THE FOUR HORSEMEN
A SERVITE ACADEMY FOR TROUBLED TEENS NOVEL
BELLAMY ROSWELL
Copyright © 2020 Bellamy Roswell
All rights reserved. This book, or any portion may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except in the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This novel is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, events, and incidents are products of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is purely coincidental.
No claims have been made over songs or quotes written. All credit goes to the original owner.
Disclaimer: 18+ This book is not recommended nor intended for anyone under the age of 18. Some topics, scenes, and/or language in this book maybe sensitive to some readers. Contains dark themes, steamy sex scenes, mature language, and triggering situations.
Edited By: Sarah Plocher, All Encompassing Books
Proofread By: Sarah Plocher, All Encompassing Books
Cover Designer: Shashika, Fiverr
Cover Image: Depositphotos.com
Formatted By: Bellamy Roswell
CONTENTS
DEDICATION
PLAYLIST
EPIGRAPH
BLURB
SYNOPSIS
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY–ONE
TWENTY–TWO
TWENTY–THREE
TWENTY–FOUR
TWENTY–FIVE
TWENTY–SIX
TWENTY–SEVEN
TWENTY–EIGHT
TWENTY–NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY–ONE
THIRTY–TWO
THIRTY–THREE
THIRTY–FOUR
THIRTY–FIVE
EPILOGUE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
STAY CONNECTED
THE HOLY TRINITY SNEEK PEAK
DEDICATION
For those who seek answers in life and in love, my one and only advice is to be adaptable. Love comes in all shades.
We are human. As much as it pains us, we are not perfect. We make mistakes. We make bad decisions, but in the end our life, our love is no one else’s but our own.
So, take a chance. Take a risk! In the end, the reward will be worth the effort.
PLAYLIST
Bahari – “Wild Ones”
Twenty-One Pilots – “Heathens”
Lenii – “The Kids Are All Rebels”
Maggie Lindemann – “Pretty Girl”
Ava Max – “Kings & Queens”
The Score – “Born For This”
Maggie Lindemann – “Couple of Kids”
Echos – “Saints”
Bahari – “Savage”
Tate McRae – “Stupid
Alina Baraz – “My Whole Life”
Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
Madison Beer – “Say It To My Face”
Julia Michaels – “Heaven”
Natalia Kills – “Devils Don’t Fly”
Nick Kingsley & Hannah Hart – “You Made A Monster”
Imagine Dragons – “Monster”
EPIGRAPH
“She could be heaven or hell, a strong man’s dream and a weak one’s nightmare.”
Reggie Nulan
BLURB
TEENAGE ANGST, WAYWARD ATTITUDES, AND RECKLESS BEHAVIOR.
Welcome to Servite Academy…
SCARLETT
Naïveté - lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment.
I was foolish to once believe I knew the truth about this world and those who inhabit it. Naïve really. I knew there was good and evil. Right and wrong. Rich and poor. Love and hate. Happiness and sadness. But I didn’t know the half of it. I understood it was either or, that the two opposites were not interchangeable. If one was good, they were happy. If one was poor, they were sad. And if one was evil, they were wrong. But the events to come would make me question everything I thought I knew. My life thus far had been a never-ending nightmare of good versus evil, right versus wrong.
Or so I had thought.
And then one day when I thought this life couldn’t get any more complicated, I met them. The Horsemen. Four highly influential, egotistical, and sardonic men who live for power and thrive on the following of others. Vultures roaming the weak and looking forward to their demise. Causing their demise.
The fucking kings of the fucked-up apocalypse we call life. And he stands front and center, like the true king he is.
Ace Fucking Servite.
I hate everything he stands for. I hate all of those around him. So why can’t I get myself to hate him.
ACE
We blindly follow orders. We conquer, defeat, and capture. We govern, torture, and kill if need be. We’re the Horsemen of the Apocalypse to come. Created to rid our town and those surrounding it of its sinners, there is no good left in us. But then there she was, the embodiment of salvation.
My redemption.
An angel with the mouth of a devil. A devil with the eyes of an angel. A dream come to life. A nightmare I don’t want to wake up from.
Blurring the line between heaven and hell can be dangerous for someone on either side. But what happens when in reality hell is a place on Earth, and heaven is in her arms?
SYNOPSIS
Scarlett Steele grew up with no real father, an absent criminal for a stepfather, an indifferent stepbrother, a temperamental stepsister, and a high-handed, alcoholic, and psychotic mother. When her mother and stepfather become fugitives of the law, Scarlett and her stepsister Jade are taken and placed into a foster home in the nearby neighborhood of Pleasant Hills, by corrupt officer, Wesley Servite. Any place seems better than the mobile home they we’re living in with their no-good parents. What they don’t expect is that in this new home, they will meet the people who will become their true family.
