Kings of Linwood Academy - The Complete Box Set: A Dark High School Romance Series Callie Rose (i read a book TXT) 📖

maybe expelled, but fucking with my tests makes me look like the delinquent, not her. I talked Mr. Osterhaut in to giving me one more chance, and I’m supposed to work something out with Mr. Arndt to take my tests in a private room or something so he knows I can’t cheat. But I’m not sure if that’ll work, since I don’t know how Savannah is accessing the exams in the first place.”

“So we need to stop her,” he grunts.

“Uh, yeah.”

I shoot a pleading glance at River, since the tone of Linc’s voice and the look on his face make me think he’s considering doing something that will definitely get him expelled. The quiet boy nods almost imperceptibly, which I hope means he’ll do something to talk Linc out of any insane plans he might cook up to get back at Savannah.

At least this topic has completely diverted Lincoln from wondering what we were doing when we stayed late at school. A couple hours later, he drives River back home—I never noticed it before I found out about his hearing impairment, but River pretty much never gets behind the wheel of a car.

I head upstairs. When I reach the landing on the second floor, I glance to my left and see Mr. Black emerging from the master bedroom.

He nods and smiles broadly at me like he always does when he runs into me around the house.

But today, the sight makes my blood run cold.

Bri Marshall’s first week as interim Executive Housekeeper turns out to be a sort of trial by fire situation, since the Blacks decide to host another cocktail party on Saturday. My mom oversaw several of these, and by the last one—the one Detective Dunagan crashed when he arrested her—she had everything running like a well-oiled machine.

But I know her first one stressed her out, and I can see the same thing happening to Bri as she bustles around the house over the next couple days getting things ready for the party. By the time Saturday rolls around, the entire mansion is like a three-ring circus.

Caterers, serving staff, and decorators are coming and going, there’s a mix-up with a floral delivery, and when a woman wearing a dark coat and an annoyed expression shows up at the door, I honestly don’t even think Bri knows what the new arrival is here for.

Organizing this kind of chaos is a special skill, and a flare of pride rises up in me to know that Mom is so good at it.

Honestly, it makes me a little sad to see the party preparations going on—to see someone else handling the planning and logistics, and to be reminded that for almost everyone besides my mom, life has gone on as normal in the three weeks since her arrest.

But now that I’m harboring suspicions about Samuel Black, it also makes a part of my soul burn with fury.

He’s throwing a fucking party? While she rots in jail?

If he put her there, I swear to fucking God, I’ll—

I stop myself before I can finish that thought, tossing my textbook down on the floor with a thud. Nothing I’ve read in the past half hour has stuck in my brain, so it’s a waste of time to keep flipping pages.

Aside from a few trips downstairs, which gave me a chance to observe the madness, I’ve been holed up in my room all afternoon, studying and thinking way too much.

More than ever, I’m convinced it was the right call not to say anything to Lincoln. I can barely be in the same room with Mr. Black anymore. Every interaction we’ve had over the past few days has felt forced and awkward. I don’t know how to act natural around him anymore, to see him as the slightly-too-friendly-but-harmless man who hired my mom to come work for him.

I hope like hell he hasn’t picked up on anything being amiss. Maybe it’ll work in my favor that ever since my mom got hauled away in the back of a cop car, I haven’t really felt like myself. If he does notice any weirdness, hopefully he’ll just attribute it to that.

But if Lincoln knew?

Shit, I know he’s a good liar, but it’d take a damn Oscar-worthy performance to convince his dad that everything was normal. That his secret was still safe.

Blowing out a breath, I lean over the arm of the easy chair to pluck my phone off the floor, pressing the button on the side to turn the screen on.

5:32 p.m.

Guests will start arriving for the party around seven, I think.

I’m about to pick up my biology textbook, hoping maybe a change of subject will refresh my brain, when the muffled sound of raised voices reaches my ears.

I hesitate, tilting my head slightly to pick up the noise better. It’s coming from the east wing of the house—which on the second floor is taken up almost entirely by the master bedroom, master sitting room, and double walk-in closets and en suite bathrooms. Seriously, our entire house back in Arizona could fit into Mr. and Mrs. Black’s living quarters in this mansion.

And that’s who’s yelling; I’m sure of it. Samuel and Audrey Black.

I’ve almost never seen them fight. I’ve seen them be super awkward and distant, like two people just pretending to be married, and I’ve seen Mr. Black be over-the-top sweet and affectionate toward her, like he’s trying to prove it’s not pretend at all.

But I’ve never heard them have a knock-down, drag-out fight—which is what it sounds like this one is.

I’m a nosy bitch under ordinary circumstances, but when it involves the couple who hired my mom? The man who may have framed her for a murder he committed? I’ve got no compunctions at all about eavesdropping.

Quickly and quietly, I rise from the chair and cross the large room, pressing my ear against the wall to try to hear better. The voices come through a bit louder, but not much clearer. They’re too far away, probably