Page 54 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

NOAH

T he low hum of my phone vibrating against our kitchen counter interrupted my hunt for the alt-milk coffee creamer in the fridge.

I slammed the fridge door, then I reached for the phone. The image on the screen—the lion-themed Hargraves crest—announced that the caller was my dad, and I braced myself for his latest bullshit.

His sporadic calls used to mostly just annoy me; since Jolie came back, they had increased in frequency and now came with a creeping sense of dread.

“Dad,” I said as I accepted the video call with a swipe. I propped the phone against Bennett’s ridiculous five-thousand-dollar espresso machine, and I set about continuing to pour myself a drip coffee like one of the unwashed masses.

“Noah,” Dad greeted me from the camera on his laptop.

The turquoise waters of the Maldives—at least I thought it was the Maldives this time—sloshed happily behind him, and I could hear feminine giggling in the background.

He was clearly in pretending-to-work mode, because he had a white collared shirt on instead of a tank top, open at the neck to reveal his ridiculous tan. “How’s school?”

The fake small talk irritated the shit out of me. “Fine. Coursework for this semester seems manageable. My TA gig keeps me busy. Nothing major to report.”

He hummed. “Well, we did have that little hiccup last week. The Tier Ones were pretty unsettled.”

Not that he had done anything about it except whine at me via text message. “Yeah. Was a minor blip for the Families, all things considered,” I replied breezily, still puttering around the kitchen so that he’d get the hint that I was in the middle of shit.

“Still, I do worry about having Jolie Knight running around the Academy, poisoning our allies against us. Benjamin Ling called me personally last night and told me his daughter thinks the Knight girl is trying to… seduce you, son.”

Fucking Annie. “That’s ridiculous, Dad. You’re letting the whining of a petty, jealous girl intrude on your vacation ?”

He sighed, running a hand through his graying blond hair. “You’re right, of course. I just wanted to be sure you were focused on the important things, Noah. Everything we do, we do for Hargraves. For the rule of the Families. There’s no room for old… affections.”

There was no room for any affection in my Family. We made sure the empire was humming, the coffers were overflowing, and we didn’t give a shit about each other.

“I’m aware, Dad. I’m keeping an eye on things here for you, as always.”

He gave me a patronizing smile. “Of course you are. I raised you to be such a capable young man. You’ll be ready to take the wheel of the Hargraves in no time.”

I popped the lid onto my travel coffee cup. “Did you need anything else?”

A squeal sounded in the distance. “Peter! Come play!”

He glanced off camera and shot his companion a knowing smile before he returned his gaze to me, looking only slightly guilty about the interruption.

“You know, the Lings are important partners for us. I would never push you into the type of archaic contract James has thrust onto Bennett, but I suggest you use that handsome face and abundance of charm you inherited from me to make sure Annie feels wanted , if you know what I mean.” He gave me an obnoxious wink.

“For the Family, huh? ”

My sardonic tone flew right past him. “You got it, son. Talk to you later!”

He hung up, his perfunctory check-in crossed off his list for the week. I shoved my phone into my pocket and grabbed my bag as Bennett and Zach appeared from their respective bedrooms and made their way into our large common area.

“Sounds like Peter’s working hard, as usual,” Zach said as he loosened his bright blue tie and rolled up his shirtsleeves to reveal his tattooed forearms.

“Yep,” I replied, slinging the strap of my leather messenger bag over my shoulder. “And did you hear? I’m supposed to be an actual whore for the Family now.”

“Join the club,” Bennett muttered, smoothing his already impeccable suit jacket. At least his broken face was looking almost normal today.

We made our usual trek from our dorm to the dining hall for breakfast, students moving from our path and still gawking at us like it was the first day we’d arrived on campus. We were used to it—expected it, even—but it didn’t make it less tiresome.

At least it was Friday, which meant I had only my few morning classes and one afternoon block of office hours to get through before I could disappear back into the quiet comfort of our dorm for the weekend.

“Thank you so much, Noah,” Annie gushed from her seat in front of my desk. “I was pretty sure I had this right, but you always explain things so well. I wish you were my Advanced Computer Science professor.”

“You’re welcome, Annie,” I said politely, leaning back in my chair and feeling thankful we were finally through today’s pretext for Annie dropping into my office hours. “Was there anything else you needed?”

