Treacherous

Treacherous

Fate is…

Fearless

Hearts are…

Treacherous

by
L.L. Hunter

Treacherous

By
L.L. Hunter

ISBN
-10:
1492343935

ISBN-13:
978-1492343936

Edited &
Formatted by

Literary Editor,
Rogena Mitchell-Jones

Rogena Mitchell-Jones Manuscript
Service

www.rogenamitchell.com

Cover Design
by
Cover Lust
Designs

Email:
[email protected]

Treacherous is
written and edited

in Australian
English.

Copyright 2013
by L.L. Hunter

All rights reserved.

Smashwords edition

This ebook is licensed for your
personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given
away to other people. If you would like
to
share this book with another person, please purchase an additional
copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not
purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please
return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for
respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

This
book is dedicated to all the girls
who have felt alone and different.

You are not
alone
…. You are
unique.…

Acknowledgements

It truly does take a village to raise a
child… I mean a book. No, really. Each one of my books becomes my
baby, and they would never reach your hands without the help of so
many amazing people.

First of all, I’d like to thank my
amazing editor turned friend, Rogena. You are an absolute gem.
Thank you for taking on two of my books at once!

Secondly, I’d like to thank the lovely
ladies at Cover Lust Designs, mainly Stina Rubio. Thank you for
creating such a perfect cover so fast! Thank you for telling me
that a white background would suck. I cannot believe how much the
finished product suits this story!

Next I want to thank my fabulous beta
readers, Alanna, Heather, and Donna. Your helpful eyes help me more
than words can explain. Without your input, Treacherous would not
make sense.

I also want to thank my partners in
crime, my fellow authors, and writing sisters, Laura Wells, Becky
Elizabeth- Searson, Laura Prior and Airicka Phoenix. You ladies
make me feel so blessed. I love the convos we have! Can’t wait to
meet you all! Tackle hugs!

Finally, yet still so important, I want
to thank Nathan for saying you wanted to be written into a book.
Your wish has been fulfilled. I hope your character meets your
approval.

Prologue

A knock sounded as I was adding the
finishing touches to my makeup.

“
Charlotte,
honey?”

“
Yeah, I’ll be there
in a minute, Mum.”

I couldn’t believe I
was finished with high school. All those years of endless torment
were over. Well almost. Tonight was our Formal. One last night of
torture
then
it would be over, and I could move
on. I couldn’t wait to go to University and become a completely
different person.

I hoped.

In my world, one wrong move and you
were judged forever.

“
Charlotte, the
limousine is here,” Mum said, barging in the door, not waiting for
me to give her permission to do so.

“
I said I’m
coming.”

After a few moments
of silence, I could still feel her presence. I turned, and I saw
she was staring at me, eyes glassy.

I smirked. “Mum, are you crying?”

“
No. You look perfect.
Put that brush down, you don’t need any more mascara. I don’t want
you looking cheap.”

“
Fine.” With one last
look at my reflection in my full- length mirror, I put down my
mascara brush and walked out the door.

When I slid into the
stretch limo, some of the guys wolf-whistled. “Charli, you look
hot.”

“
Really?” I smiled at
my best friend.

“
Yeah, everyone can
tell she’s a virgin,” joked one of the guys. They could all be
dickheads when they were drunk. I glared at him in horror and
suddenly wished a magic portal would open in the floor so I could
fall in. It was no secret I was a virgin, but he didn’t have to say
it.

“
Dean, that was kind
of rude,” said Amie, Dean’s girlfriend.

“
Aww, don’t worry,
Ams. I mean it in a good, pure- and-holy-Virgin Mary kind of way.”
The guys all laughed. Oh, kill me now.

Seeing my tense expression, Dean pulled
something out of his jacket pocket. I cringed when I realised what
it was.

“
You need to relax,
Charli. Here.” He handed me a metal tin.

“
Uh, no thanks,” I
said as I pushed it away.

“
Come on, Daddy won’t find out. You need to learn to have a
little fun.” I looked around the interior of the limousine and
noticed everyone was waiting for me to make my decision. I sighed.
I couldn’t be known as the party pooper, and
Daddy’s little girl,
for the rest of my life. I took the
tin.

One of the other guys handed me a
lighter. I opened the tin, took a joint and flicked the lighter.
There was no going back now. Everyone cheered as I lit the end of
the joint and inhaled. I leaned back into the seat and settled in
for the ride.

When we could see the school gates in
the distance, I exhaled in relief.

I had a feeling it was going to be a
long night.

Being from the family
I was, I had been pre-enrolled in the most elite private school in
Sydney from the time I had been conceived. It was an all-girl’s
school, but the girls were allowed to bring their dates along
tonight. And due to the fact my parents were the best lawyers in
the state, I was dateless. No one wanted to date you when your
father made it his business to know everything about
everybody.

