King of Denial : An Academy Bully Romance (Boys of Almadale Book 3)

by Jacie Lennon

  This waiting room has a handy little button that sends security, and it’s not but thirty seconds later that the door opens, two uniformed security guards entering.

  “Her, right there,” I say, pointing at Trixie, and my dad puts his hands up. “Her or me,” I tell him, and he puts his hands down.

  The guards advance on Trixie, whose face has turned beet red, and I smile even though I want to drive my fist through the wall.

  She can’t be here, I remind myself as I watch them escort her through the door.

  I stay facing the exit after she’s gone, my chest heaving. I can’t turn and see the disappointed faces staring at me.

  “I’m going to walk around. Call me when the baby has arrived,” I say to no one as I leave, my chest aching.

  28

  Bodhi

  For the first year ever, the faculty at Almadale and Heywood have arranged a joint prom, which is the worst idea I’ve heard but leave it to the adults to try and promote unity across enemy lines.

  In true elite fashion, the powers that be at Almadale and Heywood—namely my father, Chester, and ironically Seth’s father, Seth Sr.—are footing the extravagant bill. I didn’t want to go, but as the only Montgomery able to come, Dad felt I should at least put in an appearance.

  So, I’m skulking in the shadows, and my prom date has left me to go to the ladies’ room. I check my watch; that was thirty minutes ago. Either she’s taking a huge shit or she’s abandoned me. I guess I can’t fault her. I have been a giant dickbag since I picked her up in the limo we shared with Corbin and Landry. Brock and Peyton are at home with a newborn, and I surprise myself, thinking that I’m jealous of them.

  Not the fact that they aren’t getting a lot of sleep, but the fact that they get to lounge in sweats on the couch and watch TV while cuddling the cutest baby I’ve ever seen. Not that I’m partial or anything, but Rylie Montgomery has stolen all of our hearts, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

  I survey the crowd standing in the large hangar. The planning committees have us dancing in an airplane hangar with multiple planes arranged in a circle around the dance floor as decorations, I guess. I don’t know. The crowd is split in two; the students from Almadale aren’t mingling with those from Heywood. I don’t know who thought this was a good idea.

  Trixie is standing beside Seth, and the douche hasn’t paid one bit of attention to her. Fuck, if she were my date, you could bet my hand wouldn’t leave her back all night. In fact, I probably would have already convinced her to leave, and we would be doing much more fun things right about now.

  I watch as Seth throws his head back; raucous laughter carries across the building from him and his friends while Trixie fiddles with her phone, no doubt trying to look busy since she’s being ignored. Landry is her only friend here, and she’s currently with Corbin, locked in an embrace on the dance floor. I wish I could save Trix.

  I prefer the time before, at her party, when I was in blissful denial that anything was wrong. When I thought that we had more time. How wrong I was.

  As if I had shouted her name, Trixie’s gaze comes up, immediately spotting mine fastened on her. I don’t know how; I’m concealed behind a plane wing, nursing a flask of whatever bottle I grabbed from Dad’s study first. Tastes like bourbon. It has stopped burning as it goes down, and I should probably take that as a bad sign. It’s making me think dangerous thoughts, like how I should walk over there and pull her onto the dance floor. Or how I should throw her over my shoulder and head outside to my waiting car, take her home, and lock her away where no one will find her.

  Her brown eyes smolder from across the floor, still locked on mine. I raise my flask to her, tilting it in a silent toast, and then drink some more. When I lower it, she’s not looking at me anymore.

  “There you are,” Savannah says at my side.

  Her hand wraps around my arm, and I look down.

  “I didn’t move,” I reply, and she giggles.

  “Maybe I got turned around. Do you want to dance?”

  “No.”

  “Come on. Don’t be such a downer. It’s prom. We have to dance,” she pleads, pulling on my arm.

  I finally give in, only because the dance floor is closer to Trixie and maybe I’ll get a whiff of her hair or something as we pass by.

  God, get it together, Bodhi. You are supposed to be making her hate you. Not smelling her.

