Page 39 of Savage Elites

The headmistress stood and glowered at the kings standing at my side. “What are you three doing here?”

“Escorting Miss Evergreen.” Sebastian shouldered his way into the room and walked up to the man. They were of an equal height, but while Sebastian appeared more athletic, he lacked that air of worldliness and danger.

“Sebastian Garraway.” He held out his hand. “I’m delighted to make your acquaintance.”

The man’s eyes widened, but he took Sebastian’s hand. From the hard look in his eyes, I wondered if Sebastian had crushed his bones.

As soon as Sebastian withdrew, Leopold swooped in and grabbed the man’s hand. “Leopold Brunswick. I can’t say I’m pleased to meet you.”

Prakash stepped into the room and folded his arms. “I’m sure you’re aware that intimidating witnesses is a common-law offense. Perverting the course of justice carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.”

The older man’s lip curled. “Who are you?”

“Prakash Kashaayah. I believe your firm has branches in Mumbai and Delhi.”

Mr. Byrd narrowed his eyes, as though he didn’t want to admit to ignorance of the Indian operations of his own firm.

“Thank you, boys.” Mrs. Benazir waved her hands back and forth out in a shooing motion. “As the headmistress, it’s my responsibility to act as a guardian in the absence of a student’s parents.”

I dipped my gaze to the ground. From the amounts of cash the school generated from its students, I seriously doubted that the headmistress would act in the interests of anything else but her bank account.

As soon as the door clicked shut, anxiety wrapped around my lungs and stomach like a constrictor. On legs that wouldn’t stop shaking, I walked to the wooden chair next to the one Bianca occupied and sat. My shoulder bag slipped onto the wooden floor with a thud.

Mrs. Benazir also sat, and Mr. Byrd strode behind the headmistress’s desk, taking up the space usually occupied by Miss Claymore.

“Let’s cut through the preamble.” The man placed his palms on the desk and leaned toward me. “This entire incident has been blown out of proportion. Girls playing pranks on each other is not a matter for the police.”

Rage exploded across my vision, and blood roared in my ears. How dare he trivialize what had happened as a mere prank? “The doctor said I would have died if I hadn’t thrown up the alcohol these girls forced down my throat, and the police agreed that it was sexual assault.”

“Oh?” He folded his arms across his chest. “And which of the girls raped you?”

“That’s why the police conducted the forensic exam,” I said from between clenched teeth.

Bianca sighed. “We keep trying to tell you, Willow. You did it to yourself. The only thing I’m guilty of is confiding in another girl who told the whole school.”

My heart continued to pound like a bass drum, its reverberations thrumming against my ribcage. I deepened my breathing and tried to remain calm. Mr. Byrd was twisting things. An unconscious person wouldn’t know which of the many girls had perpetrated the assault.

As I stared at the patterns of wood grain on the desk, Prakash’s warning seeped into the forefront of my mind. If I didn’t keep my mouth closed, Mr. Byrd would probably argue circles around me until I doubted what had happened.

“I put it to you that you performed sex acts with raw meat in an attempt to insinuate yourself into a group of popular girls.” The man let out a dry chuckle. “When your attempts at social climbing backfired, and you became the mockery of the school, you regretted your actions and fabricated a story of an assault to the police.”

“That’s exactly what happened,” Bianca added.

Without raising my gaze from the surface of the desk, I shook my head and let him ramble on. Bianca didn’t tell her father a precise sequence of events, as I had made my statement on the advice of the doctors hours after I had awoken.

“Perhaps you are trying to garner sympathy from wealthy boys, eh? Garraway and Brunswick are part of the establishment. Maybe your little stunt is your way of securing yourself a lucrative marriage?”

Bianca let out a theatrical gasp as though adding drama and realism to the accusation.

My nostrils flared, but I clamped my lips together. How did that even make sense in his twisted mind?

Mrs. Benazir huffed. “I didn’t allow this meeting to take place for you to malign the reputation and intentions of a promising young student.”

The tension around my insides receded a little at her defense, but I remained quiet. He could rant and accuse all he wanted, but nothing would change my mind.

Maybe if the queens got into trouble for what they did to me, the knights would think twice before subjecting another girl to the disgusting assault they committed on Ashley.

“What about Geraldine and me?” Bianca whined. “We didn’t do anything wrong, but the police want us to give them genetic samples. What about our reputations?”