However, after suddenly being forced into an elite boarding academy for the pretentious teens of the richest families in the country, Scarlett and her group of friends are left to fend for themselves. Growing up in the impoverished neighborhood of Providence, then moving to a foster home in the crime-ridden, debauched slums of Pleasant Hills, will prove to be nothing compared to the danger she will face once she steps through the steel gates of Servite Academy. Located in a wealthy, affluent neighborhood situated at the top of the highest hill, Hillcrest Hills looks like the perfect place to live. But don’t be deceived by appearances. All seems well, until Scarlett comes face to face once again with Agent Wesley Servite, and his dangerously alluring nephew Wallace “Ace” Servite.
Ace Servite is everything your mother warned you about.
Vicious, ruthless, and cruel to the bone. Yet he is physically everything you’d hope to find in a man. Tall, a perfectly toned physique, devilishly handsome façade with defined cheekbones, a chiseled jaw, the most intense ocean blue eyes, and an unequivocal passion for bringing women to their knees. Self-p
roclaimed king, Ace and his group of friends, the Horsemen, rule the halls of Servite Academy and its inhabitants. Bred to be a king and rule over all those beneath him, Ace is instantly drawn to Scarlett, her wayward behavior, and the mystery she brings to Servite Academy, because you see, her coming here, was no coincidence at all.
Scarlett takes an instant disliking to Ace and the pretentious and manipulative ways he rules the halls of the academy having learned it all from one of the most ruthless and dangerous men in the world, his Uncle Wesley. Combine that with his obsession with uncovering her secrets, and every inch of her in the process, Ace is the last person Scarlett should ever be attracted to.
However, when a certain someone from her past reveals themselves, Ace seems to be the only answer to unraveling the mystery, for she realizes her being in this school is no accident. Someone wants her here. She just has to figure out if she’s safe at the academy or in grave danger.
But the pressures of Ace’s obligations as “The Head Horseman,” bred to rid his world of the sinners that are threatening to bring his empire down, leave him blind and vulnerable to Scarlett’s allure. When Wesley Servite threatens to come between them, Ace must decide if his loyalty to his uncle is worth more than the safety of his newest obsession.
Blurring the line between heaven and hell can be dangerous for someone on either side. But what happens when in reality hell is a place on earth, and heaven is in her arms?
PROLOGUE
SCARLETT
Three years ago
“Scarlett get your ass out here, child, before I beat the shit out of your mother.”
Here we go again. Every Sunday morning like clockwork, Mrs. Presley our landlord, bangs on the front door of our small mobile home and mutters the same bogus phrase. I walk out onto the rotted, creaking porch and see my mom sprawled on her ass lying across the front steps, a bottle of vodka barely hanging in her left hand. Her dark hair sits in a dirty, tangled mess upon her head and as always, she is well deserving of the beating Mrs. Presley threatens.
“I swear, Scarlett, if she keeps pulling this shit, I’ll throw you guys out. I have a reputation to uphold and tenants drunk off their asses in the middle of the street is not acceptable.” She pouts, her graying curls bouncing as she speaks. Right. The pristine reputation of Providence Mobile Home Park is going to be tarnished by the dirty alcoholic sprawled across my doorstep. Providence is nothing but trash. The Gotham City of the West Coast. Where the worst of the worst reside. The alcoholics, drug addicts, drug dealers, gang members, prostitutes, etcetera. Criminals lining the streets and every corner. Debauchery at its finest.
“Won’t happen again, Mrs. Presley.” I answer, mockingly waving the old hag off. Of course, it will happen again. Next Sunday morning just like it has for the last six years.
“Yeah, yeah, like I haven’t heard that before.” She snarls angrily as she walks off.
I walk over to my mother, bending down to throw the empty bottle of vodka on the grass as I drape her left arm across my shoulders. I’d much rather drag her ass inside but in the state she’s in, I’m better off making this as quick as possible. As we enter the mobile home my stepsister Jade snickers as she sits at the small folding table we use to eat.
“Daddy leave you out there on your ass again, mommy dearest?” She says, taking a spoonful of cinnamon sugared cereal in her mouth. She chews loudly giving me one of her “I told you so” smirks.
“Shut it, Jade.” I sneer, causing her to roll her eyes.
“You already know how this goes, Scar, don’t know why you still try. Every Saturday night mommy and daddy go out to party. Mommy gets a little handsy with daddy’s friends and he leaves her drunk off her ass at the bar. She’s dropped off the next morning, by who knows who, still drunk off her ass and you nurse her back to sobriety only to be lectured for being such a snob. And the story repeats itself again. When will you learn?”
