Shattered Kingdom: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Royal Falls Elite Book 2)

by Kristin Buoni

  “But now they’ve hurt you anyway,” Hunter added, face softening as he looked at his younger brother. “To get at Laney.”

  “No shit,” Adam muttered, shoulders drooping.

  “I’m really sorry,” I said, lowering my gaze to the floor as needles of guilt jabbed at my guts.

  He let out a long sigh. “I guess it’s not your fault,” he said. “I practically made you join the Medusas, because I thought it was such a good idea. So if anything, it’s my fault all this shit has happened.”

  “No, you couldn’t have known, and it was my decision to join them in the end.”

  Hunter’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Wait a minute,” he said, head tipping slightly to the side. “None of this makes any sense. I mean, this whole sawing-through-the-floorboards thing took a lot of planning. So they must’ve known you guys were coming here today, right?”

  I nodded. “Yes. And they had to know Trina wouldn’t show up, too. Otherwise she could’ve fallen through the hole instead of me.”

  Adam threw up his hands. “How is any of that possible?” he asked. “I mean, I guess they could’ve sneaked something into Trina’s lunch to make sure she got sick and didn’t come this afternoon. But how did they know about the whole thing in the first place?”

  “I have no idea,” I replied. I’d been wondering the exact same thing since I got here. “I didn’t mention it to anyone except Hunter about twenty minutes ago. Apart from that it was just you, Trina, and me.”

  Adam’s brows knitted. “I don’t think I told anyone either. I mean, it was just a dumb trip to the abandoned buildings after school. Didn’t exactly warrant a campus-wide announcement.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t mention it to anyone?”

  “I might’ve said something to my lab partner in bio this morning, because we talk a lot,” he said. “But I don’t know. I honestly can’t remember.”

  “Are any of the Medusa girls in your bio class?” Hunter asked.

  Adam shrugged. “Maybe. I only pay attention to my lab partner and the teacher, though, so I can’t be sure.”

  “Well, they had to know about your plans somehow,” Hunter said.

  “Wait.” I lifted a palm. “I think I might know how they knew. When I told them I was going to join them last week, Kiri took my phone and did all that stuff to block you, Hunter. But she could’ve done something else too.”

  Adam’s brows rose. “She could’ve installed a keylogger. Or some sort of virus that let her have access to all the stuff on your phone via her own phone.”

  “Exactly. The society might’ve wanted to monitor my messages before I joined to make sure I was trustworthy.”

  “So they could’ve read your entire group chat and known all about this plan to explore the abandoned buildings,” Hunter added, eyes darkening.

  I pulled my phone out and gingerly held it out in front of me like it was a loaded gun. “What should I do with it?”

  “You can’t use it anymore, just in case,” he said, taking it from me and slipping it in his pocket. “I’ll get you another one to use while we get this one checked out.”

  Adam let out a heavy sigh and sat down again, leaning against the paneled wall. “There’s something seriously wrong with those Medusa girls, if all this shit is true,” he said. “It sounds like they’re completely fucking brainwashed by these Network guys.”

  “Yeah, I think a lot of them are. Plus they also stand to lose a lot if I expose them,” I said.

  He glanced up at me. “All they want is for you to stop investigating them, right?”

  “Seems that way.”

  “How do they even know you’re investigating them?” he asked. “Didn’t you say you were only just looking into it all at the library today? Like barely an hour ago?”

  Hunter scratched at his jaw. “Huh, that’s a good point,” he said. He looked at me. “Maybe they saw you leaving Harker Island with me the other night, and they just assumed there was a chance you might tell me about it, and then they figured that I might convince you to launch some sort of amateur investigation into them. So this shit today could’ve been more of a ‘don’t you dare even try to look into us’ warning than anything else.”

  I nodded slowly. “Maybe, yeah. If they’ve suspected that we might be looking into them since Friday night, that definitely would’ve given them time to set up this trap for us today.”