She hummed, giving me a coy look. I wondered how I’d ever found her attention amusing—back when I’d entertain her shameless flirting and even sometimes flirt right back.

Annie was pretty—delicate features, petite figure, shiny dark hair—and she was actually very smart despite pretending to need my tutoring all the time.

Her family was among the wealthiest in the City and firmly linked with Hargraves, so it wasn’t a stretch for her to think I’d be interested.

After the girl I’d dated last year had turned out to be just another user chasing Family money, I’d had zero interest in another relationship, but that didn’t mean I’d decided not to enjoy the attention of pretty girls every now and then.

Until my dead best friend in disguise crashed back into my life.

Now I wanted the attention of one girl and one girl only, and it wasn’t fucking Annie.

“I was wondering if there was anything you needed, Noah,” she said softly, shifting in her chair to cross her bare legs under her skirt and making sure to flash me her panties as she did it.

“You’ve got the weight of the Family on your shoulders.

You’re a full-time student and a TA. You’ve got a crazy bitch pretending to be one of you while trying to ruin your Family’s good name.

You need a break .” She lowered her gaze like she could see my crotch behind my desk.

“Let me come back there and show you I can suck cock just as well as the professionals at the Club.”

Jesus Christ .

I chuckled, adjusting my glasses before spearing her with a look of derision. “That’s doubtful.”

I was finished entertaining her even though I knew my refusal to do so was probably going to be reported to my dad.

Her jaw dropped. “Noah!”

“You heard him, Slutty McSlutterson,” Jolie said as she appeared in the half-open doorway, an amused look on her face that did little to disguise the malice in those aquamarine eyes as they bored into the back of Annie’s head.

Annie whirled in her chair, still full to the brim with indignation. “Get the fuck out, you delusional skank. No one invited you in here.”

Jojo snorted, stepping further into my office.

She was still wearing the braided pigtails that Zach had insisted during our first class with her this morning were her way of punishing him.

She had an adorable white beanie on her head, her cheeks still flushed from the cold outside, and I’d never seen a more beautiful girl in my whole life.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure there’s only one delusional skank in this office, and it’s the girl who just told Noah she’d suck his dick like she was being paid to.”

My dick was starting to take notice of all this talk about him, especially now that it was coming from Jolie .

Down, boy .

Annie jumped to her feet, now in a rage.

“You’re just jealous. You’re a washed-up dead girl panting after the Heirs.

No one gives a fuck who you used to be, especially not them.

” She advanced on Jolie, pointing a dark-red nail in her face.

“Stay away from Noah. You know, if you need attention, I heard Donavan’s coming back to school.

I bet he’ll pony up a lot more this time if he can say he fucked an ex-Heir. ”

Any amusement I felt witnessing this exchange vanished, the thought of that rapist garbage touching Jolie making my trigger finger itchy, but I needn’t have worried.

Jolie moved with the speed we all now knew she possessed, lunging at Annie before slamming her up against the wall of my office. Annie shrieked, but Jolie backhanded her across the face before producing a knife from God-knew-where and shoving it up against Annie’s trembling throat.

I adjusted myself under my desk.

“You think sexual assault is funny?” Jolie spat in a harsh whisper. “You think it’s something to brag about? That you enabled a predator who’s probably hurt someone in the past and will go on to do it again? You think Noah’s impressed by you because of that?”

“Get… off… me,” Annie hissed.

I stood up, knowing this was about to go too far. It would be… challenging to clean up if Jolie killed or severely maimed Annie Ling in my office in Holywell Hall, to say the least.

I walked over to them, and I ran a gentle, soothing hand down Jolie’s back.

“Easy, sweetheart,” I murmured. “Let’s go ahead and let her go. I think you’ve scared her sufficiently for today.”

She turned to me, a pretty pout on her lips and her knife not moving an inch. “Come on, Noah. Let me just… carve her up a little bit.”

Annie screamed, and I yanked Jolie away.

“You fucking crazy bitch!” Annie shouted before she grabbed her giant bag from the floor and sprinted from my office as fast as her four-inch heels would carry her.

Jolie burst out laughing. “God, that was hilarious. She almost peed her pants when I said I was going to cut her. ”

I gave her a stern look, holding in my own laughter. “It was a little overzealous. You know how hard that would have been to clean up?”