HEARTLESS

  BRUTAL ACADEMY

  BOOK 1

  MAGGIE ALABASTER

  JO BRADLEY

  Copyright © 2023 by Maggie Alabaster

  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.

  Cover design by Moonstruck Cover Design and Photography

  Edited by Lily Luchesi

  Proofread by Nora Hogan

  Brutham Academy logo by Kali Dempsey

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  About the Author

  Also by Maggie Alabaster

  CHAPTER 1

  HUNTER

  I stalked slowly around the table, hands clasped behind my back.

  Every so often, I glanced at our ‘guest.’ That’s a term I use loosely, given he was tied to the chair by his ankles and wrists. His mouth was covered with a ragged slash of duct tape.

  He was blindfolded with one of his cheap polyester ties when we brought him here. Parker slipped it off so we could see his fear.

  Besides, it was easier to get our point across if he could see our faces and the level of shit he was in right now.

  He screamed something into the tape and fought against his bindings. His movement rattled the chair. The feet scraped across the concrete floor, screeching painfully.

  Parker shook his head. "Scott, Scott, Scott. There's no need to panic. All Hunter and I wanted to do was have a little chat."

  Scott eyed him carefully, pain in his gaze. Maybe even a hint of anticipation.

  Considering I already removed three of his toes with pruning shears, panic seemed like a good reaction to me. Presumably he was hopeful of getting out of here alive, before he bled out all over the floor.

  I tossed one of his toes down onto the table. It bounced a couple of times before it stopped on the edge, right in front of him.

  His eyes widened.

  "There's a few more where that came from," I reminded him.

  He struggled again. Screamed into the tape.

  "He knows what he did wrong, doesn't he, Park?" I asked my identical twin brother. "Did we explain it clearly enough?"

  Parker sat back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head. "I don't know if we did, Hunt. I suppose he's wondering why he's here."

  Scott gave us both a wary look and pressed himself against the back of the chair. As if somehow he could get away from us like that.

  "Would you like to explain, or will I?" I asked.

  Parker waved his hand at me. "Be my guest."

  I raised the pruning shears and slammed them, blades first, into the table. They embedded a centimetre or two, the handle wobbling from the impact.

  Scott flinched and jerked away.

  I closed my palms down on the table to either side of the shears and leaned forward.

  "You may have been ignorant of the fact that Lila Bell belongs to us." I raised an eyebrow at him.

  Scott shook his head.

  "You didn't know?" I asked.

  He nodded.

  My other eyebrow joined the first. "You did know?" I knew he knew, but fucking with him was too much fun to resist.

  His eyes were wide, unsure what to do now.

  I straightened up and sat on the edge of the table. "Let's save us both some time. You did know. You knew when you shoved her out of the way in the corridor. You knew when you almost knocked her off her feet. When you knocked books out of her arms."

  I leaned forward until I was almost nose to nose with him. He smelled like terror. I inhaled deeply. Scaring the shit out of people was one of the simple joys of life. Particularly when we had good reason to do it.

  Scott shook his head and said something against the tape.

  I looked over to Parker and nodded. I sat back as my brother ripped the tape off Scott's mouth.

  Scott cried out. "I swear to God, it was an accident. I was on my way to class. I was late. Mr D said if I was late again, he’d make sure they’d kick my ass out of Brutham. I can't afford to—"

  I slapped my hand down on the table so hard it made Scott and Parker both jump.

  "I don't give a fuck if he threatened to kick you out of a fucking aeroplane," I snarled. "You don't touch our woman, and you sure as fuck don't shove her out of the way."

  By the sound of it, we were doing Dane DiMarco a favour by dealing with this asshole.

  "Man, I'm sorry. I swear, it will never happen again." He pleaded with us both with his eyes. "I was in a hurry and didn't see her. That's all. I sure as fuck didn't mean to—"

  "But you did," I said. "At Brutal Academy, running into another guy's woman can get you dead. Any guy. But Lila isn't any guy's woman. She's our woman and will be head of the Bell family someday. That's a dangerous fucking combination to make an enemy of, Scott," I told him.

  He looked like he wanted to contradict what I said about Lila leading her family. Chloe, her non-identical twin, was the older sister. If Parker and I had our way, Lila would be the one taking on that role when Samuel Bell stepped down or died. Or, more likely given our lifestyle, was killed.

  Life expectancy when you work for criminal organisations, such as our families, was like the shears, short and sharp.

  The Bell family and ours were bitter enemies, but Parker, Lila and I would change that. Preferably before her father found out we were fucking her. Our life expectancy would be much shorter than the shears then.

  "I swear, I'll look where I am going from now on," Scott whined. "I've learned my lesson. I'll apologise to her again. I'll… I'll do anything, just please…"

  His eyes were so wide, I was sure he was about to piss in his jeans. Or shit in them.

