Page 30 of Broken by my Bully (Lessons in Cruelty Dark Academia #1)

Haven

Kai is practically glowing with power. He has a psycho-villain grin on his face that’s both charming and utterly terrifying.

It’s so hard to believe this guy and the kid I used to play with are one and the same. But I guess we all change as we grow older. We tweak our dials—some of them for the better.

Why do I get the feeling he’s spent the past few years seeing how far he can turn his spite, resentment, and hate dials?

At least I know this class isn’t bullshit. Professor Rooke is teaching us some valuable life lessons, like how easy it is for someone to turn into a maniacal dictator.

The first two rounds of Kai’s Survivor game were awful. He read both sets of secrets out loud, and then everyone was looking around, trying to see who looked the guiltiest.

Bought a leaked copy of a high school test and used it to get an A.

Stole money from roommate’s wallet to buy weed.

Sold Adderall to fund their obsession with designer shoes.

Hooked up with their sister’s ex at a party, out of spite…while said sibling was at the same party.

I don’t know anyone in this class, save Kai and Melissa, and even I could figure out whose secret belonged to whom.

Kai picks up the last envelope, keeping the names turned away from the class, as if it matters at this stage. He’s already narrowed the pool from forty to thirty-six, and no one can keep a straight face.

Melissa grabs my hand, squeezes. “I’m sorry,” she says.

“What?” I keep my eyes ahead, but my voice is aimed at her.

“I’m a sore loser. Also highly competitive. I refuse to fail. But you’re nice, and so if it’s us next…I’m really sorry.”

Holy fucking shit.

“Uh…yeah…me too.”

“What?”

“What?”

Kai clears his throat. “Our first contender is starting off strong. They’ve,” he puts the next in air quotes, “sent nude pics to a teacher.”

Silence.

Utter, enthralled silence.

Can Melissa hear my pounding heart? I hope not, because it would be a dead giveaway.

I wrote that, and I don’t even know if it’s true.

Movement catches my eye. She’s glancing over her shoulder, staring up at the students, trying to see who looks guiltiest.

Either she’s a fantastic actress, or I assumed wrong when I wrote that secret down.

“Not too bad, not too bad,” Kai says, nodding appreciatively as he shuffles the two slips in his hand. “But is it worse than someone,” air quotes again, “’secretly living out of their car?’”

Ice shoots through my veins and collects in my fingers, prickling painfully.

To Kai’s credit, he somehow manages not to look at me.

It would be a wild fucking coincidence, statistically unprecedented , for two students to be living out of their cars at this prestigious college.

And they’re both in the same class .

And they also assumed their partner sent nude pics to a teacher.

But Kai might as well have looked, pointed, and called me up to the fucking lectern, because when those first chuckles begin, it feels like they’re laughing right in my face.

I try to pull my hand out of Melissa’s as discreetly as possible, but she refuses to let go.

And then she starts laughing too.

I’m biting the inside of my lip so hard I taste copper. Everything inside my stomach is turning to lead, and I don’t know if I’m going to pass out or puke. Maybe one, then the other.

But when I throw the tiniest little peek over my shoulder, no one’s looking at me.

They’re all looking at Kai.

Because he’s laughing so hard, he has to hold on to the lectern for support.

“Out of their car!” he roars. “Bullshit!” He holds up the slip of paper, folded again so no one can see my name. “I call bullshit.”

My breath hitches in my chest, my hand tightening in Melissa’s, hers gripping me back even tighter.

“Laugh,” Melissa whispers furiously at me. “Laugh!”

I let out an uneasy ha-ha .

And then I’m laughing for real, because, fuck it, looks like I’m not in Kansas anymore. I glance over at Melissa. She’s watching me as she laughs, her free hand over her mouth, but her eyes flicker with guilt.

And when I pull my hand out of hers, she doesn’t try to hold on.

I can barely hear her through the laughter when she whispers, “I’m so sorry, Haven.”

Kai scrapes the envelopes together and packs them into a neat stack between his palms. “You want to know why I enjoy working with Professor Rooke?”

“He’s easy on the eyes!” someone yells from the back. I swear he’s the same guy who was so disappointed when the professor told him he didn’t want dick pics.

Kai points the stack of envelopes at him. “Sure. ”

“He’s fucking gorgeous!” a girl in the front row adds.

“Yeah, Christ, alright,” Kai snaps. “Everyone wants to fuck Rooke.” The students laugh, but he keeps right on talking, and eventually they taper off to listen.

I don’t want to puke anymore, but my anxiety’s at a ten as I wait for the other shoe to drop. And I guess I’m just as interested in what Kai has to say as anyone else.

“Besides this joker—” Kai holds up my slip of paper “—how many of you wrote something hurtful, shameful…and bogus?”

Silence. I have to school myself so I don’t start fidgeting with my pen. What the hell is he trying to say? That even if it’s cruel, people would rather tell the truth than lie?

“The card didn’t say the secret had to be true.”

He twitches his wrist, making the envelopes slap against each other.

“Professor Rooke gave you the authority to be as nice or as cruel as you wanted…and I’m betting most you guys saw a chance to do some damage, and you didn’t even think twice.”

That’s when he looks over at me.

Our eyes lock, and it’s as if I’m back under that table in the library. Kai with his dick in his hands, and me about to swallow him down.

It shouldn’t—fuck how could it?—but the serene look that fades onto his face sends a thrill through me.

He won. We both know it.

But I clench my jaw, push my chin out.

And I send a mental, ‘that all you got?’ his way as he goes back to the desk and collapses onto the chair. An impish smile pulls at his mouth. The class is so silent, so hushed, that even when he speaks in a low murmur, I’m sure everyone can hear.

“Wish I could say I’m shocked.” He tilts his head, smile melting away as he openly studies me. “But honestly, I saw it coming.”

The way he’s looking at me makes my skin crawl and burn at the same time. Like he’s undressing me with his eyes, peeling away every layer until there’s nothing left but the broken girl he used to know.

“Funny thing about secrets,” he says, eyes locked on mine like we’re the only two people in the class, “is that they’re only powerful if you care about them getting out.”

My hands are shaking so hard I can barely hold my pen. Because he’s right. I do care. I care so much it’s eating me alive.

I’ve spent my whole life in poverty. I’ve had every demeaning slur thrown my way because of my torn, grimy clothes. My hair only ever got cut when the hairdresser living on the other side of the trailer park took pity on me. I was called trash so many times, I believed that’s what I was.

His legs are spread wide in that chair, and I hate that I notice. Hate that some sick part of me remembers what it felt like to be trapped between them.

How he sounded when he called me baby while he was choking me.

Kai—my green-eyed boy—is going to destroy me.

And not only do I fucking want him to…

I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy every second of it.