I looked at the Vice Principal’s face and my hope died. I’ve seen that look hundreds of times. That emotionally exhausted sympathy, like a fish that has finally given up fighting the hook in its mouth. Julianne had her aunt hooked, and the fight was just about over.
“Pending an official investigation, nothing will go on your permanent record,” Jean said. She looked at Rudy. “Any of you. Which means, Rudy, that your expulsion is put on hold until we figure all of this out. In the meantime, you are all still suspended for a week. I’ll be in touch with your parents.”
Macy sobbed. Julianne smiled. Rudy pressed his forehead against my spine.
“Dismissed.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
RUDY
“Don’t take it so hard,” I said, nudging Kennedy’s shoulder gently with my own. “It’s like a week-long vacation.”
Her scowl deepened. We walked down the sidewalk, away from school, toward the mall. Walking was better than driving in situations like these. There’s only so much harm being stupidly angry can do on two feet—there’s a whole lot more opportunity for death and destruction behind the wheel.
Kennedy was just as pissed as I was. More, if I’m being honest. She’d never been steamrollered like that before. Not in school, anyway.
“And think of it like this,” I said, feeling like a genius. “Now Julianne has to have her Halloween party right in the middle of her suspension.”
That coaxed a flash of smile from Kennedy’s fury-darkened face. “I guess so, huh? She won’t be able to do her last-minute hype.” She snorted. “She won’t be able to pick everybody’s outfits for them, either. Hell, the party might actually have some interesting characters this year.”
Her face fell. Crap. She’d been invited to that party, back before everything went to shit. Wrong move, Rudy, you idiot. I thought furiously for a few seconds, then the lightbulb went on.
“We should crash it,” I said, forcing a devious grin for her sake. “We’d be wearing masks. Nobody would even know it was us! Then we could wreak havoc and split.”
Kennedy started to roll her eyes, then stopped.
A small smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. “That pool dye trick was inspired,” she admitted.
“Right? And with you involved, we can come up with even more diabolical shit.”
I had only really intended to distract her, but the thought of trashing Julianne’s party was too tempting to leave alone. Especially with those pictures floating around. Sure, the school confiscated the flash drive, but what about the phone? The girls could have sent those to anybody. They deserved comeuppance.
“We could hit them where it really hurts,” Kennedy said, her grin spreading. There was a malicious gleam in her eye I’d never seen before. It was pretty hot. “Right in the stupid hedge maze.”
I slid her a side-eye. “The hedge maze? Really?”
“Oh you would not believe how much they care about that stupid thing,” Kennedy said, sounding disgusted. “It’s the perfect place for easter egg hunts, haunted houses, capture the flag, you name it—but nobody’s allowed to use it for anything fun. You may only explore it with an escort from the household, and god help you if you touch the hedge itself. There’s a cute little garden in the middle, but nobody’s allowed in the middle. Like, what even is the point?”
An evil chuckle crackled out of my mouth. I grinned at her. “Sounds like we have a haunted house to plan. You know the layout?”
“Memorized it,” she said, grinning back at me.
I turned a sharp about-face on the sidewalk. It took Kennedy a moment to catch up with me again.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Grabbing the car,” I said. “We’ve got supplies to buy.”
Kennedy cackled like an adorable witch and clapped her hands, sprinting ahead then twirling to face me.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said, her eyes alight. “I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces!”
I frowned at that. “Me too…but we shouldn’t hang around and get caught.”
She slowed down, then turned again to walk beside me. “There’s got to be a way,” she said. “What’s the point of doing it if we don’t get to see the reactions?”
My steps slowed slightly, then I snapped my fingers. “Chris.”
“Chris?”
“He’s got this spy cam obsession,” I explained. “If he doesn’t have them, he’ll know where to get them—and how to set them up. We can watch them lose their minds from a safe distance.”
Kennedy bounced a couple of steps, smiling again. God, I would do some crazy shit to see her smile.
“Perfect,” she said.
“Yes, you are,” I replied without thinking.
She stumbled a step, blushed, and bumped me with her arm. “Not as perfect as you.”
I blew an incredulous razzberry at that and made her laugh. I would do some crazy shit to make her laugh, too. The intense thought that I’d tried to suppress earlier was pressing at the back of my brain again, warming my core like a melting pool of fragrant oil, filling my entire being with an assertion I couldn’t ignore.
Couldn’t say it either, though, so I kept quiet and held her hand. We were on a mission, after all; a diabolical, mostly harmless, epic mission of revenge.
I knew that building a kickass haunted house in the oh-so-precious hedge maze wouldn’t come close to sating my need for revenge, but it was a start. Besides, I wanted to introduce Kennedy to the game gently—if her first-ever revenge prank was Nair shampoo or something, she’d probably hate herself—and me for talking her into doing it.
Since Kennedy insisted on buying it all, our budget was virtually limitless. My car was full to bursting with our haul, with barely any room for Kennedy to squeeze in beside me. Her eyes sparkled in her flushing face as she slammed the door hard against the shopping bags, forcing them to fit.