  Either of those things would make this pleasant chat much less pleasant. I hated when people lost control to that extent. No matter how scared a guy gets, he should be able to control his bodily functions. Unless we're talking about his cock. Some of us just get off on fear, ours or someone else's.

  Granted, I preferred other people's fear to my own, but I take no responsibility if my cock gets hard, no matter what the circumstances. He has a mind of his own. In fact, he was quite enjoying this. If it wasn't for the smell of sweat and fear, I might insist Scott blow me off. On the other hand, he touched our woman, so he didn't get to enjoy the feeling of my cock in his mouth. That privilege was reserved for people better than him.

  "What do you think, Park?" I asked my twin. I was the older and better looking one of us, and the most ruthless. Parker had a way of making people like him, usually right before they found out it was a bad idea to turn their back on him.

  "I don't know, Hunt," Parker said slowly. "He seems genuinely sorry for what he did."

  "People usually are when they're tied up and missing a couple of toes," I mused. "It tends to make people say things they don't really mean. If we let him walk out of here, he might just go and knock over someone else's woman."

  "I won't, I swear," Scott pleaded. "I'll be more careful."

  "What do you think Mr D would do if Scotty here shoved his woman out of the way?" I asked thoughtfully.

  That begged the question, how many people knew Brutham Academy's history teacher was fucking Chloe Bell, Lila's older sister?

  "He'd be pissed," Parker said. "Without doubt, he'd make sure you'd be kicked out of Brutham. Kicked so far no other university in Australia would touch you. Maybe anywhere in the world."

  As a DiMarco, Dane probably didn't have that much influence, but Parker got his point across.

  "The question is, what does a pair of Brantley brothers do?" I asked. "Even Zeke would kick Scotty's ass into next month."

  One of our older brothers, Zeke, was the lead singer of Wolf Venom, one of the hottest rock bands in the world. He wasn't involved in the family business, but he was as protective of his girlfriend, Abbie, as any of her other six boyfriends were. Including the drummer, Asher DiMarco, Mr D's younger brother.

  Yeah, it all seemed a bit incestuous at times.

  "Maybe we should give him a second chance," I suggested. "Losing a couple of toes and a lot of dignity, might be enough to teach him a lesson."

  Parker peered at Scott's face. "Not to mention the bruising on his pretty boy face."

  Scott had a swollen lip and a pair of swollen eyes. His nose was most likely broken.

  "I’ve definitely learned my lesson." Scott looked back and forth between us like he was watching a game of tennis and his life depended on the outcome. This was no centre court at the Australian open. This was far more serious, and a lot more fun.<

br />
  "Please." Our guest was getting tired. The pleading and the pain was clearly getting to him. His feet must be throbbing like a bitch. The floor underneath was slick with his own blood.

  It sucked to be him, as they say. On any given day, I'd much prefer to be me anyway. If I pissed off anyone by touching their woman, and I had many times before meeting Lila, no one would dare to drag Parker or me into one of the sheds beside the Academy building and torture us. Doing that would make them the enemy of our oldest brother, Reuben Brantley. Most people weren’t dumb enough to get him offside.

  Of course, that meant we got away with pretty much anything we wanted, including fucking other guys’ girlfriends.

  Of course, after meeting Lila we were one-woman guys, no matter how tempting an offer was.

  I glanced at my watch. "We've wasted enough time on this loser. Let's cut him free and get the fuck out of here. I, for one, could use a drink."

  I hopped off the table and leaned my hip against it, my arms crossed over my chest.

  Parker nodded and gripped the handle of the shears. He yanked them out of the table and stood to snip the zip tie that held Scott's arms behind him. He crouched down and snipped the ones that bound his ankles to the legs of the chair.

  "You made a mess down here Scott." Parker clicked his tongue. "You can clean it up."

  He grabbed the back of Scott's shirt and yanked him off the chair. He shoved him down onto the concrete floor on his knees and pressed his face down into the puddle of blood.

  "Lick it up, asshole," Parker told him.

  Scott glanced up at him, but started to lick his own blood off the floor.

  For some reason, the sight of the first year student on his hands and knees like a dog, licking at the floor, made me laugh. It was nothing less than he deserved, and it would save washing time later. As a bonus, the floor was rough and not entirely clean. It must be chafing the shit out of his tongue.

  That realisation made me laugh harder. It served him right for barrelling around the corridors of Brutham. The moment he laid a hand on Lila, he sealed his own fate. He wouldn't get any sympathy from me or anyone else here at the Academy. We didn't call the place Brutal for nothing.

  "This was a good idea of yours, Park," I told my brother.

  "I have them once in a while," Parker said. "It's a shame he didn't piss himself though. I'm sure he'd thoroughly enjoy licking that up."

