Broken Empire A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance - Callie Rose Page 0,62

continue to come after me once we all graduated. Why would she? She’d be too busy off at some Ivy League school torturing the rest of the freshman class—trying to establish her dominance over them—to worry about me.

Which meant the Princes would no longer need to protect me or watch over me.

“Hey. I was just kidding.”

Leah bumped her shoulder against mine, gazing at me with concerned eyes as I jerked out of my thoughts.

“Oh!” I shook my head and grinned. “I know. I was just thinking about something else.”

“What a bitch Adena is?” she suggested.

I huffed a mirthless laugh. “Yeah, actually. Something like that.”

“Did you hear she got into Harvard?” Maggie asked, inserting herself into our conversation as she wrapped a strand of her long ponytail around her finger.

“Ugh. Did she?” Leah rolled her eyes. “I’m surprised I hadn’t heard, actually. I’m sure she was shouting it from the fucking rooftops as soon as she got the letter.”

“Yup.” Maggie shot me a glance. “She’s been gunning for that school since day one. Pretty much everything she’s done here has been to make sure she’s like their ideal candidate. Well, everything she’s officially done.” Her lip curled, an expression I’d rarely seen the sweet blonde girl wear. “I doubt jumping you behind Hammond Hall was something she put on her application.”

“No?” I deadpanned. “Not even under ‘extracurricular activities’?”

Leah shook her head, making her angled auburn bob shift. “God, she’s such a fucking bitch. She’s dead set on being prom queen too, and you know with the way she’s been climbing the fucking ranks around here, she’ll probably get it. It’s not because of damn popularity, I’ll tell you that much.”

The conversation around me shifted to other things as the Princes continued to work their way around the room, seeming determined to speak to every single person at the party.

It really wasn’t fucking fair. After what Adena had done to the Princes, what she’d done to me, she was still going to get everything she wanted. She would be handed the world on a silver platter, and knowing her, she’d just fling it across the room and demand a better one.

She really was untouchable.

The only time I’d seen the Princes have even a modicum of control over her was when she’d still thought there was a chance of getting back together with Mason. She’d been desperate enough to make that happen, to secure that match, that she would’ve probably done anything.

Now though? She hated the Princes, and she was more powerful than them.

She’d done what she could to wreck their lives, and possibly to end my life, and now she was set to just waltz off into the sunset with no repercussions.

We were running out of time to bring her down. And as much as I’d told Mason to be careful, not to act until we were sure, I didn’t like the idea of her getting off scot-free.

I just wasn’t sure how to get to her.

Chapter 17

On Saturday morning, I dug through a stack of papers in my desk drawer and found a phone number in the letterhead at the top.

I’d lost the few numbers I’d had programmed into my phone when it was broken in the crash, and I hadn’t ever re-entered Erin Bennett’s contact info. There hadn’t been much need to. She’d checked in briefly during my first semester back at Oak Park, but her job was done. She’d helped emancipate me and free up some of the money my mom had left me—there was nothing left for her to do.

Once I had her name and number programmed into my phone, I pressed the icon to make the call.

It was the weekend, so I wasn’t sure if she’d answer, but when she’d been working on my case back in Sand Valley, she’d told me to feel free to call her anytime.

She answered on the third ring, her tone cool and businesslike. “Hello? This is Erin Bennett speaking.”

“Hey, Erin. It’s Talia Hildebrand.”

“Oh, hello, Talia.” Her voice warmed just a fraction, becoming a little less clipped and formal. “Sorry, you didn’t pop up on my caller ID.”

“It’s okay. I got a new phone.”

“Well, what can I do for you?”

I paced across the room, summoning the courage to just come right out and ask for what I wanted. “Do you know anyone by the name of Adam Pierce?”

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line, and my stomach felt like it was full of wet cement as I held