by Josie Max
Savage Devil
By Josie Max
SAVAGE DEVIL
Copyright © 2020 by Josie Max.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations em- bodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For information contact:
[email protected]
https://www.josiemaxwrites.com/
Book and Cover design by Josie Max.
Photography by konradbak
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Savage Devil
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FIND JOSIE MAX
SAVAGE DEVIL
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
FIND JOSIE MAX
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SAVAGE DEVIL
MY MOTHER DIED THE night the devil strolled into my life.
He found me. Saved me from her fate.
He wrote me a little note explaining what he planned for me.
Roses are dead. Violets are black and blue. Watch out, little girl. I’m going to destroy you.
As the new girl from the south side of town going to a prestigious academy for my senior year, I never expected welcoming open arms. But the bloody nose on my first day was a surprise. And the threat. And the... well, let me just say behind the Botoxed smiles and shiny sports cars were the worst sort of people.
And there was one that brought them to their knees. One who ruled Green Hills Academy like the monarchs he descended from. Knight King hated me. Hated what I represented. Hated that I wasn’t wealthy and that I dared to enter his world.
He was used to getting his way. Everyone did what he told them. He tried to rule me, but I was a fighter.
My name’s Violet and I was anything but a shrinking flower.
PROLOGUE
Violet
COLD. THE NIGHT BIT into my skin like jagged ice, sending shivers through my body.
The worn T-shirt with a smiley face I wore with fleece pajama pants weren’t enough to keep away the chill of the April morning. Maybe it wasn’t the air, but the sight of my mother’s bloated body being dragged from the pond.
I frowned.
Happy Pond was rather big. Large enough to drown in.
A local hangout for teens, and one of them found my mom. At least, that’s what the officer told me.
There’s nothing happy about this place.
I pulled the coarse, gray blanket the officer gave me tighter. My teeth chattered anyway, as if they knew something I didn’t.
“Oh, doll, you don’t need to see this.” The officer, a woman with kind eyes, wrapped an arm around me, guiding me farther inland. “The ambulance will be here soon. They’re going to want to check you out.”
We walked, but I said nothing. The time filled with her sweet ramblings.
“I’m Officer Janet Harris, but you can call me Janet.” Her grin wrinkled the corners of her eyes. “You go to school nearby?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t from this part of town. Where I lived, finding bodies wasn’t so unusual. You’d be surprised how many dead people wound up near the trailer park. Maybe that’s why I was shaking. The shock that my mom would be anywhere near the gilded elite that made up North Green Hills; her lifeless body floating in their happy pond.
A year ago, I wouldn’t have been shocked if my mom’s body was found in an unusual location. It wasn’t like she lived a perfect life. The only thing that made her happy most of her life was drugs and guys with guns.
Despite my mom’s not-so clean decisions, I loved her.
But the difference between last year and this, was that she tried to get clean. Determined to make sobriety stick. I was proud of her. She had worked so hard. This shouldn’t have been her end and it ripped me apart that I couldn’t help her.
I sat on a damp wooden bench near a playground, the pond had disappeared.
“Want some coffee? I got some decaf.” Officer Harris’ tone dripped with pity as I looked up. The moon broke free from the clouds, making a halo around her head.
“Yes. Thank you.” I found my voice. It was groggy, but there.
She glanced around and we both saw a tall, older man heading our way, his eyes squarely on me. My mom would have called him distinguished. I swallowed, trying to ease my queasy stomach. Something about the way he stared made me wonder if I was in trouble.
But for what? Do they think I killed my mother?
“Mayor, I hadn’t expected to see you here,” the officer said to the man in the long black woolen coat.
“Officer Harris, nice to see you again.” He flashed the whitest smile I had ever seen. “Knight found the body.”
Janet’s eyes slid to me. I knew that look. She was worried I’d either burst into tears or brandish a fist. She was wise to monitor me. I wasn’t immune to throwing a punch or two when someone thought it would be fun to push my buttons.
But witnessing my mother’s damp gray body pulled from the pond drained any energy I had. There was no anger during the predawn light, the only thing I felt was empty and alone.
“I look forward to the Officer’s Ball this year at your place, mayor.” She nodded at him.
“Of course. It’s a yearly tradition.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“Why don’t we speak closer to my car, mayor?” She waved him away before turning to me. “I’ll go get that coffee for you.”
I blinked. A nod felt like too much energy. A wave of exhaustion took over and despite the small puddle on the bench, I laid down. Perhaps closing my eyes for a minute would help. Maybe it was all a dream . . . a nightmare. When I opened them again, my mom would fry up some bacon with a Virginia Slim cigarette between her fingers and a smile on her face.
