Ruthless god a dark coll.., p.23
Ruthless God : A Dark College Romance, page 23
I glance at the rings and I put them in my pocket.
She has another thing coming if she believes that I will actually sign the divorce papers. She’s going to be wasting her time finding a lawyer and serving me those papers. I meant every word—if she sends someone to serve me divorce papers, I’ll slit their throats and send their hands to her.
I told her before that I’m not letting her go, and I meant it. There is a way to fix this mess that I made. I’ve broken her trust, but I’m going to earn it back somehow. I should have been upfront and honest from the beginning.
My father would just love for us to break up so he can find a way to kill her. He doesn’t want to kill me, otherwise he wouldn’t be sending women my way for me to marry them. He wants me to get rid of Lyrical because he’s pissed off that she made a mistake. Now, all of sudden he cares about Bailey? Yet when she was alive, he treated her like a liability. He was happy to announce her marriage to Tim because he was getting something out of it.
How did Lyrical know about the revenge plan against my father?
I pick up my phone from the bed and see a text message open from our chat group. Jameson sent a message informing me that the plan didn’t work, so I close out of it and pull up my call log. My father is the last person who called, so she must have answered. He must have told her what’s going on. I should have been upfront and honest with her from the start, but I kept her out of the loop in fear of losing her.
I click on my father’s name and hold the phone to my ear. It rings three times before he picks up.
“I’m not killing Lyrical, and I’ll have your head once I’m done with you.”
I tap the End button.
When I get on the plane, I fly back to North Haven. Once I make it to the mansion on campus, I walk in to find Jameson and Keanu sitting on the couch playing on the PlayStation Five. Keanu takes out his gun and points it at me, but when he realizes who I am, he places his gun back on the coffee table.
“Motherfucker, have you heard of knocking? I could have blown your head off. You’re back early from your honeymoon trip.” He gets up from the couch.
A girl is naked with her hands tied behind her back. A blindfold covers her eyes and a gag is in her mouth. Dried-up residue smears her face and I’m assuming it’s cum. She’s propped up on her knees with her head bowed.
I raise my brow.
“This bitch stole three million dollars from me, so I’m using her body as payment. Before I kill her,” Keanu answers, slapping her across the face.
“How did she get a hold of your bank account information?” I question, folding my arms across my chest and leaning against the wall.
He yanks her by the hair. I realize it’s the same blonde chick who asked to be my pet earlier this semester at a party.
“She waited until I was asleep and stole my credit card.”
Jameson tosses the controller onto the end table and gets up from the couch.
“Where is Lyrical?”
“She’s staying at her parents’ house because we had a fight.”
When I checked the tracker on my phone, that was her last location, and she hasn’t left since.
Has she told her father everything? It doesn’t matter at this point. I’ll have to prepare for the worst, for when her father attacks me, when I show up there begging to talk to her.
I’m not going to tell Jameson and Keanu that she’s threatening me with divorce, because she isn’t going to get it.
“The plan failed. Your father noticed a tracker on his car. I wouldn’t be surprised that he is on to us.” Jameson pulls a bag of Skittles from his pockets and pops one in the mouth.
“He sent me messages saying he’s going to take care of me for marrying her. He knows that since I married her, he can’t touch her unless he wants there to be a full investigation. I’m sure he’s looking for a loophole.”
“I followed your father while you were gone,” Jameson says. “He has been conning the mayor out of money. Screwing over people at the club. And he meets at some mansion out in the middle of nowhere. I can’t get close to it because they have cameras everywhere.”
“We have another problem. Lyrical knows about my father wanting her dead, so she might tell her father and it might start a bloodbath between our families. I don’t want my mother to be caught up in the middle of it, nor her mother. My father won’t hesitate to kill her parents, and her father will do the same thing.”
Keanu removes his gun from the coffee table and scratches his head with the butt of it. “What’s the plan?”
“I’ll talk to Clemon, if he’ll let me. Then we’ll go from there. Until then, keep a lookout for my father. He’s filled with rage and is unpredictable.”
Keanu puts the gun to the girl’s head and pulls the trigger. Her lifeless body hits the floor, getting brain matter on the cream carpet and staining it with blood.
“Got it.”
Lyrical
It’s been two weeks since I broke up with Snow. He sends me text messages every day, telling me how much he misses me and loves me, and he follows me everywhere I go. I almost feel sorry for him, but I remind myself that I have to be strong, and he needs to learn that he can’t keep things from me. That I’m supposed to be first in his life.
When I was out with Winter and Lilac last night, he broke a man’s hand for grabbing my arm. Every time a guy would speak to me, he blocks their view and scares them off with threats. I don’t say anything. I wasn’t entertaining any of the guys, they were only trying to strike a friendly conversation.
I expect this behavior from Snow; he has always been controlling and manipulative—and revengeful. But I thought we agreed that we were a team. I knew he was getting revenge on me by making me his sex doll, but I didn’t know that he had an order to kill me. That he was supposed to marry Savannah. His father wanted to kill me because he wants revenge for Bailey’s death, which makes sense why he looked disgusted at me when it came out that I actually killed her.
