Cruel Elite: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Princes of Ravenlake Academy Book 3) Read online

  Cruel Elite

  A Dark High School Bully Romance

  Nicole Fox

  Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Nicole Fox

  Cruel Elite: A Dark High School Bully Romance

  1. Noah

  2. Noah

  3. Penny

  4. Noah

  5. Penny

  6. Penny

  7. Noah

  8. Noah

  9. Noah

  10. Penny

  11. Penny

  12. Noah

  13. Penny

  14. Noah

  15. Penny

  16. Penny

  17. Penny

  18. Noah

  19. Noah

  20. Penny

  21. Noah

  22. Noah

  23. Noah

  24. Penny

  25. Penny

  26. Penny

  27. Penny

  28. Noah

  29. Penny

  30. Penny

  31. Penny

  32. Noah

  33. Noah

  34. Noah

  35. Noah

  36. Penny

  37. Penny

  38. Noah

  39. Noah

  40. Penny

  Epilogue

  Sneak Preview of CORRUPTED ANGEL: A Dark Mafia Romance

  Mailing List

  Also by Nicole Fox

  Copyright © 2019 by Nicole Fox

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Also by Nicole Fox

  Princes of Ravenlake Academy (Bully Romance)

  *Can be read as standalones!

  Cruel Prep

  Cruel Academy

  Cruel Elite

  Bratva Crime Syndicate

  *Can be read in any order!

  Lies He Told Me

  Scars He Gave Me

  Sins He Taught Me

  Belluci Mafia Trilogy

  Corrupted Angel (Book 1)

  Corrupted Queen (Book 2)

  Corrupted Empire (Book 3)

  De Maggio Mafia Duet

  Devil in a Suit (Book 1)

  Devil at the Altar (Book 2)

  Kornilov Bratva Duet

  Married to the Don (Book 1)

  Til Death Do Us Part (Book 2)

  Heirs to the Bratva Empire

  *Can be read in any order!

  Kostya

  Maksim

  Andrei

  Tsezar Bratva

  Nightfall (Book 1)

  Daybreak (Book 2)

  Russian Crime Brotherhood

  *Can be read in any order!

  Owned by the Mob Boss

  Unprotected with the Mob Boss

  Knocked Up by the Mob Boss

  Sold to the Mob Boss

  Stolen by the Mob Boss

  Trapped with the Mob Boss

  Volkov Bratva

  Broken Vows (Book 1)

  Broken Hope (Book 2)

  Broken Sins (standalone)

  Other Standalones

  Vin: A Mafia Romance

  Box Sets

  Bratva Mob Bosses (Russian Crime Brotherhood Books 1-6)

  Tsezar Bratva (Tsezar Bratva Duet Books 1-2)

  Heirs to the Bratva Empire

  The Mafia Dons Collection

  Cruel Elite: A Dark High School Bully Romance

  Princes of Ravenlake Academy (Book 3)

  Two years ago, Noah Boone broke my heart.

  This semester, he’s coming to break the rest of me.

  Noah Boone is a cruel, gorgeous beast.

  He’s got a head full of darkness…

  And a heart dead-set on revenge.

  For two years, we’ve lived by a single rule:

  Pretend the past never happened.

  But with one semester left at Ravenlake Academy, that truce has come to a sudden end.

  Our secrets are coming to light.

  The twisted sins that bind us together.

  I’m left with an impossible choice:

  Submit to the bully who ruined my world…

  Or watch in fear as he ruins what’s left.

  CRUEL ELITE is a full-length high school bully romance and Book 3 in the Princes of Ravenlake Academy trilogy.

  The Princes of Ravenlake Academy is a series of standalones that all take place at the infamously cruel Ravenlake Preparatory Academy.

  You can read any of the books as standalones, but they work best when read in order.

  Book 1, CRUEL PREP, is Finn and Lily’s story.

  Book 2, CRUEL ACADEMY, is Caleb and Haley’s story.

  Book 3, CRUEL ELITE, is Noah and Penny’s story.

  1

  Noah

  It’s only mid-January, but it feels like early fall.

  It’s just a bonfire party in the woods, but it feels like Hell.

  Caleb doesn’t agree with me, though.

  “For fuck’s sake, you are dramatic.” He rolls his eyes at me and nuzzles into his girlfriend, Haley. She giggles, and her dark brown hair slides in front of them like a curtain.

  I can hear but—thank the fucking Lord—I can’t see the way their tongues are tangling together.

  “There’s fire and sinners as far as the eye can see. Feels like Hell to me,” I respond.

  Usually, Caleb would take this opportunity to point out his many angelic qualities as proof we couldn’t be in Hell.

