Page 62 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

I could understand her conflict. This might be part of the test too. Part of me wanted her to go ahead and kill him, but she'd hate herself for it later. She wanted him to approve of her and choose her, not take his place by killing him. Personally, I think killing him would be a lot easier, but it wasn't my call to make.

"There will always be a next time," Samuel said. "It might be at the trials and it might be before that. Or after. You need to be on your guard against anything and everything. Always. That is the point of tonight's test. To remind you of that. You can never become complacent. Not for a minute, not for an hour, not for a day. The moment you do, someone will work their way under your armour and get to you."

"Like sneaking into your house and putting a virus on your computer?" I asked.

He barely glanced at me. "Like that, yes. That could have been much worse than it was. We have to be ready for every contingency. It could come from anyone." Now he looked at me. Accusingly.

"Nothing would ever make me go after Lila," I said firmly. "She can totally trust me, Hunter and Slade." After a moment I added, "Has anyone told you you have trust issues?"

He actually twitched. Apparently I hit on a raw nerve. Interesting. Who would have the guts to tell him something like that, apart from me? Instinct told me there was a woman involved. I didn't know why they did, but they did. I filed that away for later. You never know when information like that could come in useful.

"I should be on my way," Samuel said. "I'm sure you're wanting to get some rest after the excitement." He made it sound like we'd had a party or something. As if there weren't fuck only knew how many dead bodies lying inside the Academy.

"Just remember," he added as he opened the door to his car, "Don't let your guard down." He nodded to his daughters, then slipped inside and closed the door behind him.

It was Hunter who took the gun from Lila's hand and put his arms around her.

"That was some fucked up shit," he remarked.

None of us disagreed.

CHAPTER23

LILA

I stewed on my father's words while we trudged back into the building. Staff and teachers appeared from wherever they’d been hiding, and started to clean up the corridors. None of them looked horrified or even surprised.

"This is all kinds of screwy," Hunter said.

"Yeah," was all I managed to say. My brain was overloaded with the attempt to understand everything.

I knew this year was going to be a challenge, but I didn't expect anything like this. I certainly didn't expect my father to send people into the school to kill. The problem was, Ishouldhave expected it. This was my father we were talking about. Whenever anyone describes the Bell family, they use the words ‘the worst of the worst.’ I didn't really stop to contemplate what that meant before now.

Apparently what it meant was killing your children if they don't meet your expectations.

What was his expectation anyway? I was supposed to tell Chloe and Zachary to stay put somewhere safe while I dealt with twelve armed assailants? Was I supposed to tell the twins to stay out of it?

Slade trotted up to us as we headed out of the Academy hospital. The doctor had patched up Parker. He hadn't even needed stitches, just a bandage and a warning to take it easy for a while. As if Parker knew how to take it easy.

"It's all clear out there. Was that your father I saw driving away?" Slade slowed to a walk beside us.

Hunter explained everything to him. He sounded as overwhelmed as I felt. Not to mention conflicted. I knew he and Parker had enjoyed themselves. Hunter was in his element carrying a rocket launcher around the school. The twins motto seemed to be ‘enjoy life to the fullest.’ If they died tonight, at least they'd look and feel good doing it.

That wouldn't be much consolation for me, if they were dead.

Slade's eyes widened with disgust. "Twelve mercenaries and at least ten students are dead. For what? So your father could play his stupid fucking games?"

I tried not to bristle. Instinctively, I felt like I should defend him, even though what he did was indefensible. He was my father and what he did was only to make me stronger.

I just wished he'd… find a better way to go about it.

"He—" I couldn't think of a single thing to say, so I shook my head. "You're right, it was fucked up. He did it because he doesn't think I'm strong enough. If I was, none of this would have happened."

"Hey." Hunter stepped around in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders to stop me. "This is not your fault. If he can't see how strong you are, then he's not looking close enough."

"Isn't he?" I said bitterly. "Maybe you're biased. Maybe the whole point of tonight was that I was supposed to take charge of the Academy. Hell, maybe I was supposed to take charge ofmercenariesand hunt down Chloe."

I shook my head. "Either of those would have been better than protecting her and Zachary. Or letting Zachary protect us."

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