I’m always going to be second to Snow.
And it hurts like hell that I can’t talk to him.
I sit on my old bed in my room at my parents’ home. They don’t know why I’m staying here, but they suspect I had a fight with Snow.
Tears wet my eyes and I bring my legs to my chest, resting my chin on my knees.
Most days, I sit in my room, trying to catch up on homework and painting.
There is a knock at the door and my mother barges in. She takes in my tear-streaked face. When she sits next to me, she wraps her arms around my shoulders.
“Why are you crying?”
I don’t want to tell her what’s going on, but if I don’t now, she’ll call Snow, so I might as well admit it.
“I’m divorcing Snow.”
“I’m sorry, baby.” She pulls me into her arms and kisses my temple. “What happened?”
I want to tell her what’s going on, but I need advice from my father first. He’s the president of the company and knows how the men are built to run the Billionaire Club. It’s more than a business and a secret society, and they have a set of rules that the owners have to follow.
“Where is Father?”
“He’s in his study on a business call.”
I get off my bed, stride downstairs, and I walk into his office. My father speaks using the Bluetooth, his arms folded and wrinkling up his gray dress shirt.
Once his gaze lands on me, he tells whoever is on the other line that he will call them back.
Dad rolls up the sleeves of his crisp dress shirt, stands in front of his desk, and crosses one loafer over the other as he leans against it.
“Did you and Snow have a fight?”
I tilt my head to the side. “How did you know?”
“Snow sleeps under the tree by your bedroom window. He does that every time you two have a fight.”
I try to keep the tears from falling down my cheeks, but I need to tell my father what is going on before I end up dead. So I blurt it all out.
“Snow’s father ordered him to kill me over Bailey’s death. His father blames me for it. And it is my fault.”
I see the look on my father’s face, full of rage.
“Was Sno—”
“Going to go through with it? According to him, no. He was plotting a revenge plan to get back at his father. To kill him. He said that he married me to protect me, but he kept me in the dark. I broke the marriage off, Father. I’m sorry your daughter won’t be married to an owner of the American Billionaire Club.”
“You will be. I’ll find you another husband.”
I flop down onto the chair in front of him. “Am I always going to be second in my husband’s life?”
“Sometimes. This is our lifestyle. I can’t change the rules.” He sighs. “Snow is only following the rules, even though he’s not the CEO yet. I can understand why he didn’t tell you.”
“So you’re on his side?”
“Never, sweetheart. I’m always on your side. His father won’t get anywhere near you. I promise. I’m going to kill him myself.” My father leans down and kisses me on the cheek. “I’ll take care of Snow. Do you want him gone?”
I don’t reply, but he takes my answer as a yes, so he heads toward the front door. I follow after him as he finds Snow sleeping under the tree.
“Get up!” my father yells. “My daughter told me about your father wanting her dead. Why the fuck are you even here?”
Snow looks at me and my father. “Because I can’t be away from Lyrical, sir.”
“Go before I kill you, Snow. It’s over between you and my daughter. She doesn’t want you.”
“You can go ahead and kill me if you must, but I’m not going away until she orders me away, sir.”
My father looks at him, then back at me in confusion. “Has he always been this clingy?”
I nod my head and Snow rolls his eyes, crossing his arms.
“You’ve got to the count of thr—”
“You can’t keep me from your daughter. So go ahead and kill me. Slice me up, toss me in the ocean. Then go after my father because he wants her dead.”
Without taking his eyes off of Snow, my father says, “Let me speak to Snow alone.”
I do what he says and go inside the living room, where my mother is now sitting on the couch. She’s watching The Golden Girls and I sit next to her, biting my nails. I don’t want my father to kill Snow.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” My mother props her feet onto the coffee table.
I tell her everything, leaving out the revenge part.
“In this lifestyle, you will have to be a pawn to your husband and be second sometimes. I’m not telling you to accept it, but we were always supposed to be their trophy wives and bear their children. Snow should have told you about his father, but they live by this code of conduct. They are not supposed to tell you what’s going on.”
I hang on to her every word, and she’s right, but it doesn’t stop the betrayal and pain I feel about how he lied to my face. I lay my head on my mother’s lap and cry for several moments.
My father and Snow walk into the living room, and I sit up quickly, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“Snow and I have an understanding. He will be staying here until we kill his father.”
“What the fuck?” I yell.
“Until his father is dead, Snow has our protection,” my father says.
Snow shrugs, and I push past him. He turns on his heel and follows behind me, up the stairs.
“Lyrical.”
I stop, trying to keep the tears at bay—trying to be strong here.
I don’t turn around, afraid I might give in to my feelings for him.
When I don’t turn around, he says, “I’m sorry.”
Those words go straight through my heart.
“It’s not enough,” I answer.
“I know.”
He moves past me and walks to the guest room, which is the room across from mine. We have several guestrooms in this gigantic mansion, yet he chose that one.