  Scott groaned and gagged.

  The sound made my cock harder. I reconsidered the idea of making him suck me off, but dismissed it again. I didn't really need his blood on my balls.

  Scott stopped licking and sat back on his haunches. He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

  "It's clean. Can I go now? Please?"

  I cocked my head at him. "You know what, Parker? I think I changed my mind about letting him leave."

  I slipped a gun out from the side of my jeans, and shot Scott once through the forehead.

  CHAPTER 2

  HUNTER

  "I guess we should call for cleanup." I put my gun away and flicked bits of brain and skull off my shirt.

  Parker sighed. Not because he cared whether or not I killed Scott, but because of the hassle that came after. A hassle he put into simple but eloquently resigned words.

  "Hunt, we’re on cleanup tonight."

  "Fuck," I said under my breath. "You could have said something before I shot the prick."

  He spread his hands. "I didn't know you were going to kill him. Do I look like a fucking mind reader?"

  "You look like me, therefore you should be able to read my mind." I crouched down and grabbed Scott's wrists. "You grab his ankles. Let's get this asshole dealt with."

  Parker grimaced. "Why do I have to pick him up by his ankles? You're the one who cut his toes off." In spite of that, he leaned forward and grabbed them before hoisting them into the air.

  "You didn't seem to object at the time." We made our way over to the door. I placed the front end of Scott down to unlock and open it.

  It was dark out, and quiet. Voices and music came from the Academy building, but down here, near the sheds, there was no one but us.

  Unless someone else was down here having fun like we were. That was as likely as not. The sheds were originally built to house animals and gardening stuff, like lawnmowers. When it was turned into Brutham Academy, we appropriated them for different uses. The only animals that came down here now had two legs. However, the lawnmowers were still housed in one of the sheds.

  We couldn't have Brutham falling into disarray, could we now?

  With Scott swinging between us, we hurried through the darkness and into trees on the edge of the property.

  "Hey, Watch, turn on the torch," I said roughly in the direction of my wrist.

  My watch lit up, illuminating the path through the trees.

  "This would be a whole lot easier with a wheelbarrow," Parker remarked.

  "Then we'd have to wash out the wheelbarrow," I pointed out. "Besides, this is good exercise. Think how big your biceps would be if we did this every day."

  "My biceps are already massive," he bragged.

  I snorted a laugh and stopped next to a hole beside some trees. "On three. One. Two."

  On three, we swung Scott and hefted him into the hole.

  He landed with a thump, half a metre down from the surface of the forest.

  "This thing is getting full," Parker remarked.

  I shrugged. "When it's full, we'll have another one dug."

  "Reuben is going to be pissed off if we keep asking for more money for more holes." Parker walked beside me as we returned to the shed for a pair of shovels.

  "Then we'll have to dig them ourselves," I said. "I wish this place would invest in an incinerator. It would be a whole lot fucking easier to drop guys like Scotty inside and not have to worry about him."

  "Maybe we can ask Reuben to donate one." Parker grabbed two shovels from beside the door and handed me one.

  I accepted it and followed him back out. "And make it easier for us to dispose of the evidence? What would Brutham have to blackmail us with some day?"

  They turned a blind eye to anything we did, but there was always something in it for them. Always an angle they could eventually play. If one of us became the head of the Brantley family in the future, we'd owe a very large favour in return for them keeping their mouths shut.

  Of course, once we graduated, Reuben would send someone behind us to clean up any evidence. He wouldn’t leave that hanging over his head. Ours, yes, not his. If our oldest brother was good at anything, it was covering his ass.

  We headed back down into the forest and shovelled dirt from the pile beside the hole, over Scott.

  "It would be so much easier to pay someone to do this for us," Parker remarked.

  "Easier, but not as satisfying," I replied. "Look at this." I dropped an extra-large shovel full of dirt onto Scott's face, almost completely making him disappear. "Doesn't that feel good after what he did to Lila?"

  "Let me try." Parker dropped dirt on the other side of Scott, covering his face completely. "That does feel good. Better than when it's just the kid of one of Reuben's enemies."

  Those were all from our first year here at Brutham. Some from before the trials, some from during. Those we dispensed with during the trials, the Academy made us bury ourselves. Something about making us humble, even though we survived the first year here.

  "It's true what they say, revenge is sweet." I dumped more dirt on top of Scott and smoothed it down with the back of my shovel.

  "It really is," Parker agreed. "It's also making me horny as fuck."

  "When are you not horny as fuck?" I leaned the shovel against a tree.

  "As often as you," Parker agreed. "Never." He flashed me a grin.

  "Exactly," I said. "But there's something about torture and death. It turns me on almost as hard as Lila."

 

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