  “Right.” Adam sighed again. “Honestly, I still can’t believe this shit. If you’d actually fallen into that hole…” He trailed off and scrubbed a hand across his face. “I know it probably wouldn’t have killed you, but what if you fell at a bad angle and broke your neck?”

  My chest tightened. I didn’t want to think about that, but he was right. These girls—and their overlords in the Network—were coming after me hard. This time, they only wanted to injure me as a warning, but next time, they might take it one step further. They might even decide to kill me.

  My thoughts suddenly veered off in another direction, and my eyes widened. “Oh, shit.”

  “What?” Hunter said, forehead wrinkling.

  “Something you said earlier just came back to me,” I said, looking at Adam. “About the note saying to drop the investigation. Your first thought was that it was about Lindsay, right?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, because of your plan to look into what happened to her. I didn’t know you were investigating the Medusas too, so it was the only thing that made sense to me.”

  “Right. What if it’s all linked?” I said, pulse quickening.

  “How?”

  I swallowed nervously and turned to Hunter. “Do you remember when I stole your phone and tried to fuck up your Alton application?”

  His lips twitched. “Yeah. Fond memory.”

  I took a deep breath. “This is so horribly awkward to say right now, but I went through your phone that night.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I don’t have anything to hide in there.”

  “I saw your message drafts,” I said softly, cheeks flushing hot with shame.

  Hunter stiffened. “Oh.”

  “What was in there?” Adam asked, confusion etched in his face.

  Hunter sighed and rubbed his jaw. “I started writing a message to Lindsay after she died. Like an apology letter for being a shitty brother, I guess,” he said. “Never sent it, though. It just seemed pointless in the end. Wasn’t like she’d ever see it.”

  “I’m sorry for reading it,” I said. “But I remember you said something in it about how she loved stargazing from your rooftop garden.”

  “Yeah, she did. What does that have to do with any of this shit, though?”

  “The first night I was here, I went to the old observatory on the other side of Blair Hall,” I explained. “I looked through the astronomy binoculars first, and I saw a bunch of weird lights in the distance. They were on Harker Island.”

  “So?” Adam tilted his chin to one side.

  “So that was the first time I realized something weird was going on over there. The next time I saw them was at Chris Hewittson’s party, and I rowed over to the island and saw part of Dayna’s initiation ritual.”

  “I’m still not following.”

  I lifted a palm. “My point is: Lindsay loved stargazing. What if she decided to use the observatory here at RFA one night, and she saw lights on the island too?”

  Hunter’s eyes widened. “You think she might’ve looked into it all and found out about the Medusas and the Network. Just like you.”

  “Yes. It’s possible, right?”

  “I guess so,” he said, nodding slowly.

  Adam’s face went white as a sheet. “You think they might’ve killed Lindsay to keep her quiet once they realized what she knew?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.

  “Maybe.”

  “If that’s true, why didn’t they warn her first?” he asked, gesturing to the hole in the floorboards. “Like they did with you.”

  “Maybe they did,” Hunter interjec
ted. “But you know what Lindsay was like. She would’ve told them to go fuck themselves. Probably told them she was going to expose them to the whole world as soon as she had a chance.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Adam muttered, lowering his gaze to the floor.

  “There’s one other thing,” I said. “Something we didn’t mention earlier. I thought it might be too much for you to deal with, but now I think you should know.”

  “What is it?”

  I shifted uncomfortably in my spot. “Your dad is probably in the Network. We think he might’ve even been one of the founding members.”

  “No,” Adam murmured, shaking his head. “No way.”

  Hunter crouched next to him and lay a hand on his shoulder. “It’s true,” he said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. Pretty fucking sure.”

  “So that means he… he could’ve been the one to push Lindsay that night.” Tears shimmered in Adam’s eyes, and he took a shaky breath. “Right?”

  Hunter nodded. “Yeah. Another member could’ve done it, but either way, he would’ve known about it.”

