Cry For Me: (A Dark College/Enemies to Lovers) (Alder Academy Book 3) Read online

  “The last guy that threatened me, nearly lost his cock,” she says, and it sounds like a warning. I chuckle darkly near her ear before biting the lobe hard enough to draw blood. She gasps as our eyes connect in the mirror.

  “I’ll take that challenge and raise you one. The last girl that got in my way killed herself. Let that sink in.” Pulling away from her, I grab my bag and toss it over my shoulder as I head for the door. No one says a word, they’re all used to us coming and going as we please. Either way, we’re going to pass the class with no issues.

  I storm through the hall and out the front door when my phone rings. I slide it out and answer, knowing it’s Steele.

  “What?”

  “Why are you causing trouble?”

  “I’m not. Just having a little fun is all.” When I get to my truck, I lean against it and wait to see what else he has to say.

  “Not what I heard, but as long as it’s all fun and games, go for it.”

  “Wasn’t aware I needed your permission,” I add.

  “You don’t. Hey, I was calling to see if you could stop by Intensity and see if Leddy needs anything else before Friday. She isn’t answering the phone,” he says.

  “Yeah, fine. I’m heading that way now.”

  “You sure you’re okay?”

  “No. I was honestly thinking about hitting the cabin for a few days. Taking a break and recharging,” I finally admit. I hear Steele sigh into the phone.

  “If that’s what you need, do it, Brother. I want your head at a hundred percent. I know the last couple of months have been something out of a goddamn movie, and I don’t blame you for needing a break. As long as it isn’t a permanent one.” I smirk at his words.

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you actually cared about me, Steele.”

  “Fuck you. It’s always been the three of us, Knox. Nothing and no one changes that,” he reminds me.

  “I know. I’ll talk to you when I get home. We ordering in?”

  “Yeah. We’ll get something.” The line goes dead as I climb in the truck and toss my bag over the seat. I’m about to rev up the engine when I see her. Her hands are flying through the air as Danny stands in front of her. I wonder what the hell that’s about. She looks pissed but he looks downright murderous. I want to go over there and ask what’s going on, but that’s not my concern. Instead, I shift the truck into drive and head toward Intensity.

  4

  Liz

  “I don’t see how that’s my problem,” I say with a shrug of my shoulders.

  “Are you serious right now, Liz?” Danny roars. What does he want from me? I’m doing the best I can.

  “Yes, I’m dead serious. See what I did there?” I smirk and give him a wink. He doesn’t appear impressed.

  “This is serious and death jokes aren’t helping, Liz.” I roll my eyes and heft my bag up my shoulder as I look at him.

  “I know it is, but I’m fine. In fact, I’m better than fine. They won’t search here. They don’t even know about you, and if it’s that big of a problem just stay away from me, Danny.” Not that it’s what I want, but at the same time I don’t want to risk Danny being in the middle of another of my messes. It’s not like he hasn’t seen that train wreck before. He runs his hand through his hair as he glances around the parking lot.

  “This is probably the safest school there is. Their security is intense.”

  “So are the students,” I say.

  “Some of them. Look, if you feel off or you notice anything, just promise me you’ll tell me,” he basically pleads with me. I nod my head and wrap my arms around his waist hugging him.

  “I promise, I will tell you.”

  “Good. Now don’t forget that we’re having dinner on Saturday and if you want to hit that club Friday let me know.” I pull away and nod my head as he smiles at me. “Behave!” he adds, pointing at me.

  “When do I not behave?” He laughs a hearty laugh before walking away.

  “I like you.” I turn to see Whisper standing behind me.

  “I might like you too. What’s up?”

  “Not much. Getting the hell out of here. You want to hang out?” I debate saying no because frankly, I don’t know her, but what’s it really going to hurt?

  “Sure.”

  “Good. I’m ready for a drink,” she says, making me laugh as we walk through the parking lot.

