Beautifully Wicked
Jordan Grant
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, or distributed in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
Copyright © 2020.
Contents
Acknowledgments
An Introduction to Voclain Academy
Playlist
The Rules
1. Ian
2. Harlow
3. Ian
4. Ian
5. Ian
6. Harlow
7. Harlow
8. Harlow
9. Harlow
10. Ian
11. Harlow
12. Harlow
13. Ian
14. Ian
15. Ian
16. Harlow
17. Harlow
18. Harlow
19. Ian
20. Harlow
21. Harlow
22. Harlow
23. Ian
24. Ian
25. Harlow
26. Harlow
27. Harlow
28. Harlow
29. Ian
30. Ian
31. Harlow
32. Harlow
33. Ian
34. Harlow
35. Harlow
36. Ian
37. Harlow
38. Harlow
39. Harlow
40. Harlow
41. Ian
Warning
A Note
Resources
Coming Winter 2020
A Wicked Empire Series
All About Jordan
Acknowledgments
Specials thanks to the best beta reader this side of the Mississippi, Edith Taylor, and my amazing editor, Kate Studer.
An Introduction to Voclain Academy
This is the place where the ultra-rich send their sons and daughters, and now I’m one of them. Transferring to a new school junior year is tantamount to social suicide, but there’s a beautiful boy with a mess of inky hair, and I dare to hope.
— Harlow
The Academy is my kingdom, and none of these fuckers would dare challenge my rule. A blonde bombshell just stumbled into my world, and she’s got a mouth of hellfire and a frozen heart.
Let’s play a game, sweetness.
— Ian
Playlist
IDK You Yet — Alexander 23
Monster — Skillet
Bully — Shinedown
Scream With Me — Mudvayne
Wicked Game — Stone Sour
Spiegel im Spiegel — Arvo Pärt, et al.
Not Strong Enough — Apocalyptica, et al.
Animals — Maroon 5
What if I Was Nothing — All That Remains
Run — Joji
Sorry — Buckcherry
Back to You — All That Remains
Control — Zoe Wees
Enter Sandman — Metallica
Always Remember Us This Way — Lady Gaga
The Rules
1. We will destroy Molly Addison Bellamy, henceforth and forevermore known as “the Thing.”
2. All known associates of the Thing shall be treated the same as the Thing.
3. At the request of Ian Aldrich Beckett, the Thing and her associates shall feel our wrath once per day.
4. At the request of Archibald Orson Blakely, associates of the Thing may choose to change teams at any time. At which point, Archie insists they are “free game.”
5. Associates of the Thing must abandon the Thing of their own volition and may not be given a copy of these Rules or told the sordid story of our dear Darcy.
6. At the further request of Archie—the slut he is—girlfriends, regardless of association with the Thing, are exempt.
7. Any of the executors of this contract may call dibs. No one shall interfere in the sacred contract of dibs. At the request of Ian, dibs shall be limited to one semester at a time.
8. At any time, the parties hereto may call a vote if they believe anyone has broken the Rules.
9. There is only one penalty for breaking the Rules. You will suffer the same fate as our beloved friend and brother, Darcy Oliver Quinn.
1
Ian
She enters my world like a comet plummeting to earth, brilliant, beautiful, and capable of catastrophic damage. My gaze catches her in my peripheral, just a glance, as I turn to run for the ball.
I stop, my feet planted to the field.
She’s wearing a pleated, plaid skirt over white tights that go on for days and a matching button-down. Even her black leather flats look regulation-approved at this distance. She’s like the poster child for Voclain Academy, and I want to rip that poster off the wall and hang it above my bed so it’s the last thing I see before I go to sleep every night.
Archie yells something as the football sails past me and hits a passing freshman in the skull.
“Yo, Becky!” Chase snaps at me, butchering my last name as he jogs past me toward the ball. “Get your head out of your ass.”
“Beckett,” I correct him automatically, though there’s no bite to it.
Chase, Archie, and Everett could commit murder at this point, and I’d willingly help them clean it up...the bastards. They are my brothers, not biologically but in every other sense of the word—in all the ways that matter.
Everett walks to my side and stays there. I feel him before I see him. That’s just how we are, best friends with an inexplicable bond. He is more than just my left tackle. He protects my blind side, both on and off the field. He’s one of the few people capable of saying shit that burrows under my skin like a parasite and stays there until the infection consumes me. We’ve shared blood, and we are stronger for it.
Everett says nothing. He just stands there, staring right along with me at the spirit that is certain to haunt my dreams.
The girl stops walking for a moment, turning to look over her shoulder. Sunlight kisses the white-blonde hair that dusts her shoulders, her eyes wide and searching. The sight steals what’s left of my breath away, and I feel it explode from my lips in a rush of air. Then she’s walking again, a moue of disappointment on what I somehow know are perfectly kissable lips. She twists a lock of hair around her finger obsessively as she continues forward, looking straight ahead.
I am not the only one staring—more than a few male gazes latch onto her every move—but she doesn’t notice her admirers. Or, at least if she does, she ignores them. She’s obviously more comfortable being a wallflower than the center of attention. Begrudgingly, I rip my gaze away from her.
The girls have stopped their morning gossip session and are staring too. Aurora tosses her red locks over her shoulder and smiles at me, her grin nine parts poison and one part the bleach treatments she gets on her teeth.
Shit.
Chase plants the football flat against my chest, and reflexively, I wrap my fingers around the worn cowhide leather. The girl is like a
