Cruel Riches: A Dark Bully Romance (The Kings of Crestmoore Academy, Book 1)

by Elle East

  Victoria finally let go of my hand and I felt a bit relieved. I grabbed on to the straps of my backpack to have something to occupy them. She took a long, elaborately decorated metal key from her bag and slid it into the lock.

  I had heard the Queens mention this place before but only briefly in passing. The scholarship students had told me that no other students had ever been inside before. Cecily said that this room was off limits even to teachers. Even though I was hanging out with the Queens, I never thought in a million years that I would be allowed in their study.

  “Are you sure?” Grace asked Victoria who ignored her and opened the door—that was Grace’s answer.

  As the door swung inwards, I saw what lay behind it and my mouth dropped opened. Victoria spun around with a beaming smile on her face.

  “Come in!” she said before walking into the massive room.

  I stepped inside and my head fell back as I looked up. We were standing under a large stain-glass dome that had a forest motif of different animals and trees that were native to Maine. Sunlight filtered through it and cast a mosaic of different greens on the polished wooden floor beneath us. Victoria saw me looking and scrunched up her nose.

  “I know, I know, it’s so ugly, but it’s been here since the school started. I considered making them change it, but…” She shrugged.

  “No, that’s not what I was thinking at all. It’s gorgeous,” I said, still staring up in awe.

  The rest of the Queens walked around me and headed for a table in one corner of the large space. I managed to tear my eyes away from the ceiling and followed after them.

  The place was decorated in rich cream colors with soft pastel accents. There were plush couches and overstuffed chairs nestled in every corner of the room. The walls were covered in wooden paneling and curtains that stretched from the towering ceilings to the floor, making the large space seem somehow cozy. There were fresh flowers in glass vases all over and lamps tucked in every nook, casting soft white light. I walked across one of the area rugs and it was so thick I felt like I was walking on a marshmallow.

  “This place is beautiful,” I said as I sat down with the Queens at the table.

  Victoria waved the compliment off. “It’s not very nice, I know, but it’s tradition so we have to hang out here.”

  Was she serious? I wondered in disbelief. The Queens’ Study was one of the nicest places I had ever been in my entire life. If this place wasn’t very nice, then I wondered what Victoria Hampton’s house looked like.

  Victoria reached over and pressed a brass button on the wall. A couple seconds later a waiter opened a door and came into the room with a bow. I could see the look of surprise cross his face as he saw me but he was a professional and the look was quickly replaced with a neutral one.

  “Would you care for menus?” he asked.

  “No, I’ll just have the usual,” Victoria said.

  The other girls ordered their usuals too. I didn’t know what they had and wanted a menu, but I would not go against Victoria and ask for one. Claudia was the last one before me to order so I just said I’d have the same thing. I hoped Claudia had good taste.

  When the waiter left, all the Queens immediately reached into their bags and pulled out phones.

  “Wait! I thought we weren’t allowed phones at all here??” I asked in surprise.

  It had been a month since I had seen a cell phone and I was itching to get my hands on one again.

  “So?” Grace said without looking up.

  “Just because you aren’t allowed doesn’t mean you can’t have them,” Victoria said.

  “Does everyone have one?” I asked.

  All those times when it seemed like everyone knew, as if by magic, when I was getting bullied, rushed back to me.

  All the Queens nodded simultaneously.

  “Pretty much,” Victoria said. “Except maybe the scholarship students who probably can’t even afford one phone, let alone two—one decoy to hand over to the school administrators.”

  “That sucks, I really wish I could have mine,” I mumbled as I sunk into my seat and thought about how unfair it was that only the poor students were the ones who didn’t get to keep their phones.

  “Do you always follow the rules?” Victoria asked, staring at me over her phone, the screen illuminating her perfect face in a white glow.

  “No,” I said defensively. “Do you?” I couldn’t help but shoot back.

  “Never,” she said quietly and turned back to typing on the screen with her thumbs.

  I shivered in fear.

  The rest of lunch was uneventful. The Queens all ignored me and stared at their phones so I had nothing to do, but I was ok with it, better than having to talk to people I had nothing in common with. When our lunches came I found out that Claudia’s “usual” was stir-fried brussel sprouts and carrots topped with blue cheese. Are you kidding me?? I thought as the waiter put my plate down in front of me. I didn’t even bothered trying to eat any of it. I pushed the food around on my plate in case anyone was looking, but I didn’t need to worry because they were all too busy with their phones to bother eating much themselves.

  The rest of my classes that day went ok but after last period Victoria found me before I could go back to my room and invited me to the Queens’ Study again. We hung out, and by “hung out” I mean the Queens ignored each other and me and just texted on their phones and took selfies. I used the time to do some of my easier homework, but I just wanted to go back to my room to properly study. Being in the lion’s den, it was hard to get relaxed enough to do any proper studying. Finally, Victoria called it a night before the curfew bell rang.

  I walked wearily back to my dorm alone. It had been such a long day, and I already knew I would have to stay up for the next several hours to make up the studying time I had missed.