  “It’s only three in the afternoon.”

  “I’m a day drinker. So fucking what?” She laughs, causing me to laugh along with her. Whisper walks to a truck and opens the door, motioning for me to climb in the other side. I do and sink into the leather seat as she starts it up.

  “Big truck for a small girl,” I tease.

  “Yeah, Steele didn’t need it today, so I took it. He’s probably at home frothing at the mouth as we speak.” She rolls her eyes.

  “What’s he like?”

  “Intense. You’ll see. Where do you think we’re going to day drink?” She laughs as she pulls out onto the main road. I swallow hard, hoping like hell I didn’t make the wrong choice here. I don’t know her. I don’t know them. From what I’ve been hearing, they run this city and that’s not something I really need to be in the middle of. It makes me a target, and if they make a huge deal of me being here, my name could pop up for others. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take, but it’s a little late for that now.

  We pull up in front of a massive house that has me doing a double take. Whisper kills the engine and hops out of the truck as I do the same.

  “You live here?”

  “Long story short? This used to be their dad’s house. He’s dead. We moved in. It’s huge, yes, but the guys have their own space which with the three of them is needed.”

  “Are they that bad?” I ask, not sure I want the answer to that.

  “No, but they are all alpha pricks, which means there is a shit ton of testosterone in here.” Whisper shoves the door open and walks in as I follow behind her. She doesn’t stop until we walk into what appears to be a living room. She grabs bottles out of a small fridge and turns to me with a smile. That smile quickly fades and I’m confused until I feel hands slip around my waist. I’m about to fight when they tighten.

  “Who is this?” a man asks close to my ear.

  “First of all, get your hands off her, Steele.”

  “And second?”

  “She’s my friend and you aren’t allowed to touch her,” Whisper says, popping the top on one of the bottles and taking a long pull.

  “Day drinking again, I see.”

  “Still touching my friend, I see,” she retorts. I try to pull away from him but he’s too strong. Whisper rolls her eyes as if this is a natural occurrence around here. I roll my head forward ready to crack him in the face if he doesn’t let go when Whisper laughs. The guy releases me, shoving me a little when I slam into someone else.

  “Thought I told you to stay out of my way.” When I lift my gaze, I see it’s Knox that’s in front of me.

  “What just happened here?” Steele asks, observing all of us.

  “She was about to head butt you!” Whisper laughs hysterically. Steele looks to me while Knox grabs a hold of my wrist and jerks me closer.

  “No, she wasn’t,” Steele says before walking toward Whisper.

  “Why are you here?” Knox asks, leaning into my space.

  “Whisper invited me.”

  “Why are you here is a better question? I asked you to run by Intensity,” Steele chimes in. I watch as he takes the bottle from Whisper and brings it to his lips.

  “I made a pit stop. Now I can take our new friend on a field trip,” Knox says slowly, running his fingers up my arm.

  “She doesn’t want you, Knox,” Whisper points out.

  “Sure she does,” he retorts.

  “No, I’m pretty sure I don’t.”

  “Too bad that isn’t your decision to make. Whisper didn’t want me at first either, did you Whisper?” A gasp catches in my thr
oat as I look between the three of them. Whisper just smirks, Steele isn’t paying much attention, and Knox is smiling like a goddamn fool.

  What the hell did I just get myself into?

  5

  Knox

  “Let me out of this truck,” she says, sounding a bit panicked. It’s cute.

  “No.”

  “You can’t just kidnap me,” she snaps, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at me.

  “I think I just did,” I tease. That’s when she does it. She reaches for the door handle and throws the door open while I’m doing seventy. In the blink of an eye, she is pulling at her seatbelt. She’s going to jump! Holy shit, the girl has a set of balls on her. I swerve the truck, grabbing her wrist as I do so she can’t fall out. Slamming on the brakes, she whips forward, her head hitting the dashboard.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I roar as I unbuckle myself. I release her and hop out of the truck coming around to her side and pull her out. Slamming her against the side of the truck, I see the speck of blood on her head.