  “Fine,” I say, placing the flask in my inner jacket pocket and letting her lead me onto the floor.

  I’m like a robot, going through the motions. I couldn’t even tell you what the material of Savannah’s dress feels like under my hands. But I can tell you what I think Trixie’s would feel like. It’s a slow song, so Savannah is pressed to my chest, arms around my neck, and her hands are playing with the hair at my nape. I’m thankful that her head is turned, lying against me so she doesn’t see me staring at another girl.

  We spin in a slow, rocking circle, and I hunt for any glimpse of Trixie that I can get. I’m hungry for her, ravenous for even a look. At the same time, I’m very aware of her psychotic fiancé standing next to her and the heinous threat he made. Nothing will come of my looks, thoughts, or feelings. Nothing can come from it. But I stare all the same.

  Our next slow circle has me sucking a breath in as I come face-to-face with Trixie. She’s standing right behind Savannah’s left shoulder, and for a second, I think she won’t acknowledge me, but she holds one hand out. I extend mine for a brief moment, and she presses a paper into it. It’s so fleeting that I would think I imagined it if I didn’t feel the edges of the note pressing into my palm. Savannah doesn’t even stir. And then Trixie is gone, back into the crowd.

  The song drags on, and I lose patience, breaking us apart before it’s over.

  “I’m thirsty. Do you want anything?” I ask as I pull Savannah off the dance floor.

  Landry shoots me a look as we pass by, raising an eyebrow at how I’m literally dragging my date behind me.

  “Uh, no. I drank some punch right before our dance,” Savannah says breathlessly as I spin her around.

  “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” I don’t wait for an answer. I take off for the drink table until Savannah stops watching me, and then I move to the edge of the crowd.

  My fingers are shaking as I open the paper, my eyes drinking in the sweet curls of Trixie’s penmanship.

  We need to talk.

  Meet me on the east side of the building in ten minutes.

  “What the fuck?” I whisper.

  Where the hell is the east side? Does she think I’m a Boy Scout? How does she know her directions right now?

  I glance around to see if anyone is watching me and then chuckle to myself. Who cares that I’m reading something on a piece of paper? Everyone is busy dancing, talking, or getting it on in the dark corners of the hangar.

  I don’t know how Trixie will manage it, but I scan the room and find her back beside Seth, like she never even moved. She smiles at one of the guys who leans in to say something to her, and I frown, narrowing my eyes before I see who it is.

  Connor.

  Maybe it’s the fact that he helped us out when he didn’t have to with Brock last year, but I don’t completely hate the guy. He seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, like me at the moment. Except his issues are kind of on a life-or-death level. Having been born into the Mafia and all that.

  Something niggles in the back of my mind when I consider that, almost like a thought that wants to break free but can’t. Sure, he stood by while his friend held a knife to my neck, but he wasn’t smiling like the guys who held me down. He didn’t seem like he wanted to be there at all.

  He needs a better choice in friends, it seems.

  I watch him chat with Trixie for a moment, and then I check the time. Five minutes have passed. I have to decide what to do. I want to meet her out there so bad. I want to whisk her away, but I know that’s not reality. My family has all the money we could ever want, and still,
it can’t buy me the one thing I want most in life.

  I spin, heading back in the direction I came, and grab Savannah’s hand as I pass by her. She’s standing with her best friend, Kelsey—ugh—and her date, but I don’t even acknowledge them. I hear Savannah giggle as I pull her along behind me.

  “Where are we going?” she says breathlessly.

  “Outside,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady.

  I hate myself for what I’m about to do. On so many levels. This isn’t me. I’m not hateful and vindictive, but I have to act it. I have to put a rift between me and Trixie. A chasm so deep that Trixie leaves me alone for good. She shouldn’t be sending me messages while she’s here with her fiancé. She can’t be doing that, and I have to put a stop to it.

  “Where do you think you are going?” I stop quickly when a body appears in front of me.

  “Fuck, where did you come from?” I ask, as close to Seth as I ever want to be. I want to step away, but fuck if he’s going to see me backing down.

