Psst, I know a secret.
The same secret that the Student Council—the super-rich, super handsome elite of Adamson All-Boys Academy—knows, too.
Jenica Woodruff, the only girl to ever attend the academy before I showed up, didn't commit suicide: she was murdered.
Now, someone is after me, too, but no matter where I go, the killer follows. My new high school isn't safe, and turns out, neither is my old one.
I'm not a member of the Student Council, but after everything we've been through together, after the horrible things we've seen, I may as well be. These ruthless boys have taken me under their wing.
Church, the fearless leader (and hopeless coffee addict). Ranger, the bada** VP (and naked baker). The identical McCarthy twins (and MMA enthusiasts). And Spencer, the boy who was willing to question everything about himself to fall for me … oh, Spencer.
Murder and romance are both in the air at Adamson; I'm just not sure which one will kill me first.
Table of Contents Table of Contents
Front Matter Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Signup for my Newsletter
Author's Note
Map of The Hot Springs Lodge
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Back Matter The Forever Crew Cover
Shadowed Cover
The Family Spells Cover
Filthy Rich Boys Cover
Filthy Rich Boys Chapter 1
Keep Up With The Fun
More Books By C.M. Stunich
About the Author
The Ruthless Boys
The Ruthless Boys © C.M. Stunich 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
The For information address Sarian Royal Indie Publishing, 89365 Old Mohawk Rd, Springfield, OR 97478.
www.cmstunich.com
Cover art and design © Amanda Carroll and Sarian Royal
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.
this book is dedicated to Dick Supreme.
you've always got my back; I appreciate it more than words could say.
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Author's Note
***Possible Spoilers***
The Ruthless Boys (Adamson All-Boys Academy #2) is a reverse harem, high school bully/murder mystery romance. What does that mean exactly? It means our female main character, Charlotte Carson, will end up with at least three love interests by the end of the series. There isn’t much bullying in this book when compared to the first one however. This story in no way condones bullying, nor does it romanticize it. The love interests in this sequel are actually pretty damn nice (especially when compared to my boys in The Rich Boys of Burberry Prep series).
Any kissing/sexual scenes featuring Charlotte aka Chuck are consensual. This book might be about high school students, but it is not what I would consider young adult. The characters are quirky, the emotions real, the f-word in prolific use. There’s some underage drinking, sexual situations, mention of a side character’s possible suicide, and other adult scenarios although this remains a fairly lighthearted read.
Charlotte starts off as a bit of a brat, but I hope you enjoy the character growth in this series. ;)
None of the main characters is under the age of seventeen. This story will have a happy ending in the third and final book.
Reading Order:
Adamson All-Boys Academy Series
The Secret Girl
The Ruthless Boys
The Forever Crew
Bonus: Orientation, a Burberry Prep x Adamson All-Boys Academy crossover novel
Spencer can't be dead.
That's the only thought going through my mind as I drop my hands to my lap and turn my attention back up to the body in the tree. It's just … swinging there, the rope creaking against the limb.
“You're alive,” Tobias whispers, eyes watering as he looks at Ranger. He dashes his arm quickly across them and sniffs, trying to regain his composure. It's such a guy thing to do, I'd make fun of him if … if …
“Why are you holding that rope?” Ranger asks as Church rushes forward to where Micah's standing, helping him to undo the knot.
“Why do you think I'm holding it, man?!” Micah snaps back, his red-orange hair wet and plastered to his forehead. We're all shivering, teeth chattering, and probably in serious, serious need of medical help. “I'm trying to get him down.”
Ranger moves like a zombie across the clearing and over to the rope.
Please don't let it be Spencer, I repeat over and over in my mind, like some sort of mantra. Don't let it be him. Even if I feel just a tad bit guilty about wishing it were someone else, I don't care. I just want to give him a hug. Please, god, let him be alive so I can hug him.
We never really got a good, proper hug in there, like the one Ranger gave me at the Twilight Slumber Camp party. The look on Spencer's face when he caught us was so hard. Not to mention the expression of betrayal he was wearing in the hallway yesterday …
It can't end like that.
I won't let it.
I stand up and rush over to help with the rope. Ranger just sits down heavily on the ground beneath the body. It's too far up to actually see the person's face, so I don't look too hard. I won't let myself look. Looking won't change the outcome.
“I have a knife,” I whisper, pulling out the serrated blade that Ranger gave me for protection and handing it over to Church. He's breathing so hard, and his face is as white as a ghost. He doesn't look at all like himself. It's interesting though, to see this sort of near-panic in his expression. He's human, after all. “Cut him down, please. Please.” My voice starts to shake as I step back and wait for Church and the twins to take care of it.