  “You wouldn’t let me out!”

  “I was driving, you little psycho!”

  “I didn’t ask to go with you, did I?” she snaps as she reaches up to rub her head.

  “You’re probably the dumbest girl I’ve ever met in my life.”

  “Coming from you, I’m sure that’s a compliment.” Damn it, she’s hell on earth. I like it.

  “You show up in my town, my school, and then my house and you think you have a say in anything?” I raise an eyebrow and move in closer. Her body is pressed into the side of the truck, trapped by me. She peers up and there’s a slight dizziness in her gaze. Shit, how hard did she hit her head? Reaching up, I run my fingers near the cut watching the way her breath catches.

  “I didn’t know it was your town,” she sasses back.

  “Now you do.”

  “So what? I should run and cower? Find a new school?”

  “For starters. Unless you don’t mind the games I like to play,” I remind her.

  “Which are?” She’d like to know. Yeah, right.

  “Which you only get to see when I decide to play them.” I lean down so that my lips are close to hers but she doesn’t move. In fact, she doesn’t even breathe when I’m this close to her.

  “You can’t scare me.”

  “Oh, I bet I can.” I smirk. “Like right now. You’re not sure if I’m going to kiss you or not. You’re afraid that if I do, I won’t stop there,” I tell her. She smirks at me.

  “You have no idea who I am,” she says softly, shaking her head from side to side. “If you were smart, you’d stay away from me. Far away because when shit goes south, I’m the last person you want to be near.” I step back laughing, darkly. She clearly has no idea who the hell the Alder’s are.

  “We are the shit that goes south,” I say, throwing my arms out to the sides. “We are the things that go bump in the night. If anyone should stay away, it’s you, sweetheart.” I watch her, the way her eyes stay locked with mine, the anger, the fear. There is something more to this girl than I originally thought. She’s not lying. I can typically spot a liar from a mile away and this one? No, she’s not lying. She truly believes that whatever it is that follows her is worse than we are.

  “You don’t scare me,” she says, keeping her head high.

  “Maybe I’m not trying to scare you. Yet.” She steps away from the truck, unsteady on her feet. I watch her grab her bag and toss it over her shoulder before turning and walking away from me. I let her go this time. Next time, it won’t be that easy to walk away from me. Next time, I’ll show her exactly the kinds of games we like to play around here.

  When she’s far enough away, I hop back into the truck and put it in drive, heading for the club. Not like I feel like dealing with Leddy today either, but Steele asked me to.

  It doesn’t take me long to get there and head inside. The construction looks great. As soon as we could, we started to rebuild. Leddy wasn’t happy that we threw money her way considering this was her place and not ours, but what she didn’t understand was that this place means a lot to us too. It isn’t just hers, not anymore. We all come here to let off some steam and whether she likes it or not, it’s a part of us.

  “What are you doing here?” Speak of the devil. I turn with a smile plastered to my face.

  “What a way to say hello.”

  “You’re an asshole. That’s the only way to say it.”

  “Are we still fighting?” I ask, raising an eyebrow in her direction.

  “You tell me. You’re the one that’s been treating me like garbage for a month now,” she reminds me.

  “You asked me to do the unthinkable, Leddy! How did you expect me to react?” I cock my head to the side and study her. I understand why she asked me but at the same time, it pissed me off.

  “I didn’t think they were that serious, Knox. What was I supposed to do? The two of you make my head spin!” She throws her hands in the air as I move closer. Reaching up, I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and pull her closer to me.

  “Asking me to help you break up my brother and his girl should have never crossed your mind, Leddy. He’s off-limits,” I say grinding my teeth.

  “I know that now, and I said I was sorry, Knox. What more do you want from me?” I lean down, brushing my lips over her cheek, listening as she sucks in a breath.

