Cruel king, p.1
Cruel King, page 1
CRUEL KING
K.M. SCOTT
CONTENTS
Blurb
Author’s Note
Cruel King playlist
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
About the Author
Books by K.M. Scott
Books by K.M. Scott writing as Gabrielle Bisset
CRUEL KING
Ava
The King boys have been the center of my life for as long as I remember. Theo has been my best friend since I was four, and our families are as close as can be.
Except Matthias. The oldest King son never failed to look miserable whenever I was around, and every word out of his mouth to me was cruel.
Until a snowstorm trapped us in his house, and we shared two perfect days together.
That was five years ago. Now his father’s dying, and he’s back at the estate and more vicious than ever, as if our time together meant nothing to him.
I should hate him. I should be able to forget him now that I have a chance to be happy with someone else.
There’s just one problem. I can’t stop thinking about the man who stole my heart one snowy night all those years ago.
Matthias
She thinks I don’t remember our time together. She’s wrong. I’ve never forgotten.
Not when I moved to a different continent. Not when I didn’t hear from her for five years. Not even though I’ve tried my damnedest to forget her.
I want to hate her. I should. But I can’t. All I can do is look on with jealousy as Ava finds happiness with another man.
What do you do when the one person standing in the way of your happiness is your own brother?
Cruel King is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
2023 Copper Key Media, LLC
Copyright © 2023 Copper Key Media LLC
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN: 978-1-955335-25-6
Published in the United States
AUTHOR’S NOTE
If you read Frozen Heart in the Falling For The Enemy Charity Anthology, please note that much has been added to that here in Cruel King. I kept my word count down for the anthology so I didn’t monopolize too much of the space out of respect for my fellow authors in that project. As a result, I had to edit out some of the story. All that was cut has been returned in this book.
CRUEL KING PLAYLIST
Until I Found You (Piano Version)-Stephen Sanchez
Somewhere Only We Know-Keane
I’m Not The Only One-Sam Smith
Against All Odds-Phil Collins
My Mistake (Was To Love You)-Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye
Maybe I’m A Fool-Eddie Money
At Last-Etta James
Without You-Harry Nilsson
CHAPTER ONE
Ava
Nearly out of breath, I stop behind a tree as Theo yells from across the lawn, “I know you’re here somewhere, little Ava. Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
He still calls me that nickname his older brother gave me when I was no more than five years old, even though I’m nineteen now. I think he uses it to poke fun at him, although he’s rarely around to hear him say it these days.
“It’s cold out here,” Theo complains as he gets closer to where I hide. “Just give up so we can go inside already.”
I silently answer his plea. Never! I’ll never give up. We’ve been playing this game all our lives, the two of us on the lawn of the King estate, his family’s home and my father’s employer’s property, no matter the season or the weather. It’s our own private version of hide and go seek.
Theo’s been my best friend for so long I can’t remember a time when he and I weren’t running around on this grass. When he came to the house for me this morning, I didn’t hesitate to join him, even though it’s freezing cold out today like it has been every day of this week since Christmas. It didn’t matter, though. He called, and I said yes to our little game.
“Ava, I’m serious,” he says as he keeps moving toward the tree concealing me. “All you have to do is give up and I’ll win. Then we can go inside and get something hot in us.”
Coming from any other guy my age, that would sound sexy or perverted, but not from Theo. He simply hates winter and wants to go into the house, but he’s too competitive to let me win. I’ve always joked that he must have been stolen by the Kings from some other family who lived in someplace warm because he hates the cold more than anyone I’ve ever known.
I stay silent, knowing he’ll find me soon. Closing my eyes, I listen to the wind blowing across the grounds, happy to be shielded by this enormous maple tree’s trunk. The air smells crisp, like right before a snowstorm shows up. It freezes the inside of my nose when I take a deep breath in, but unlike Theo, I love this weather.
Sensing something behind me, I open my eyes and turn around to see him smiling at me. He grabs me and pulls me to him in a bear hug. “Gotcha!”
My cheek brushes against his black ski jacket as he holds me tightly to him and brags about his win. “That makes nearly two hundred this year to your measly fifty or so.”
I push him away, shaking my head at his incorrect calculations. “No way. I caught you at least one hundred times this year, so forget that fifty nonsense.”
