Crowd of Lies (Kingsley Academy Book 2) Read online

  “Is she okay? What happened?”

  “She’s going to be fine. She can’t have any more visitors, but as soon as she can, I’ll come get you.”

  “I’m not leaving,” she screeches, looking at him like he’s crazy.

  “She needs her rest. I’ll come by your room and explain everything in a little while.”

  She watches him for a moment longer before reluctantly nodding. “I’m going to call—” She pauses, her eyes glistening with tears. “She doesn’t have anyone for me to call. I take it Nova is already here?”

  Sam pats her shoulder, comforting her. “She has all of us.”

  I snort, glaring at him. She has us, not him. She wouldn’t want him here. She doesn’t need him.

  Grant’s phone goes off and he looks down at the screen, his eyebrows scrunching together. He glances up at me before throwing Nova’s keys my way. “I need to go. Dad needs me back at the house.”

  Sam flushes with anger as he bares his teeth. “Why?”

  Grant curls his lip. “None of your business.”

  Sam turns back to Selina as Grant leaves. “I need to go.”

  I thought he’d leave to go back into the room, but he doesn’t, instead heading for the exit.

  I snort. “Why am I not surprised?”

  Selina glares at me. “Shut up! He loves her. He might not have shown it, but he does.”

  “Right!”

  Nova steps out before Selina can say anything else. “The doctors said she needs to rest. You guys should go home.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I tell her.

  She sighs. “All right. But she can’t have visitors due to risk of infection. She has a collapsed lung and other open injuries.”

  She’s not telling me all of it. Instead of arguing, I nod. “I’ll wait.”

  Selina looks torn as she stares at the closed door. “Why don’t you go back to your room, Selina. We’ll keep you updated if anything changes,” Lucca offers.

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  She looks down at me, sitting on the floor. “If I find out you did this to her, I’ll run you over and make it look like you committed suicide. Don’t test me. I’m crazy enough to do it.”

  I listen to her walk back down the hallway, her slippers flopping across the floor.

  I need answers, but when I go to ask Carter a few more questions, he’s gone, and so is his cousin, Rhys.

  “What do you think they’re all hiding from us?” Ethan asks, sitting down on my left while Lucca sits on my right.

  “I don’t know. Is this my fault?” I ask, glancing down at the floor.

  “How? You weren’t driving the car.”

  “What if it was Danielle?” I mention, ignoring how Ethan is trying to make me feel better.

  “Nah, this is something else. You saw Nova outside ours. She was scared of you. She’s acting weird.”

  “Yeah, she is.”

  “We’ll find out who was driving that car and deal with them ourselves,” Lucca tells me.

  I turn to him, feeling numb inside. “When I find out who was driving that car, I’m going to slit their throat. I don’t give a fuck if it’s Danielle.” I pause, running a hand over my face. “Lucca, start looking deeper into Ivy’s past. Start with her mum. Whoever did this succeeded in killing her for a few minutes. I want to know who. Ethan, start looking for any cameras in the area the crash happened. I want to see the car.”

  “On it,” they say, getting up from the floor and leaving.

  I clench my hands into fists as I stare at Ivy’s door. I’m going to make this right. What I did to her, what was done to her and what happened today… I’ll make it right.

  No one fucks with mine.

  Ever.

  CHAPTER TWO

  KAIDEN

  It’s been two days since Ivy was brought in, and they won’t let us fucking see her. We’ve been camped outside her room the whole time, refusing to leave. Lenore, our housekeeper, brought us a change of clothes and the hospital let us use the family room shower.

  We managed to get into her room yesterday—her eighteenth birthday—but she was still out cold. I wanted to touch her, but Sam would only let us so close, threatening to get us removed if we didn’t obey. And I believed him.

  As much as I didn’t want to listen to him, he held the power in the hospital, so I took what little they would give.

  She looked weak, pale, and had bruising. It was hard not to say ‘fuck it’ and go to her. It killed me to see her looking so small and lonely in that bed. I wanted her to know I was there, that I hadn’t left.