Slowly, respectfully, they lower the boy to the ground.
That's when I hear the sirens, and we all exchange looks.
“See if it's Spencer, man,” Tobias groans, putting his face in his hands. “I can't look. I just can't. Micah …”
“It's okay, bro, I'm on it.” Taking in a deep breath, he approaches the body, but a distant shout cuts through the moment and makes me feel so weak, I almost collapse.
“Chuck!”
It's my dad calling.
“Over here!” I shout back, cupping my hands around my mouth and waiting as the sound of approaching footsteps draws closer. My dad appears just a few seconds later with several police officers and EMTs behind him.
“Oh thank god,” he breathes, rushing up and grabbing me in a huge hug. “Oh, Charlotte. Thank god.�
�� He's so happy to see me that he forgets to call me by my nickname for a moment. Archie cups me so close, I feel like I'm being choked. I push away from him, shaking like crazy. There's an EMT trying to put a blanket over my shoulders; I take it, but honestly, I'm more concerned with Spencer than myself.
“Dad,” I start, pointing back at the body and closing my eyes. The rest of the Student Council is being dragged away, too; we still don't know who it is yet. “Please tell me if that's Spencer Hargrove.”
“We need to get you to the hospital,” Dad is murmuring. He's clearly not listening to me at all. At this point, however, I'm too tired and cold to keep pushing. The chattering of my own teeth is giving me a headache. I let him herd me away, into the back of an ambulance with Ranger.
Without even thinking about it, I reach down and curl our fingers together. He squeezes mine back, and we sit that way for the rest of the drive into town.
The police are refusing to release the name of the boy from the woods. That, and Spencer Hargrove is missing. Not just him, though, a lot of boys are proving difficult to track down. Hell, it's spring break. Nobody's surprised that there are a few students that are unaccounted for.
“If Spencer's dead, I'll …” Tobias trails off, putting his fingers on the glass of my father's living room window. His breath fogs against it as he leans his forehead against the jamb. “Well, shit, I don't know what I'll do, but … he can't be dead.”
“He could be,” Micah whispers, sitting beside me on the sofa. I glance his way, taking note of his glassy green eyes, and the way his mouth tightens into a thin line as he says those awful words.
“Take that shit back.” Tobias spins around, ready to start a fight with his brother. The McCarthy twins have been doing this on and off, ever since we got to the hospital. They actually got into a full-on fistfight in the exam room, and Tobias gave Micah a nosebleed. Of course, that was after Micah gave him a purple shiner on his left eye.
“Why?” Micah looks up and then rises to his feet. Church and Ranger are up in the next second, getting between the two of them. “We have to face facts here: the boy in the tree was wearing a gym uniform. He had silver hair. Spencer is missing. How long do you want to lie to yourself before you start accepting it?” Micah's eyes water and he turns away, scowling.
Nobody stops him as he takes off, disappearing up the stairs and into one of the guest rooms. I let him go, feeling this strange numbness inside of me.
“You two need to learn to stop taking your emotions out on each other,” Ranger whispers, voice dark and low. He levels his sapphire glare on Tobias, shadows dancing behind his eyes. “You're lucky you're both still alive.”
“We're lucky you're alive,” Church whispers, his face impassive and closed-up. He hasn't smiled once since we left for the hospital, not once. That over-the-top cheerful side of his that I used to think was the result of like, him being a psychopath or something, I'm pretty sure now that it’s real. After seeing Church's emotions in the woods, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. He's a happy, but damaged individual.
Right now, however, there's not much to be happy about.
“I'm glad you're here, Ranger,” I tell him, my voice cracking. He looks over at me, dressed in sweats and a hoodie. We're all still in recovery here. We were all in the second stages of hypothermia; we're all lucky to be alive.
He looks at me, long and hard, and then turns away toward the window. He doesn't talk much on a good day, but after everything that just happened? I'm not surprised that he's at a loss for words.
The front door opens and my dad walks in, glasses fogging up from the change in temperature, hair disheveled. He looks like he's aged ten years in the last twelve hours.
I stand up from the couch, heart racing. Archie Carson isn't a man that's easy to read. I can tell he's upset, but he's holding all his emotions in. One day, the guy is going to crack and lose his shit. Or hell, maybe he never will? Maybe he just doesn't care enough about anything to let loose like that?
“Dad, is it—”
“I can't tell you anything, I'm sorry.” He looks over at me with sympathy in his face, but I can feel my hands curling into fists at my sides. The tears I've been fighting back for so long tease the corners of my eyes with salt. It hurts; I've been crying far too much, mostly in the bathroom where the boys can't see. It feels selfish of me to be so sad over Spencer when he was their friend first, their friend for longer. If you think about it, I barely knew the guy.
