Dirty Wicked Prince (Court Legacy 1)

The answer seemed no in this case.

We didn’t have a lot of time to get to Principal Mayberry, but one of those was the period the bitch used to do coke. The woman had a chronic drug habit, and catching her in a moment of vulnerability was our next chance to do what we needed to do.

We could get her then, make her pay then. Since we’d missed our first window on the street that night, the headmaster’s free period was a second option. The layout of the office made it easy to get to her through the janitor’s access. The Windsor Prep’s campus was laced with secret hallways the janitorial staff used to get somewhere quickly.

My buddies and I had memorized it all, knew the academy like the back of our hands. If we wanted to get someone out of the place without anyone noticing, we could.

The other night an opportunity had snuck up on us when Principal Mayberry had chosen to take a late run. She had Reed Security Systems in her home, so we knew where she was at all times. Thatcher could hack into the security feed, but his father’s security system was too good. The feed and knowing her location was all we had. We couldn’t override any of the systems, and Principal Mayberry didn’t normally leave her house. Locked up like Fort Knox.

Something told me what had happened last year had something to do with that.

The woman was a paranoid coke whore since she’d returned to town, her life clearly fucked.

But we could do more.

We would do more. I rubbed my jaw, staring at the schedule on the floor. Up until this point, Noa Sloane had just been a fucking nuisance.

But now, she was in the way.

Chapter Eleven

Sloane

Yeah, sports and me?

Really fucking sucked.

I was last on pool day. In fact, I sucked at laps so bad my gym teacher left me in the pool to finish after everyone concluded theirs. Apparently, this place was full of Olympic s

wimmers.

That shouldn’t have surprised me.

I’d looked into the Court after Bow had told me about it. The affiliation had bred celebrities in the past, CEOs and even presidents.

I’d poked into Legacy too, and the Legacy boys were apparently the snot-nosed kids of some of the big dogs in that Court group back in the day. Because of that, Dorian Prinze, Ares “Wolf” Mallick, Thatcher Reed, and Wells Ambrose walked around this place like they were the shit.

Bow appeared to be immune to the toxicity of her brother and his friends, cheery and personable. She always stopped to say hi to folks when she walked me around school, but there was always a hesitance from others when interacting with her. Something told me a little fear might have to do with that, her brother and his friends hovering over her like a goddamn Legacy cloud of privilege and clout.

That fucker Dorian Prinze drew first blood.

My brother was actually hanging out with those tools, and I couldn’t do anything about it. He was eating lunch with them, walking with them and their Court group in the halls, and I’d definitely noticed. If he was going out for the football team, I suppose he would need to be around them.

But that didn’t mean I had to like it.

I kept an eye on Bru and them every time I saw their pack at lunch, but any other time, their interactions were out of my hands. My brother had his own life, and I had to have my own as well. Even if that did mean I spent most nights in my art studio or doing homework to stay busy.

I should use the time to practice swimming.

Our place had an indoor pool, but hell if I’d used it.

Struggling in the academy’s pool now, I had to pause in the middle of a stroke just to catch my breath. I still had two laps before I could get out and shower like the other girls.

Better get this shit over with.

I glided through the water, grateful I actually had been taught to swim. When Bru and I were kids, Dad had taken us to the lake sometimes. That’d been when Mom was still around, but those memories were pretty fuzzy.

I missed my mom, what I remembered of her. But mostly, I missed her because my dad had been so different. He had taken us to places like the lake and played sports with us, sports with Bru. I remembered not ever being in the house most days.