  But his mouth is too busy doing things God surely wouldn’t approve of.

  That is, assuming the Big Guy Upstairs isn’t super into public displays of affection.

  I sigh and go back to surveying the party.

  Winter break is supposed to be exactly that—a break. A break from school, and more precisely, from my fellow Ravenlake Academy students.

  Yet here I am, sitting in the woods with a horde of my shit-faced classmates. They’re drinking and laughing and making out all around me.

  If it had just been us Golden Boys chilling, maybe I’d be in a better mood. But there are too many other people here I’d rather not see.

  A beetle lands on my shoulder, buzzing in my ear. I lean forward and flick it into the flames.

  “Fucking bugs,” I mutter.

  More evidence that we’re in hell: flying cockroaches. What kind of sick pervert invents something like that?

  Only one answer: Satan.

  An ice cube pelts me in the chest. I look up to see Finn staring at me, eyebrow raised.

  “What?”

  “You’re being a buzzkill.” He holds up a beer can. “Get a drink and lighten up.”

  Usually, Finn is on my side. At least, he used to be.

  But that was before Lily.

  Now, he’s “happy,” or so he says.

  To which I say, congratu-fucking-lations.

  On the other hand, at least he’s not tonguing down his girlfriend a foot away from me. So he’s at least one spot better than Caleb on my Shit List rankings.

  “You know, Noah, three girls have already asked me if you’re here with anyone,” Lily says, tossing her
platinum blonde hair over her shoulder. “It wouldn’t take much more than a look for you to be having a better time.”

  Lily always had an artsy vibe, but she’s refined it since she and Finn started living in New York. She wears loose, paint-splattered jeans with a tight, long-sleeved crop top and chunky leather boots.

  Nothing like the girl I would have imagined for Finn.

  Not to say I don’t like Lily. I do.

  I just assumed Finn would end up with a trust fund baby. A spoiled rich girl who said “wine o’clock” unironically and had aspirations of being a “stay-at-home mom” with a full-time nanny.

  You could throw a rock and hit ten women like that in this godforsaken town.

  I spit on the forest floor. “I don’t need a girl to make me happy.”

  Viktor throws up his plastic cup in a salute, liquid sloshing over the side. “That’s right, Miss Independent! You don’t need no one, nuh uh.” He snaps his fingers to complete the joke.

  Everyone else laughs.

  I roll my eyes.

  “I don’t need a donut to be happy, but it helps,” Lily argues when the laughter subsides.

  “Good idea,” Finn says, wrapping an arm around Lily’s hips and sliding her closer to him. “Maybe if you get a bite of someone’s cake, you won’t be such a drag.”

  Lily gasps. “That is not what I meant!” She turns to me. “It was an analogy. I just meant you could talk to one of them. Maybe get to know them.”

  Finn barks out a laugh before I can. He pats Lily’s head condescendingly. “Oh, sweet Lily. Naïve, idealistic Lily. That is never going to happen.”

  Lily opens her mouth to argue, but I cut her off before she can. “It’s never going to happen.”

  Her shoulders slump forward. “Why not? They seemed nice.”

  “That’s exactly why! Because they seem nice!” Finn answers. “Does Noah look nice to you? Does it look like he wants a nice girl?”

  Lily studies me.

  I look away, tired of being under her magnifying glass.

  Ever since she and Finn came back to Ravenlake for the holidays, she’s been watching me. I mentioned it to Finn last week, but he brushed it off.

  “Lily just wants to help people,” he said.

  “No shit,” I’d replied. “Why else would she be with a charity case like you?”

  We laughed, and I let it go, but it still bothers me.

  I don’t need help.

  Not from him.

  Not from her.

  Not from anyone.

  J.C. jumps over the log I’m sitting on with both legs, kicking up a cloud of dust, and flops down next to me. “Please tell me you aren’t looking to become monogamous. Because I just accepted the offers of a pair of very lovely, very naughty girls who want to meet the two of us in the woods.”

  He hitches a thumb over his shoulder. I turn just in time to see a curly redhead and a box-dyed brunette strutting into the woods on their heels.

  Who wears heels in the woods?

  “Are you talking about Penny’s Dreadfuls?” Haley asks, top lip curled in disgust. “I saw you talking to them.”

  Finn immediately asks the question we’re all thinking: “How did you do that with Caleb’s tongue down your throat?”

  But apparently, Haley is capable of swapping spit with Caleb and eavesdropping on the party at the same time.

  Talented girl.

  Caleb shrugs. “She knows all. I’ve learned not to question it.”

  “Penny’s Dreadfuls? Like the TV show?” Lily frowns at the group of our friends, waiting for someone to clue her in.