Bacon and my mom humming her favorite Nirvana tune consumed my thoughts as I drifted away. But right before I let go of the terrible events that led me to this hard, wet bench, I heard the mayor announce, “I’ll take care of her.”
ONE
Violet
Five Months Later
“THE WATERMELON ISN’T bad.” Aunt Dahlia’s berry-nude lips tipped into a grin so big it wrinkled the corner of her eyes. She had never looked more beautiful.
I didn’t hold back my frown.
“Yuck. I’ll stick with my chocolate peanut butter milkshake, thank you very much.” I gave her my best smug smile. “I meant it as a joke. You didn’t have to actually get the watermelon milkshake.”
We were seated outsi
de the milkshake shop in the Green Hills National Airport. I hadn’t been to any other airport in my life, but according to Aunt Dahlia, they all look the same.
The Milk Shack had several locations around town, but we came to the airport to get our custom-made milkshakes today.
She reached across the tall, round table and gripped my hand. “I know. But I’m not afraid of trying new things.”
The florescent light that hung over our table caused Dahlia’s green eyes to sparkle. Her smile faded and I knew what she was trying to do. It was the same expression my mom always gave me when she tried to teach me a lesson.
My mom also had the same green eyes; in fact, I was the only Adler female with brown eyes. They were from my dad, but he had never been in my life—I didn’t even know his name.
As a seventeen-year-old, it was imperative to react as any self-respecting teenager should when an adult was dolling out wisdom. So, I rolled my eyes.
But this time the eye-roll came with a tear.
“I’ll only be a phone call away.”
I snorted, irritated that she was leaving me. “Don’t you know? Nobody makes calls anymore.”
“Oh, well, I’m so glad you told me. I would have thoroughly embarrassed myself by wanting to talk to my only niece, the one I love with all my heart . . . while she got to live in a mansion with the mayor.”
I stirred the milkshake and shrugged off her words. “I don’t understand why I can’t live with you for my senior year of high school? I’ll be eighteen in three weeks and—”
She held up her hand. “Violet, stop, please. You know this doesn’t make me happy. I don’t want to be away from you, either. But it makes sense.”
I folded my arms over my chest, mumbling, “For you.”
Dahlia let out a sigh. “Not for me. For you. When would you have a chance like this ever again in your life? Last I checked, we don’t have a mysterious wealthy relative who left us all their money in a will. The mayor was nice enough to take you in for your senior year of high school and pay for you to go to Green Hills Academy.”
I bit my lip and refused to look her way. “That doesn’t mean I have to go. If I can be with you, then I’ll happily give up living in a fancy home and the privileged life that comes with it.”
Why was the mayor being so helpful? Sure, his nephew found me by the pond the night my mom died. And for some weird reason, the mayor showed up and got all in my business. But didn’t he have more important things to worry about . . . like, I don’t know, running a town.
Dahlia leaned closer. “But I would rarely be home. Whether you like it or not, my job requires a lot of travel. You just lost you mom—” her voice cracked and she paused, clearing her throat. “You need people around you. I wish I could take time from work to look after you, but I can’t. The mayor promised you’d be well cared for. Besides, you’ll be the first person to get out of the South Side Trailer Park and get to move to the North Side.”
That wasn’t exactly true. But my aunt had never heard of the story of the girl who managed to snag a rich guy from the north side and got out. My mom told me she had known her when she was a teenager.
“I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me. What if he’s a serial killer or drug kingpin or—”
“Stop.” Dahlia stepped down from her stool and came to my side, placing her hand gently on my shoulder. “He’s the mayor of Green Hills. I doubt he has time for killing.” She added a wink to make me smile.
It wouldn’t work. Being left with strangers by the only family I had left was all I thought about. I met him once. Something felt off about him on that early morning of my mom’s overdose at Happy Pond. Maybe I was acting ridiculous, pretending he might be a serial killer or drug pusher, but I didn’t want to live with him and his family.
I wanted my aunt.
She was the person I always called when my mom went out looking for drugs. I remembered countless weekends staying up late watching movies and eating popcorn with her. She wasn’t so much an aunt as a second mother.
“Besides, didn’t you tell me you wanted to get into Winter River University? With a year at Green Hills Academy and your GPA, I bet you would have a shot.”
I raised my eyes from the beige tiled floor. “You think?”
She shrugged. “Much better chance than continuing at your old high school. Besides, I bet if you didn’t give the mayor any trouble, he might write you a letter of recommendation for the university. You’d be sure to be invited to apply.”
I lifted my thumb, nibbling on my thumbnail, taking in what she was saying.
