Savage Truth

SAVAGE TRUTH A HIGH SCHOOL BULLY ROMANCE HIDDEN VALLEY ELITE SERIES BOOK TWO ISLA VAUGHN ARROWSCOPE PRESS, LLC Savage Truth Copyright © 2023 Isla Vaughn All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. (p) ISBN-13: 978-1-951919-43-6 (e) ISBN-13: 978-1-951919-42-9 Publisher: Arrowscope Press, LLC; www.arrowscopepress.com Editing— Kate B., Line Editor, Brittany M., Proofreader, Red Adept Editing Cover Design—T.E. Black Designs; www.teblackdesigns.com Interior Formatting & Design— Arrowscope Press, LLC; www.arrowscopepress.com CONTENTS Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Epilogue About the Author Also by Isla Vaughn CHAPTER ONE RILEY Cole Savage is a class-A MVP. A most valuable prick. A blackmailing MVP. I stormed into the Savages’ house, slammed the slider with extra force, flipped the lock, and left the big jerk outside. No one had been there when I met my uncle in the backyard—I’d made sure of it. So how Cole knew I was on the patio was the question. It was as if he had a GPS stuck to my ass. Of all the guys Mom could date—and I say that liberally because real relationships weren’t a thing with our way of life—it had to be Cole’s dad. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Hell would freeze over before I would believe that whole thing was legit. Mom and I ran cons to survive, never hitting the same town twice—except for Santa Monica, California, where Lucas Savage lived. And since Mom had insisted I move into their dumb house with her and her boyfriend, there I was. What should’ve happened was a con with Lucas as her mark while I extracted pertinent information from his sons, Cole and Damon. Cole was a nightmare. a drool-worthy fantasy with broad shoulders, a washboard stomach, and a face that could grace magazines and the big screen. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. He was still a pain in my ass. I grabbed handfuls of my hair and tugged, trying to calm down in their gourmet kitchen, which by itself was bigger than most of the places we’d lived. He made me so mad. No one, and I mean no one, had ever caught Mom or me with my uncle, and there was very important reason for that. Cole had information on me that could be my ultimate downfall—Mom’s too. He has a name. But even uncle Ronan’s first name would have been enough for someone to find out who he was. It wouldn’t take long to tie Mom and me to him then learn our given last names and where we came from, despite our various aliases muddying the waters. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake the foreboding sense that even though Mom planned to give us everything we’d never had via her relationship with Lucas, it would inevitably blow up in our faces. Cole and I played a cat-and-mouse game of blackmail, and for the first time since we’d started, I was worried. But I knew Cole wanted me to be. I couldn’t dwell on what-ifs. I would find a way to turn the tables. I made a detour to the laundry room, where I dumped my warm clothes from the dryer into a laundry basket then took it upstairs to fold and put away. I refused to look out any of the back windows in case Cole was stuck out there. I hoped he was. I popped my bedroom door open with a hip check and stopped short. “What the hell are you doing in here?” Cole sprawled across my luxurious queen-sized bed, wearing that wicked smirk that I’d come to associate with him being up to no good. He looked too damn good, and I didn’t trust myself with him. I dropped the basket of clean clothes near my dresser, staying five feet from the bed and him. If looks could kill, he would have been dead. I crossed my arms over my chest, leaned a hip against the dresser, and waited for him to talk or, even better, leave. “I’m not going anywhere until we get a few things straight.” His green eyes flashed with determination, and a muscle jumped along his strong jaw. “You’ve got nothing on me, but—” “Not true.” I straightened, my arms dropping to my sides. I resisted forming fists as I attempted to bluff my way out of whatever nightmare he had planned. “I have a video of you participating in an illegal underground fight, which I bet the Hidden Valley Academy—and especially Thane University—would be interested in seeing.” Cole was a senior, like me, and a star tight end on the academy’s team, and I knew he had a scholarship to play at Thane. He didn’t need the money because his dad was loaded, but I’d overheard him and the other elite assholes talking about needing scholarships. There must have been a reason, and I was pretty sure it was because Cole and his brother, Damon, hated their father. There was no way they hated him more