  “I’m always around, and I see everything,” he says.

  Trixie is hovering behind him, her face draining of color.

  “I feel like that’s not factual,” I say, realizing I’m still holding Savannah’s hand when she gives mine a healthy squeeze. I probably shouldn’t be provoking him, but seeing his piggish face up in my space is definitely raising my blood pressure.

  “I saw you eye-fucking my girl,” he says, and I let one side of my mouth rise in a smirk.

  “Seth, stop this. He wasn’t doing anything,” Trixie says, grabbing his arm, but he forcefully shakes her hand off, still staring me down.

  He steps a little closer. I can smell his breath, and I grimace at the pungent alcohol scent. I’m sure mine doesn’t smell much better.

  “What did I tell you before?” he asks, right in my face.

  I wrench my hand from Savannah’s grasp and make fists by my sides in case I need them. The way he’s looking right now, I’m going to need them.

  “What are you talking about?” Trixie asks, but neither of us says anything to her.

  “Stay. The. Fuck. Away,” Seth says.

  I chuckle, and that only seems to make him angrier.

  “I haven’t gone near your fiancée. I don’t want her. Not after you’ve had her. She’s ruined now, tainted. Used up,” I say, apathetically raking my eyes over Trixie.

  She blanches. Savannah grabs my arm.

  “The fuck did you just say?” Seth asks, his nose pressing into mine.

  I raise my head a little. Being taller than him puts me at an advantage, as I’m able to stop touching him without giving up any ground.

  A crowd has gathered around us, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Corbin step up to my side. What a time for Brock to be gone. I might need all the help I can get if a fight actually does break out.

  “You heard me. I don’t want your old lady.” I smirk, and Seth grows red.

  He glances around like he’s now realizing all the eyes on us, and he smooths his features out. He pastes a smile on. A chuckle makes his chest shake.

  “Are you blind? Look at her. Everyone wants her,” he says, running one hand down her back.

  She jumps when he squeezes her ass, and I see red. Corbin smacks my arm down as I raise it.

  “Ah,” Seth says, a real smile on his face now. “A reaction.”

  Fuck. He was goading me, and I folded like a deck of cards.

  I’m no good at this. Hurting someone I love. Being able to keep a facade up.

  “Nah. She didn’t look like she was enjoying your groping. Not into assaulting unwilling women.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, Montgomery? She enjoys everything I do. The way she tells it, you’ve never been inside her cunt. And you never fucking will. Even after all that time you had her, you could never pull the trigger.”

  He grins wide, and I want so badly to tell him that I’ve been with her. But Trixie doesn’t deserve that. That memory doesn’t get to be marred by Seth’s grotesque recount of his sexual prowess. Which I know, according to Trixie, is nowhere near as good as he thinks it is. That is a solace.

  My eyes dart to Trixie, and she’s staring at me—hard. I think she’s trying to convey her thoughts, but she doesn’t need to worry. I would never out her to this dickbag of a guy. I know the lengths he’s willing to go to ensure what’s his stays his, and I would never put her in harm’s way like that.

  “Maybe she didn’t interest me enough to try to spoil her,” I say with a shrug. The way I’m acting, I’ll find a career in Hollywood, no problem.

  A chorus of oohs rings out around us. I hear Landry suck in a sharp breath on the other side of Corbin. I need to finish placing the top on this coffin and inserting the final nail. I need to hurt Trixie, so she doesn’t try to talk to me again.

  Trixie

  His words hurt. No matter how much I tell myself to let it roll off my back, finding out Bodhi isn’t who I’ve always thought he was is devastating.

  “This isn’t you, Bodhi. I know it’s not,” I say before I can think better of it.

  “And who the hell do you think he is?” Seth turns on me. He’s been drinking the better half of the day, and I should know better than to get in between them. “You think he loves you? You think he’s going to take care of you? You think you belong to him or something?”

  Seth is in my face now, and I lean back, trying to get out of his space, but the tight circle around us has me pinned in place with emotions running high.