  I dragged my feet up each stair and when I got to the top, I stopped in surprise. The garbage in front of my door hadn’t been piled back up—I wish I wasn’t surprised by garbage not being piled in front of my door but that’s what Crestmoore had done to me. I was surprised but happy. Maybe being invited into the Queens’ Study had sent the message to the other students that they weren’t to mess with me anymore.

  I happily walked over and put my key in the lock. My floor still smelled awful, but at least I didn’t need to touch any stinky garbage to get inside my room. Progress. I opened the door and walked inside. I shut it behind me but before I could reach for the light, I let out a scream.

  A large man was sitting on my bed.

  Even though no lights were on there were enough windows that my room was usually pretty well illuminated even in the moonlight. I quickly realized it was Brett.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked in a whisper, my breath quick and my heart hammering in my chest.

  I knew I should run. I knew I needed to get as far away from him as possible. I knew it wasn’t safe to be alone with him; he had been nothing but cruel to me since I got to Crestmoore. I knew all that, but I didn’t leave.

  There was a long moment of silence. All I could hear was my ragged breathing, which sounded deafening to me in the quiet.

  Finally, Brett spoke and it was one of the few times in the last month that I had heard his voice.

  “Why did you have to come here?” he asked.

  His deep voice sounded calm, but I knew him better than that.

  I could tell that beneath the calm exterior he was showed to the world there was a storm raging.

  “I…” I stuttered, unsure of how to answer.

  “We told you to watch yourself and you haven’t. You’re playing a very dangerous game.”

  “I’m not doing anything,” I said meekly.

  There was a pause, then in a flash that betrayed how athletic he was, he rushed towards me. I didn’t even have time to let out another scream before he was right in front of me and I jumped back, slamming myself into the door. I gasped and stared up at his face, which towered far above mine. In the
dim light I could just make out his hazel eyes, which betrayed the tempest happening inside him. He may be able to pretend to be calm and collected on the outside, but his eyes could never lie to me.

  I was sucking in quick breaths of air and he was so close that my chest kept rubbing against his. I tried to ignore the fact that his solid body felt like granite pressed against mine. As I stared up into his hard face, I could see the muscle in his clenched jaw jump. Did I do that? I wondered.

  Instinctively I pressed into him slightly to see if it was me, to see if I had that effect on him. He hissed. Against my will, I swelled with womanly pride. To have someone so large and commanding be effected by me was thrilling.

  He sucked in a deep breath to regain control and our bodies pressed tightly together. We both gasped and locked eyes, mouths parted. A moment passed between us that I didn’t want to analyze too deeply.

  He looked at my black eye and I thought I saw the slightest flicker of pain flutter across his face—but that couldn’t be right. He was one of the people who commanded that girl to hit me in the face with the soccer ball. He knew what would happen. Maybe the ball had hit me harder than they thought it would? Well, too bad for him, shouldn’t go hitting people then—even if it wasn’t directly.

  He closed his eyes and blocked me out. I bit my lip in… what? Disappointment? What had I wanted to happen? I didn’t want to think about it.

  “I don’t want you hanging out with the Queens anymore,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “Why?” My voice sounded so breathy and needy I was almost embarrassed, but I was too preoccupied at that moment to care.

  His huge frame dwarfed mine. I could feel the heat coming from his body, through his clothes and into mine. He smelled like an intoxicating mix of fresh linen and musk and it made warmth pool in my stomach. I wanted to reach out and run my hands down his thick arms, the arms that I kept fantasizing about ever since seeing him again for the first time a month ago.

  He breathed deep before saying in a rough voice, “Just don’t, Maddy”—he almost choked on my name—“Do what I say or you’ll regret it.”

  I opened my mouth to say something, but I was suddenly free, there was no longer a warm body pressing me into the door and I felt cold and somehow empty. I looked around, a bit disoriented. Brett was already opening the door, and I instinctively moved out of the way.

  And just like that, he was gone.

  What the hell was that? I wondered.

  I took a few seconds to collect myself. My mind was racing. I went over and locked the door with numb fingers and slowly started putting cutlery in front of it like I was in a trance.

  When I had wedged the chair under the door handle, I realized it was still dark in my room and reached over to flick on the light. I squinted in the sudden brightness.

  Brett had been in my room. That fact still made little sense to me. He was one of my tormentors and even though he had come to warn me to stay away from his precious Queens he had done it in a very sexy way—a way that had caused my body to react to his in a way that I definitely didn’t want it to.

  I knew that I was attracted to the Kings, more attracted to them than I had been to almost anyone else in my entire life besides Dean, but the way I had reacted to just the slightest bit of attention from Brett, so instantaneously and intensely, was terrifying. The slightest touch from him and I was sent shooting out into space with no spacesuit. He made me feel out of control and I was a person who always liked to be in control. This wasn’t good.

  Chapter 15

  I was basically a shut-in all weekend but the worst part was that Saturday came and went with no Moviefest invitation. The scholarship students had officially turned on me and it hurt. Moviefest had been the highlight of my weeks and now what did I have to look forward to? Hanging out in the Queens’ Study? Sure, it was beautiful in there but I would much rather hang out with the other poor kids and watch bad movies over stolen food.

