Beyond Vengeance: Pacific Prep #3

  I know better. I know better than to be complacent.

  Finding my family was supposed to be a dream come true, but it’s only brought more questions, more secrets and forced family responsibilities. Surprisingly, Hawk is by my side while dealing with the utter ridiculousness our parents keep pushing on me. I’m learning how to have a brother and I think we might actually like each other?

  Mason, West, and Beck have been my saving grace, patient and kind. Still distant, Cam and I are trying to navigate a way to be around each other.

  But just when I start to feel like I have a life worth living with my guys and my new friends, my deepest fear comes back to haunt me.

  He knows. He knows the truth and where to find me.

  My walls are coming down and I’m learning to love, but my past may ruin it all.

  Beyond Vengeance

  Copyright © 2021 R.A. Smyth

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  ISBN: 9798486675713

  Cover & Interior Design by Nikki Epperson. All Rights Reserved.

  Editing by Heart Full of Reads Editing Services.

  Formatting by Rachel Smyth.

  Beyond Vengeance Playlist

  Sober – Letdown

  Astronaut in the Ocean – Our Last Night

  Nightmare – Set it Off

  I am Here – P!NK

  Legends are Made – Sam Tinnesz

  My Name Is... – Once Monsters

  I Miss the Misery – Halestorm

  The Rain Just Follows Me – Hawthorne Heights

  Better Days – Dermot Kennedy

  Karma – Letdown

  Are You Listening – Wake Me

  The Verdict – Dear Agony

  Open Road – North of Nine

  67 (Winchester) – Reyna Roberts

  Empty Mirrors – Everyone Loves a Villain

  Liar Liar – Christina Grimmie

  Elizabeth – Monument of a Memory

  Want You to Stay – Autumn Kings

  …And many more

  Play Now

  This book is a dark, contemporary, new adult reverse harem romance, meaning the FMC will end up with 3+ males.

  Before you go any further, I must state, this is the darkest book in the series so far, so please take head of the following trigger warnings—sexual assault, graphic physical and psychological abuse, reference to STDs in the form of jokes.

  The book also ends on a killer cliffhanger. I am not responsible for any broken phones or kindles, however I do offer a support thread in my facebook readers group—Rachel’s Rebel Rehab—if you need somewhere to rant or yell. You will also be able to find some amazing bonus scenes under the files section, to help tie you over until book 4 releases in December.

  The series consists of 4 books and will ultimately have an HEA.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Very sneaky, Dove. Very sneaky indeed.

  You’ve proven to be much more of a challenge than I expected. I don’t like having to chase after you, but I’ve worked too hard to let you slip through my fingers now. It was fate, the way things worked out. I was only keeping you nearby for insurance, but instead, I became infatuated with you. Watching you grow older, with your blonde hair and petite features so strikingly similar to your mother’s, I knew I had to have you. With you, I could finally have everything I always coveted, and this time no one would take you away from me.

  The compound was the perfect place to hide you. I’m the one that runs all the day-to-day operations. None of them spend any time there. They prefer to hide in their offices and fancy houses—pretending the torture and pain required to make cold, unquestioning soldiers isn’t happening—but I live off watching those children become what I want them to be.

  When you were younger, your eyes used to shine with such fierceness. You took every punishment I inflicted on you like a champ, and it only seemed to make you stronger, more defiant.

  Well, I couldn’t have that. I needed you broken and pliable so I could build you into who you were always supposed to be. I gave your mother too much freedom and she left me. For him. I wasn’t about to let that happen again. I had everything planned. I was going to do things right with you. Make sure you could never leave me.

  Having your little friend killed was your breaking point. I should have had it done years before, but better late than never. Watching the light go out in your eyes was the greatest thing I have ever witnessed. You have no idea how fucking hard I was when I showed up for my monthly visit and you were barely a shell of your former self. I’d have fucked you there and then, but it wasn’t the right time. You needed more work, and I could wait.

  I was patient. I was nice. I brought you gifts and complimented you. I was willing to wait until you were old enough to be completely mine. While I waited, I dedicated years to training you; to molding you into my perfect wife.

  And you thank me by running away mere months before all of my plans were due to come to fruition.

  I thought I had you all worked out. That I’d broken you down, but you’ve been deceiving me all this time. Pretending to be what I wanted you to be, all the while planning your escape. What you don’t realize, though, is that I’m not letting you go.

  You might have done an excellent job of hiding the defiance in your eyes, but I know now that you’ve been planning too. I wonder what kind of friends you’ve made at that school, that they’ve been able to protect you against not one but two of my men. Whoever they are, they won’t be enough to save you from me. They’ll pay for their transgressions…and you’ll pay for yours.

