Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Her jaw clenched.
“You attacked, mocked, betrayed, and deceived the Royals. You gave them a reason to ice you out, so imagine what it’s like to go through it every day for no damn reason. Treating people like this just because they don’t have as much money or connections as the Royals? Do I really need to tell you how stupid that is?
“So, if you want to be queen again, you’ll do it right this time. The current system has to go. The Royal line as you’ve known it is done.”
She flashed me big eyes. “Want to elaborate on what the hell that is supposed to mean?”
“Everyone is so obsessed with climbing up the ladder. Five guys tortured and drove my sister to suicide to leapfrog a few rungs. You say you wouldn’t have let that all happen if you’d known the truth, but I read through a few of these dares on the ride over. Winter isn’t the only one. Royals are using the club to bully everyone on the outside to their lowest point. Prove that you care, Saylor. Put a stop to it.”
Saylor dropped on her ridiculously large bed. “What am I supposed to do? This nasty club is finished. Gone today. But afterward, I can order Royals to be nice to Dregs all I want. It won’t make a difference.”
“It will if there’s no longer Dregs and Royals. We’re all the same.”
Saylor tossed her head. “The Royal line is more than a bunch of rich kids ranking themselves. It’s a connection of families ranging from those most threatening to the Burkhardts to the least.”
“That’s how they’re ranked?” My head spun. “And that’s why the Wilsons are right below you. You don’t control any of the business sectors they dominate, and they’ve got a boatload of blackmail to sink you.”
Rolling her eyes, she nodded. “Royals climb the ladder by making more money, building stronger alliances, and taking more and more pieces of our pie. Dregs are Dregs because they don’t matter to the Burkhardts. It can’t be that way for the Royals. Their companies, strategic marriages, and the rest don’t just disappear.”
I smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve given this a lot of thought.”
An hour later, we were neck-deep in the garbage from the site and arguing over what to do about it.
“It’s the same problem,” Saylor said. “We can’t turn this over to the captain. I might as well finance her yacht and third vacation home myself. The first thing she’ll do is auction off the chance to make their evidence disappear.”
“What if we went to the media?” I offered up. “Put it all out there.”
“These are just names on a screen. With the army of lawyers a Royal can afford, they’ll have even you and me convinced this site is fake.” Saylor flung back on her pillows, chewing her lip while she stared up at the bed’s canopy. “I can’t believe the things people did for this club. I’ve done some fucked-up stuff, but framing people? Assaulting them? Stalking them? Killing them? All so their secrets wouldn’t get outed.”
“Or for money,” I reminded. “Some of these secrets aren’t a big deal. The only thing the club had on Gabriella was that she was dating Giovanni. Raven Jennings too. The worst thing they had on her was that she shoplifted a purse once, then felt so bad she took it back. Yet, she took a dare to plant drugs in Natalie Rivers’s car for three grand. She could’ve turned that down without it costing her anything at all. But she wanted the money.”
Saylor inclined her head. This was a record. The longest amount of time we’d gone without insulting each other. I was even sitting on her bed without any cracks about house-training or soiling her sheets.
“Some of these secrets are minor,” Saylor said, “but the majority are life-wrecking scandals. If Everleigh gave the Royals a choice between pledging loyalty to her or spilling this stuff to everyone, it’s no wonder they gave in. They know I can’t expel them all from the Royal line.”
“You having this information can force them to break from Everleigh, which is a start. We have to peel away her layers of protection so she has no choice left but to confess.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
I wasn’t sure when we started saying we. It was probably when we nearly vomited at the third revenge rape dare that we realized we were in this together. We both wanted to burn down the system that created these monsters.
“One at a time,” Saylor continued. “We bring it all crashing down around her.”
I slid the phone away from me, shaking with the violation of holding that thing. “What about the second part of our deal? I get to meet my grandparents.”
Saylor made a derisive noise in her throat. The real her was coming back. “They’re not here. Daddy’s getting ready for the campaign, and Grandpa and Grandmother flew to New York to meet with potential donors personally. Grandpa always said the least you can do when asking for money is to ask face-to-face.”