Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,97
your shit together. You’re going to Dante’s. Ax will walk you. Michael, you’re going home with Mona and you will stay the fuck away from the Legosi house tonight. Do you understand me?”
Fuck. The bully king is back, I guess. And everyone knows it.
Because Michael says, “Fine.”
And no one else says a word.
Not even Sophie.
The next day Sophie doesn’t show up at the Glass House. But Dante does. He’s standing at the edge of the pool with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face.
“Where the fuck is she?” Michael is livid. “She’s not yours anymore. You can’t order her around. Where is she?”
“Oh, make no mistake, Michael. She’s still mine until tomorrow. And even though she’s not very fun and she’s a frigid fucking virgin—well, not a virgin anymore”—his sadistic laugh makes the birds take flight in the nearby trees—“I am going to buy her again. You see, Sophie is getting through this High Court shit show no matter how difficult she is. And I already know that Cooper wants me out. So she’s my little insurance policy.”
“Where is she?” Cooper demands.
“Who? Oh, Sophie?” Dante mocks. “Sophie tried to kill herself last night and she’s in the hospital.”
I don’t even know how to describe the utter shit show that happens next. There are fists, and screams, and fingernail scratches across Dante’s cheek and he’s bleeding from the mouth. The sheriff comes, puts Ax in handcuffs, and he disappears in a squad car. Isabella loses her mind grabs a huge rock, then makes an announcement to everyone—including the sheriff—that she’s done here, and then jumps into the deep end of the pool. Cooper and two deputies fish her out screaming, and she is taken away in an ambulance.
And then the rest of us are forced into squad cars and taken down to the station to give statements.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE - COOPER
Two days later everyone is back at the Glass House except Sophie and Isabella, who are both locked up at a nearby psychiatric center on a seventy-two-hour hold because… attempted suicide. And Ax, because he’s being held in the county jail for felony assault on Dante.
The Legosi family is pressing charges.
Sophie downed a whole bottle of pills that were conveniently left out in Dante’s bedroom and Isabella has a long history of self-harm and she was telling the doctors that she was checking out for good this time.
So. Here we are. Challenge three.
Yet another auction.
Even Michael showed up. I told him not to, but he’s in it to win it now. His exact words to me when I called to ask him to stay home today were, “No fucking way am I leaving Sophie to live in that hellhole alone. I’ll be there.”
So that’s just fucking wonderful. And I know this sounds like I’m only thinking about myself—and if people want to see me that way, I guess that’s their prerogative. Lars, anyone?—but the auction starts in five minutes and even though Sophie isn’t here, she’s still up for grabs.
And Dante has already promised to buy her just out of spite.
It gets better. Cadee is now her stand-in.
“We’re still buying her?” Mona says.
“What choice do we have? We’re not letting Dante get away with this. Not on my watch. How much cash did everyone bring?”
“Us girls brought what we’ve earned so far. And the boys have some too.”
“What’s the total, Mona?”
“Four hundred and seventy-five.”
“Good.” I breathe a sigh of relief. “Should be more than enough.”
Famous last words.
Dante buys Sophie for a million dollars.
Only he didn’t buy Sophie, did he?
He bought Cadee.
And this time there are no bodyguards and I have been told, in no uncertain terms by the Chairman, the Judge, and the Mayor, that I will not interfere with Dante Legosi in any way. If I even speak to him for the next two weeks, they will take it out on Cadee.
In fact, after the auction I got a call from my father telling me to go home. He has forbidden me from going to the Glass House again until the third challenge is over.
Lars has been put in charge of everything.
And even though Lars and I have been best friends for the better part of two decades—which is saying something since we’re only twenty-one—when he shows up at my house after the auction, I’m not at all sure we’re still actually friends.
He enters the living room and sits down on the couch opposite me.
“Well,” I say. “What happened?”
“She went home with him.”
“I cannot believe how