CHAPTER ELEVEN - COOPER

 

 

“What do you mean Cadee spent the night at your boathouse?”

The words are coming out of Ax’s mouth, but nothing about them makes sense.

“I told you, I got in a fight with the Judge and bumped into her on the lawn. Well.” He thinks about this for a second. “No, she bumped into me.”

“Get to the part about the fucking boathouse and how you spent the night with her.”

He shrugs. “I couldn’t leave her there on the lawn. So I dragged her in there with me.”

“Did you fuck her?”

“Fuck who?” Ax and I both turn to see Lars coming up towards the path in front of Ax’s house that leads to Dragonfly Lake.

“Why do you care?” Ax says.

I turn back to him. “Because we had a fucking deal, Ax. You don’t touch her.”

“Touch who?” Lars asks.

“Cadee!” Ax and I both say at the same time.

“Hmm. Are we fucking and touching Cadee again?”

“No,” I growl.

“Maybe.” Ax shrugs.

“No,” I repeat. “We are not. Stay the fuck away from her. She’s trash.”

“Huh. That’s too bad,” Lars says. “I kinda liked having her around yesterday. Fucking miss senior year of Prep. It was… hot.”

“Shut up, Lars,” I growl. “We’re not getting involved with her. In fact, we’re on a mission to get her fired today. Understand?”

“Why would we want to get her fired?” Lars asks. “She’s not hurting us.”

“She could hurt us,” I seethe. “Everything that happened that year was…”

“Was fun.” Ax fills in the blank.

Lars narrows his eyes at me. “What you guys did to her, you mean. I liked her.”

“Yeah, and you know what?” Ax says, turning on Lars. “I’m still kinda pissed about that. Sometimes I think you want this life. Sometimes I think you like it too much.”

“Hey.” Lars shrugs with his hands. “I’m not gonna whine about my life. It’s pretty damn easy, all things considered.”

“Shut up, Lars,” I say, pushing him on the shoulder. “Don’t go soft now, asshole.”

“You know what else?” Ax says, and I sigh. Because I can tell he’s working himself up into one of those infamous tirades. “I’m super happy that your life is so awesome, Lars. But mine fucking sucks. And that’s not fair.”

“I didn’t fuck up your life,” Lars says back. “You did. All you had to do was follow directions and things could’ve gone easy. Even Cooper follows directions better than you do. So if your life is a shit show, that’s your fault, not mine.”

“OK, enough, you guys. Can we just concentrate on getting Cadee out of here?” I point to Ax. “Humiliate her today. Make her cry like a goddamned baby. She’ll tell my father, he’ll see she’s someone he can’t trust, and then she’ll be gone and we can forget she ever existed.”

“Don’t worry about that.” The three of us turn to see Isabella all dressed up in her garden party finery. I’m talking the wide-brimmed lace hat, the long, cream-colored dress with a pink satin sash around her waist, and white gloves. “I’ve already seen to her utter humiliation.”

“That was fast,” I laugh.

“Well.” She shrugs and smiles. “I can’t actually take the credit. They’ve been using this costume for three years now. But I signed off on it this morning.”

“What uniform?” Lars asks.

But then an eruption of screams makes us all turn towards the Glass House to find Cadee dressed up in said costume.

“Oh, hell the fuck no! I am not wearing this!” Cadee is yelling at Victor English, who I kinda remember from our own summer rush.

“Oh, my God.” Ax laughs hysterically. “That’s so fucking wrong!”

Cadee Hunter is dressed up like a rubber duck. Complete with an orange beak hood, orange duck feet, and a wooden sign hanging around her neck from a chain that says, Hi, my name is Fugling. How can I serve you today?

I laugh. I can’t help it.

And then everyone is laughing. Us. All ten of the wannabe princelings and swanlings. Even the staff has come out of the kitchen to point and chuckle.

“I’m not wearing this!” Cadee yells again. “You all can go—”

“Be careful,” I bark, silencing everyone with my yell. “You better be careful how you speak to us, Cadee Hunter.”

Isabella tsks her tongue. “Call her by her name, Coop.”

Fugling. I sigh. But whatever. I need to keep Isabella happy this summer if I want her to be helpful. “You had better be very fucking careful what you say around here. One mouthy outburst from you, Fugling, and you’re out. No place to live, no summer job, no scholarship.”