  Classmates are muttering around us, and I think I hear someone taking bets. A bunch of wild animals waiting to see who will be crowned the victor.

  Shit, shit, shit. This isn’t going at all how I thought it would. I planned on excusing myself to the restroom and then finally getting to talk to Bodhi, to explain myself, to beg for forgiveness.

  I realize Seth is still in my bubble, waiting on a reply to his question. More than anything, I want to grab his crotch and turn until he falls on the floor, crying, or I rip his dick off.

  I feel myself smiling at the visual. Seth’s hand comes up, cupping my chin and squeezing my cheeks in on either side.

  Fuck, that hurts.

  “What do you have to smile about, Beatrice Northcutt?” he says softly, menacingly.

  Before I can blink, his hand is gone, and I’m observing his body being thrown backward before he lands on his ass. Bodhi’s crouched over him with Corbin holding Seth’s arms, and Bodhi has his hand around Seth’s cheeks, the exact same way he was doing to me.

  Karma is a bitch.

  I can’t hear what Bodhi is saying to him, but there is murder in Seth’s eyes, and his shoulders are straining to take back his arms. I stand frozen, unsure of what to do, and the crowd around us is quiet, taking it all in. Landry is suddenly at my side, wrapping one arm around my waist as we watch.

  Finally, Bodhi stands, no punches thrown, and I’m surprised. Corbin frees his arms, and Seth stands, face red, while I try to figure out how to get out of going home with him.

  “Stay the fuck away from me and my girl, asshole.”

  Bodhi looks up, the expression in his eyes unreadable as they meet mine. I almost feel like a look of sorrow or maybe regret passes over his face, but it’s gone so quickly that I can’t be sure.

  He looks away, and I feel bereft.

  “Like I said, I couldn’t care less about you or your girl.”

  I feel like my world is in slow motion as I see Bodhi turn and pull Savannah into his arms. She smiles up at him, and he grins down at her before lowering his head, pressing his mouth to hers lightly. His hand moves down to cup her ass while her lips open to deepen the kiss, and here I stand, with a front row seat to the show.

  My heart slowly cracks, and I force myself to watch until it shatters. Until we are finally done. Until I know that my Bo isn’t my Bo anymore.

  29

  Trixie

  “Get in the damn car, Trixie,” Seth fusses behind me, push
ing my back a little.

  I dip to step inside the back of the limo, my head brushing the top of the doorframe as I get off-balance.

  “God, you are so slow.” He crawls in behind me, sitting right next to me.

  I cringe when his tuxedo-clad leg touches mine, wishing I could crawl right out the other side of the car. Connor and his date try to get in after, but Seth grabs the handle of the door, blocking their entrance.

  “Get your own ride home,” he says low, menacing, and I want to cry.

  I was banking on having the rest of our group in here as a buffer.

  Connor stares at me for a long while before glancing back at Seth. “Come on, man. Let us in.”

  “Did I stutter?” Seth asks and then pulls, knocking Connor in the leg with the edge of the door as he slams it closed. “God, I’m so tired of the bullshit.”

  I sit there silently, hoping he won’t remember that I’m even in the limo with him.

  It’s quiet as we pull away, and I’m barely breathing, trying not to draw any attention to myself. Seth lays his head back on the headrest and closes his eyes.

  I debate on pulling my phone out and texting someone to come get me at Seth’s house since that’s where he thinks I’m staying tonight. But who would I even text? I don’t have any friends besides Peyton, who has a new baby, and Landry, who is still at prom with her boyfriend. I’m on my own, but I need to figure a way out of this. Best-case scenario: Seth is drunk enough to pass out when we get back. Worst-case scenario … well, I don’t want to think about it.

  I open my small clutch and slowly reach inside, but I jerk my hand back when Seth shifts.

  His head lolls to the side, and he opens one eye to peek at me.

  “Did I tell you how pretty you look tonight?” he asks, and I’m confused by his sudden shift in demeanor.

  His hand lands on my thigh, and I tense up, not confused anymore. It’s a ploy. It’s always a ploy to get whatever he wants.