“I knew it!” Jasmine screeches. “She was the only one who knew about my weight problems. I told her in confidence, and she spread that rumour like it was butter on toast.”
I laugh at her description, tightening my lips when they pause to glare at me.
“That bitch. She told everyone about my third nipple. She made me believe William was the one who posted the picture of it online.”
“I know things about her,” Jasmine declares as she pushes through the changing room doors, nearly falling into Danielle’s arms.
“You backstabbing whore,” she screams in Danielle’s face, and I grimace, walking off so it can play out.
Part one of Kaiden’s plan has begun and it won’t be long until this is all over and we can finally be normal.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
IVY
My mood has worsened by the time I get to the dinner hall. Danielle’s words keep playing on a loop in my head and it’s driving me crazy. Crazy enough to forget my knife and fork. With a sigh, I slam my plate and drink on the table Selina has deemed ours, drop my bag to the floor and head back to cafeteria line to grab my cutlery. I’m still steaming by the time I get back to the table, not noticing Selina, her friends, Si and Bee, or Clary at the table. The group have eaten with us a few times, but the majority of the time, they stay away, not wanting to get involved in the clique that comes with being friends with a Kingsley. I can’t blame them. I guess the attention is a required taste, and I’d rather be the girl no one noticed.
“Well, I guess someone didn’t get laid ten times today,” Clary mutters before digging into her food.
I sag back in defeat, wincing at the group staring at me. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long fucking day and it’s not even halfway through.”
I grab my drink, gulping half the contents down before putting it back down on the table.
“What happened?” Selina asks, biting her lip worriedly. I’m surprised she’s even here. Carter and his teammates must be here somewhere at the school, and I would have thought she’d jump at the chance to go see him.
“If you were with me, you wouldn’t be in a foul mood. I know how to get a girl off,” Bee flirts, winking.
Clary snorts. “Girl, don’t make me fall for you.”
“Did something happen?” Selina asks, blushing, and I grin at her changing the subject.
A headache begins to form, blurring my vision slightly, and I grip the table to steady myself. “Yeah, Danielle and her cronies.”
“Yeah, they tried sitting here before Clary shoved them away,” Selina comments.
“Although, Jasmine was glaring at Danielle like she was about to murder her,” Clary adds.
I chuckle, but the sound is weird, like I’ve got water blocking my ears. I use my fingers to try and unblock them, but it only makes it worse.
“Guys, I’m just going to head to the loo. I think I’m coming down with something,” I tell them, my tongue feeling heavy in my mouth.
Reaching out, Selina places a hand on my arm. “Want me to come with you? You’re looking a little green.”
I shake my head, groaning when the movement causes the room to spin. I want to vomit. “No, I’m good. I just need to splash some water on my face. It might wake me up a bit.”
“All right, just call if you need me.”
It takes a few attempts for me to get a grip around the strap on my bag, which seems to have doubled in size, and when I do, I nearly topple over, missing the bag completely.
“Woah, maybe I should come with you,” Selina calls out, sounding distant.
I wave her off, not even sure if it’s in her direction as my vision splits in two, dots of bright pinks, greens and oranges scattering through my vision. “I’ll be back in a minute. Eat your lunch. I’ll be fine. Promise.”
I head towards the exit, taking in a deep breath. Nova said she was feeling iffy last night so maybe I’m coming down with something too.
“Ivy,” is whispered close to my ear as I walk into the toilets. I spin around, swearing it was my mum’s voice calling me.
“You are losing it,” I mutter to myself, heading to the sink on wobbly legs. Laughter rumbles through me when the sink twists, blurring with a luminous colour. It kind of reminds me of a picture of a moving object.
The sink snaps back with a pop. Wary, I scan the bathroom, hoping no one will take my magical sink.
I need it.
The cold water cools me down somewhat, yet the heavy feeling is still there, and everything around me is unfocused, yet bright with colours.
“Ivy,” is called again, and this time, it’s a male voice, one that has haunted me since I found that recording in Royce’s office.
“Who’s there?” I call out, clutching my head when a wave of dizziness hits me.
“You’re next,” Royce taunts, and I spin again, looking for him.
This moment was bound to happen. I knew he was gunning for me. I’d prepared myself for that very moment, but not like this, not when something is seriously wrong with me.
Cold hands touch my breasts, the feel of them freezing the blood within me, and I scream, the sound so loud I cover my ears with the palm of my hands.
The scream swirls in front of me and I end up on my arse on the stone-cold floor.
I scrabble back on my arse in a bid to flee, kicking out in terror at the black blob in front of me.
“You want it, just like your mum,” he growls, the black blob slowly turning into a solid form, sparks of yellow and orange splashing out around him. “Kaiden said you like it hard.”
There’s nothing there, nothing but darkness with orange and red splashes surrounding it, giving it a glow.
I blink, clutching my head to shake away the nightmare. It’s not real. It can’t be. There’s a squeak, and I dart my gaze in all directions, laughing when I realise it was me.
The floor is cold, and the florescent light doesn’t help with my headache. It’s almost blinding.
Wetness slips down my cheeks as the colour around me dims a little.