But there was something there.
There could have been something great there.
My knees shake, and my throat feels suddenly dry.
“I've spoken with the police, and until they release an official statement, I'm not permitted to say anything regarding—”
“I'm your daughter,” I spit out, shaking, my eyes lifting to Dad’s matching blue ones. “I'm your only family. You know how much we care about Spencer. Can't you just tell us if that was his body, swinging in that goddamn tree?”
“Charlotte, I'm not going to—” He calls me by my name, but it doesn't matter since everyone in that room knows my secret. Now we all know another one, don't we? There are at least three people who want me dead and gone. And there's at least one student at this school who won't be coming back to class after break.
“You can't break one, tiny little rule for one stupid second? Just one second to make your daughter feel better?” My temper is white-hot, and I can barely breathe. Church reaches out a warm hand and lays it on my shoulder. His dry palm feels good against my skin, and I take a deep breath, a strange sense of calm washing over me. My mind strays back to that hot water bottle and chocolate he brought me. That was a surprisingly thoughtful gesture for someone I thought was a psychopath. “Please. Just say yes or no. That's it. That's all you have to do to change our world.”
“I'm sorry, Charlotte.” Dad looks at me for a moment with this flicker of regret in his eyes. “I've alerted your parents,” he nods in the direction of the boys, “and you all have cars coming to pick you up. Please stay here until they arrive.”
“I'm not leaving Charlotte,” Tobias declares, crossing his strong, muscular arms over his chest. He's changed from his soggy, wet uniform into an Adamson Academy zip-up sweater and matching sweatpants, and holy crap, with the sweater partially unzipped, and the pants hanging low, the outfit shows off the muscles in his chest and lower belly in a way that's criminal. Too bad I'm too worried about Spencer to enjoy it.
Worried.
Right.
Like worried he might be fucking dead.
I close my eyes tight.
“That's not your choice to make, Mr. McCarthy. I'm sorry. Your mother's already sent a car.”
“Then send Charlotte with us for break,” Church inserts, and I open my eyes to see him stepping forward. His face is all business, closed-off and unreadable. He's like some sort of marble statue, carved by the deftest and most skilled of hands, but missing the gentle vulnerability that comes with being human.
Poor Church.
His heartbreak is hidden under a layer of stone.
“We can spend the next week in California,” Micah adds, and I hear the stairs creak as he comes down to stand on the landing. “It's gotta be safer there than here.”
“There’s nothing unsafe about this campus,” Archie begins, and my jaw drops open.
“Nothing unsafe?!” I choke out, trying to keep my voice low. Screaming hurts too much right now. Hypothermia is no joke. “Nothing at all? You mean, you didn’t call 911 when you found that bloody handprint on the dorm wall?”
“Charlotte.” There’s most definitely a period at the end of my name, a definitive punctuation mark in the conversation that eloquently says all the words my father isn’t capable of uttering: shut the fuck up, Chuck, we don’t argue in front of company.
But my emotions are riding high on a wave of fear and melancholy, and all I can think about are Spencer’s last words to me. “We could've been something, Cha
rlotte, but I hate being lied to. I hate it.”
“How about the secret, flooded underground tunnels beneath the school?!” Church squeezes my shoulder, but I ignore him. I’m too fired up right now. “Or the dead guy hanging from a noose? What about a bunch of hypothermic students, and someone who almost drowned?” I swing my arm over to point at Ranger. “So, the campus isn’t unsafe? You’re full of shit.”
“I think it’d be better if Charlotte left with one of us,” Church begins again, but Archie is having none of it. His nostrils are flared, and his face is turning a purple/red color that I hope means he’s close to breaking. I’ve been waiting years for this.
“Sometimes inappropriate actions lead to poor consequences. Although I’m sorry for what you all are going through, you should never have been in those tunnels.” Archie pauses for dramatic effect, and I feel myself start to shake with barely repressed emotion. “My daughter will be staying with me, and that's final.” Archie stares me down, a battle of wills that I refuse to lose.
“It’d be no problem to put her up in a hotel near my mom’s place,” Ranger says, his voice rough and ragged from the near-drowning.
“Your rides should be here soon. Until then, I’ll be in my office. Regardless of your friendship with my daughter, I’m still her father, and I’m still the headmaster of this school. There will be no more arguments about this.” Archie exhales, and all the color drains from his face, leaving a steely calm that infuriates me to no end. He turns and heads into his office, pulling the door closed so there's only a small crack. Jazz music filters out the opening as I frown. Hard. Hard enough that my mouth hurts. Hard enough that I feel the tears start to sting my eyes again.
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