I first heard about Winter River University from my mom two years ago. She was high on whatever drug she got a hold of at the moment fiddling with that locket of hers that she always wore, but I remember her getting serious and pointing at me. She told me only the elite got into Winter River. That if I ever wanted to get out of the South Green Hills Trailer Park and get a chance at something real in life, I needed to get into that school. That it was a hidden secret among the wealthy and they didn’t want just anyone going there.
She said, “If you want to beat the wealthy oppressors at their own game, you go there. Do whatever you can to get into that school.”
I assumed she was hallucinating. If it was that great, why had I never heard of it before?
Then I looked it up and it seemed nice, if not pricey. Then I read a few blog posts on various websites that all said the same thing—it was an elite school the rich didn’t want the public to know about. Their hidden gem.
It’s so exclusive that they only invite a select number of people to apply. And there’s no guarantee that if you get to apply to the school that you’d be accepted.
That’s when I became obsessed. I maintained straight A’s and did as many extracurriculars as possible. I volunteered at soup kitchens and nursing homes.
Even with all that, I knew the only way I could get in was with a scholarship. Unfortunately, the university only accepted five scholarship students a year.
Despite my perfect GPA and everything I had done to get a chance at being accepted by Winter River, I knew there was a slim chance I’d get in.
Until now.
“You’re strong and the smartest person I know. I wish I had been there for your mom when she called me, but I was here with zero cell reception.” Dahlia waved a hand around the airport.
Heartbreak added lines to her face, and I knew she blamed herself for Mom’s death.
“It wasn’t your fault, Aunt Dahlia.” I hopped off my stool and pulled her into a hug.
“Why was she at that pond anyway? She hated ponds, lakes, anything to do with a lot of water,” my aunt muttered into my shoulder.
She smelled like Mom. I smiled, remembering Mom not having enough money at Christmas to get Aunt Dahlia a nice gift, so she wrapped some of the drug store perfume she had bought herself. It was cheap. Mom couldn’t afford anything better, but that didn’t stop Dahlia from wearing it.
The only thing I had from my mom was the bracelet she gave me on my sixteenth birthday. It was cheap but it was from her. Only if the police had found her locket. Then I’d actually have something of hers. Something I knew she loved.
I guess they never found it.
“I may not be the reason Rose died, but I should have been there for her.” She sighed and pulled me back, staring into my eyes. “I thought she had cleaned up her act. If something was going on, you could have told me.”
“She had. That’s what I don’t understand. She was so excited to get her one-year chip at the NA meeting that coming Sunday. I don’t understand what happened . . .. I even talked to her sponsor and she told me mom was her usual self, nothing out of the ordinary.”
We had a fight that night. About my father and why I never knew him. Maybe that’s why she was about to go on a drug bender, drug her own daughter, and then drown herself.
I remember the feeling of being groggy that night but until the people at the hospital took my blood and
tested me, I never realized she would have drugged me. She had never done anything like that before.
Her lips thinned. I could tell it made little sense to Dahlia. I wasn’t the only one with questions and guilt.
She shook her head and tucked some strands of my dark locks behind my ear. “If there was something out of the ordinary, the police would’ve picked up on it. Let’s focus on your future right now. You have a chance to go to an elite school and live in luxury for a while.”
I shrugged. Yeah, that was amazing, but it felt empty without Mom to share it with me.
“I think it’s weird the mayor wants to help.”
Dahlia nodded. “It’s kind of strange, but you know those political types. He’s probably doing it because he thinks it will help him get reelected in November. His publicist probably told him to help the down-on-her-luck girl by paying for her to go to Green Hills Academy and take her in.”
“But what if he doesn’t get elected again? Does that mean I’ll be out on my ass come Thanksgiving?”
“Of course not,” Dahlia said, but the crease between her brows told me she wasn’t so sure.
A voice came over the loudspeaker and Dahlia turned to grab her purse from the table. She pulled out her ticket and said, “That’s my flight. I have to get going as they’re boarding soon. Still need to get through security. One last hug and then you call me tomorrow to tell me how your first day of school went.”
She threw her arms wide and I hugged her tight. I felt like I was five again, afraid of my mom leaving my room at night, that the monster under my bed might appear once she was gone.
“The mayor said there would be a car out front of baggage claim to pick you up.”
I nodded, too emotional to respond.
She pulled back and brushed a tear from her cheek.
“You’re a beautiful, smart, and tough girl, Violet Adler. You haven't had the best life, but here you are. I know you won’t let anything or anyone beat you down. Us Adler women have too much spice in our blood to dissolve into nothing.”
