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

by Jacie Lennon

  “No, I’m staying with her for a while,” I say, and the woman nods.

  “Well, maybe learn her address while you are there,” she says, and I smile for the first time.

  “I will. Thank you.”

  “If you can wait five minutes, I’m closing down shop here, and I’ll drive you over there.”

  My eyes widen, and I work through the alternatives. Walk a mile on torn-up feet or get in the car with a random convenience store lady. I guess I’ll take my chances.

  “Thank you,” I say and lean against the counter. I’m so tired from the emotional and physical toll of the evening.

  What a strange night it’s turned out to be.

  Juanita, the nice-ish lady from the store, chatters nonstop the entire way to my sister’s. My fingers dig into my thighs as we turn onto Palm Street, and I find Linna’s car, sighing in relief when there are no other cars parked behind it. Just the two roommates’ vehicles that were there earlier.

  “You okay here?” Juanita asks as she pulls into the driveway.

  “I’m good. Thank you so much for driving me home.”

  “De nada. Tell your sister that Juanita said hello.” She parks, and I open the door.

  I pause before looking back at her.

  “I will. How do you know my sister?”

  Juanita grins at me and winks. “I’m her boss. She works for me over at the strip club, Teasers.”

  “Oh. What are the odds that I would run into you tonight?”

  “Probably not great odds, but it happened. I was only at the store because mi hermano is sick, but it seems like you might be the reason I was there.”

  “Yeah, seems like it.” I give her a smile, and she returns it. “Thanks again.”

  “Adios,” she says, and then I shut the door, watching her drive off.

  I shake my head and walk toward Linna’s house.

  She must have gone inside once I took off, so I step up onto the front porch and go to knock, but then I stop myself since it’s late, and I don’t want to wake up her roommates. I try the knob, and it turns, opening for me.

  As soon as I step across the threshold, I want to collapse, give in to this exhaustion now that I’m finally in a safe space. It feels good, and it also feels suffocating. My life for the foreseeable future will be uprooted, and I’ll be on the run. Making money where I can. Hopefully.

  The lights are off, and I can’t see much inside as I close the door behind me. I turn, facing the inside of the house, and then reach back on the wall to find a light switch.

  “Linna?” I whisper.

  Why wouldn’t she be waiting right here for me to return? Maybe she went out to look for me and hasn’t come back yet. But wouldn’t she have taken her car for that?

  The thoughts fly through my head as I continue to search along the wall.

  A light flares to life in the corner of the room, and I look, the sudden glare blinding me until my eyes adjust. I want to fall in a heap and sob at the scene in front of me.

  Linna is on her knees, and something is around her mouth, gagging her. A satisfied Seth is flipping a knife around his hand. Like a party trick.

  “Beatrice, so nice of you to join us,” he says, and a hand covers my mouth as a scream tries to escape.

  I attempt to turn my head, but whoever is holding me has a damn strong grip. Linna’s eyes are wide and wild as she looks at me. A tear streams down my cheek.

  I’m so sorry, Linna. So sorry.

  I want to say it, but I can’t say anything right now.

  “You came back just in time,” Seth says, still twirling the sharp object in his hand. “Your sister here wasn’t much help, and I was beginning to tire of her.”

  He wouldn’t kill her, would he?

  Seth flicks his fingers, and the hand clenching my face relaxes and then disappears.

  “Don’t hurt her, please,” I say, my whole body seized in fear.

  “It seems you need to be taught a lesson,” Seth continues as if I hadn’t even spoken. “It wouldn’t be fair to punish your sister now that you are back, now would it?”

  I shake my head.

  “Why don’t we make an agreement? You come willingly with me and no more of these games, and I don’t slit your pretty Linna’s neck.”

  I make a noise, one that sounds foreign to my own ears.

  “Okay,” I say. “Yes. Don’t hurt her. I’ll go with you.”