  The only reason we’ve not charged in there since is because they haven’t let Selina in either. Yet, I’m still confused over the hostility.

  Something is going on with Nova and Sam. They’re hiding something big.

  I’m not worried. I’ll find out what it is and what it has to do with Ivy.

  The twins are getting edgy too. They went through Cara Monroe’s background, but there wasn’t anything we didn’t already know, same for Ivy’s. Whoever tried to kill her, they weren’t from her past.

  Which begs the question, who is after her now?

  “Where the fuck is Grant?” Ethan barks, sitting forward.

  We’d dragged chairs out from the waiting room to right outside Ivy’s. All of us wanted to be close.

  “He’s not picking up?” I ask, turning to Lucca.

  He turns his phone around, showing me the screen. “He’s not picking up.”

  “I wonder why his dad wanted him?” Ethan muses.

  “Probably to give him a list of shit to accomplish at the Academy.”

  “I still can’t believe we go back next week.”

  I grunt. He’s right there. This summer has gone too quickly. Dad had promised we could finally visit Mum, but he broke it, saying she had another relapse. Who the fuck smuggles drugs into a rehab facility?

  After I’ve found out and dealt with who hurt Ivy, I’m going to look for Mum. She needs to get home, take control of her companies. Dad has already sold one off and the funds have disappeared. I’ve had a few people look into it, and they’ve all said the same thing. That it was all legalised and somewhere in one of our many accounts. I don’t trust it. It was like they rehearsed their speech. I know Dad got to them, which is why I need to find someone who can’t be paid off.

  “Try Grant again,” I order Lucca.

  I need him to go look at the crash site. Ethan and Lucca have refused to leave Ivy, and I can understand that. They’ve grown close. All the work they’ve done to find out what happened was done in the hospital after Lenore brought all our stuff.

  Grant, however, is still unsure about her. He’s not been himself for a while now, long before Ivy arrived.

  His dad has been on his case a lot more about getting into the family business. When Grant refused to start a work placement so he could spy for his dad, he got a beating that night, and I’m sure more since. I’ve seen the bruises.

  “We’re supposed to be a team and he fucks off?” Lucca snorts, shoving his phone back in his pocket when there’s no answer. “He’s been acting shady as fuck for weeks. I’m still pissed at what he did to her in that pool. He should have been arrested for what he did.”

  I give my brother a dry look. “And what you did was better?”

  Ethan growls under his breath. “We would never have taken it that far. We just wanted to see if she’d fight back. You might have forgotten, but we didn’t want to cause her shit in the first place. We never blamed her for Mum. You did. We wanted to make sure she was strong enough. He’s lost the plot, Kaiden. You know it; you just won’t admit it.”

  I grit my teeth at them mentioning Mum. “Her mum is the fucking reason ours is the way she is. And give him a break. He has shit going on.”

  I don’t know why I’m sticking up for him. He has been a dickhead for a while, acting out of character.

  And Mum… She barely remembers who
we are most of the time. Life broke her, and it all started with Cara. It’s the reason I was going to break Ivy. I wanted revenge for what was done to her.

  At the moment, Mum is in another rehab centre, has been for almost two years. Dad has been keeping her there, which is another reason why I hate him so much. The twins need their mum, whether they wanted to admit it or not. She’s been absent most of their lives. At least I remember parts of her.

  “Listen to yourself, Kaiden. Mum made her own choices. Dad made his own. We make our own. Grant has changed and it’s time you see that.”

  “I’m not mad at Ivy anymore. I never really had a reason to be. I know that.” I haven’t been since I heard her talking to Nova that morning about her life, about her mum. When she questioned if her mum was raped, I had to know more, that feeling in the pit of my stomach twisting into knots. I knew then something didn’t add up. I was just too stubborn-headed to do anything more about it.

  “We know,” Lucca assures me.

  “And as for Grant, you know what his dad is like. Whatever is bugging him, he’ll come to us eventually.”