  “I don’t want anything from you. I want you to stay away from them,” I remind her.

  “I have been. I’m trying here, Knox. We’ve all been friends for a long time and I don’t want to lose that.” When I pull back, I see the pink coloring her cheeks, and I wonder what it would be like to fuck her one good time against the wall of this club. It’s not like I haven’t thought about it.

  “Then don’t make us walk, Leddy.” She nods her head and I release my hold on her as she steps back. “Steele said you haven’t been answering your phone.”

  “With good reason. I’m busy.”

  “Do you need anything for Friday? You all set?” I ask, walking around as the finishing touches are being put into place. The place looks the same, yet different.

  “Everything is set but there is something I want to talk to you about,” she says. I turn to face her and wait. “The competition. The one in Florida is in a few months.”

  “You’re going?” I ask. She nods.

  “If I can get a partner.” There it is.

  “No.”

  “Come on, Knox. It would be good money for the club and all that attention? The media will go insane,” she nearly begs. I run my hand through my hair as I think about it. I know that this means a lot to her, and I also know that before Whisper, Steele had planned on doing it with her, but now that isn’t really an option.

  “Fine. I’ll do it.”

  “You will?” Her eyes light up as she leaps into my arms. I wrap my arms around her and hold her, feeling her body pressed against mine. There’s been this weird tension between Leddy and me for a while now. We’ve both felt it and when she told me how she felt about me and Steele, I almost acted on it. I thought better of it considering how long we’ve been friends, and I can’t really see myself long term with her but touching her right now? Fuck, that feels good.

  “Strictly business,” I tell her just as my lips come to rest on her neck. She gasps and tightens her body around me. I groan as I walk us toward the wall, pressing her body against it.

  “What are you doing?” she whispers softly.

  “Fucking things up. Making them worse? I don’t really know.” My lips trail down her neck, and I feel her body shudder in my arms. I suck her flesh into my mouth knowing this is a bad idea.

  “What the hell is this?” I pull back and let out a sigh of relief when I hear Callan’s voice. I let Leddy’s body slowly slide down mine until her feet hit the floor.

  “This is me getting the fuck out of here,” I tell him as I spin and head for the door. He follows. Of course, he follows.<
br />
  “You and Leddy?” he says as I make my way to the truck.

  “No.”

  “Really, Knox?” I turn to face my little brother as he stands there with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Not what you think it is, Brother.”

  “You weren’t just about to fuck her against the wall of the club?” he asks in amusement.

  “Maybe.” I smirk.

  “So, what is it? You two together now?” I run my hand over my face and shake my head.

  “No. It was… fuck. It just happened. It won’t happen again.” Callan nods his head as I shake my head. Since everything went down with our dad and our mom, things in my head have been off. I can’t shake the bad feelings that slip through my veins.

  “It’s almost Thanksgiving,” Callan states.

  “And?”

  “And we’re family, Knox. We are going to have a good holiday,” he tells me. I don’t know how true that is. I can’t seem to get myself under control.

  “Yeah. We’ll see.”

  6

  Liz

  I yawn and roll over to view the clock. Two in the freaking morning. Why am I awake? I close my eyes and beg sleep to come back to me, but when I hear the noise that woke me the first time, I freak out. My heart leaps into my throat as I climb out of the bed. Rolling Springs is too nice of a city to have a bad side of town but I’m in it. Crawling across the floor, I climb to my knees and peek out the window. The alley is dark outside my apartment, only the slight light of the moon shining. I can see a shadow but I can’t make out much more. Dropping back to my hands and knees, I crawl to the bedside table and grab my phone, calling Danny. Glass shatters as my heart leaps into my throat. I can’t call the police. No, they would know. They could track me.

  “Pick up. Pick up,” I chant softly as my heart bangs against my ribcage. More noises sound outside my window and I scoot across the floor to the closet. Once I’m tucked inside, I bring the phone back to my ear.