I ignore her even though I know she’s right. This has been going on for as long as I can remember. My mother always fucking up and me right behind her to pick up the pieces. In the beginning it was just my mom and me. She got knocked up at seventeen and ran away from home after she got pregnant and her parents kicked her out. It was just us two for a while and she was working two jobs while I stayed with whatever sitter she could find, usually our next-door neighbor Mrs. Kay. She was trying, at least I thought she was. That all stopped when I was about five and a half years old. That’s when she met my stepdad Chaz, a lowlife, alcoholic, drug dealer with anger issues and one too many priors. Providence’s most eligible bachelor of course. Chaz had a five-year-old daughter Jade and an eight-year-old son Roman. They moved in with us after just two months, and soon the two of us became five.
For the first two years things were semi-normal. Jade and I were the same age, so we were in the same class and got along relatively well. Roman was always sulking around but would be nice enough if we stayed out of his way.
But then suddenly on my eighth birthday things took a downward spiral. Chaz was arrested for nearly beating a man to death who got a little handsy with my mom at a bar. He spent almost three years in jail while we spent that time with a drugged up, drunk, and high-handed desolate woman. Jade distanced herself from me blaming me for my mother’s temper and abusive tendencies, while Roman outright ignored me. Kids at school were cruel because Jade told them my mom was a lowlife drunk who preferred the company of strange men to that of her own daughter. I mean it wasn’t a lie. My mom would take off four days out of the week and we never knew where she’d go. It only made sense. When Chaz was released early on probation my mom stopped going out and they would spend hours in their bedroom only coming out to get more alcohol when they’d run out. Roman used to say they had to make up for lost time. But I knew what he meant. They were in there having sex. The thought of it made me cringe.
The next three years passed in a frenzy of misfortunes. Mom and Chaz would argue constantly only to make up even louder. When things would get really bad, he’d leave to stay at his buddy’s place, and we’d get the wrath of my mother’s aching palm. Our landlord threatened on multiple occasions to kick us to the curb, only I think she was terrified of what Chaz would do to her. Everyone in town was. He was the psycho ex-con who nearly beat a man to death for touching his even more psychotic, whore of a girlfriend. A true Harlequin Romance.
Roman took off when he turned sixteen and left Jade and I to fend for ourselves. I guess he was smart. It devastated Jade, but she and I were best friends now, true sisters. After being through so much together we kind of had no choice. It was either stick together or end up alone, and we refused to choose the latter. We still argued constantly but isn’t that what sisters are supposed to do?
That brings us to today. It’s the eve of my fourteenth birthday and mom and Chaz are back to their old tricks. We spend our last night as a “family” sitting around a fire pit outside our mobile home, mom with a bottle of vodka in hand and Chaz with his hand around my mother. If I’d have known it would be our last night here, I can’t say I would have done anything differently.
The next morning, the morning of my fourteenth birthday, I wake up to Jade throwing her things furiously against the wall of our shared bedroom.
“That stupid bitch. She took it, she took all of it.” She yells as I sit up on my bed rubbing my eyes as I turn to face her.
“What are you talking about, Jade?” I ask, my voice still groggy and hoarse.
“She took my money. The cash I had hidden away to get out of this fucked up place. She took it all. I swear I’m going to kill her,” she yells, hysterically laughing, throwing her hands in the air. At her remark, she storms out of our shared bedroom while I throw the covers off of me and onto the ground, sleepily following behind her.
She bangs her fists on our parents’ bedroom door nearly knocking it down and yelling at the top of her lungs.
“Come out you stupid bitch!”
“What’s go
ing on, Jade? You’re freaking me out!” I shout, not understanding what she’s talking about. I try to calm her down to talk to me, but we’re suddenly startled by an even louder pounding on the front door. I quickly look over at Jade silently motioning for her to get behind me. I may only be three months older than her, but I’ve always taken on the role of the older sister. The protector. We slowly walk over to the front door and I grab a bat that’s hung up against the wall by the door. Yeah, it’s that kind of neighborhood.
“Hillcrest Hills Police Department open the door!” they shout, banging on the metal screen door as we stand motionless, suddenly out of words. What are the police doing here?
I turn to Jade who stares at me with her wide green eyes, her dirty blond hair falling out of her messy ponytail. Nobody ever believed we were real sisters like we always said we were. Her bright green eyes are just like her father’s, while apparently my cerulean ones match those of my so-called father, whoever he was or is. Frankly if it weren’t biologically possible, I wouldn’t be so sure he exists. Her dirty blond hair is a complete contrast to my dark locks, courtesy of my mother. But right at this moment I know I’d do anything to protect my sister, blood or not.
“Hand over the keys!” they yell loudly.
Maybe my mother and Chaz are outside? Suddenly the door is swung open aggressively, as five officers with SWAT like uniforms come barging in, filling up the small space of our mobile home. I turn and grab Jade holding her in a tight embrace.
“We’re looking for Chandler Zander Wolfe & Lilith Steele,” they shout, but it only frightens us more. That’s right, my mother’s name is Lilith, the devil’s mistress herself.
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