  “Right, because he’s so fucking chatty,” Ethan mutters dryly. “I just think you should talk to him.”

  “I will,” I assure him, and I will. I’ve been meaning to have another talk with him for a while.

  Lucca stands, kicking his chair against the wall in the hallway. The duck-egg walls are starting to get to me too.

  The hallway isn’t small, but when you have basically been living in it for two days, it starts to get smaller. There is nothing to look at but blank walls, and I think it’s getting to the twins.

  Lucca bangs his fist against the wall, a growl tearing from his throat. “This is stupid! Why won’t they let us see her? The nurses said she’d be awake soon.”

  I scrub a hand down my face, exhausted. It’s only early evening, yet it feels like the early hours of the morning. “I don’t know. I’m giving them another hour before I go in.”

  “I don’t like how they’re guarding it, like we’re the ones who ran her off the road,” Ethan comments.

  I think about his comment, wondering the same thing. The way Nova has been treating me and Sam, you’d think I was the one who had put her in hospital.

  And Sam… He left the same time as Grant the other day and didn’t get back until late last night.

  I don’t trust him, not one bit.

  “I’ll sort it,” I promise him. “I’ll find out what this is about.”

  “Has Selina been here today? I went to her room to see her when I went to get us drinks, but she wasn’t there,” Lucca adds.

  “Wasn’t she meant to get released today?” Ethan asks.

  “Yeah, but her stuff was still in her room and someone’s jacket was left on a chair.”

  “She’ll be here soon. It’s Ivy. She loves having her here.”

  I look up at the sound of footsteps angrily stomping towards us. At first, I’m worried it’s Dad, coming to demand we go home. Nova has asked us to leave a few times but hasn’t taken it any further when we’ve refused. She could have had Sam kick us out completely, but she didn’t. Dad, on the other hand, won’t give a fuck. He’ll get security to escort us out.

  I’m surprised to see Grant. I’m instantly on alert when I get a look at his thunderous expression. I get up from my chair, taking a step towards him.

  He pushes me out of the way, taking me off guard.

  “What the fuck?” I growl, glaring at him. He tries to push through Ivy’s hospital room door, but I block him, pushing him back. “Start talking!”

  “Get out of my way,” he barks, his face red with anger.

  “Not until you tell me what is going on. Where have you been? We’ve been trying to get hold of you.”

  His lip curls in disgust. “I want to fucking see her. Is the slut awake?”

  “Hey!” the twins call out, stepping up beside me.

  Grant forces out a laugh. “I should have known you two dogs would stand beside her.”

  “What the fuck is your problem?” I grit out, getting in his face. I don’t want to hit him, but I will. He’s pushing, and the way he’s going, it won’t be long until he’s knocked out.

  “My dad is gone.”

  “And what does that have to do with Ivy?”

  “That slag has something on him. She’s been blackmailing him.”

  I step back, shaking my head. I don’t believe him. I’ve been friends with him since we were in nappies and only known Ivy for weeks, yet I know what he’s saying is a lie. She doesn’t care about wealth, fame or fortune. She cares about having somewhere safe to sleep, a roof over her head, and food. She hates it when we let it go to waste.

  She has no reason to blackmail his dad. There’s nothing she’d want to gain.

  She doesn’t.

  “You’re a fucking liar,” Ethan growls, stepping closer.

  Grant laughs again. “Is she spreading her legs for you too? Has she got that cunt squeezed around your cock so tight you can’t even feel your balls anymore?”

  I reach out to grab him, but Lucca beats me to it, punching Grant in the jaw, knocking him backwards.

  I pull Lucca back, ignoring his glare. “What is she using as blackmail, exactly?”

  “You don’t know, do you?”

  I glare at him. “I wouldn’t fucking ask if I did.”

  “She’s been blackmailing your dad too. They’re gone. They’ve had to. She’s fabricated some sick fucking story to get them arrested.”

  “Wait a minute, what story?” Ethan asks.

  I turn to him. “Call Dad!”

