“You won’t be doing much sleeping,” she said with a wink. “But yes, you’ve got the gist of it.”
“Pick, Laney!” the other girls screeched, still twirling around me.
Panic flooded my veins. It felt like the whole world was closing in on me.
As I gulped down several deep breaths, I noticed another masked man on the edge of the clearing, standing by one of the golden serpent torches with a black camcorder in his hands. A lascivious smile curved up his lips as he focused it on me.
“No,” I muttered. “I… I can’t do this. I won’t.”
I sucked in a deep breath, pushed my way through the crowd of girls, and dashed toward the other side of the clearing, stumbling over small rocks and piles of leaves as I searched for the path. I finally found it and picked up the pace, heart pounding like crazy.
“Don’t worry, she’s just having a little freak-out,” I heard Camila call out to someone. “I’ll get her.”
I heard a flurry of footsteps behind me, and then she caught up to me and grabbed my arm. “Stop,” she said, pulling me around to face her. “Come back. Everything’s fine!”
Out here in the cold darkness, I felt much more sober. My mind wasn’t fuzzy anymore, and I could actually think rationally.
I folded my arms and narrowed my eyes. “You lied to me,” I said in a hollow voice.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, smiling sweetly.
“At our first meeting, you told me there’s no sex in the society unless someone chooses it.”
She arched an eyebrow. “It is a choice. As long as you make the right one.”
“That’s not a fucking choice,” I said through gritted teeth. “What happens if I want to say no?”
She shrugged. “No one’s ever refused before.”
“Well, I am. I’m refusing,” I said. “I can’t believe you actually thought I’d have sex with some random stranger in the woods in front of everyone.”
To my surprise, she giggled. “Don’t be so provincial! It’s just one time for the camera, so we know we can trust you,” she said, rubbing my arm. “That’s all. I promise.”
“Bullshit. You’ve lied to me from the very start. You told me that Dayna chose to fuck that guy as her initiation reward. But you made her say that, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but only because we couldn’t tell you the truth about the ritual at the time,” she said in an annoyingly-soothing tone, like I was a petulant little child who needed calming. “We didn’t lie to you about it being her choice, though. She said yes. We all said yes when it was our turn up there.” She smiled again. “Like I said before, no one has ever said no.”
“Yeah, because they were all drugged to the fucking gills with whatever gets slipped into the wine, right?” I said. “I’m guessing it’s twice as potent when it’s combined with alcohol, so most of the girls don’t even realize what’s happening at the time, because they’re so fucked up.”
“It’s just a few little pills to make things run smoother,” Camila replied, as if drink-spiking was a normal, perfectly-legal activity.
I scoffed. “It’s not real consent if the person saying yes is high as fuck on drugs, and you know it.”
She raised her palms. “Laney, you need to calm down. Like I said before, it’s just one time,” she said in a wheedling tone. “How can we trust you with all of the society’s secrets if you won’t make any sacrifices for us to prove that you’re worthy?”
My stomach lurched as the full extent of the Medusa’s betrayal dawned on me. “That’s not true, is it?” I said softly, taking a step back. “It’s not just one time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That’s what all the gifts, money and scholarships are for. It’s not just sex one time on camera to gain the rest of the society’s trust. It’s sex whenever the hell those Network men want it. Am I right?”
Camila sighed. “You’re totally overreacting.”
“I’m not. I know how it works now. You trick poor scholarship girls into joining by promising them the world, and at their initiation, you drug them so they won’t say no. And it’s all filmed, so if they decide they want out the next day when they’ve come to their senses, it’s too late. They have to stay and keep participating in everything the Network demands of them, or else you’ll leak their videos. And obviously they can never tell anyone or ask for help.”
“Laney, calm down. Seriously,” Camila said, rolling her eyes again. “It’s really not what you think.”
“Yes, it is,” I hissed, jabbing a finger at her chest. “I know I’m right. You trick girls into joining and trap them by threatening them with the videos, because everyone knows sex tapes can ruin lives if they go viral. Especially if you’re poor and can’t afford some sort of PR team to spin it for you,” I said. “That’s why none of you are allowed to hang out with any other students at RFA or date any of the guys there. You’re sequestered from everyone to protect all of the society’s dirty secrets, and because you’re beautiful and part of an exclusive club, no one notices anything is wrong. They just see you as gorgeous, inaccessible popular girls, when really, you’re in a fucking sex cult.”
She laughed. “A cult? Oh my god, stop being so dramatic!” she said. “We’re not a cult. Just come back, finish up, and let us give you your first gift! I’ll give you a hint: it’s Chanel.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to let you gaslight me,” I said. “The drugs obviously didn’t work as well on me as you hoped they would. I guess it’s lucky for me that I don’t drink, huh?”
She let out another heavy sigh. “Listen to me, Laney. You’re really, really overreacting. Yes, we sleep with the guys, but it’s fun! And we get so much in return. Everything we’ve ever dreamed of. Don’t you want that?”
“Not if it has to happen like this,” I replied, wrinkling my nose. “I’m not going to let some creepy strangers use me whenever they want just so I can get a free ride to college and a cushy job afterwards.”
