Dirty Wicked Prince (Court Legacy Book 1)

Sloane

Dorian never told me where he was going, and I didn’t ask after he left the room. He let me get ready, and after, I went to school.

I didn’t even see him on the way out.

I did see Thatcher and Wells, though, before I left. They were in the kitchen, basically raiding Ares’s fridge. Apparently, his parents were out for the week on business, and those particular weeks were the ones where he always threw his parties. They told me all about it while shoveling frozen waffles and microwave hash browns between their lips. They offered me some, but I only took a waffle because I was hungry and didn’t have time to go home before class. I also wanted to get the fuck out of there.

Last night and this morning had been weird enough.

I had to say I was glad I hadn’t drunk any alcohol last night because coming to school with a hangover would have just been the cherry on the weirdest fucking night ever in recorded history. Actually, upon getting to school, I questioned if I’d had an out-of-body experience. I questioned if last night had happened and if this morning Dorian Prinze had actually been nice to me.

With school came the stares.

They occurred once I entered the familiar halls of Windsor Prep. People were talking. I also got more than a few catcalls. They’d all obviously heard about me having my own personal costume party last night, and I got the usual song and dance of people talking about me. More than one creep tried to fondle my ass, and after fighting off a third, I came across Bru at his locker. He had a curious brace on his hand and a more than knowing expression on his face when he looked at me.

He smiled a little. “So, um…”

“Don’t.” I shoved him, making him laugh.

He lifted his hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” he stated, but he most certainly was going to say something. He hung an arm on his locker. “Do I take it that this war with you and Legacy is over? Wells and Thatcher never said who they were getting your clothes for this morning, but they don’t move unless Dorian tells them.”

Sounded like Wells and Thatcher had never revealed my dirty laundry, but my brother was intuitive. He’d guessed it was Dorian I’d stayed with last night.

“I don’t fucking know,” I admitted because I didn’t. Dorian Prinze was a special egg. A dark special egg. I grabbed my brother’s arm, lifting his brace. “Anyway, it sounds like you’re starting your own war. Wolf mentioned you slugged him.”

It’d been freaking weird too. The guy didn’t even seem mad about it.

My brother grinned. “He actually said I had balls after I did it. Standing up for my sister and all that.”

He said as much, and I threw my arm around him, pulling him down with me. I gave him a noogie. “I can fight my own battles.”

“I know,” he said, wrestling me away. He smiled. “But I’ve been a little shit to you recently, and I think we both know that I owed you.”

I was happy to hear him say that. I was happy to hear we were cool again.

He lounged back against the lockers. “Anyway, I think I got lucky hitting Wolf this time. He said he’d kill my ass if I tried something like that again. Pretty sure this was a one-off.” He chuckled. “It was kind of weird actually. It was almost like he let me punch him when I found him last night.”

Again, an uber weird morning. The guy had fucking stabbed me, but thought it was cool that Bru was standing up for his sister?

Epically.

Fucking.

Weird.

These Legacy boys were most certainly a special breed.

“So are you and Dorian a thing?” I gazed around after what my brother said. He laughed. “Sloane, that’s a good thing. It means you’re basically shielded around this place. You know that, right?”

I could assume that was probably a given if Dorian and I were a thing, but I wasn’t his property.

“He doesn’t own me,” I said to Bru, and he merely laughed again.

“You’re going to get me killed one of these days,” he said, but did toss an arm around me.

Gratefully, my brother hadn’t fucked his hand up enough not to play. He went on to explain he got the brace from the school nurse this morning, and it was temporary. He just needed to rest and ice it until the swelling went down, I guess.

He’d still be able to play ball, and I was glad he wouldn’t suffer again for another one of my stunts.

My brother ended up walking me to my first class, and though we chatted for a little bit, he didn’t bring up anything about Dorian or Legacy. I was glad. I wouldn’t talk any more about it if he did.

Last night and this morning were just all too weird.

*

Dorian wasn’t at lunch.

In fact, none of the Legacy boys were. According to Bow, they’d gone to Jax’s Burgers today. They’d invited her to come along, but she’d opted to stay at school. She apparently wasn’t much of a rule breaker, and I guessed they’d been dragging her along to eat with them when they had gone.

I supposed they trusted me enough not to take advantage of her now because none of them were there in the courtyard that day. Of course, many of their legions of fans still were, and I noticed Bru out there with them.

I wondered if that burger invite they’d given him that day had been a one-off, or if Bru had simply made enemies with Ares when my brother had decided to defend my honor this morning.

Odds were, that probably wasn’t the case considering how lax Ares had been when it came to the whole thing, and really, any distance between my brother and that psychopath Mallick I was completely okay with anyway. The guy was fucking crazy.

I mean, he’d stabbed me this morning.

The little rabbit talked my ear off now that she was back at my table, and I didn’t mind because I really had missed her. Call me crazy, but I really did want to protect this girl. She just had this innocence about her, and it couldn’t be helped.

“I can’t believe you just walked in there,” she said, truly awed after I told her about busting up the guys’ poker game. “They just let that happen?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t happen, Sloane.”

Well, they’d let me. At least, Dorian had. Again, the whole thing had been unusual. Telling the story back, it almost seemed like he’d stood up for me for a hot minute before dragging me away.

“Who’s Charlie?” I asked, casual about it. The name had been a buzzword in my head through my first few classes. For obvious reasons, I hadn’t asked Dorian about it when he’d asked what I heard.

Bow stopped eating.

Like she legit stopped, the fry falling out of her mouth. She rubbed salt off her lips. “Charlie?”

“Mmhmm.” I took a drink. “Dorian mentioned his name.”

Now, she coughed. She full-on choked despite not eating any food, and I handed her the soda in front of her.

She patted her throat after a drink. “Dorian mentioned Charlie to you?”

I sat back, figuring the truth was better. I was serious that I didn’t want to do her wrong again. “No, he didn’t. I overheard. He mentioned the name Charlie.”

Her lips immediately closed like I’d known they probably would, but I didn’t regret being honest. That was what separated me from the boys themselves. I didn’t just stomp around all deceitful and caveman-like when I wanted something.

I didn’t just take things from people.

Dorian had done that last night, but I knew he was still in my head despite him being an asshole.

I knew because I was asking about Charlie.

I knew because I cared Dorian wasn’t here today and off doing whatever the fuck he was doing. He wasn’t at lunch with the other boys, and I knew this as fact.

Bow didn’t, though. She couldn’t have. Dorian had been rather tight-lipped about that with Thatcher and Wells. Bow laced her fingers together. “Charlie is Dorian’s uncle.”

“His uncle?”

She nodded. “He died last year,” she said, my lips parting. She frowned. “He was like a brother to Dorian. He was like a brother to all of us really. He was close in age. Only nineteen when it happened.”

“What did happen?”

She appeared hesitant again, her throat working. Her expression shifted, and she appeared pained.

“Someone hurt him,” she said, nodding. Her cheeks flushed, and when she blinked away, I realized I triggered something.

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. Nineteen was so young.

She moved her shoulders. “The boys took it pretty hard. All of our families.” She leaned in. “Charlie grew up with Dorian. Same house and everything.”

Yikes.

Lunch ended at the bell, and she sat back. Bow grabbed her stuff.

“Probably not mention Charlie again?” She wet her lips. “It messed with our families pretty bad. The boys and me.” She nodded. “Broke Dorian, though. Broke Dorian real bad. He took it the hardest.”

For obvious reasons. Especially if they lived together.

I nodded, of course, lifting my hand. “Of course. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“You didn’t know.” She forced a smile I knew she didn’t really mean when she turned with her things and walked away.

Why else would she hide something she normally loved to do?