Dirty Wicked Prince (Court Legacy Book 1)

Sloane

My gaze jerked up when the little rabbit cruised into the headmaster’s office, always going a mile a minute.

Bow stilled upon seeing me.

“I was just getting the mail for some teachers,” she said, her head bowed. “I help some of them out by getting it in between my classes.”

She then proceeded to head over to the teachers’ mailboxes, completely avoiding eye contact with me, and I shook my head. She too had been avoiding me since Legacy had started blackballing me. I had honestly expected it from everyone else.

Not her.

She’d always been the nice one, but even she had stopped talking to me.

She even sat with them all at lunch.

That first day I had simply thought I’d lost her. I’d still been trying to dodge her. She clung like glue when she was around, and my inner introvert screamed every time. There was nothing wrong with her, but I’d never been cool with people hovering over me.

I had gotten into the a la carte line that day honestly thinking I’d won, but then I spotted her already in the courtyard. She’d been tucked between her huge-ass brother and Dorian Prinze, and I knew exactly what was going on there.

They’d gotten to her too.

In front of me now, Bow swallowed, backing away. She’d gotten the mail and what other reason did she have to be in there with me. She said nothing as she left, and I dropped my sketchpad, heading into the hallway after her. I was student assistant for Principal Mayberry during this period. I had a free one and figured I’d fill it in the headmaster’s office since she seemed cool enough.

The woman wouldn’t miss me for a few moments. She literally never came out of her office when I was there. It was her free period too, and she said she preferred quiet time with no disturbances. Her secretary even left for the hour, so assisting the headmaster during this time was a match made in heaven for me. I did tend to be a lone wolf. 

I tracked down Bow, hard to do since she walked so fast. She literally was like a ball of energy. Like because she was so small, she had to overcompensate. I ended up finding her at her locker, and when I did, I crossed my arms. “How’s lunch with Legacy been?”

She’d been grabbing a book but stopped. She faced me. “Sloane…”

“You know, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” I said, shrugging. “You are Legacy after all, right?”

I’d crossed them, so why not her too?

Her face charged in color. “It’s not like that.”

“Well, what’s it like, then?”

She lifted and dropped her hands. “I didn’t want you to have any more trouble than you were obviously having,” she said, surprising me. “And it’s not like they gave me a choice. I didn’t want to fight and make things worse for you.”

So she’d given in? Perfect.

She closed her locker lightly. “And I’m not stupid, Sloane. I know you were dodging me between your classes.” She gazed around. “That I was annoying you.”

Well, fuck. I whipped my hair around, and she chewed her lip. I put a hand out. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

I was rethinking a lot of things now. A lot of things like, was all this labor I was putting myself through worth it? Was going to this school worth it? I’d had to call Callum for help getting me some new tires, and that had been really fun trying to lie my way through how that happened. I’d ended up telling him I’d hit a patch of ice.

In the middle of fall.

Since I knew Midwestern weather to be temperamental, I’d gotten away with it, but that hadn’t stopped him from questioning me. He’d even asked if everything was okay, stating he could come visit Bru and me sooner. He was still traveling but could make arrangements.

I turned him down, passing the help off. I could take care of myself.

I could take care of this.

I cuffed my arms. “I’m sorry about that,” I said to her, honest. “I did you bogus, and that’s on me.”

She nodded, but still gazed around the hallway. She was Legacy herself and still answered to these creeps. She started to leave, but I found myself going with her.

“I was actually wondering something, little rabbit—”

“Little rabbit?” she asked, turning.

I smiled a little. “Well, you do kind of run around here like your ass is on fire.”

Her face lit up, all that cheery brightness returning. I was surprised to find I missed it, her pep and happy. She hugged her books. “Little rabbit? Like a nickname?”

She said that unbelievably cute, and I laughed. “Yeah, like a nickname.”

Her grin widened. “I could be about that. Cool. Little rabbit.”

She tested the term out, as if awed to hear such a thing. Surely, she and her friends had little things they called each other? I smiled. “I was wondering how well you’re doing in our algebra class.”

This was a leading question. I could assume how well she was doing. She was a sophomore in a senior-level math class.

She shrugged, being modest. “I do okay. Why?”

“I could use a tutor,” I said. “I could be doing better.”

I did all right in class and could do better. But I also knew she was the only link I had to these boys. If I wanted to strike, find out something I needed to know more about who they were and how they worked.

This way of thinking was completely cheap I knew, but they hadn’t just gotten to me.

They’d gotten to Bru.

I didn’t even get to see my brother anymore he was so busy. Dorian Prinze had taken away the only thing I had and soiled my name on top of it. Hell, Dorian had done worse than that to my name.

He’d completely removed it.

Upon my proposal, Bow gazed around again. Really, us having any kind of open conversation like this could get back to her brother and his friends, but I had to take the risk. Dorian had gotten to my brother.

And I had to do something.

“I don’t know, Sloane,” she said, and I deflated, frowning. It was probably a dumb idea anyway, and using Bow, even dumber. She had been nice to me after all.

I lifted a hand. “Sorry. I know you don’t want to make waves.”

“I don’t.” She chewed her lip again but surprised me when she got out her phone. “What’s your number? You can probably come by after school or something…”

“Come by?”

She nodded. “I could help you with some of our assignments. Today would be good. I have a student council meeting until three thirty, but after that, I’m free. Let me give you my address.”

She was being serious.

This is what you need.

It did feel weird, though, giving her my number so she could text me her information.

“We can’t just meet at my place?” I asked. Being in the belly of the beast would be a good thing. I could poke around, get some information, but getting caught at a Legacy house was more than a bad idea. I could probably just pick her brain about her brother and his friends. I didn’t necessarily have to be at one of their houses.

Bow smiled, putting away her phone after texting me her address. “Thatcher won’t be around until super late. He and the other guys have football practice until like six. Drives my mom crazy since he’s always late for dinner.”

Well then, this was perfect.

“Be there around four?” she stated, backing down the hallway, and I nodded. I just needed a little information. I had that, and she could go back to ignoring me, and I could go back to being Vapor. What I was about to do wasn’t wrong at all.

And if I told myself that enough times, I may actually believe it.