“Don’t you get it?” she said, shaking her head. “We aren’t being used by the Network men. We’re the ones using them. We take as much as we want, and the best part is, they’re perfectly happy to be used!”
I scoffed. “Of course they are. They’re rich middle-aged men getting as much sex as they want from gorgeous young women. They’ve just brainwashed you into thinking it’s a good situation.”
“It is. It’s our choice!” she insisted.
“Oh, really? Tell me, Camila. How many of the Network men have you chosen to sleep with?”
She stiffened and averted her eyes. “I don’t know.”
“How is that possible?”
“Only half of them take their masks off at the parties, so I can’t be sure.”
“Give me an estimate.”
“I said I don’t know.” Her refusal to meet my gaze was extremely telling.
“It’s all of them, isn’t it?”
She finally looked back at me with narrowed eyes. “Don’t slut-shame me, Laney. I thought you were better than that.”
“I’m not slut-shaming you! I’m just telling you the truth. This isn’t empowering for any of the girls. It’s not some big sex-positive equality movement, either, no matter how much you try to convince yourself it is.” I took a step closer, forehead creasing. “If you weren’t living under the constant threat of having your sex tapes exposed, how many of those men would you actually choose to sleep with? Like if you randomly met them out in the real world?”
Camila looked away again and swallowed audibly.
I kept going. “You say it’s all so fun, but how much do you actually enjoy sleeping with them? And how many orgasms have you had with them?” I asked. “Any at all? Or is it just performative bullshit because you’re scared of what they’ll do if you say no or refuse to fake pleasure for them?”
“Shut the fuck up,” she said in an acid tone. “You honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’m pretty sure
I do. They tricked you into joining sometime in the past, and now it’s your job to trick other girls to make sure the men always have a supply of fresh meat. Once you’ve graduated from RFA, that job will get passed down to one of the other girls.” I lifted my chin. “It isn’t empowerment, and you know it. It’s the opposite. You’re giving these men everything they want, and they have all the power, because if you refuse them, not only do you lose your future college scholarship and career, you risk having a sex tape leaked of you.” I paused and let out a snort. “Tell me, what part of that makes you feel empowered?”
Camila’s eyes blazed with contemptuous fury as she stared at me. “You should’ve just taken the first drink we gave you,” she said in a low voice, grabbing one of my wrists. “But you just had to make things fucking hard for everyone, didn’t you?”
My stomach lurched. It wasn’t the first time in my life that I’d heard something along those lines. You should’ve just had the drink and made things easier for everyone else.
Dark memories seeped like ink into my brain. My father’s face flashed in my mind, along with the sickening thumping sound his body made when my mother and I rolled it off the cliff into the quarry below. A chaotic mixture of fear, rage and anguish filled my chest, sending a flood of adrenaline through my veins, and I wrenched my wrist out of Camila’s grasp, making her yelp with surprise.
I whirled around and sprinted down the path.
“Stop!” Camila called after me. “You can’t leave!”
“Watch me!” I shouted over my shoulder.
She caught up to me again and grabbed at my dress, pulling me back to her. “How are you planning on getting off the island?” she asked. “You don’t have the keys to the motorboats.”
“Let go!” I shouted, swatting at her hands.
“I suppose you could swim,” she went on. “But it’s halfway through fall, so that water is fucking freezing. You’ll probably die of hypothermia before you even make it halfway back to the shore.”
“I’d rather freeze to death than hang around your fucked-up fantasy party for a second longer,” I snarled, eyes narrowed and chest heaving as I struggled to make her let go of my dress.
I finally freed myself from her grip and started running again. This time, she let me go.
“You better not fucking tell anyone about this!” she shouted after me. “Some of the most powerful people in the state are in the Network, so if you do, you’ll regret it!”
I ignored her and kept going, stumbling over tree roots and rocks in the darkness. When I reached the end of the path, I burst onto the shore and dashed toward the pier. There had to be a spare key in one of the boats, or at least some sort of inflatable raft for emergencies that I could paddle back to the RFA side of the shore.
A flicker of movement in the woods by my side caught my eye, along with the sound of heavy footsteps crunching over dead leaves. Then a tall, hulking man dressed in black emerged from the trees and stepped out in front of me, blocking my path.
“Hello, Laney.”
6
Hunter
“Hello, Laney. Fancy seeing you here.”
My attempt at a stupid joke fell flat instantly as I caught sight of Laney’s stricken face.
Under the bright starlight, I could see smeared mascara under her eyes and a long scratch on the side of her left arm, presumably from a small branch that had scraped her as she dashed through the woods. Her chest was heaving, and her hair was damp with perspiration.
“Hunter?” she said, eyes bulging. She took a step backwards. “What the fuck?”
“Are you okay?” I asked, holding out one hand to let her know she could take it if she wanted help.
“Are you with them?” she asked, whipping her head to the left and then behind her, as if she were afraid of being seen by someone else.
“With who?” I asked.
She focused on me again. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I came to—”
She cut me off. “Never mind. I don’t have time to hear it,” she said, words tumbling out a mile a minute. “Can you get me off this island?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“Right now?”