  Seth smiles, his eyes glittering in the dim light. He raises one hand and then pushes it straight down, the knife lodging itself in the carpet right next to Linna’s ankle. She screams behind her gag, and I step forward. A hand behind me grips my arm, bringing me to a halt, and I look back to see who Seth’s little helper is.

  Connor’s stoic face greets me, and I round on him, hand raised in a slap, but he catches it.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he says, eyes focused on my face, and I’m shaking.

  “How dare you! I thought you were one of the good ones.”

  “Whatever gave you that impression?” he asks.

  I stop short. I don’t know why I thought that. His grip loosens, and I search his face for answers as to why he’s going along with this. But after getting nothing from him, I look back at Linna.

  “Please untie her,” I beg.

  Seth bends to pick up the knife. Linna goes rigid as he slices through the back of her gag and the ties keeping her hands bound. She falls forward, sucking in a breath, and I run to her, dropping down to wrap my arms around her.

  “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” I say, petting her hair and pulling her to me. “You almost died, and it’s all my fault.”

  “Yes.” Seth’s unwelcome voice rings out in the room. “Don’t forget that it was you who caused this. Don’t forget who you are, Beatrice, and who you are to become.” He strides past me, and the door opens and then shuts behind him.

  Connor is still standing in the entryway, watching us.

  I see him step toward the table, where Linna put my purse, and he grabs it.

  “This yours?” he asks, and I nod once. He opens it, sifting around inside before extracting my phone. My mouth gapes open in horror as he drops it on the floor, stepping on it with the heel of his shoe several times until it cracks and breaks. “He had a tracker on it,” Connor says simply before shutting my purse again and motioning toward the door. “Come on.”

  My mouth gapes as I hold on to my sister, who is starting to get to her feet. I help her up and then draw her into another hug.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whisper to her, and she shakes her head, her arms around me, squeezing.

  “I’ll figure something out,” she whispers back.

  “No. It’s too dangerous,” I say and step back. “I can’t let you get involved in this and risk getting hurt again. I’m so sorry.”

  “Stop saying that,” she says as she moves forward, rubbing her hands up and down my arms. I don’t know if she’s trying to comfort me or herself. “How did you get here?” She opens her eyes wide, like she’s now realizing that I got back to her house somehow.

  “Your friend Juanita. I met her, and she brought me home. I think you should go stay with her tonight and then leave tomorrow.”

  “I can’t leave. Everything I have is here, and I won’t abandon you,” she says, shaking her head.

  “You’ve never abandoned me, and I wouldn’t count this either. But I’ve put your life in danger, and I want to know you are safe.”

  Connor clears his throat behind me, and I glance at him as he makes an obvious let’s go gesture.

  “Okay, one moment.” I look back at Linna. “Tell me you will go to Juanita’s, and then you will get out.”

  “Okay.” She nods, and I breathe a sigh of relief. She hugs me again quickly, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I love you,” she whispers, and I say it back.

  I quickly turn, so she can’t see the tears rolling down my face as I precede Connor through the door. I jump when he shuts it behind us with a
bang, but I don’t turn around. I walk to the car that’s now waiting at the curb. I climb in the open back door as Connor gets in the front passenger seat, beside the driver. Even he doesn’t want to be back here with us. Seth is beside me, staring straight ahead, and I slowly buckle in as we sit in silence.

  The car takes off, headlights cutting through the darkness, and my weariness takes over again. It’s been the longest night of my life, and at this point, it’s about to be morning again. I think I’ll sleep for the entire day whenever we get to where we are going.

  “Where are you taking me?” I ask softly.

  “Don’t you think it’s funny that I give you everything? New clothes, I buy you dinners, I already bought a house for us to live in, and yet this is how you repay me. Running off to your stripper sister.”

  I look at him.

  “You didn’t think I knew where Belinda was this whole time? Oh, darling, I keep tabs on everything. It helps to have friends in dark places.” He smiles at the front seat, where Connor sits, but he doesn’t look back at us.