  Chapter 1

  “Hawk, dear, is that you?” a female voice calls out from deeper in the house as I follow Hawk into the mansion and close the door behind me, ignoring my racing heart and sweaty palms.

  Hawk’s already walking into the posh looking seating area, not bothering to check if I’m behind him.

  “What is this all about? You know we’re b—”

  Hawk’s mother—my mother—stops when she sees me loitering awkwardly in the foyer. She’s dressed in a black flared pant suit, dolled up to the nines as her high heels echo on the tiled floor.

  “Oh. You brought a...girl home,” she states blandly, her face pinched, telling me exactly what she thinks of me. There’s no recognition in her eyes, and I’m not sure if she remembers me from the party last month.

  Her gaze drops to take in my thrift store jeans and worn top, her face scrunching up in disgust. She doesn’t even have the common decency to hide her d
islike of me.

  “Yeah, Mom, this is Hadley. Is Dad around? We need to talk,” Hawk says, diverting his mom’s attention his way.

  “Yes, yes, you said as much on the phone.” His mother waves her hand, dismissing his words. “I don’t understand what this is all about.”

  “Well, when Dad gets here, I’ll tell you,” Hawk responds, getting irritated.

  “I’m here, I’m here,” an older gentleman calls out as he comes down the stairs, buttoning a suit jacket, looking like he’s about to head out for the evening.

  Reaching the foyer, he all but ignores me as he strides over to his wife, kissing her on the cheek. Seeing them standing side by side, I realize they are on their way out for the evening. There’s no way they would be so dressed up for their son’s visit.

  Staring at them standing together, I recall the few details I know about them that I have written in my notebook—the notebook. Maria and Barton Davenport. Married for thirty-one years. The two of them, along with Wilbert Warren, Lawrence Rutherford, and Frank Hayes, attended Pacific Prep together, although I couldn’t find any information on whether or not she was one of his girls of the month, or whatever they called it back then. The first mention of them being a couple, that I could find, was whenever they were at college together.

  “What’s this all about?” Hawk’s father asks him.

  Noticing me still standing awkwardly by the door, his father gives me a once-over, his blank expression giving no indication of his initial thoughts about me.

  “Who’s this?” he asks, turning to look at his son.

  “This is Hadley,” Hawk repeats. “Let’s just sit down, and I’ll explain everything.”

  With his lips pinched in displeasure, Barton escorts his wife to a couch, and, when I hesitate to follow, Hawk pins me with a stare, jerking his head in indication for me to move. Reluctantly ungluing my feet from the floor, I follow Hawk, and the two of us sit opposite...our parents? God, that sounds weird.

  Hawk sits back on the uncomfortable couch, his legs spread wide, looking far too at ease considering the awkward as fuck conversation we’re about to have. Meanwhile, my back is straight as an arrow as I perch on the edge of the seat, ready to flee at any moment.

  His father’s eyes dart between us, lines marring his forehead as he frowns at us. “I think I know what this is about.” There’s a serious ring to his voice, and he shakes his head, frowning at Hawk in disappointment.

  My eyebrows climb up my forehead as my gaze jumps from him to Hawk, confused. How can he possibly know what’s going on?

  Barton sighs disappointedly. “I thought I taught you better, son. We want to avoid scandals like this.” With pursed lips, he side-eyes his wife. “Maria, you have Dr. Mitchell’s number, don’t you?”

  His mother gasps, her hand coming up to cover her lips. I am beyond confused at this point, I have no idea what they’re talking about.

  “Oh my.” She stares pointedly at my stomach before answering her husband, “Yes. Yes, I do. I’ll phone him right away. He can take care of the, eh, problem.”

  What the fuck is going on right now? What has a doctor got to do with any of this?

  “How far along are you?” There’s a sharp edge to her tone as she sears me with an unimpressed look.

  “I don’t—”

  “Jesus, Mom,” Hawk exclaims, outraged, having caught on to what his parents are talking about. “She’s not fucking pregnant.”

  My eyes must be the size of saucers as I gape at the three of them, unable to string a sentence together. Hawk’s face is scrunched up, and he looks like the idea makes him physically ill.

  That makes two of us.

  “Well, if you haven’t knocked her up, what is this all about?” his father demands.

  “Fucking hell,” Hawk growls, leaning forward in his seat as he runs his hand through his short blond hair. “She’s my fucking sister.”

  Well, that’s not exactly how I saw them finding out about their long-lost daughter.

  Silence reigns supreme as his parents first gape at Hawk before their attentions focus on me, making my skin itch as I tug on the hem of my shirt, looking everywhere but at them.

  “What are you talking about?” his mother snaps, eyeing me critically.

  Hawk rubs at his eyes before he answers her. “Hadley enrolled at Pac this year. Since the first day, there was something about her I couldn’t put my finger on. With her blonde hair and eyes the same unusual color as mine, I felt like I knew her.”