She was half-pressed against me, half-standing, one arm slung over my shoulders. I barely had room to control the car, but I certainly was not complaining. Hell, she could have been sitting on my lap and steering for me and I wouldn’t complain.
“Think we got enough stuff?” She asked with a breathless laugh.
“We’ll see,” I said, grinning. “We can always come back for more, right?”
I was a little nervous about taking all this stuff home. I wasn’t sure whether the school had contacted Jason yet or not, and if he happened to be home I would have to explain why I’d been out shopping instead of being in class.
Luck was on my side for once, though. Both the driveway and the garage were empty when we arrived. The littles would still be in school themselves, which meant we had the whole house to ourselves.
That’s not a thing which happened often.
We hauled all of the stuff up to my room, piling it haphazardly in the walk-in closet. I didn’t use it for much—I didn’t like keeping more clothes than I absolutely needed, and they all fit in the long, low dresser which shared a wall with the head of my bed. It took five trips to the car and back and by the time we were finished we both collapsed on the bed.
“Maybe running wasn’t the best idea,” she giggled.
“Well how else would we do it?” I asked teasingly.
She stuck her tongue out at me. Dangerous gesture, that was. I caught it between my lips, surprising her with a deep kiss.
She responded with easy, familiar enthusiasm, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me over on top of her. Hot lust flashed through me and I groaned, grinding my body against hers.
A little whimper tapped a rhythm past her lips and then she was pulling at my clothes.
Heart racing with single-minded anticipation, I wriggled out of my things and helped her out of hers, leaving as little space between us as possible in the process.
Soon we were tangled together, bare skin gliding over bare skin as I took her mouth and throat and breast in my mouth.
She wrapped her legs
around me and drew me into her, urging me on with desperate little moans and rocking hips. The heated moisture from her pussy coated my cock, erasing some of the friction that would otherwise exist as I plunged myself between her thighs.
I took my time gliding out and then back in again, wanting to feel every inch of her around me. Kennedy was tight, almost painfully so when she clenched around me. She arched and quivered beneath me, arms locked around me, nails biting into my skin.
I kissed her hard, holding tight to my control as her eyes unfocused and her mouth formed an ecstatic O. I held on until she threw her head back and cried out, pulsing waves of heat around me, ripping my control to shreds.
When her little hands pushed at my chest, forcing me to pull my cock out of her, I almost died. But then that look in her eyes hit just before I gave up on living.
“I wanna know what you taste like,” she said, mischief dancing in her gaze.
“The only thing your gonna taste on me is you,” I reminded her.
She didn’t mind. Steadying a hand on my chest and dipping her head low so that she was face to face with my cock, she danced her tongue around my tip. Then her mouth opened, stretching wide to fit me in.
I grit my teeth together and fisted the fuck out of her hair. “Easy there, tiger,” I hissed.
I was old enough to know how to control my bust. Old enough to stall this. I tried to think about the most fucking boring shit in the world – doing math in my head and counting letters. I didn’t stand a chance. The minute my cock hit the back of her throat, it was game over.
My grip tightened in her hair and I moaned so hard I must have sounded like a wounded cat. That only prodded Kennedy to suck harder. Moving down and then up, ending the motion with a swirl of her tongue over my tip. Hot seed pumped from my cock, more and more as Kennedy’s hand got to work, milking every drop of me into her sweet mouth.
And then she was looking up at me. Gloating. She didn’t need me to tell her that she did a good job. She had the prize of my satisfaction sliding down the back of her throat.
“Mm…I like it when you have the house to yourself,” she murmured, swallowing.
My “me, too” was a muffled sound against her soft skin. She shivered as my lips moved against her, a motion that sent lust washing through me all over again.
“Do we have time for another round?” she asked.
I lifted my head reluctantly and glanced at the clock. Groaning, I dropped my head back on her shoulder.
“No,” I growled. “School’s out in ten minutes. Should have left already.”
“Damn.” Her growl of disappointment echoed mine. “Rain check?”
“Hell yes.”
I kissed her again, then we hustled into our clothes and hurried back to the car. The guys would know, but whatever. They would have assumed anyway, even if we had taken the time to shower.
“Are we going to get your brothers involved with the haunted house thing?” she asked as we drove back toward school. “I mean Chris, obviously, but the rest of them?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really see how we would pull it off otherwise.”
She tapped one finger against her pursed lips thoughtfully. “I know Gary will do it. Will Bradley?”
I shot her a grin. “Look at you, learning the dynamic! Yeah, he’ll go along with it.”
“Why?”
I frowned at her, puzzled. We were nearly at the school. Dissecting my relationship with my brothers was never going to be a three-minute conversation.
“Lots of reasons,” I said. “Boil down to ‘he’s my brother.’”
“Yeah, but—”
“Can we talk about this later?”
Her questions were making my skin prickle, and we were pulling into the school parking lot.
I didn’t want to be having this discussion in front of my brothers, and I didn’t want these questions at the forefront of her mind when they got into the car. I had my reasons. They weren’t very good ones, but I had them.