Deep down, I know I need to get help, I know something is wrong with me, but the fog clouding my mind has me unmoving, unwilling to register the danger.
Gripping the sides of the counter, I pull myself up, leaning heavily against the sink. My pulse races the more paranoid I get.
“Did you think you could get away with ruining my life?” Royce asks.
I squeeze my eyes tight, whispering, “It’s not real. It’s not real.”
Kaiden.
Kaiden will know what to do.
I move to leave but stop short at the sight of the dark blob transforming into a solid form once again, this time the black tar-like liquid changing colour. Before I know it, Royce is standing in the doorway.
I blink, and he’s still there, watching, taunting, his face twisted into the monster I’ve always seen him as. His malicious smirk taunting me.
“You aren’t real,” I whisper, gripping the counter when my knees begin to wobble.
“I’m not? Are you sure?”
“I’ll scream,” I warn him, hating this vulnerability inside of me.
“Your mum screamed. She screamed so loud I thought my ears would burst.”
He comes at me and I run, slamming into a solid wall of muscle. I scream when I see him smiling down at me, that coldness lurking in the back of his eyes.
“Get away from me,” I scream.
He tears the blazer from my body, my shirt ripping in the process, and I punch and kick out at him.
“Shush,” he whispers in my ear, licking his way up to my earlobe. “You want it.”
“No!” I scream, clawing at his face as he gropes me, trying to shove his hand up my skirt.
My vision clears, and it’s no longer Royce in front of me, gripping my shoulders, but the guy I met on my first day. Leeroy, I think, and his lips are moving, but I can’t hear the words.
A bright flash of pink brings me back to the moment, and Royce tries to
shove my skirt down.
“No,” I yell, clawing my nails down his face. I can feel the skin under my nails, the blood on the tips of my fingers.
Somehow, I manage to push him away from me, and I head for the door, nearly falling through when the steel door that used to be wood, flies open.
I press my hands over my ears, blocking out the sound of my mum screaming for help. Disorientated, I twirl in a circle, watching as the crowd of people point and laugh. It’s deafening, and then they suddenly stop, smiling so wide they look sinister.
The ear-splitting screams are all I can hear. It’s unbearable.
“Mum,” I whisper, my voice cracking.
The smell of sweat fills the hallway, the tension and fear so thick that I find it hard to breathe. She’s twisting and turning, struggling to get away from the men looming over her. The tall, lanky form pins her down on the bed while Royce, a sinister smile on his face, spreads her legs.
They laugh, and the sound knocks me back. I bump into another hard form.
I turn, crying out, only to come face to face with Royce again. “You’re next,” he promises, reaching for me.
“Ivy?” I hear roared, and shivers run down my spine at the chilling voice.
It’s like I don’t have control over my body, sound and movement slowing around me as I turn to the voice.
I blink, searching through the crowd until my eyes land on Kaiden, pushing his way through to get to me.
“He won’t save you,” Royce whispers in my ear.
“Help me!” Mum screams.
“Ivy!” Kaiden roars.
“I’m going to make you scream,” Royce whispers.
“No, no, no,” I cry out, taking a step back.
“You were never who I wanted,” Mum screams. “You selfish bitch!”
“I’ll ruin you like I ruined your mum,” Royce taunts.
“You were always good for nothing,” Mum screams, suddenly in front of me.
“Mum,” I beg through a sob. “Why didn’t you love me? Why didn’t you protect me?”
“I never wanted you!” she confesses.
“Come here,” Royce snarls, grabbing for my arm. “Take your clothes off.”
I cover my ears to block them out, but it doesn’t work.
Nothing works.
It could be seconds, minutes, but it feels like forever before I finally find feeling in my legs. I run, not looking at those still watching my mum being raped.
I don’t stop when I hear her call my name.
I dodge Royce when he goes to grab me, the smell of his cologne and cigar smoke choking me.
My knees smack onto the floor, my palms scraping along the dark wooden flooring, but I get back up. I get back up and run away from the taunts, the screams for help, the laughter.
The double set of doors call to me like a beacon, a white light illuminating the frame. I push through, glancing over my shoulder when rough hands rip my skirt from my body, causing me to trip.
My lids tightly shut as I freefall, knowing this is the moment that I plummet to my death.
Coldness blankets me, soaking me until it pulls me down. My lungs burn, water closing in on me.
And the last thought I have before everything goes blank, is that I never got to live.
There are moments in time where you want love, you want money, a home. But life is hard. Love can be painful, heart-breaking, and at times, life ending. You work years making sure you have money to pay the bills, to buy luxuries and just stay above water to make a home.
But there comes a point in your life when you need to stop and enjoy the time you have left in the world with your loved ones.
I’m never going to get that moment.
If this is my death, all I’ve ever known is struggle and suffering.
But at least I finally got to experience love.
I got it when Selina became my friend, my cousin, my sister.
I felt it the moment I truly let Nova in.
And I got it in the moments I shared with Kaiden.
And now, I’ll never be able to show them that love back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
KAIDEN
“I’ve put the proof into their lockers,” Rome comments as we head to the dinner hall.