  “That would also explain why he called you crazy when you said you thought her death wasn’t a suicide,” I added, looking at Hunter. “He might’ve been worried that you’d figure out the truth if you looked into it.”

  His eyes shuttered, and he took a deep breath and rubbed at his temples. “This is too fucking much,” he said in a low voice. “We have to find a way to stop these bastards before it’s too late.”

  “Before they hurt anyone else,” I added.

  “But I thought you said you didn’t have enough evidence to actually go to the cops,” Adam said. “So what can we do?”

  A lightbulb seemed to switch on in my head, and my brows shot up. “This is going to sound crazy, but… I think I might have an idea.”

  11

  Laney

  “No. No way.” Hunter folded his arms across his chest, brows drawn downward. “It’s too dangerous.”

  I’d just spent the last few minutes outlining my plan to clinch the solid evidence we needed to take down the Network, but he wasn’t having a bar of it.

  I lifted a palm. “Just think about it. Please.”

  “I don’t need to think about it. Your idea is fucking insane.”

  I sighed and looked to Adam for support.

  “Laney’s right, you know,” he said, looking at his brother. “It’s probably the only way to get what we need. It’s not like you can just show up at an FBI field office and hand in that book from the library. They’d laugh you out of the building. You need something undeniable.”

  Hunter scowled. “I get that, but it’s still completely fucking insane.”

  “I know it sounds crazy, and I know it’s dangerous, too,” I said. “But if we do it, you’ll be right there with me. You can protect me.”

  “That’s not the point. I can’t let you go through something like that just to get proof of what they’re doing. It’s not right.”

  “Hunter, please. You know we need to get something real, and this is the only way I can think of to get it,” I said. “Can you think of anything better?”

  He let out a short sigh and shook his head. “I can’t right now. But there must be another way.”

  “There isn’t,” I insisted. “They aren’t stupid, so we can’t just follow them around, sneak into their next party, and hope we don’t get caught.”

  Hunter lifted his brows. “Well, that’s clearly bullshit. You’ve managed to sneak into two of their parties so far. One at our house during the alumni party, and one on the island when you rowed over there after the Friday the 13th party. No one caught you then, did they?”

  I crossed my arms. “That’s different. I wouldn’t have been able to get clear shots of anyone from where I was hiding, and like I said, we need real proof, which includes decent footage when their masks start to come off. That means we need to be right in the middle of everything. And that means we need them to think I’m part of it.”

  “Or we could just set up surveillance cameras on the island or in that secret room in my house and wait.”

  I arched a brow. “That won’t work. You know perfectly well that your dad has every inch of your house swept for bugs and cameras twice a week, probably because he’s worried about getting caught. I bet he does the same with Harker Island, too,” I said. “Also, if they do find cameras like I just said, they’ll know someone is onto them, and they’ll find somewhere else to hold their events. Somewhere we can’t track them anymore. They’ll probably also assume it’s me behind it all and come after me even harder. And I know you don’t want that.”

  Hunter’s face softened. “Look, I get what you’re saying, but this plan of yours… do you really want to do something like that?”

  “Of course I don’t want to do it,” I said, rolling my eyes upward. “But there’s no other way they’ll let us in and allow us to get what we need from them.”

  He shook his head slowly. “There’s so much shit that could go wrong.”

  “I know, but that might never happen,” I said. “So we can’t let that worry stop us.”

  Hunter closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. A muscle was ticking in his jaw, and his hands were clenching and unclenching rapidly at his sides.

  “Please just think about it,” I said. “These guys are powerful as hell and their gross, slimy tentacles are practically everywhere, so the only way to destroy them is to take drastic measures. Cut off all the tentacles at once.”

  “I told you, I understand that, but I don’t want to risk it. They’ve already tried to hurt you, and they could do it again,” he said with narrowed eyes, gesturing to the hole in the floorboards. “I can’t fucking stand the thought of anything else happening to you.”

