my eating and sleeping patterns. I’d been meticulously detailing my every move for the last three years and in a single act, I ruined everything.
Diana’s little temper tantrum had not been part of the plan. She was also a little unstable.
Her guard, the thing I’d been dismantling since the idea formed itself in my mind, was back up and stronger than ever. Demolishing that wall would take work and time I didn’t have.
And it was all her fault.
I shifted towards the front of my marketing class and caught Hope’s eyes just before she flicked them away. This was the only class we had together and that was driving me crazy.
Hope was a newer variable in my scheme and a portion of it that I hadn’t planned to act on until later in the year. If everything had gone according to my wishes, she’d have been my Christmas gift to myself, my reward for success, but only if I was successful.
Diana’s cooperation was essential to catching the ring of villains behind my mother’s murder. The FBI thought it was just one man but I’d spent the last three years studying the members involved in the hideous scene at the marina, and I was convinced that the truth was hidden behind a curtain of power.
And I’d been so close to ripping that curtain back I could feel the metaphoric velvety fabric between my fingers.
Now the curtain was a metal door with locks and chains.
I was failing and all because of Hope.
She should have stayed in her place. She shouldn’t have made herself stand out or called attention to herself. She shouldn’t have gotten on Silas’s ugly side but she had, and the game she’d presented had been far more fun than the deadly game I’d been playing for years.
With her gleaming red locks and pouty lips, she’d already been hard to resist. I’d spotted her in the gym before she’d spotted me but I managed to pretend she was insignificant.
Until Silas and the others saw her. I tried to distract him from hunting her down by talking about the football season—a topic he enjoyed more than I did—but Hope, with her adorable kitten heels, pale shapely legs, and fuck-me hair had baited her hook well and was unaware of the trail of fish she’d had following her.
The fish hadn’t disturbed me in the least. Fish were easily controlled. Hell, even a few sharks had been sniffing around, but sharks were not that intelligent. They moved on instinct. They could be steered away by blood.
The most dangerous person in the sea of students like Barnet was the dolphin.
Silas was a dolphin. Smooth, agile, and far too clever for his own good. The minute he’d spotted Hope I could tell he wanted to take her into the deep end and play for a little bit.
I was inclined to let him have his moment and monitor the exchange from a distance.
But then Hope had to go and remind me that she wasn’t a silly fish either. I’d read her transcripts so I knew she was smart. From personal experience I knew she had wit and a dauntlessness that couldn’t be bought.
She was brazen and beautiful.
And mine.
She just didn’t know it yet.
I’d tried to save her today, ease her into submission, but she’d rejected my teachings and provoked me instead.
I couldn’t help myself.
I’d thought back again and again and the more I remembered the taste of her mouth or the scent of her wet pussy, the more I forgot my greater mission.
Everything I’d worked so hard to build had taken a back seat for her.
Freyja. The Norse goddess of beauty and healing. I’d recognized her the second after I’d opened my door. I saw her and I claimed her. All she had to do was play the part of the overachiever I knew her to be, keep her head in the books, and I’d have gone after her when the time was right.
I should have known she’d wreak havoc on everything.
Maybe I should have waited to give her the scholarship for spring semester but I knew I’d have a better chance of getting her to change schools this year if I suggested the school make the offer for fall as well.
She’d waited until the last minute to accept. I’d stewed for weeks while I’d waited for her response. I’d played with the idea of punishing her for the perturbation she’d caused but I’d decided to take it as another lesson in patience.
Three years. I’d waited three years to get justice for my mother. I could wait a few weeks for Hope’s response to an acceptance letter.
And I’m glad I had.
When the class was dismissed I grabbed Silas before he could make his way over to her and dragged him through the door in the back of the room. “We need to talk.”
“We can talk at the cafe.”
The campus had a small coffee shop that served cold sandwiches and baked goods on the other side of campus but for the most part, everyone ate in the cafeteria. The food was excellent and had been mentioned in a few culinary magazines worldwide.
Silas’s head was angled back in the direction Hope was traveling. He wasn’t even paying attention. The fact that he’d let me drag him anywhere was evidence to the fact.
“It’s important.”
He pulled his eyes to me and I saw the strength it took to do it. Hope was irresistible. He looked down at the hand I still had wrapped around his arm and then back at me.
I let him go. I didn’t want to cause another scene. Not today. But there was so much hostility between us that I knew our day would come, but not in the near future. I could barely wait to punch him in the face.
“She’s mine.”
Silas stiffened and his shoulders locked. He looked ready to balk and I corrected my assumption that the tension between us would not have its comeuppance soon. It happened today, this very instant if he decided she was worth fighting for.
I’d already made that decision and there was nothing I wouldn’t do to have her.
Silas’s dark gaze held mine for a spell and then the tension bled away and he nodded. “Fine.” He didn’t really want Hope anyway. My refusal to let him play with her was the reason he was upset. Silas didn’t like being told no. I tried my best to limit how often I gave him instruction. Usually, that meant limiting my time with him all together.
We were not friends. We were allies. “You need to get Carolyn under control.”
“She is under control.”
“She’s not,” I emphasized. “She tried to defy me in front of the student body. She runs the school website. We can’t afford any loose ends. Her cooperation is critical. Get her in line or I will.”
His eyes flared but he nodded. “I’ll get it done.”
I started away but he called to my back. “Speaking of the plan…” He rounded me and then leaned against the locker. He crossed his arms. “Diana is upset.”
“I’m aware.”
“How are you going to make this right?”
“I… don’t kn
ow.”
Diana was a complicated girl. Stubborn, pretty, and spoiled right down to her very core. Courting her was a test of patience and will like no other.
Another voice interrupted our conversation. Rome forcefully bumped my shoulder as he rounded on me and got in my face. “I heard about what happened in the gym. What the hell, man? We had a plan,” he sneered.
“Not here.”
The pressure in the air got heavier.
A muscle jumped in Rome’s jaw before he turned and pointed a finger at Silas. “And you. You just couldn’t leave it alone.”
Silas straightened. “Me? What did I do?”
“Not here,” I hissed again.
Eyes were one us. Voices had quieted as soon as the anger surrounding us rose to worrying levels. I was the tallest of our group but Rome and Silas weren’t behind me by much. They were matched in height and weight with a wider build. Rome was also known to use his fists when he was upset, something Barnet didn’t tolerate.
After a fight, we all spent irreplaceable hours cleaning up his mess before a faculty member could be called.
Students rushed along and dropped their chins when they realized they’d caught my attention. They knew their place. Why couldn’t Hope follow suit?
“Outside,” Silas said.
I followed them. If there was going to be a fight someone had to be there to pull them off of one another.
He slammed out of the back door and toward an alcove in the trees where we knew few ears would hear us.
The door opened behind me and the last of our strained quartet came out. Allen did a better job than the others at containing his anger. He’d learned to master his emotions and rein them in so that he could later unleash them on the football field.
He was the shortest and heaviest member of our vindictive clan. His hazel gaze took in what was going on. “Are they going to fight?”
“Probably.” I turned back to Rome and Silas.