I clap hands with him, my way of a handshake. “Thanks, man.”
“There’s also something else,” he murmurs, stopping me before the double set of doors in the hallway that lead to the dinner hall.
“What now?” I groan, just wanting to get to my girl.
Things between us have been so fucking good. The sex has been off the charts, explosive, and I’m hoping I can get her to sneak off with me to our room for a quickie.
“I managed to hack into the live feed in Hackett’s office.”
“You got into his private feed?”
“Yeah, it’s good you noticed that camera.”
I shrug. He refused to have a security camera, saying it breached his privacy. When I went to see him at the beginning of the week, I saw a red light flickering on his bookshelf. On closer inspection, I noticed it was a camera and got Rome right onto it.
“What did you get?”
“A recording of Danielle seducing him into changing her grade and a lot more of him blackmailing other girls into sexual favours. He left them no choice, man,” he grits out, clenching his hands.
I pat his shoulder. “He’s done here at Kingsley Academy.”
He scrubs the back of his neck, looking over my shoulder. “I’ve not gone through them all, but there’s one with your dad sitting a chair, watching Hackett bend a girl over his desk. She was crying.”
“Fuck,” I roar, slamming my palm against the wall. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Look, I know you wanted to handle this your way, but I’m going to send this to the police. He can’t get away with that.”
I nod, trying to calm my breathing. “Get it done. And, Rome,” I call when he goes to leave. “Give it to an Officer Sullivan at the local police station. He can be trusted and doesn’t mess around.”
“Can he be bought?”
I shake my head. “He’s a good one.”
“All right. You going to be okay?”
“It was going on under my nose. How do you think I feel?”
“True. I’ll get this done.”
“Rome, can you make a list of the girls for me? I want to make sure they get the best help. I’ll have Nova Monroe help me set up a funding for them too.”
He leaves after giving me a chin lift. I sigh, feeling older than my nineteen years. It takes me a few moments to get my anger in check, but when I feel I’m calm enough to hide the newest Royce revelation, I move forward.
It’s never ending.
I never knew him, not really, and I’m struggling on whether that’s a good thing or not. Did I want to live my life blind to the monster he was? No. But finding out new pieces of information, more crimes he’s committed… sometimes I wish I could erase it from memory.
The wood is rough under my palm as I go to push through the door. However, hearing my name yelled from the other end of the hall, stops me.
It’s Rome, his gaze wild and concerned. “Dude, your girl is going mental outside the men’s room. She’s clawed the fuck out of Leeroy’s face.”
“What the fuck did he do to her?” I ask, running into action as I meet him down the hall.
“I don’t think he’s done anything. Something’s wrong. She’s going fucking crazy.”
I hit the hallway and my heart stops when I see the pure, unadulterated fear across her face. I’ve seen her angry, I’ve seen her hurt and upset, but never in the small amount of time I’ve known her, has she ever looked like this. Not even when we fucked her around or when Grant pushed her into the pool.
People shove and push to get a closer look, and I curl my lip in disgust.
“Ivy?” I roar, pushing people out of the way to get to her. I pause when her gaze locks on mine, the breat
h getting stuck in my throat when I get a clear image of the fear she’s going through. She looks terrified, pure and simple. It’s difficult seeing her so tortured. It’s a big pill to swallow.
She ducks her head, like she’s trying to block something or get away from someone. A whimper escapes her lips as she ducks the other way, like someone is there.
“Ivy?” I roar again, needing her to see me, hear me, to know that whatever is going on, she is safe.
“No, no, no,” she cries, and I struggle to get through.
“Fucking move,” I growl, pushing a guy into a group of students, all the while keeping my eyes on Ivy, worried when she places her hands over her ears, crying out.
Frustration consumes me as I fight to get to her.
“Fucking move out of his way, you fucking tossers,” Ethan yells from somewhere behind me.
“Ivy?” I yell, finally reaching the circle. But she’s gone, running down the hallway before falling to her knees.
I move to go to her, but then notice Leeroy stepping out of the toilets, holding tissue to his face.
I see red and shove him against the wall, squeezing his neck in a vice-like grip. “What the fuck did you do to her?”
His eyes bulge. “Nothing, man, I swear. She was in the bathroom, talking to herself, screaming out. When I went to see if she wanted help, she attacked me. I fucking swear it.”
Letting him go, I run in the direction Ivy went. I don’t see her, but it’s not hard to find which way she went, people are still looking in the direction, whispering to their friends.
“Fuck,” I curse, seeing the pool entrance up ahead. I pick up speed. The second I push through the doors, there’s commotion around me—and I find Carter mid-dive, before he goes under.
“No,” I whisper, jumping in after him.
By the time the water surrounds me, Carter is lifting her to the surface. She’s still, lifeless in his arms.
When he looks up at me, I can read what I don’t want to tell myself.
She’s not breathing.
I watch her chest, praying for it to rise, but there’s nothing, not even a slight movement to give me an ounce of hope. I pull her from his arms, moving to the edge of the pool where Ethan is waiting to help pull her out.
Crowd of Lies (Kingsley Academy Book 2) Page 22
