Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Isabelle
I heard he calls this motorcycle the lone wolf.
Maybe Kade named it after himself. I’ve also heard that he refers to himself as the wolf and the other guys in the pack also have their own special names.
I actually don’t give a shit what they call themselves. All I care about is that this particular motorcycle is valuable to Kade Gurkovsky.
I circle the beast of a thing, taking slow, languid steps as if I’m walking around in a dream. The bike looks like it should belong on the set of one of The Terminator movies.
It’s parked in the VIP area outside Erebus House next to three other bikes that I’m assuming belong to Dmitri, Logan and Alek.
I straighten the motorcycle. It’s heavy, too heavy for me, but I heard that when you’re in a state of rage heavy things suddenly seem lighter. I can attest to that. I’ll also add that people in this state only care about the thing that placed them in this mindset. They no longer worry about other earthly concerns like weight or right and wrong.
I straighten the handlebars on the motorcycle and retract the kickstand, then I push the bike forward. That’s when I catch the attention of two guys walking across from me on the quad.
They’re third-year Knights who live here. They stop and watch me.
I catch the stunned expressions on their faces, then the stares of disbelief that follow when I reach the middle of the driveway and allow the bike to crash onto the pavement. The mirrors crack and I laugh off-key and unhinged without humor, channeling my inner Harlequin from the Suicide Squad . I certainly feel as demented as her.
More students join the guys watching me, and the same expressions of disbelief fill their faces.
That disbelief is twofold. One, they know who this bike belongs to, and two, they know me and can’t believe what I’m doing. Me, good old sweet little Isabelle— Lolita . She would never do a thing like this, so I understand why they look the way they do.
I keep saying I’m not weak, yet I’ve never stood up for myself. There’s an excuse for everything in my book:
Can’t talk back to people who treat me like shit for no reason because it will make things worse for me.
Can’t investigate my mother’s murder because it will upset the Knights and they might come after my family.
Can’t report Kade for stalking me and fucking with me because he’ll be spiteful and do worse things to me.
Can’t be allowed to live the way I want and dress the way I want and just be myself because people don’t like it.
Those excuses have made me weak and pathetic. So yeah, I’d be watching, too.
But I’m not done yet.
Apparently this motorcycle is worth at least fifty thousand dollars. Kade doesn’t ride any motorcycle unless it’s vintage, or modern with high-tech shit and state-of-the-art this and that and blah, blah, blah.
It’s also a limited edition. Just like my sculpture. Except my sculpture was one of a kind.
Limited editions mean a limited amount of something will be made for a specific year or a special occasion or something like that. The point is there are more than one of them.
Even if I wanted to recreate my sculpture, I wouldn’t be able to replicate the one I just lost. It would be different. Everything about my lady in the meadow would be new, and it wouldn’t be her anymore. It’s like death. You can’t replace a person. Everything that breathes and lives is one of a kind in their own way. Even when they have a twin.
Losing my sculpture also means losing my chance to go to Cambridge and study under Christian Degas. Those words in my head feel so wrong, but it’s the truth.
The application was very clear that once the project idea was submitted and approved I wouldn’t be able to change it. That is because the approval process goes through Christian Degas himself. Regardless of passing the entrance exams and everything else, he handpicks the students for the program based on their project idea.
So I couldn’t just whip up another one and slip it in, and since the closing date for submitting the completed sculpture is in two weeks’ time, I have no chance to make another. I’m fucking screwed because of Kade.
The sordid thought fuels me with more fury and I march over to the can of gasoline I brought with me. I open it and pour it all over the bike.
My audience stands about twenty feet away from me but I hear the audible gasps of shock when they realize what I’m up to.
In the Bratva you demand blood for blood. In the Knights you take whatever you think you are owed.
I am a child of both worlds and it’s time I owned it. Sometimes you have to be a ruthless motherfucker to get what you want and you can’t care about the consequences.
I won’t hide in the shadows shrouded by darkness. Let everyone see me take my vengeance.
I wait until the can of gasoline is empty before I back up a few paces and drizzle a line of gasoline the way Dad taught me on our camping trips.
I strike a match and toss it on the line I drew. The flames are as instant as a spark of light.
Fire follows the trail I made and when it reaches the motorcycle it blazes like hell.
Good . Step one complete. Now to face the devil.
I turn on my heel and walk away from the scene. Kade should either be having lunch at the café with the guys or somewhere near the football field.
“Izzy,” someone calls me.
It’s Thorne. He’s the only one who calls me Izzy.
I stop and look over my shoulder, following the sound of his voice when he calls me again. I find him standing on the second-floor balcony with Caspian and Eilish, who both look stunned by what I’ve done.
“Izzy, come back here.” Thorne moves away from them, trying to get to me, and I almost break character.
Thorne was one of the biggest bullies in high school, and everyone was scared of him. When he got here he was like the god of the underworld. But through all that, he never bullied me.
I don’t think I was supposed to know that when he left high school people stopped bothering me because of him. He stopped my bullies and became the big brother I never knew I had.
I appreciate him but I can’t let him fight this fight for me. Kade Gurkovsky is one bully I will deal with myself.
With that reasoning I turn and continue my pursuit, leaving the sound of Thorne’s calls with the blazing fire.