  He reaches over to squeeze my thigh, and I outwardly try not to show my disgust. I can tell his anger is thinly veiled, waiting for the right moment to come out and devour me whole.

  “I can see how difficult this time is for you,” he says with faux concern lacing his voice. “It’s highly stressful to plan a wedding, and I think it took a toll on you. That’s why you had to get out for a bit, right?” Seth glances over at me, smiling softly, and where he might mean it to look patronizing, it looks malicious. “Have you lost your voice?”

  “Yes, that’s what happened,” I murmur and duck my head. I hope he quits talking.

  “I thought so. I will overlook it this time.”

  Overlook?

  I don’t answer. I stare out the window, watching the landscape speed by. I know where we are now, getting close to my own house, and I let out a silent breath of relief that he’s not taking me back to his house.

  We come to a stop, and there’s a tense silence that overtakes the car. No one moves for a few moments. We are all suspended in a frozen state, wondering what comes next. Finally, the driver gets out, opening Seth’s door and then mine. Connor stays behind as Seth’s hand grasps my elbow tightly, and we ascend the steps to my house.

  The next few moments pass quickly as Seth and I meet my parents in the entryway. Seth says some quiet words to my dad, and then he leaves after a chaste kiss to my cheek.

  “Beatrice, go to your room. And get used to it because that’s where you’ll be staying for the next two weeks,” my dad says, and I try not to wilt.

  How silly of me to think I could ever escape.

  31

  Bodhi

  My phone buzzes beside me on my bed, and I blink bleary eyes to check it.

  Dad: Come outside.

  Part of me wants to ignore it, but I have been doing that to him a lot lately, going so far as to avoid him in his own home. I’ve been eating in my room, swimming when he’s not here, and not answering his messages. He’s pounded on my door a few times, but I never answer. I guess I should finally give him this.

  I make my way downstairs and pull open the side door. Then, I raise one eyebrow as I stare at him. He’s sitting in his cherry-red Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante, sunglasses on, arm propped up. This can’t be good for me. Our eyes meet, and he gives me a wave, pointing to the passenger seat right beside him.

  What are the chances I can get out of this little drive with him?

  Slim to none.

  I trudge to the car, open the door, and sink to the passenger seat, sighing. “Hey, Dad.”

  “Bodhi, my son. Glad to see you are alive.” His sarcasm doesn’t escape me as he pulls away.

  “Unfortunately,” I mumble, and he shoots a glance at me before focusing on the road again.

  “I don’t like it when you ignore me.”

  “I don’t like a lot of things, Dad.” I curl my hands into fists on top of my joggers. I reach to turn the music up, but he bats my hand away.

  “Exactly why I’m here today.”

  “Did Brock call you?” I ask, ready to ream him out next time I see him. He’s so nosy, and he can’t leave well enough alone.

  “No, I know things as a father,” he replies, and I scoff. “It sounds cliché to say that, but it’s true. One day, you might be a father, and you’ll have the same intuition.”

  “Okay. Sure,” I say, staring out the window. The wind is blowing my hair around, and I push it out of my eyes.

  “How have you been?” he asks, and I move my lip up in a half-laugh, half-grimace.

  “Peachy.”

  “Bodhi.” His warning is clear.

  He knows I’m going through some shit, but he’s tired of my flippant attitude. Hell, I’m tired of me too.

  “I’ve been okay. I’m glad it’s summer now.”

  “You really loved her, didn’t you?” he gently pries, and I blow out a long breath.

  “Yeah, I did. I do. Fuck,” I say, raking my hand down my face. “And don’t say I’m young and I have all the time in the world to find someone. That never helps in this situation.”

  “I wasn’t going to,” he says, drumming his hands on the steering wheel.

  The breeze feels good as the sun beats down on us. Dad drives without a destination in mind, taking the curves of the road with ease as we sit in silence.

  I know he’s thinking about what he wants to say, so I wait. In all honesty, I probably need his insight right about now. Doing things on my own hasn’t worked out so well. It’s only furthered this dead feeling inside me.