He smiles in that way that reminds me of a pirate. “I think you’re crazy. We didn’t even play for two months this summer when I was away. That makes your claim of a hundred virtually impossible, Ava.”
“Oh, the two months when you were lounging on the beach looking for the future Mrs. Theo King?” I tease, rolling my eyes as I remember him telling me about all the girls he met when he was away on vacation this past summer.
Theo pushes his fingertips against my shoulder and laughs. “No way. You’re the future Mrs. Theo King, so those girls meant nothing.”
Since I was eight and he was ten, he’s claimed that we’re going to get married when we’re older and live here on the King estate in the big house together. I’ve never believed that for a second. I don’t think he actually believes it either.
“Have you been taking charm lessons from that brother of yours? Don’t you know it’s not nice to mention other women to your future wife?” I joke before I set off running toward my house.
Behind me, he calls out, “You’re going the wrong way. Come up to the house, and we’ll warm up!”
I look back and shake my head. “Not today. Until next time, that’s at least one hundred wins for me!”
He smiles and rolls his eyes. “Little Ava doesn’t know how to count. Come up when you’re finished at your house. I’ll have Eleanor make you her world-famous hot cocoa.”
As much as the thought of that sounds great, I can’t join him at the big house. My father warned me the weather might get nasty this morning, so he doesn’t want me too far from home. The main house on the King estate is nearly half a mile away from our house, and knowing my father, he’d definitely think that was too far today.
I slow down to a walk and look back to make sure Theo isn’t going to sneak up on me. That would be typical of him. He’s such a joker. I see he’s nowhere to be found, so I turn back around to head home.
My father’s been nothing short of overprotective since my mother died last year. She was fine for the holidays, but then in January, something changed. She started to feel worn down, but she assumed she had the flu and figured all she had to do was rest for a few days. Those few days turned into weeks, and when she finally went to the doctor to figure out what the problem could be, it was too late. Leukemia. I never knew anything about it before that day, and then two weeks later, she was gone, and that word filled my mind day and night.
It was worse for my father, though. My brother and I lost a mother, but he lost the love of his life. Ever since then, he’s been different. He worries about me twenty-four hours a day. When I wanted to go away to school, he begged me to wait a year. I think he worries if I go away he may never see me again.
Well, except to my Aunt Jessie’s. That’s the only place
in the world away from this estate that he seems to be okay with me visiting for more than a day or so. Maybe it’s because she’s my mother’s sister. Or maybe it’s because she lives in New Hampshire away from anything and everything that could possibly hurt me.
Other than wild animals since her house is in the middle of nowhere.
By the time I get back to our house, he’s waiting for me at the front door, staring out through the glass with a look of pure worry in his eyes. As I step inside, he says, “It’s freezing cold out there. Why were you out so long?”
Sliding my coat off my shoulders, I shake my head at his nervous hen routine. “Because Theo wanted to play the game. I wasn’t gone that long, Dad. It’s not bad out.”
“It’s freezing,” he says as he closes the front door and follows me into the living room.
My brother Andrew sits playing some game on his PlayStation like always. Twenty-years-old and he spends more time sitting on the couch with those stupid games than he does with his girlfriend. Today it’s the same one he’s been trying to master since Christmas morning, a downhill skiing game.
“Still wiping out on the slopes, Drew?” I ask as he leans left and then right before angrily tossing the controller onto the table in front of him as his character careens over the side of a snowy cliff.
He groans in frustration before sitting back against the couch. “I’ll get it. It’s just going to take a little time. I’ll try again when I get back from Tanya’s.”
When he stands to walk out, I say to both him and my father, “It smells like snow out there. I think we’re going to get a storm today. About time since it feels weird having Christmas break with grass and no snow.”
“Did you hear that on the news?” my brother asks with a sneer. “Weathermen always say it’s going to be the storm of the century, and then we get a couple inches, if we’re lucky.”
I shrug and look at my father, expecting him to say something to my brother as he grabs his coat off the rack near the stairs and gets ready to leave. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the storm of the century, but I bet we get some today or tomorrow.”
My father watches without offering a word of warning to my brother as he gets his keys off the table near the door and waves goodbye. “I’ll be at Tanya’s. I’ll probably grab dinner there too.”
“Have a good time!” my father happily says before turning back to look at me. “Are you staying in today? You should if it’s going to be snowy out.”