“Sure.”
Goosebumps were cropping up all over her arms, throat and chest, and she was starting to shiver. I peeled my jacket off and put it over her shoulders, half-expecting her to protest or fling the jacket into the lake. Instead she meekly accepted it with a murmured ‘thank you’.
I led her over to the spot on the shore where I left my boat earlier. After grabbing the oars, I kicked the boat out into the water and told Laney to get in. She did as I said, still fearfully glancing over her shoulder as we slowly pushed away from the shore.
“I didn’t know you could row,” she said softly.
I turned my head over my shoulder. “Lindsay used to do it, so I watched her practice sometimes and picked up the basics from there,” I explained. “But I’m no expert, believe me. It took me five minutes to figure out how the hell the oarlocks worked earlier, even though it turned out to be simple as fuck.”
“Oh.”
I turned back to face the front of the boat, leaning forward as I pulled on the oars again. “So what happened back there?” I asked. “You looked like you saw a fucking ghost when I ran into you.”
“Let’s just say I attended the worst party of my life tonight,” she muttered.
“Shit. What happened?”
She was silent for a moment. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now.”
“Okay.”
I wanted to know, but I didn’t want to push her too hard. If I did, I might end up getting pushed myself, right into the fucking lake.
“What were you doing out there?” she asked.
I cleared my throat. “I followed you,” I muttered.
“You followed me?” she said incredulously.
I nodded. “Yup. I’ve been keeping an eye on you over the last few nights. Just sitting in my car outside Blair Hall and watching,” I said, well aware of what a fucking creep I sounded like. “I fell asleep for a while tonight, and when I woke up I decided to stretch my legs. I walked around the side and saw a ladder up against your bathroom window. Then I ran back around to the front and saw a bunch of people in masks carrying you out with a bag over your head.”
“How did you know it was me?”
“I recognized your pajamas. I’ve seen them in your dorm before,” I replied. “Anyway, I was about to go fucking apeshit on them, but then one of them took off their mask, and I saw that it was Camila Valmont. I overheard Adam talking to Trina the other day; something about you joining Camila’s little secret society. So I figured it was just some sort of initiation prank.”
“It was.”
“I followed them anyway, just in case. They went into Royal Hall with some guy in a black and gold mask. Used a keycard to get past the entrance lock. So I guess they have special privileges from the school. Anyway, I got to the door just before it closed and slipped in behind them. I saw them take you to their little clubroom, so I waited a few minutes, and then I pressed my ear up against the door. I heard them all talking about your initiation, and saying you needed to get your hair and makeup done. So then I figured there was gonna be some sort of party somewhere else.”
“So you waited for us to leave and kept following us.”
“Yup. I saw you head down to the pier at the boathouse and start heading over to the island. I wanted to keep following you—just to make sure everything was okay—but I didn’t have a speedboat like them, so I sneaked into the boatshed. Took fifteen fucking minutes just to figure out where everything was, but I found some stuff eventually and rowed out here.”
“Did you see the party?” Laney asked. She was still speaking softly, but she spat out the word ‘party’ like it was cursed.
I shook my head. “Nope. By the time I got over here, I had no idea where the fuck you’d all gone. I started walking around lo
oking for you, but that island is surprisingly big.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I think I got a bit lost in the woods. But after a while I heard music, so I figured I was getting close. I started heading that way. Then I heard your voice. Turned my head and saw you sprint right past me like a bat out of hell, just a few yards away. I tried to go toward you, but there was a creek blocking my way, so I doubled back and headed for the shore, because it looked like you were heading there. That’s when we ran into each other.”
“Oh.”
I turned my head over my shoulder again. “Are you sure you’re okay? Did someone try to hurt you at the party?”
“Not really,” she muttered. “I just wanted to leave.”
I could tell she was keeping something from me, but it was also clear she wasn’t ready to talk about it. At least not with me.
I turned my head back to the front and rowed harder, sucking in deep breaths so I could maintain the pace.
“Why have you been watching me, Hunter?” Laney asked a few minutes later.
“What?” I said, distracted by a freezing droplet of water that had just flown up in my face.
“You said you followed us tonight because you’ve basically been stalking me and saw someone take me,” she said. “Why have you been doing that?”
“Because I’ve been worried.”
“Why?”
“I’m always worried about you,” I said quietly.
“Why?” she repeated. She was starting to sound mad.
I hesitated for a beat. “Because someone’s been trying to hurt you, and I’m worried they won’t stop.”
She fell silent after that.
When we made it back to the shore, I helped her out of the boat and carried all the stuff back over to the storage shed. Then I put my hand on the small of her back. “C’mon. I’ll walk you back to your dorm.”
She remained silent, but she didn’t protest. She stiffened a little at my touch, though, which stung more than I wanted to admit.
When we made it back to her front door, her brows pinched together. “Shit,” she muttered. “I don’t have my keycard. I’ll have to climb that ladder outside and go through the bathroom window.”
Shattered Kingdom: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Royal Falls Elite Book 2) Page 6