  I guess we’re skipping over the whole part where we hated each other.

  “I couldn’t put my finger on it,” Hawk continues, “so I did a DNA test.”

  He pulls pages out of the back pocket of his jeans—the same reports West received from the DNA labs. I hadn’t even realized he’d brought them with him tonight. “They came back positive.”

  His parents stare dumbfounded at the pages when Hawk sets them on the coffee table, neither of them reaching out to lift them. Instead, they glance at them from a safe distance, as though they are a bomb that’s about to go off. I guess that’s not far from the truth.

  “What...I don’t—” His mother’s voice trails off as she continues to gape at the ominous pieces of paper. “There must be some sort of mistake.”

  Ouch.

  Hawk sighs, pinning his parents with a ‘cut the crap’ look.

  “I found the stuff in the safe in your bedroom,” he states bluntly, letting them know he’s not buying their splutters of denial. I can only assume he’s talking about the birth certificate and photos he showed me.

  His father’s gaze turns to steel as he scowls at Hawk. “You know you’re not supposed to be in our room,” he barks out.

  Seriously? That’s the main concern right now? Talk about fucking priorities.

  Hawk silently meets his father’s gaze, but I’m too focused on Maria, who hasn’t stopped staring at me. I can’t decipher the look on her face. A mixture of confusion and doubt, possibly.

  She casts her eyes over me with a critical look. I look exactly the same as when I walked through the door, and I didn’t meet her high standards then, so I doubt she’s going to find anything about me that she likes now.

  “I really don’t think that’s the issue,” Hawk grinds out between gritted teeth, his thoughts on a similar wavelength to my own. “How come you never told me I had a sister, let alone a twin?”

  His father—fuck, our father—hasn’t looked at me once since Hawk spilled the beans. It’s as though he’s making a concentrated effort to pretend I’m not there.

  “What’s to tell?” Maria shrugs, sounding a tad defensive. “One day she was here, and the next she was gone. We looked for her everywhere, but when no one could find her, we had to accept that she was gone for good. After all these years, we assumed she was dead.”

  She says it with such indifference. If I were a more emotional person, her detachment would have left me feeling as though she just ripped my heart out and stomped all over it. The child who used to cry for her long-lost family would have been a sobbing mess on the floor by now, but thankfully, I learned to harden my heart. I’ve carefully wrapped it in barbed wire, placing it behind a sharp fence where no one can get to it.

  Hawk’s thigh presses against mine in a silent act of comfort, but he needn’t bother. Other than a twinge of tightness in my chest at her cruel, heartless words, I feel nothing. The white-picket-fence childhood, with smiling parents that hug and adore me, was only ever a fantasy. Something I dreamt about in the dark of night to keep the demons away. I’ve known for a long time it was never going to be my reality.

  I haven’t sussed out my father yet, but my mother is clearly a conniving bitch, only giving a damn about her own self-preservation. I call fucking bullshit at her words, though. The child of a wealthy family just disappears and no one asks any questions? There’s no investigation? I’ve already done my research. I know the police were never contacted. No report was ever filed, no official sear
ch ever conducted.

  Whatever is going on here—and there sure as fuck is something strange going on—she and her husband are up to their necks in it. They know a fuck lot more about what happened to me than they are willing to share.

  Barton looks at his watch, the lines around his eyes and mouth tightening. “Look, we have to go,” he says, looking up at Hawk. “I’ll make an appointment for the, uh, girl”—he can’t even say my name—“to meet with our doctor this week. I want him to do another DNA test. When we get the results back from that, we can talk again.”

  Without waiting for a response, he stands, holding a hand out to help his wife get to her feet. With a final nod at Hawk—still fucking ignoring me—he escorts his wife from the room.

  “Come on,” Hawk practically growls once we’re alone. Not waiting for a response from me, he gets to his feet and strides toward the door. I scurry after him, because, well, I sure as fuck don’t want to be left alone in this house with either of them.

  “Well, I’m so glad you talked me into doing that,” I gripe once I’ve closed the front door behind me, earning an unimpressed glare from Hawk as he strides over to the car. Following him, I climb into the passenger seat. Both of us sit in silence for a moment, staring out the front windshield at the extravagant house. Lights shine out from the foyer and front room, lighting up the circular gravel drive and manicured shrubs lining the garden.

  “They know more than they’re letting on,” Hawk grits out. Starting the ignition, he puts the car in drive and we head away from the house.

  Hawk’s hands repeatedly flex around the steering wheel, and I can feel the tension radiating off him all the way on my side of the car as the gates out of the private residence slide open and he guns it down the dark lane that winds its way along the cliff toward the school.

  He stews for several long minutes while I wait him out, staring unseeingly at the night sky out the passenger side window.