  He nods, stepping out of the way with his phone in his hand. I turn back to Grant, watching him.

  “What did your dad say?”

  “He wanted me to go with him, said she’ll take me down with them.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question. What does she have on them?”

  “You don’t believe me?” he asks, curling his lip. “Why am I not surprised. She’s got her claws so far into you.”

  “Watch it,” I warn.

  “This is your fault. I warned you she was just like her mum. You said you didn’t think she was and cancelled what we had planned. Now I’ve got to see that smug bitch’s face everywhere. I want whatever she has over Dad, over my family. I won’t let some dragged up whore bring down my family’s legacy.”

  I punch him, knocking him to the floor. He wipes the blood away from his lip, narrowing his eyes at me.

  “You’re a fool,” he curses, getting to his feet. “Is she really that good of a lay you’d believe her over me?”

  “You want to watch it, Grant. Don’t make me hit you twice,” I warn him. “You might want to fill us in on what is happening.”

  “He wouldn’t tell me what she has, just what she’ll do if they don’t give her money. She wants everything. She told them she wouldn’t just share whatever it is she has, but she’ll get me done for rape. You lot too. She’s had this planned from the beginning.”

  I look to Ethan, who glances up from his phone. He frowns, shaking his head.

  “That story sounds fabricated, even to me,” Lucca says.

  Grant glowers at Lucca. “She’s going to get us fucking done for rape. I’m not letting some washed up tramp who doesn’t even own her own clothes, ruin my life.”

  “You don’t even know if it’s true,” I warn him.

  None of it makes sense. At all. But something rings true in his words, and it’s bugging me that I don’t know what.

  “Wait, is this why Ivy was run over? Why someone tried to kill her?” I ask, feeling my blood begin to pump.

  Grant shoves me backwards. “You blaming that shit on my dad, on yours?”

  “Touch me again, mate, and I’ll break your fingers.”

  “Dad didn’t do this,” he tells me, shaking his head. “We arrived at the house at the same time.”

  “That doesn’t mean shit,” I tell him.

  “A
re you seriously fucking accusing my dad of this? You’ll throw years of friendship away for that slag?”

  “She’s not a slag. Stop acting jealous and get your head out of your arse,” Lucca warns.

  Grant ignores him, turning to me. “She’s ruined our lives, and you’re going to let her get away with it? You’re still going to stand there and stick up for the bitch?”

  I run a hand down my face, tired of all this bullshit. “What did your dad say, exactly?”

  Grant groans, looking up to the ceiling. “He was in a rush, not making much sense at first, just kept telling me to pack my bags, that we had to go somewhere they couldn’t touch us. He was talking about your dad, the business, but nothing really stuck out. He said she was coming for us all, to ruin them after they ran her mum out of town. She’s out for revenge, on all of them.”

  “Wait up,” I tell him, holding my hand up. “Revenge? What for? Her mum made up lies, saying she slept with our dads. There was more, but I can’t remember all of it. I know that much is true. Mum would cry, and said it started with Cara Monroe.” I pause, truly thinking about it. As a boy, it’s all I could think about. My mum was the way she was because of Cara Monroe, because of something she did when I was a baby. As a young boy who just wanted his mum’s love, I placed all the blame and hatred on Cara. I never really stopped to actually think about it. “Wait, if by some miracle her mum was telling the truth and they did sleep with her, why would my dad care? He’s cheated on Mum for as long as I can remember.”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t fucking care. She was a slut, and everyone knew it. People still gossip about her and what an embarrassment she was. She ruined lives, Kaiden. She made up shit to drive a wedge between them all. She couldn’t stand the fact they were all happy. Growing up, every single night Dad would get drunk and tell me she killed Mum.”

  “So why would Ivy want revenge?”

  “Because she’s pissed she wasn’t given the life we had. They ran her mum out of town after Mum died. Even her family cut her off. Ivy somehow managed to get something on them, something that has them scared, and has threatened to get us arrested if they don’t pay her. She’ll not only destroy their businesses, but our lives.”