The Lie (Kings of Linwood Academy 2)

God, why am I thinking about this so much?

It’s crazy. My life is complicated enough as it is right now without trying to juggle more than one domineering alpha male.

Then again, these boys are in my life for good now, whether I ever wanted them to be or not. The bond between us, the secret that ties us all together, is strong enough to override everything else.

Now it’s just a question of how they’ll be in my life, what we’ll all be to each other.

And that question has a much more complicated answer.

“So, what the fuck is going on, Low?”

Lincoln’s voice is a gruff murmur near my ear, and River’s gaze lands on me too as I turn to face the boy beneath me.

Fortunately—or unfortunately, I guess—I have a piece of news big enough to justify my freakout without bringing my theories about Linc’s father into it.

“Savannah fucked with one of my tests again. In the same class as last time, Business and Economics.”

“What?” Linc’s amber eyes narrow.

“Yeah. But she used an old answer key. So not only was it completely obvious the answers were rigged, but I only got a fucking C minus on the exam.”

I’m still not sure whether I’ll have to keep that grade or not, since both the principal and Mr. Arndt know the results were doctored. But I’m a little scared to push about it. I barely walked out of that office as a Linwood Academy student, and I’m a little worried that if I bitch too much about my grade, Mr. Osterhaut will retract his offer of a final chance and just expel me right now.

“What the hell?” Linc mutters, his hands at my waist stiffening as a murderous expression crosses his face. “I told her to stop fucking with you.”

I can feel the tension building in his body, and I shoot a glance at River, suddenly glad beyond words that we haven’t told the dark-haired boy about his dad’s possible involvement yet. If this is how he reacts when Savannah is a shit to me, I can’t even imagine what he’d do if he thought his dad killed Iris and framed my mom. Maybe even tried to come after me too.

“She mostly has,” I say, wriggling on his lap to get more comfortable… and yeah, maybe to distract him a little.

It works though, because something under my left ass cheek begins to harden, and he lets out a low growling noise, his breath stirring my hair.

“I think this is one of the last things she thinks she can get away with,” I add, shaking my head. “Overt bullying will get her caught and maybe expelled, but fucking with my tests makes me look like the delinquent, not her. I talked Mr. Osterhaut in to giving me one more chance, and I’m supposed to work something out with Mr. Arndt to take my tests in a private room or something so he knows I can’t cheat. But I’m not sure if that’ll work, since I don’t know how Savannah is accessing the exams in the first place.”

“So we need to stop her,” he grunts.

“Uh, yeah.”

I shoot a pleading glance at River, since the tone of Linc’s voice and the look on his face make me think he’s considering doing something that will definitely get him expelled. The quiet boy nods almost imperceptibly, which I hope means he’ll do something to talk Linc out of any insane plans he might cook up to get back at Savannah.

At least this topic has completely diverted Lincoln from wondering what we were doing when we stayed late at school. A couple hours later, he drives River back home—I never noticed it before I found out about his hearing impairment, but River pretty much never gets behind the wheel of a car.

I head upstairs. When I reach the landing on the second floor, I glance to my left and see Mr. Black emerging from the master bedroom.

He nods and smiles broadly at me like he always does when he runs into me around the house.

But today, the sight makes my blood run cold.

Bri Marshall’s first week as interim Executive Housekeeper turns out to be a sort of trial by fire situation, since the Blacks decide to host another cocktail party on Saturday. My mom oversaw several of these, and by the last one—the one Detective Dunagan crashed when he arrested her—she had everything running like a well-oiled machine.

But I know her first one stressed her out, and I can see the same thing happening to Bri as she bustles around the house over the next couple days getting things ready for the party. By the time Saturday rolls around, the entire mansion is like a three-ring circus.

Caterers, serving staff, and decorators are coming and going, there’s a mix-up with a floral delivery, and when a woman wearing a dark coat and an annoyed expression shows up at the door, I honestly don’t even think Bri knows what the new arrival is here for.

Organizing this kind of chaos is a special skill, and a flare of pride rises up in me to know that Mom is so good at it.

Honestly, it makes me a little sad to see the party preparations going on—to see someone else handling the planning and logistics, and to be reminded that for almost everyone besides my mom, life has gone on as normal in the three weeks since her arrest.

But now that I’m harboring suspicions about Samuel Black, it also makes a part of my soul burn with fury.