Two minutes later I reach the café and spot my nemesis sitting with his boys around one of the tables outside. They’re drinking coffee, and it sounds like they’re laughing. I wonder if the joke is me. I’m about to find out.
I steel my spine and relish the burst of power rippling through me. Setting fire to Kade’s bike is the wildest thing I’ve ever done. And it felt good.
That fucking asshole will lose his shit when he finds out what I did.
He sees me coming and straightens. The guys follow his stare, but they aren’t my concern.
I move faster, until I’m almost running toward him. Everyone is looking my way now.
When I see that sickening fascination wash over his face I want to jump across the table and strangle him. But even in my hyped-up state I know that won’t fly.
Kade is in the elite. And he’s the captain of their group. A man trained to kill Bratva style, where your enemy needs to be dead within thirty seconds of attacking you. He would take me down faster than I could blink.
So I think of the next best thing. My confrontation is about facing him.
When I reach the table the guys and everyone else around us watch in horror as I flip it over.
The guys jump up as cups of coffee catapult into the air along with plates of food and cutlery. Everything goes up then falls and clatters across the concrete flooring in a cacophony of chaos and mess.
“You fucking asshole! You destroyed my sculpture!” I bellow at the top of my lungs, rushing forward to Kade.
He dares to smile at me.
“Lolita, how?—”
I raise my hand and use all my might and strength to slap him across the face so hard I leave a mark and my nails dig into his cheek, drawing blood.
I’m about to slap him again but he grabs my wrist then the rest of me. He scoops me up as though I weigh nothing and throws me over his shoulder caveman style.
“Put me down, you fucking bastard! Fucking put me down now!”
He doesn’t. Instead he carries me away like a pillaging pirate. I kick and scream as he makes his way down the path to the entrance of the gymnasium. It’s free from the watchful eyes that were glued to us.
He sets me down and I resume fight mode, landing a hard fist in his chest. Big mistake. My poor knuckles come in contact with what feels like steel and pain shoots through my hand.
I wince and he smirks on seeing my misfortune.
He’s about to say something when a loud explosion rips through the air. We both look across to Erebus House and see the smoke rising high into the sky and more fire billowing in the wind.
Sirens wail in the distance and Kade looks back at me with a knowing look in his eyes.
“What did you do?” His voice is as Arctic as his stare.
“That was your bike. The fucking lone wolf or whatever the hell you called it.”
He actually looks visibly shocked and glances from me to the rising black smoke, then back to me again.
“You’ve seriously lost your goddamn mind.”
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that.”
“But I’m right. You have lost your fucking mind.”
“You bastard. You destroyed my sculpture, knowing what it meant to me. I don’t know how but you must have known the sculpture was part of my application. That’s why you destroyed it. You knew nothing would hurt me more.”
In response Kade shoves me up against the wall. I’m reminded of days ago at football practice, but he didn’t get this close.
He has me pinned to the wall with his body, and it hurts. It feels like he’s going to squash me like a bug.
He catches my head and digs his fingers into my throat. Then he holds my face in place so he can stare me down. He comes right up close so we’re barely a breath apart. A kiss away.
I hate that thought. How the fuck can I even think that after what he’s done to me?
“Did you really think I was just going to allow you to leave and go to college in a whole other country? You don’t get to leave Raventhorn until I say so.”
The blood drains from my body and my eyes widen until they feel like they might pop. “ What ?”
“You heard me, Lolita . You stay right here until I’m done with you.”
To my utter surprise he smiles back at me. The sight infuriates me so much I try to push him away, but of course that works just as well as my punch and does absolutely nothing.
If anything, he holds me tighter, forcing me to yield. I’m so stunned and numb that I can’t do anything else.
He presses his body harder into me, and my shock levels go through the roof when I feel the solid bulge of his cock.
The mirthless grin sliding across his lips tells me he knows I can feel him.
Asshole. He’s getting off on my fear. But… damn me, too, knowing I made him go hard for me does something wicked to my mind and body that spikes every nerve inside me and a bolt of unwanted arousal ravages my insides.
“I told you you’re mine,” he whispers across my lips.
“I’m not yours,” I rasp out in a weak voice.
“We’ll see about that now, won’t we?”
As I stare at him eye to eye, my heart racing and my lungs squeezing, that dreaded question crawls back into my mind like a poisonous spider.
Kade is fucking with my life because I did something to him. Things have reached boiling point now where I need to know what I did. As long as I’m in the dark, I won’t be able to help myself. It will be like going somewhere new without a map to show you the way.
“What did I do to you to deserve this?”
That smile of his grows. “You took something from me that you can’t give back.”
My eyes narrow. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to figuring this out, but that answer is as clear as mud.
“What did I take?”
“No, no, no, Lolita. Telling you would be way too easy. I’m not going to tell you anything yet .” He brushes his nose over mine, inhales me like he’s smelling a flower, then he gives me a sadistic smile that would rival the Joker’s. “I have you right where I want you, Isabelle Kolyav. Right here at Raventhorn University, where I can punish you in whatever ways I want. The best part is you just fell right into my trap.”
A shiver of terror races down my spine and I tremble under the weight of his impending stare.
Voices of people I know try to push through the fog of doom surrounding me, but I’m locked in the clutches of my enemy.
Thorne and Caspian rush up to us and Kade loosens his grip on me. I can’t look away from him, though, because I know this is the beginning of the end.
My end.
And I just made it easier for him.