Page 39 of Soulless Rivalry

Against my will, a sense of pride swelled inside of me, mixed with anger and—as ironic as it was—betrayal.

“Fucking bitch,” I muttered, right before one of the guards’ dogs started barking at me, making me put my hands up in surrender.

She had won this round.

KONSTANTIN

Ihit the bag harder with each passing second, needing to exteriorize all that pent-up anger. Sure, I’d gotten away with barely anything, just a quick trip to Taylor’s office where he all but apologized and said he wasn’t judging me for wanting to try marijuana. Nothing would come of it, he said, but of course, he had to call my parents.

When my phone went off on the bench where I’d left all my stuff, I tensed, knowing who it was.

I didn’t see any point in delaying the inevitable, so I simply hit accept and brought the device to my ear, ready to get my ass chewed up.

“Hello?”

“When the school called me this morning, telling me one of my sons was found with enough drugs on him they thought he was intending to distribute, I thought they meant Mikhail. Guess my surprise when it wasyourname coming up instead.”

I groaned, falling back against the wall and closing my eyes.

“You better start talking because Iknowyou weren’t dumb enough to try drugs.”

As already established, my parents’ sense of priorities was fucked up. They trained us to kill from a young age, but anythingto do with drugs was a no-go. We didn’t sell them, we didn’t buy them and we certainly didn’t do them.

Again, it had something to do with my father’s childhood back in Russia. I didn’t care much to ask, mostly because the mere thought of doing drugs for me was abhorrent anyway. Even something as relatively harmless as weed.

“Did someone plant them? Are the Italians still breathing down your neck?” Mother asked and I tensed.

There had been multiple altercations with the Italians last year that mostly ended up with them getting their asses kicked and Father having to throw money at the school board to keep us there.

“No,” I immediately replied. Maybe a little too quick, because mom stayed silent for a beat on the other side of the phone.

I cussed myself out.

“Who is it?” she asked, her tone so soft that anyone who didn’t know her would think she was calm, but the reality was completely different.

That was her voice when she was so angry she became lethal. Adna Korolova was not to be fucked with. She loved her children and would go to war for them, even if she seemed cold from afar.

The idea of her craziness being let out on Elyssa made me uncomfortable. She was mine to deal with.

She was mine, period.

“Nobody planted weed in my stuff. I’m an addict. I love drugs.”

She didn’t say anything for the longest time before sighing in defeat, clearly not believing me. She let it go, though, because she knew I would not budge.

“I better not get another call, Konstantin.”

The three beeps signaling the line went dead were all I heard after that.

ELYSSA

The weather was becoming colderby the day but it didn’t matter, I was happy to be outside. The fresh air entering my lungs, the sounds of birds chirping, the smell of fall still thick in the air, despite winter being only a week or two away, I loved it all.

Not to mention, staying on school grounds today after what happened last night during dinner was simply out of the question. After the drug bust was a success and Konstantin was taken away to Taylor’s office, I quickly hightailed it to my dorm, scared that his friends would seek revenge on me.

I was brave, but not so brave that I’d take on the wrath of Royal Volkovic, Rhodes Antonelli, and Asher Donovan. Not to mention, Konstantin’s brothers and sisters who were all just as fucking crazy.

“I still can’t believe you did that!” Briar laughed, squeezing my arm with hers as we made our way towards the village.

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