Moments later, he shoves my sketch journal into my hands—the one he stole from me, all those months ago.
I run my fingers over the worn leather and flip through the pages fast, noting that Snow wrote on some of his favorite sketches. When I land on the last page, I find a drawing of us as stick figures, with a gigantic heart around us and the caption, Snow and Lyrical forever. My tears splash onto the page. I didn’t even realize I was crying again.
Is he giving it back to prove that he’s sorry?
“I’m sorry this isn’t enough, Snow. I love you, but this will never work between us. After we find your father and you kill him, it’s over between us.”
Lyrical
Today is the day that I’m supposed to showcase my painting in the art gallery. I can’t stop the butterflies in my stomach or my palms from sweating. I rock on the edge of the curb in front of Gogh Hall as I watch students and staff walk in and out of the building, bundling up my jacket over my white blouse as the wind blows. It’s chilly and the fresh, crisp air stings my nostrils. Next month is the last month of the semester, and I can’t wait. This semester has been both hard as fuck and stressful. I hope after this semester, when I’m officially out on my own, life gets easier, but for now, I’ll take it one day at a time.
Snow is at class, so I’m glad that he’s not coming with me to this event. I need space, and him living under the same roof as me just makes things worse. He tries to talk to me, but I ignore him, so he uses my parents or my friends to send me messages for me to speak to him. He even broke into my room a few times and I caught him sleeping in my lounge chair. I don’t have anything to say to him other than the fact that he broke my heart. I’m not going to lie, I miss him like crazy and I thought about slipping into the guest room and fucking his brains out, but I don’t. I need to be strong and hold my ground.
My father told me that I need to listen to Snow and hear him out. He should be on my side, not his. My father doesn’t see it because he and Snow will never change. As long as he’s seeking blood and revenge, I will always be second to him. My feelings won’t ever matter to him. The entire time he never treated me as if I could take care of myself, but he has always been good to me. He protects me in a way I don’t know how, and he pays attention to every detail about me. The man built me my own dream home and he started hurting himself when he found out that I was cutting again. I know Snow loves me, I never doubted it, but I can’t get behind the lying and the secrets.
I can’t get behind that I’m a pawn to him.
It hurts. God, it hurts not being with him, but I have to do what I have to do. I just want to be heard and seen by Snow.
Lightning splits the sky in half and a few droplets of rain splatter across my forehead.
Without a word, Professor Carter pulls up to the curb of the street, and he gets out, opens the passenger door, and before I slide in, I gaze around looking for by bodyguard Russell, but he’s nowhere in sight. He’ll just meet me at the gallery. I doubt Snow’s father will attack me with someone around me. Plus, Professor Carter and I can discuss other opportunities for me in the future. He grabs my painting and places it in the back seat.
Once he slides into the driver’s seat, he straps his seat belt over his large frame, then he pulls out of the parking lot and drives through campus before emerging onto the main road.
“Is that painting of you and Snow?”
My cheeks heat. I painted a picture of Snow’s hand around my neck, his lips pressed against my temple and a grin spread across my lips. It’s in black and white, an oil painting.
I nod, leaning against the soft cushion.
“I like it. People are going to eat it up like candy.”
When I glance in the back of the car, I notice a car seat isn’t there. I quickly forgot that he had a wife and a kid.
“Does your wife know that you’re picking me up?”
“I don’t have a wife. I have a girlfriend.”
“But the lady at the engagement ball?”
“Was my sister.”
“I saw a wedding band on your finger.” I glance at his ring finger and the ring isn’t there.
“I only wear that ring so women leave me alone.”
We drive away from the city near North Haven and my heart sinks, and my pulse accelerates. Why do I feel so nervous? Why are my spidery senses going off? And why do I feel dread in the pit of my stomach? I glance at Carter, noting he has a wicked grin on his face.
“You’ll go for the highest bidder.” He twists his neck to glance at my body, his words catching me off guard.
“I hope so. I want my paintings to be worth at least three thousand.”
He places his hand on the back of my neck and chills travel up my spine.
“When people really know how much you’re worth, you’re going to make me a lot of money. You’re going to be my favorite muse.”
Pure terror overrides my senses. My heart pounds in my ears, and I feel the blood in my cheeks draining.
“You see. Bailey had that same look on her face when I told her the same thing.”
“How do you know Ba—”
He taps his finger on the steering wheel. “I’m her boyfriend.”
The entire time, June was set up.
Fuck!
“My business partner approached me about wanting me to sell her, get his money worth and at first, I didn’t want to because I already had feelings for her when Bailey was in my class a few years ago. Everything was good between us in the beginning. Fighting the urge to sell her, because I loved her. I was taught that women are more valuable because they have holes between their legs. That’s what we learned in the mafia. She’s my girl, always will be, but after the mafia was disbanded, I lost a lot of income and my business partner knew her so well, so he suggested I make a profit for the both of us.”
The car feels small, and bile rises in the back of my throat. Placing my hand on the door handle, I pull hard, and when that doesn’t work, I kick the window, but it’s no use.