Her eyes widened and she blinked at me. I sighed and pulled into a parking space, my hackles all the way up.
“Sorry,” I said.
“It’s okay,” she said doubtfully. “Um—is it something you’re down to talk about later, or is it completely classified forever?”
I slid a narrow look at her as my face flushed hot. Okay, so maybe I was overreacting. I couldn’t even have told her why I was reacting the way that I was, except that my brain was screaming danger signals at me. Like my relationship with my brothers was so fragile that even looking at it too hard would make it break down.
“It’s not completely classified forever,” I said grouchily. “It’s just not something that needs to be talked about right now, okay?”
“Okay,” she said. Her voice was soft and even. It reminded me of the way the orderlies used to talk to me when I was in that juvenile behavioral hospital and managed to sour my mood even more.
“It’s not like it’s anything weird,” I said defensively.
“I believe you,” she said in that same tone.
I gave up and ground my teeth, glaring at the schoolhouse doors. Students poured out of them like ants off to raid a picnic.
The tide of them had spread to the middle of the parking lot when an earsplitting clap of mechanical thunder beat the air, scattering people from the path of the big pink convertible.
“She sure does like to make an entrance,” Kennedy said, twisting her mouth bitterly.
Julianne and Macy sat in the convertible, radiating haughty indignation as they stopped right in the middle of the pick-up zone.
Disgruntled parents honked at them, while their equally disgruntled freshmen and sophomores glared daggers at the car as they moved around it.
One bold soul opened a PB&J and slapped it face-down on the pepto-bismol hood. Julianne declined to notice.
Gary, Chris, and Bradley came out the doors together and stood to one side, on the small patch of gravel the four of us usually met on after school.
There was no point in honking to get their attention at that point, not with Julianne riling up the parents’ cars the way she was.
Joan came out a moment later, glanced around at the chaos, then ducked her head in embarrassment and rushed to the convertible. She tossed her bag in, jumped in the back, and tucked herself low, covering her face. I couldn’t figure out why. Everybody knew who she was by association, if nothing else.
When the pink behemoth finally moved out of the way, the pickup line cleared quickly. The parking lot emptied out steadily.
When the chaos had died down to a reasonable degree, I hit my horn twice. Bradley glanced up and frowned in confusion.
“Huh,” I said. “Figured if they were opening an investigation, they would have talked to the guys.”
“How do you know they didn’t?”
I jerked my chin at Bradley, who was leading the other two across the parking lot toward us. “Look at his face. He wants to know why we weren’t in school. If they’d talked to him, he’d already know.”
She squinted at him, then shook her head. “I’ll trust your judgment. One Bradley frown looks the same as another to me.”
“Do the frowns still scare you?” I asked lightly.
She shook her head, then hesitated. “Okay, maybe a little. He’s still massive and intimidating, you know.”
She crawled into the back seat to make room for Bradley, then my brothers piled in the car.
“Ditching again?” Bradley asked as soon as he slammed the door.
“Not exactly.”
Bradley didn’t say anything for a minute, then made an impatient motion with his hand.
“Okay, okay. I’m suspended. So’s Kennedy and two-thirds of the Julianne posse.”
Bradley blinked. “Okay, what the hell?”
I filled him in, with Kennedy contributing details here and there.
Bradley’s face grew darker and darker as we made our way home. When we got there, he looked ready
to tear heads off. I put the car in park and we all sat in silence for a long moment.
“Okay,” Bradley said. “I’m in. Whatever you’re plotting, I’m in. No conditions.”
My jaw actually dropped.
I don’t think I realized until that very moment just how many lines Julianne and her idiot friends had crossed with me. More than that, I was shocked that Bradley would care so much.
He never, ever enacted revenge without insisting on left and right limits, never went into any scheme blindly without condition.
Bradley the Viking was pissed. That couldn’t end well. At least, I thought with a grin, it wouldn’t end well—for them.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
KENNEDY
“Do you think this is going to work?” I murmured breathlessly in Rudy’s ear, huddled against the cool autumn breeze.
It was nearly four in the morning and we’d been working since the lights went out in the house at midnight.
The hedge maze and prize rose garden were alarmed, but I’d known the code for at least a year. They never changed it; it was a six-digit code that didn’t correspond to any of their birthdays, Julianne had told me, so why should they change it? Nobody would randomly guess it. Which was essentially true.
I shivered, as excited as I was cold, and basked in the fact that this prank never would have left the idea stage without me.
I was the only one who knew the hedge layout, I was the only one who knew the code, and even though the boys begged me to allow them to pitch in, I was happy to fully foot the bill of this $500 prank.
It had taken two days and three more trips to various stores to brainstorm the perfect horror movie scene. I couldn’t wait to scare the pants off of Julianne, couldn’t wait to watch the fallout when nobody owned up to putting it together.
Chris’ spy cameras were hidden away in shadowed corners all through the maze from beginning to end, enough of them to catch every dramatic moment. I couldn’t wait.
Something Wicked: An Enemies to Lovers Bully Romance (The Seymore Brothers Book 2) Page 16
