Page 1 of Cruel Hearts

Chapter 1

Sometimes it felt like no matter how far a girl traveled, no matter how much she changed, things always remained the same.

What was it? Three months ago, the police dragged me off in the back of a car on suspicion of attempted murder. Fast forward to now, and I found myself in the same position.

Except I was in Scotland. And I hadn’t killed anyone—yet. Oh, and I sat in the back of a police van. I might have considered that an upgrade if the wretched bastard responsible for my predicament wasn’t sitting next to me and trying to catch my attention.

The van sped down the highway, presumably to the Glasgow police station, the headquarters of the drug squad. I seriously doubted that the small-town police in Templar could handle a cocaine bust. The van didn’t have windows, only a glimpse of the windscreen I caught through the mesh of thick wire and over the shoulders of the two police officers speeding away from the academy.

“Lilah,” Maxwell whispered. At least I thought it was Maxwell. Without the tattoos and piercings, he looked exactly like Kendrick.

I stared down at where the dressing gown someone had shoved over my naked body exposed a bare knee. Apparently, alleged cocaine barons didn’t deserve the dignity of a bra and knickers, even if they were just seventeen.

“Lilah.”

My jaws clenched. Weren’t the police supposed to transport suspects separately? You know, so they didn’t collude on the long journey to the station to get their stories straight?

“Hey.” The asshole scooted across the bench in his boxers.

My hands curled into fists and trembled like they were going to erupt. If my wrists weren’t cuffed together, I would break his pretty nose.

“I know you can hear me.”

My head snapped up. “What the fuck do you want?”

The worry lines on his face smoothed out. As if he’d been concerned about my welfare. The wanker leaned into my side and parted his lips to speak.

Before he got a chance, I snapped, “Who are you?”

He had the nerve to look hurt. Because deep-down, boys who disguised themselves as their identical twins wanted their victims to look into the heart and see them, not the person they’d masqueraded as for goodness knows how many weeks.

After a moment of soothing his battered ego, he said, “Max.”

I swallowed back the lump in my throat and pushed away the questions surfacing to the forefront of my mind. Like, when did he make the switch-over? Had it been as early as the time ‘Kendrick’ had walked out of Elizabeth’s presentation in disgust? Who had taken me to the chapel and chased after me when I’d raged about Father Neapolitan’s sermon on prostitutes and the Prodigal Son?

This wasn’t the kind of lie I could forgive. It was a premeditated, fundamental falsehood that he and Elizabeth had set up to get me into this exact position. Cuffed, humiliated, and likely expelled from Templar Academy.

I glowered into his gray eyes. “What do you want?”

“Are you alright?”

A laugh bubbled to the back of my throat, harsh and bitter and full of bile. “I’m in the back of a police van on the way to prison. How do you think I’m feeling?”

“Pissed off, I’d imagine.” Straightening, he leaned back against the van’s metal wall. “Elizabeth crossed me, too.”

“Am I supposed to feel bad for you?”

He scowled. The bastard actually thought he and I should commiserate on the scourge that was Elizabeth Liddell. If Maxwell hadn’t boasted about fucking me during the grand backstabbing, he would be clinking champagne with Lizard Breath and her merry knights.

I shook my head. Maxwell probably thought Elizabeth’s last-minute betrayal could be a bonding moment.

“Lilah,” he said. “I’m—”

Something inside me snapped. If this was an apology, it was several weeks too late. Up until we stepped out of the Uber, I might have forgiven him for the lies, but now? After the sex under false pretenses and the drug bust? No way.

I leaned into the bars separating our traveling cell from the front seats of the van, where a police woman chatted with the driver in a low voice.

“Could I change vehicles, please?” I asked.