My mouth drops open, less in shock than frustration at how differently he treats me compared to my brother. “So I need to stay in, but Andrew can just go driving around the countryside with snow coming?”
Without a hint of guilt or irony, he says as he turns to walk upstairs, “Your brother is different.”
What he means is he’s not me and he’s not a female. I could tilt at that windmill and argue with my father that his sexism is completely unfair to me, but the last time I did, he looked like I was breaking his heart.
“I’m driving Mr. King to the city today. I need to get ready since we’re leaving in twenty minutes.”
As he hits the first stair, I say, “Cutting it a little close, don’t you think?”
My father lowers his head so he can see me as I sit on the couch. Laughing, he answers, “It’s not like there’s much to do, honey. I’m a man. We’re ready as soon as we dress in the morning. All I have to do is put on my coat and make sure I have my gloves.”
“Don’t forget your hat. It’s cold out there, Dad,” I say, mildly mocking him and his overprotectiveness.
But he doesn’t pick up on my sarcasm and simply nods. “Yes, yes. That’s right. It is cold, so I’ll need my warm woolen hat for the trip today.”
So much for being understood by your own family.
Ten minutes later, my father walks into the living room wearing his best gray wool coat and the dark gray wool hat my mother bought him right before she got sick. He rarely wears it, oddly enough. Maybe it’s too hard to see it and not think of her. Or maybe he thinks if he never wears it that he doesn’t have to accept she’s actually gone.
“You look very handsome, Dad. You and Mr. King are going to make quite the couple of studs walking around Manhattan today,” I tease.
My father strikes a model pose and runs his hand through his thinning brown hair.. “Thank you. Now promise me you’ll stay home in case the weather gets bad.”
Screwing my face into an expression of disbelief, I say, “No have a good time, Ava? That’s what Andrew got.”
“Your brother is your brother, and you are you. Completely different situations.”
I have nothing to say to that. I guess I could point out how wrong it is that he treats me like this, but ever since my mother died, I’ve had a difficult time not being the daughter I know he needs me to be. So I take the inequality between my brother and me, accepting it so my father doesn’t have to worry.
“No problem, Dad. I have no plans to go anywhere today. All my friends are off on skiing vacations.”
He frowns and quickly says, “You know, I told you that you could go with them. I’m not a complete ogre.”
I nod, knowing he did offer to pay for the trip if I wanted to go. “It’s okay. I’m just not into skiing like everyone else who was going. I’m fine here. Maybe I’ll play Drew’s downhill game and see if I can do better than he did.”
That makes my father chuckle. “Just don’t tell him. He’ll be crushed that the first time you touched that controller you mastered the game.”
Always worried about everyone. That’s my father.
“I won’t. If I conquer the imaginary PlayStation mountain, I’ll keep my win to myself.”
He looks around the room for a moment, so I say, “Check your pockets. Your gloves are probably in them.”
Shaking his head, my father says, “No, I have my gloves. I was just looking for the thank you note for Mr. King for that beautiful necklace he gave you for Christmas.”
I point toward the fireplace mantel. “Right there on the end. Please tell him I love it.”
He turns to take the card and smiles back at me as he walks toward the front door. “I will. You know he thinks of you like the daughter he never had, so he likes to buy you something special for Christmas.”
With a nod, I smile and follow him. “I know, Dad. Mr. King is a very nice man to all of us.”
My father turns around right before he opens the door and hugs me to him. “Remember to stay inside, especially if it starts snowing,” he quietly says in my ear.
I lean back and shake my head. “I will, but you know, Dad, I’m not made of sugar. I won’t melt if I get wet.”
That gets me an eye roll before he kisses me goodbye. “I swear you’ll understand when you have kids someday. I used to tell your mother you had enough sass to light up the whole island of Manhattan.”
His mention of my mother for the first time today makes me smile. “And she used to tell you that you had the sweetest daughter in the world.”
That makes him stop as he reaches to open the door, and when he turns back toward me, he cradles my cheeks in his rough hands. “You remind me of her, you know that?”
I cover his hands with mine and sigh. “I know. That’s a good thing. Sweet and sassy, just like my mother.”
He smiles, but in his eyes I see the hint of tears beginning to form. “Sweet and sassy,” he repeats in a faraway voice.
