Ruthless Empire (Royal Elite 6)

“Mais bien sûr.” Ronan points at himself. “I’m number one, of course — no need for applause — then Xan, and then Cole with the bombshell Miss Goldman, and the loser Aiden is last.”

Silver pauses opening a container, her fingers freezing on the handle.

Fuck.

The change in her demeanour is short, but it’s there. Her eyes are cast downwards, so I can’t see the look in them. However, she purses her lips for the briefest second before she goes back to normal, and by normal, I mean the mask she wears every time she gets up in the morning.

Silver Queens is the most popular girl at school.

A piano prodigy.

The school’s queen B.

And fake.

She’s so fake, I can taste the bitterness of it on my tongue.

“You guys are pigs,” she says with her haughty attitude, but there’s a slight tremble in her voice at the end.

“You insult me.” Ronan grabs her by the shoulder, speaking in a dramatic voice. “Pigs don’t have my package, love.”

“Thank God for that.” She slips from underneath his hold. “I’m going home. Papa’s waiting.”

“And we can have all the crisps?” Xander asks.

She waves a dismissive hand at him as she strolls into our area to pick up her backpack.

Aiden stands, giving me a sideways smirk. “Can your driver drop me off?”

No, thanks. She’ll say, no, thanks. That’s what she tells Aiden every fucking time.

“Sure.” She grabs her backpack with stiff fingers.

“Drop me off, too.” I stand.

For some reason, I feel that if she walks out with him through that door, everything will be screwed up, and it won’t be the chaos I love so much.

It’ll be chaos I can’t control, like when I was a kid, standing at the edge of the pool.

She snaps her head, finally looking at me. I wish she hadn’t. I’ve never seen that look in her eyes — malice mixed with hurt and disappointment and something else I can’t put my finger on.

Something so deep and raw, it’s almost like the time she pinned me to the bench and soaked my cheeks with her glitter tears because she couldn’t hold them in.

She’s not crying now, though, and that’s way fucking worse.

“You can go to hell,” she tells me as Aiden steps to her side.

She leans in to whisper, “You don’t know what I’m feeling right now, but I’m going to make you regret it.”

I reach out a hand for her, but all it finds is air.

The moment the door closes behind her and Aiden, something inside me slams shut too.

6

Silver

Aiden and I are at the back of Papa’s car, sitting side by side.