  “So,” he sighs, “I guess it’s time you knew.”

  “Knew what?” I turn to look at him, and he drums some more on the wheel. Another sigh.

  “The truth. About your mom.”

  I open my mouth, and nothing comes out, so I close it again and wait.

  “I never wanted to see you boys hurt, and I saw that every time your mom would leave. She did it multiple times before you two turned three. Before she left for good.”

  “Okay, it didn’t change her leaving though.”

  “That’s true. But what you boys don’t know is, your mom was an addict. She might still be. I don’t know.”

  “An addict?”

  “Yes, she hid it from me for a while, but after having you boys, she started spiraling, and I found out what was going on. I tried to get her to go to rehab, but she refused.”

  “She didn’t have depression?”

  “I don’t know. She wasn’t ever right. I brought in a specialist to see her, and he diagnosed her with postpartum depression, so that’s what I told everyone. That’s what I let everyone believe, but the truth is, she craved drugs more than her family. It’s why she left. I cut her off, and she cut me off, cut you boys off. I’ve lived with that every day since she walked out.”

  “But didn’t she try to come back and see us?”

  “A few times, but so much time had passed that I was angry, and I didn’t want to invite that unstable part of our lives back in. I made the executive decision to get a restraining order against her, and your grandfather footed the bill while he was alive. Until I took the company over.”

  “Why are you telling me this? What good does it do now to know my mom wasn’t only sad, but also had a drug addiction?”

  “Because I see you spiraling. I see you heading down a dark path, and I want you to be able to talk to me, to know that I’m here for you. I don’t want you to make mistakes that you can’t come back from.”

  “Do you know where Mom is now?”

  “No, not since she left the Portleys and the compound.”

  I clench my fist at the mention of her new family. Then, my heart eases when I realize they are gone. They aren’t there to hurt us anymore after the shoot-out that went down last year.

  I nod and then look back out the window as I think over what Dad told me. Maybe I’m more like my mom than I thought. Maybe that’s why I cra
ve the highs, and when I stopped getting them from Trixie, I found them in other ways. At the bottom of a bottle, between a random girl’s legs, or at a table with people I didn’t know, who handed me a substance and I took it.

  Thanks, Mom, for nothing.

  You only have yourself to blame.

  I tilt my head side to side, stretching out the tension in my neck.

  “I wish I had fought harder for our family. I was angry, and I made snap decisions that affected yours and Brock’s future. I ultimately think they were the right decisions, but I should have tried to make it work. I should have let you have a mother for as long as she was willing to try. But it wasn’t your or your brother’s fault. It was her; she made her decisions and let something else control her. Don’t let that be you, son. Don’t let your emotions control you. Don’t let despair keep you from fighting for what you want.”

  “Trixie’s engaged, Dad. What else can I do?”

  “Engaged isn’t married. And I don’t think she looked at all happy at her birthday party, if you ask me. All she can do is tell you no one more time, but maybe she’s waiting for someone to show her that she has a way out.”

  “Are you telling me to try and take someone’s fiancée?” I raise an eyebrow at him, intrigued by this side of my dad that I didn’t know. He’s usually on the up-and-up, but this devious side of him has me grinning.

  “I’m telling you to fight for your happiness. Don’t let the circumstances drag you under. If you don’t, you’ll always regret it. You’ll always have those little what-ifs in the back of your mind.”

  “As great as this all sounds, Dad, I don’t know that I can accomplish a great steal back my girl heist. It’s a little more complicated than that.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, honestly, I’m not sure. I know that there’s more at play than an engagement. Like you said, Trixie isn’t happy, so why would she say yes?”

  “I don’t know. But we should find out, shouldn’t we?” Dad pulls over on the side of the road and quickly brings up a contact on his phone. After a few short sentences, he turns the car in the opposite direction, and we are headed God knows where to do God knows what.