  “I know that, and I love how much you care about me,” I said softly, stepping closer to him. “But these men might’ve killed a girl back in the nineties for going against them, and last year, they might’ve killed Lindsay too. If we don’t do anything to stop them, they might get away with it forever. I know you don’t want that to happen.”

  His hands clenched up again. “I guess I can’t argue with that,” he replied in a low murmur, staring distantly at the opposite wall.

  Adam cleared his throat. “Do you really want to walk back into our house and look at Dad, knowing what he might’ve done, and do absolutely nothing about it?” he asked.

  Hunter glared at him. “Of course I don’t.”

  “Then listen to Laney,” Adam replied. “Yeah, her plan is wild as fuck. But I can’t think of a better way to get everything we need so we can throw a grenade right into the Network and blow them to shit.”

  Hunter set his jaw. “Fine,” he said, leveling his gaze at me. “If it’s what you want, we can do it. But I’m not letting anything happen to you in there. If anyone else even tries to touch you—”

  Adam cut him off. “You’ll make them regret it. We know.”

  Hunter managed a sheepish half-smile and moved closer to me. “Maybe I’ve said that too many times,” he murmured. “But I mean it.”

  “I know,” I said, taking his hand. “And I love hearing it.”

  “Good.” He squeezed my hand tightly in his. “Now let’s start planning this thing properly.”

  I took a deep breath and straightened my shoulders. It was Tuesday lunchtime, and Hunter, Adam and Trina were all in the cafeteria, awaiting my return from Stage One of our master plan. I was standing in an isolated hallway on the other side of Royal Hall, staring at the golden snake insignia on the Medusa Society door.

  I finally lifted my hand and knocked.

  There were footsteps on the other side of the door, and then it opened. Hazel was there. When she realized it was me, her eyes narrowed. “You,” she hissed. “You have a lot of nerve coming back here after what you did on Friday night.”

  “I just want to talk,” I replied, raising my palms.

  “Who is it?” Camila calle
d out from somewhere inside the room.

  Hazel stepped aside to show the other girls that it was me at the door. “It’s her.”

  Camila waved a hand. “It’s okay. Let her in. I’ve actually been expecting her.”

  I gulped and stepped inside, slowly approaching the table where the Medusas were sitting with their lunch.

  Camila smiled at me. “I assume you’re here because you got my letter yesterday?” she said in a saccharine tone.

  “Yes. I got both letters, actually, and I have this to prove it.” I held up my right hand, showing her the dark red scabs from yesterday’s misadventure in the abandoned building. There were multiple scratches all over my palm, and right in the center of it, there was a gash from where a giant splinter had stabbed right into me as I held on to the edge of the broken floorboards for dear life.

  Camila frowned. “I only sent one letter, and I didn’t stick broken glass in the envelope, so I have no idea what’s going on with your hand.”

  I pursed my lips. “That’s not true.”

  “Uh… yes, it is. I think I know what I did.”

  “I know what you did too,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “You hacked my phone and read about my plans to explore the abandoned RFA buildings with my friends, and you went and cut through the floor to set me up for a fall. I know you did something to my friend Trina to make sure she wouldn’t show up, too, and you also attacked my friend Adam. And I know there were two notes in that room.”

  All of the Medusa girls exchanged confused looks as I spoke.

  I had to hand it to them—they were great actresses. I almost believed they didn’t know anything about yesterday’s incident in the woods.

  Camila tilted her head to one side. “Laney… I know you think I’m a crazy liar, considering all the things you said to me on Friday night, so you probably won’t believe what I’m about to say. But I genuinely have no idea what you’re ranting about,” she said. “I didn’t hack your phone. No one here did. I didn’t do anything to your friends, either, and I certainly didn’t cut through anyone’s floor. Also, I only sent one letter. I stuck it in your locker yesterday morning.”