  When Monday came I was in a funk. Spending so much time by myself, I had nothing to distract me from analyzing what had happened with Brett—and so I replayed it about a million times in my head over the weekend. I was really looking forward to class—anything to distract me.

  When I walked in to English class, I didn’t even bother trying to sit next to Ava, who avoided my eyes and pretended to read her textbook. I went to the back of the room and sat next to Victoria. I could see that she was smiling in a satisfied way that I didn’t want to interpret.

  A couple minutes later Brett walked into the room and my eyes widened. I had been so distracted by everything that I forgot he was in this class. When he saw me at the back of the room, he stopped in surprise for just a split second, caught off guard. He quickly recovered and placed the glower back on his face and stalked towards us.

  I realized in horror that I was in his usual chair. Was he going to force me to move? Uncharacteristically, he was one of the last students to come to class and so the only available seat in the back was next to me.

  When he reached my desk, he loomed over me. I tilted my head back to look up at him. The look on his face was pure fury, and I had to look away. He paused for a couple seconds that felt like an eternity, making me start to sweat, before he took one stride with his long legs and gracefully slid into the seat next to me. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Was he really that pissed off that I was in his seat? I wondered, before realizing that the last time I saw him he told me to stay away from the Queens—which was exactly what I wasn’t doing. Did he really think I was going to do what he said? I wondered. I didn’t owe him anything, and he had done nothing so far during my time at Crestmoore that would make me inclined to do what he told me to.

  For the rest of the period I tried to ignore him but I could feel anger radiating off him like the heat I had felt radiating off his body on Friday. My cheeks got hot, and I tried not to think about it, but being so close to him was distracting.

  I was happy that he wasn’t in my next class but the other Kings were, as well as Ava and Cecily. I obviously wasn’t going to sit in the back with the Kings, but I also didn’t want to sit with Ava and Cecily. The scholarship students had made it clear how they felt about me now and I didn’t want to force myself on them, so I sat at the front but on the opposite side of the class from them.

  My last class before lunch was Math and Brett was in it. I sat at the front, again on the opposite side of the scholarship students, and tried to ignore him—which was hard when I couldn’t stop thinking about him. For once I was actually looking forward to lunch with the Queens because I knew it would get me away from Brett.

  We ate lunch in the Queens’ Study and for that I was happy—no chance we’d run into the Kings there. Victoria again told the waiter we didn’t need menus. I would not risk getting something inedible again and decided to order the most non-offensive thing I could think of that they probably had, chicken noodle soup and toast.

  “Here,” Victoria said after we placed our orders. She held out a brand new cell phone in my direction.

  I took it. It was the latest edition of my old phone. I had a sixth generation version that I had bought second-hand, while the one I was holding was eleventh. I had never even seen this one in person before.

  “What’s this?” I asked as I turned over the beautiful, shiny thing in my hand.

  “It’s yours,” she said casually.

  “What?” I uttered in disbelief.

  “You don’t have one and everyone has a cell. If you’re going to be hanging out with us you need one, it’s embarrassing not to, so there you go.” She turned back to her own eleventh generation phone in the pale gray and pink case.

  “Are you serious?” I asked.

  This was the most expensive present I had ever gotten in my life—by far—there was no way I could accept it.

  “Of course. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I couldn’t… this is too generous,” I stammered, though I desperately wanted to kee
p it.

  “I said don’t worry about it,” she said with a smile but in a firm way that left no room for argument.

  I turned it over in my hands, in awe. I couldn’t believe that it was mine. I had never thought I would own something like it. When I was scrubbing toilets during my housekeeping job, I never would have imagined in a million years that a couple months later I would be sitting in this fancy room holding a phone worth thousands of dollars that belonged to me.

  I wasn’t an idiot though. I knew Victoria wasn’t giving me this amazing present out of the goodness of her heart—even if to someone like her giving away a phone worth a couple thousand dollars was the equivalent of a regular person giving away a one-dollar bill. I still couldn’t suppress my giddiness.

  I was so excited that I was barely disappointed when they brought out the meals and mine was some type of blended chicken mush with chives and blue cheese sprinkled on top. I happily ate toast while admiring my shiny new present.

  I could barely wait for the end of the day to come, and when it did, I rushed like a mad person to Manuel’s room. When he opened the door he seemed confused to see me—and also a bit scared. I was too excited to be hurt by his reaction.

  “Hi, Maddy.”

  “Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I was hoping you could do me a favor.”

  “What is it?” he asked warily.

  “Can I come in?”

  He hesitated for a second before moving aside and I hurried in.

  “I have this phone.” I pulled it out of my backpack. “Could you check it to see if there’s… I don’t know, like a bomb in it or something?”

  “A bomb?” he asked incredulously before taking it from my hand.

  “Or something else, I don’t know, something suspicious. Like a tracking device or something?”

  I didn’t know what the Queens would have done to the phone, but I assumed it was something.