Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,41

there in my pretty pink bra and start slipping the new shirt over my head.

“No.” Cooper grabs the shirt from me. “Take off the bra too.”

“What?”

Those dangerous blue eyes are locked on mine. “You heard me. No bra.”

I glance at Isabella and her friends. And now more people are here. Three more guys and two more girls. And they are all watching to see what I will do.

I reach behind my back, unclasp my bra, let it slide down my arms. And I stand there with my chest out and my nipples all peaked up and perky.

Cooper is staring at me. But he’s not taking in the view. He’s gritting his teeth in anger.

Oh, did I disappoint you, big strong man? Was I not properly embarrassed?

Like I care if these people see my body. I’m not ashamed of it.

Mona bursts out laughing on the far side of the room when she walks through the door. “Get ’em, Cadee!” she yells, kinda… cheering me on. Maybe. Probably not. Whatever.

Cooper throws the t-shirt at me. He’s had his eyes locked on mine this whole time. But now he lets them slide down to my bare breasts. And they linger there until I pull the shirt over my head and straighten it out.

I look down at it, realize someone has written ‘Call me Fugling’ across the front in thick black marker, and just… let it go.

Play the game, Cadee. You’re a winner.

I curtsey. Bow my head at Cooper Valcourt. “Thank you, Your Highness.” Then I look at Isabella. “My queen, how can I serve you today?”

“Coffee,” she barks. “Now.”

I curtsey again. “It will be my pleasure.”

Then I turn on my heel and walk back to the kitchen, passing Victor, who watches me with an open mouth, then follows me. “Oh, Cadee,” he says when we’re safely in the kitchen and they can’t hear him.

“What?”

“You’re just making it worse. Trust me. All you have to do is cry a little, be ashamed when they tell you, and hate every minute of this.”

“That’s giving up.”

“No, Cadee. It’s giving in. And that’s what it takes to win the games they play.”

I feel sorry for Victor. Because he’s a quitter. He’s willing to let these elite assholes run his life and determine his future and I’m not. We are two very different people. I look him straight in the eyes. “I’m not giving in.”

He puts both hands up in the air like he’s surrendering. “Fine. Do it your way. But they are gonna make it so much worse now.”

I ignore him and start filling up a silver coffee pot.

You will not give in, Cadee. You will not.

You did that already. You let these boys run your life three years ago. You surrendered to them. Fell for them. Believed them.

And all they did was lie and abandon you when you really needed help.

You will fight back this time.

You will show them you don’t need them, you don’t want them, and you will win this time.

They will be the broken ones left behind.

Not me.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - COOPER

“Hear ye, hear ye!” Ax is strutting back and forth across the front of the Glass House great room wearing army-green cargo shorts, Doc Martens, and a white t-shirt with a black double-ended arrow pointing up at his face and down at his waist with the words ‘TWO-SEATER’ in the middle.

That t-shirt is so… Ax.

There’s a chain wallet in his back pocket, his buzzed brown hair has a pentagram shaved on one side and an all-seeing eye on the other, and his colorful full-sleeve demon tattoos really pull the whole look together and give off an anarchist vibe that screams ‘Chaos is mine, motherfuckers!’

I put a hand over my mouth to hide my smile.

“Welcome to the one hundred and forty-seventh Fang and Feather Summer Rush!” he growls, still pacing across the front of the room.

The pledges are seated in a sloppy semi-circle in the middle of the space. Boy, girl, boy, girl. All ten of them are staring at Ax like he’s a freak show.

And he is. I know Ax Olson better than anyone but Lars and he’s walking the edge of insanity on most days. How he ever graduated from Prep, I’ll never understand.

Oh, wait. I know exactly how he graduated.

We made Cadee cheat for him. She did all his homework his entire senior year.

That’s how this whole thing started. Ax and his inability to complete even the simplest of assignments.

Ax stops to hiss out some fake audience roaring noises in his