Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,30
in there. Don’t forget the shoes. They hate it when you try to work without the shoes.”
“Thanks,” I say. “But who are you? I’ve never seen you around before.”
“I’m Victor,” he says, reaching for my hand and holding it up so he can bump me in the knuckles. “Victor English. Lead servling to the heir apparent for four years running now and not at your service. You have nothing I need, Not-Lacy. So I won’t protect you until you do.”
“Why would I need your protection?”
“I know all the ropes. They can’t hang you if you know the ropes.”
Ominous. Like everything else since yesterday morning when my life suddenly went sideways.
I pass through the door, closing it behind me, and find myself standing in a locker room of sorts. I’m just about to go back out and ask Victor which locker is mine when I see the garment bag with a large piece of paper that says ‘Lacy.’
Well, there it is. My uniform.
I sigh as I reach for the bag. Hmm. It’s definitely not a pair of navy shorts and a gold shirt. It’s bulkier than that. I sit down on a bench and wonder how bad it will be.
I figure it’s a French maid thing? Maybe? If they want to sexually exploit me.
Or something ugly and demure. Very institutional in gray.
But never in a million years did I ever expect to see the costume I pull out of that bag.
CHAPTER ELEVEN - COOPER
“What do you mean Cadee spent the night at your boathouse?”
The words are coming out of Ax’s mouth, but nothing about them makes sense.
“I told you, I got in a fight with the Judge and bumped into her on the lawn. Well.” He thinks about this for a second. “No, she bumped into me.”
“Get to the part about the fucking boathouse and how you spent the night with her.”
He shrugs. “I couldn’t leave her there on the lawn. So I dragged her in there with me.”
“Did you fuck her?”
“Fuck who?” Ax and I both turn to see Lars coming up towards the path in front of Ax’s house that leads to Dragonfly Lake.
“Why do you care?” Ax says.
I turn back to him. “Because we had a fucking deal, Ax. You don’t touch her.”
“Touch who?” Lars asks.
“Cadee!” Ax and I both say at the same time.
“Hmm. Are we fucking and touching Cadee again?”
“No,” I growl.
“Maybe.” Ax shrugs.
“No,” I repeat. “We are not. Stay the fuck away from her. She’s trash.”
“Huh. That’s too bad,” Lars says. “I kinda liked having her around yesterday. Fucking miss senior year of Prep. It was… hot.”
“Shut up, Lars,” I growl. “We’re not getting involved with her. In fact, we’re on a mission to get her fired today. Understand?”
“Why would we want to get her fired?” Lars asks. “She’s not hurting us.”
“She could hurt us,” I seethe. “Everything that happened that year was…”
“Was fun.” Ax fills in the blank.
Lars narrows his eyes at me. “What you guys did to her, you mean. I liked her.”
“Yeah, and you know what?” Ax says, turning on Lars. “I’m still kinda pissed about that. Sometimes I think you want this life. Sometimes I think you like it too much.”
“Hey.” Lars shrugs with his hands. “I’m not gonna whine about my life. It’s pretty damn easy, all things considered.”
“Shut up, Lars,” I say, pushing him on the shoulder. “Don’t go soft now, asshole.”
“You know what else?” Ax says, and I sigh. Because I can tell he’s working himself up into one of those infamous tirades. “I’m super happy that your life is so awesome, Lars. But mine fucking sucks. And that’s not fair.”
“I didn’t fuck up your life,” Lars says back. “You did. All you had to do was follow directions and things could’ve gone easy. Even Cooper follows directions better than you do. So if your life is a shit show, that’s your fault, not mine.”
“OK, enough, you guys. Can we just concentrate on getting Cadee out of here?” I point to Ax. “Humiliate her today. Make her cry like a goddamned baby. She’ll tell my father, he’ll see she’s someone he can’t trust, and then she’ll be gone and we can forget she ever existed.”
“Don’t worry about that.” The three of us turn to see Isabella all dressed up in her garden party finery. I’m talking the wide-brimmed lace hat, the long, cream-colored dress with a pink satin sash around her waist, and white gloves. “I’ve already seen to her utter humiliation.”
“That was fast,” I laugh.
“Well.” She shrugs