“Which is probably a good thing,” Ax says. He’s made his way over to Cadee and he’s circling her like a predator. He licks his lips, like he’s going to be eating her for breakfast instead of the food the servers are preparing. “Just leave, Cadee. Why put yourself through this? You know you don’t belong here.”

Lars sighs.

“You got a problem with this, Lars?” I whisper it so Ax doesn’t hear. I don’t want him distracted. Cadee Hunter looks like she’s thinking we might not be worth all this effort. And that’s a good thing.

“She didn’t do anything. It was us stalking her.” Lars keeps his voice low.

“She agreed to everything we did that year. All of it.” I stress this part. Just so we’re clear. “We didn’t coerce her. She wanted it.”

“Right,” Lars says. “And so did we. She never said anything, Cooper. She kept her part of the bargain. Just leave her alone.”

“We have another year in this place. And then when we leave, she will be here, alone. Without us to run interference if she suddenly feels the need to put us in our places.”

“If we’re gone, who cares? So you guys bullied her a little? High-school kids who bully cute girls isn’t what I’d call a career-ender.”

Yeah, I sigh to myself. Because that’s not all that happened that year. Lars has no idea how much shit I’m covering up. And I’m never going to tell him. Because he would take Cadee’s side over mine without even blinking.

“Do we want her holding shit over our heads for the rest of our lives? And we won’t be gone. We all know where we’ll be.”

“I’ll be gone,” Lars says. Then he looks at me. “I’m in finance. That means I’ll get sent to the city no matter what. Not my fault you’ve been fucking off for three years and you’ll get stuck here like your brother Dane.”

“Fuck you.” I point at him. “Do not compare me to Dane.”

“Easy,” Lars says. “And anyway, we can’t erase her mind. She’s going to know our secrets forever no matter what happens.”

“Right. But if we allow her into the inner circle, she’ll have power. And if she’s smart, she will learn to grow that power. Then one day, Lars, one day we’ll be somewhere enjoying ourselves, the memories of High Court long faded, and we’ll turn around, and there she’ll be. She’ll make demands, or threats, or both. And whatever we hold dear when that happens will be up in the air. Why would you want to leave this loose end behind when we’ve spent the last three years doing everything in our power to avoid this very situation?”

“I get it. We should pay her off then. Pay her enough money that it’s in her best interest to forget about us.”

“Have you conveniently forgotten our fathers drained our bank accounts? And how fucking naïve are you, Lars? Do you really think they didn’t plan this? They didn’t put her here? I think they know something and they’re just using us to get rid of her.”

He folds his arms across his chest and looks me in the eyes. “And since when do you do your father’s bidding?”

“Since I have no choice.” It’s my turn to sigh now. “Listen, if you’re feeling guilty about this, we’ll pay her off when we get our bank accounts back. We’ll each chip in enough to keep her flush every month, as long as she stays quiet.”

Lars looks at me. His expression is flat. We’re not drawing the attention of anyone. Yet. “I get what you’re saying. I understand it, I agree with it. But the only way to truly erase the threat that Cadee Hunter presents to us is to kill her.”

“Jesus, Lars.”

“That’s what I mean. We’re not going to kill her. This isn’t going to work.”

“We have to make it work. She’s a nobody. All we have to do is scare her into submission and make her leave.”

We both glance over at Ax, who is still circling Cadee. Spilling insults. Telling her she doesn’t belong here. Describing what the rest of the summer will look like if she stays.

She looks like she’s trying hard not to cry, but that’s not what bothers me. The part that bothers me is that she’s succeeding. She doesn’t look ready to quit, that’s for sure. She has a little gleam in her eye. Defiance.

“You see that, right there, Lars? That twinkle in her eye? She’s planning something. She hates us. She wants revenge. All we have to do is break this girl. Erase that twinkle. Put her in her place and send her on her way.”

Lars takes a deep breath. “Fine.” Then he looks at me. “Just like senior year at Prep?”

Ax is suddenly up next to us. “What’s like senior year at Prep?”

“No,” I say, looking back at Cadee. “What we did to her during senior year at Prep will look like child’s play this summer.”

“What are we talking about?” Ax says.

“Ruining Cadee Hunter.”

“Breaking Cadee hunter,” I correct Lars.

“Excellent.” Ax chuckles, rubbing his hands together. “I could use a new target. When do we start?”

“Now,” I say. “Right now.”