AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That nickname started when Zeke referred to us that way to piss us off, but it stuck. Ever since then, we did what it took to live up to it. If anyone was to blame for the things we got up to, it was him, for encouraging us. That’s what big brothers were for anyway, right?
"Ice Miller, Ares Turner and Mannix Cassani?" I stepped around the wide fire pit we sometimes used for toasting marshmallows. "I wouldn't turn my back on any of them."
"Neither would I, but I'd fuck their girlfriend, Kennedy. I'd bet you anything she knows how to use her mouth." He smacked his lips.
"I wouldn't take that bet," I said. "Because you have no way of proving it's true. Not without cheating on Lila."
If not for her, Kennedy would be fair game, boyfriends or no boyfriends. She was cute and I did have a thing for redheads. And blondes. And brunettes.
"You might as well bet on Zeke's girlfriend, Abbie." She was also a singer and someone we'd both had unconscious in our esteemed company. Apart from kidnapping her and putting a tracking device in her earring, we hadn’t touched her. She was another woman I would totally would have fucked if not for my commitment to Lila. It would have pissed my brother off, but would have been worth it.
I had to be careful. If I kept going like this, Lila might turn me into something vaguely resembling a good person.
I snorted to myself at the thought. As if I could ever be good. Not when it was this much fun being bad.
CHAPTER3
LILA
I eyed my sister across the table. Since arriving at Brutham, everything had been quiet.
That wouldn't last and we both knew it. Our father made it clear, before we left to come here, what he expected of us.
"One of you will take over as head of the family someday." He'd sat back in his leather chair and regarded us both.
"I expect you to work at proving you deserve it over your sister." He sat forward and rested his arms on his solid mahogany desk. At home, in just our presence, he didn't bother with a suit jacket. The sleeves of his white button down shirt were rolled up to just below his elbows. The face of his chunky Rolex watch caught the light which slanted in behind him from a window overlooking the harbour.
Most people might consider Samuel Bell attractive. Even as his daughter, I saw why.
His dark hair was peppered with grey, but his brown eyes were as shrewd as ever. Power radiated from him. Wherever he went, he attracted attention, especially beautiful women. They flocked to him, enticed by the lure of him and his money.
I'd be naïve if I didn't think he fucked them, but he never kept any of them around for long. Never got attached. After Mum died, he was never with anyone for more than a short while, apart from a brief marriage that ended years ago.
I didn't get the impression he missed any of the women, just no one held his attention. No one was silly enough to think it was because he didn't want anyone getting between him and his daughters. He loved us, but he wasn't sentimental.
"When you say work at proving it?" Chloe asked tentatively.
"Whatever it takes," he said evenly. "This isn't an easy business. If your skin isn't thick enough, you'll be eaten alive. If you let your sister walk all over you, you have no chance out there in the world."
"The trials—" Chloe started.
"You have to make it to the trials first." His eyes took in her, then me. "You know what they say about Brutham Academy."
"It's the only university in Australia with a mortality rate that's higher than the dropout rate," I quoted.
"And do you know why that is?" His expression didn’t change.
"To teach us to kill anyone who gets in our way." I was sixteen when I killed my first person, down in the basement of this very house.
I can’t claim to have enjoyed it, but I’d do anything for my father's approval and to prove I was a worthy successor to him. If I had to kill again, I would.
But if that person was my sister…
"Yes, but it's more than that," Dad said. He waited for me to elaborate. He was never one for giving us easy answers.
"To stay alive," Chloe said. She gave me the side eye, clearly thinking the same thing I was. She had also killed, but would she kill me if I was in her way? "To make the right connections and allies and use them to further ourselves."
Dad nodded. "Exactly. You're not merely there to learn, although you're there to do that too. You'll both be studying business. Not only will you be in competition for head of the family, you'll be competing academically. Brutham takes your education very, very seriously. This isn't the kind of establishment where you can turn up, not do anything and expect to succeed. Money will not buy a degree from Brutham. Hard work and the right contacts will."