  She went to Ravenlake Prep for a year before she and Finn moved to New York, but she somehow managed to avoid the finer points of drama that flow under the stream of everyday bullshit.

  “Penelope LaFevre’s friends,” Finn answers.

  Lily shakes her head. “I don’t—”

  I turn to J.C. “I have no interest in taking a bite out of either of those donuts.”

  J.C. groans. “Bro, you’re killing me. The only reason they were interested is because of you.”

  “Then I’m doubly uninterested.”

  Haley nods. “Those girls are horrible. Even you can do better, J.C.,” she says.

  “Listen, whatever beef you have with the Dreadfuls, I’m not a part of it.” J.C. holds up his hands innocently, a joint simmering between his fingers. “Really, I’d love nothing more than to be the bridge that brings you three together. In fact, I’ve heard nothing brings women together like having sex with the same guy. Perhaps—”

  “Finish that sentence and you’re dead.” Caleb swivels away from Haley, his feet planted flat on the ground, ready to propel him forward at any moment.

  Of all the people at this bonfire party, Caleb is the last one I’d pick a fight with. No one in their right, sober mind would even consider it.

  And J.C. is far from sober.

  J.C. considers the threat for a minute, takes in Haley, who rolls her eyes and sighs, and then shrugs. “It was just a thought.”

  “If you want to keep your dick attached to your body, never have it again.”

  Caleb is simmering. Understandably so.

  After everything that happened with Bumper and the Hell Princes recently, he’s still a little edgy when it comes to keeping Haley safe.

  Haley drags a hand down his back to calm him down. She whispers something in his ear, and his features turn soft.

  A second later, they’re tangled in one another again.

  J.C. sighs. “Without underground fighting as an outlet, Caleb is far too pent up.”

  “Not for long. He’s about to release,” Viktor cackles, making crude gestures.

  Caleb returns them in the firm of a middle finger without once breaking his connection to Haley.

  “Once you all are back in school, I’m sure Caleb will find someone to beat down,” says Finn. “He always does.”

  I shake my head. “Doubtful. Now that the Hell Princes have been properly put in their place, I’m worried the next few months will be boring as hell.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot we haven’t discussed that. Noah pulled a fucking gun!” Viktor throws his head back in a drunken laugh. “I expect that shit from Finn or Caleb, but not you. How long have you been packing?”

  “How did I not know you had a gun?” Finn asks, eyebrow raised.

  “You have a gun,” I point out.

  “I know, but I didn’t know you had one.”

  I shrug. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

  A series of oohs and ahhs move through the group as they tease me for being cryptic.

  But I’m not joking.

  Even though I’ve been a member of the Golden Boys for years, I don’t tell them everything. Not by a long shot.

  Some secrets are never meant to be revealed.

  2

  Noah

  I lean back and watch the party for a while. Shadows move in front of the bonfire.

  Laughter and music ring out, and the clink of vodka bottles sounds amongst the trees.

  The Golden Boys’ conversation goes on without me.

  Until something catches my eye.

  A wave of golden blonde hair disappearing behind the trunk of an oak tree.

  Even without seeing her face, I know who it is.

  And tonight, I’m just drunk enough to start some shit.

  I stand up, throw my can into the fire, and jog into the trees. Finn says my name, confusion in his voice, but I ignore him.

  They won’t follow me. They know better than that.

  I can see her path through the trees. I move past more than a few couples in various stages of undressing and fornicating until I’ve left everyone behind.

  Everyone but her.

  Just as I begin to wonder whether this was all nothing more than my drunk mind making shit up, I hear a rustle to my right and turn.

  There she is.

  Penelope LaFevre.

  Penny is lea
ning against a tree, her face tilted to the canopy of brown leaves above. Her eyes are closed, and despite the fact I wasn’t working to be quiet, she doesn’t seem to have heard me.

  For one second, I forget why I followed her.

  For one fucking, fleeting second, I forget I threw her out of my life.

  I forget how strange it is to even be this close to her.

  Then, she sighs, opens her eyes, and sees me. She starts to scream in surprise.

  I leap forward and slap a hand over her mouth.

  “Shh,” I reprimand. “You’re loud.”

  I only remove my hand once I’m sure she’s quieted down.

  Penny’s shock is replaced by dark suspicion in an instant. “What are you doing here?”

  Her pink lips part as she lifts a plastic cup to her mouth. She wants to seem casual. Nonchalant.

  But I know that she’s feeling what I’m feeling.

  Being this close again stirs up bad emotions. Bad memories.

  It’s been two years since I was this close to her. Now, seeing her face in detail again, I’m reminded of everything I’ve purposefully forgotten.