When we entered our
school assembly hall-turned ballroom, with me on the arm of my best
friend Rochelle, the music was already pumping.

You would think by
going to a school where most of the kids were either offspring of
the very wealthy or famous, I would fit in. But that was not the
case. As soon as Rochelle and I entered, all eyes turned in our
direction. Great. It seemed like I was going to be the subject of
all gossip before I even had the chance to do anything.

“
Come on,” Rochelle
said as she dragged me towards the refreshments table.

“
What’s going on?” I
asked as soon I had a chance.

“
You mean, you don’t
know?” She leaned in close so I could hear her over the loud
music.

“
You know Levi
Chandon? The guy who killed his girlfriend when he smashed his car
after drunk driving?”

“
Yeah.” Everyone knew
Levi Chandon. He had gone to the King’s school — our male
equivalent. My parents had represented him. I should know him
better than anyone.

“
Well, he was granted
bail last night.”

My eyes grew wide.

Granted bail.

Granted bail by my father.

No wonder everyone hated me.

No wonder I
was
un-datable.

Ch
apter One

Three Years
Later

Charli

“
Charli? Earth to
Charli!”

I felt a hand on my shoulder causing me
to jump and yank my ear buds out of my ears.

“
Geez, Mi! Don’t do
that!”

“
Sorry. You’re always
off in your own little world.”

“
Well, sometimes I
need to escape.”

Mia sat down in the
chair opposite me. Mia DeStella was the crazy college friend my
parents didn’t approve of, because I was raised
well off
,
and Mia was from a
working
class family
. My father
wanted me to become a lawyer like him and someday run his company,
but I had other dreams.

“
Mother dearest still
on your back?”

“
Unfortunately,” I
replied as I rolled my eyes. I took another sip of my soy caramel
latte. “Do you know what she said last night?”

“
What now?” Mia leaned in closer in anticipation. She loved
hearing about my family dramas, and together we made fun of
their
snobbiness
.

“
She wants to set me
up with some family friend.”

“
A
hot
family friend?”

“
Who knows?” I
shrugged. “He’s probably some older, rich, boring lawyer friend of
my father’s.”

“
Eww.”

“
My thoughts exactly.
I am not going to be involved in an arranged marriage. This is
modern day Australia. Arranged marriages don’t happen
here.”

“
Maybe not in a
working class society like mine, but in yours…
definitely.”

“
I don’t know, Mi. I’m
not doing it.”

“
You
know what you
do
need to do,
right?”

“
No, what?”

“
You need to rebel.
You’ve already taken the first step into becoming a rebellious
college student.”

“
And what is that?” I
asked her, raising my eyebrow.

“
You took a class in
English Literature.”

I smiled at my best
friend. Ever since starting at the University of Sydney, I had felt
nothing but an overwhelming sense of dread. Dread for being forced
to study Law, and I also felt fear. Fear of making new friends. I
never was good at that. But as soon as I met Mia, my life changed.
The dread had been lifted off my shoulders. And most importantly, I
felt happy.

“
You’re right, Mi. A little bit of
rebellion
is
exactly what I need with my afternoon coffee.”

Mia squealed and
grinned showing all her teeth like a Cheshire cat. We packed up our
books, tossed our empty coffee cups, and left the campus
café.

“
Okay. Plan Rebellion
starts tonight.”

“
After I study,” I
injected.

Mia playfully punched my arm. “Such a
rebel already.” We both cracked up and parted ways.

“
See ya,” I
yelled.

“
See ya,
Charlz.”

Nathan

I’d seen Stephen
Jayne work on numerous occasions. He was one of the best attorney’s
around. The best I’d ever witnessed. He was tough, but I’d heard
rumours he was also crooked. The Australian Federal Police were on
his case, but we still didn’t have enough evidence against him.
Stephen Jayne had made sure of that. I collected my papers and
filed out of the courtroom with the rest of the crowd and jury
after the judge had called a recess. I made my way to the men’s
bathroom across the hall. When I came out of the stall, I saw Mr
Jayne adjusting his tie in the mirror. His eyes met mine in the
mirror, and he didn’t turn to towards me.

“
Arresting officer,
Nathan Wright. Just the man I was looking for.”

“
How can I help you,
Sir?” I cautiously made my way to the basin to wash my hands. I was
a little unnerved that Stephen Jayne had cornered me in the
bathroom.

“
I was wondering if
you would like to come to dinner at our place tomorrow night. Say,
around seven?” I froze, turned off the tap, and shook my hands. I
turned towards him.

“
Mr Jayne, Sir. It’s
not really appropriate for the defence to be asking someone on the
prosecuting side to dinner. I did arrest your client, in case
you’ve forgotten.”