Dark Truths: Kiss Her Goodbye #2

by Royce, Rebecca

The door opening woke me later. My heart was immediately in my stomach, and I wrenched up against the headboard.

  “It’s okay.” Four sets of eyes stared down at me, and I strained to look at them. This wasn’t Ben coming back to get me. Kade crawled into the bed next to me. “You can sleep. We can’t. Let us in?”

  I smiled in the darkness. I could sleep alone, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t let four guys who weren’t able to into my bed if they wanted to be there. I wasn’t sure of the logistics but that wasn’t really my problem.

  I scooted over toward Kade, and he crawled under the covers. Next to me, Warden took the other side. His shirt was soft, and I pressed my face into it. The bed dipped again several times. Wherever and however they were doing this, they were all in here with me.

  My phone dinged, and I grabbed it. Only Derrick could be texting since he was the only one who had this number that wasn’t here.

  Goodnight, Everly. Wish I was with you.

  I let his words and the warmth surrounding me draw me under.

  Chapter 18

  The guys slept all around me. Trace faced away from Warden but on his other side and Judson by the foot of the bed. I wondered if anyone would have believed that Dr. Judson Smythe would sleep on the end of the bed, but there he was. They all breathed deeply. It was barely morning. From what I knew of the day—the little bit I understood—was that they were going to eliminate Ben and have their meeting.

  My peace from the night before fled. Goosebumps broke out on my arms. The four of them—and Derrick over his text message—were all feeling needy. That was why they were all in here with me. Whether they knew it or not, they were nervous. Kade touched the top of my head in sleep, making a sighing noise as he did.

  I had to pee and people surrounded me. There was no way to do this without disturbing at least one of them. The door creaked open, and I screamed. Everyone was here. Trace jumped up first, and he might have gone straight for Derrick’s throat if he hadn’t stepped out of the way.

  “Fuck.” Trace pounded on the wall. “What in the ever-loving fuck?”

  Derrick held up his hands. “All I did was walk in on your little sleepover. I didn’t know you’d go for my throat. Almost got me too, which is impressive. You used to get close in training, too.”

  All of the guys were on their feet now, and I gripped the cover to my chin like some Victorian heroine who didn’t know how to save herself. With my heart still pounding, I threw the cover away and got up. I’d slept in my clothes.

  “I have to pee. Now really badly because of the adrenaline. You scared the shit out of me, Derrick. Speaking of which, how did you get in here? How did any of us? The door just opened for me. Do we even lock it or are we just happy to have people come kill us?”

  Warden shook his head. “It’s coded to the six of us. When we have meetings like the one happening and take over the hotel, we don’t need keys. Not even the maids can get in here. Kade put your face in the code.”

  Well, then I was going to have to request some towels from the front desk since we wouldn’t be having maid service to bring me any clean ones. I shook my head. That really didn’t matter right now. “If it’s infallible, why did Trace rush Derrick like it was the end of the world?”

  Kade sighed. “Nothing is infallible.”

  That was what I thought. I went into the bathroom and took my time peeing and then showering. I wasn’t hungry. Eating that burger late meant I wasn’t going to want to eat for some time. I was clean when I came out. The sound of television in the main room caught my attention.

  I walked barefoot to Derrick who stood watching the news as he drank his coffee. I wrapped my arms around his waist. “Hello. You’re safe. Is it done?”

  “Almost. It should be done. But there is something still bothering me. I can’t put my finger on it. Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”

  He smelled like Derrick. Each of my guys had a scent that at this point resonated so much of them that I’d never mistake them for anyone else. I buried my nose against him for a second. That was when it dawned on me what was different about him. “You’re less swollen.”

  “It’s going down inch by inch. Going to be six weeks before it’s entirely better. No one is recognizing me, which is helpful right now.”

  Trace groaned. “Everly, your father is asking for a meeting with you.”

  “He is?” I put my hands on my hips. “Why?”

  I hadn’t heard from my father since I got back. Everything was so complicated, and I didn’t know how I was supposed to deal with him. He’d done nothing but let me down and had arranged for my mother to be murdered. He’d helped the Ben faction hide their money. Had he even cared that Ben tried to kill me?

  “I don’t know.” Trace shook his head. “Should I not have told you?”

  I rubbed my eyes. “No, of course you should have told me. We have enough secrets.”

  Kade put his hand on my back. “You don’t have to see him. Say no.” He kissed the top of my head. “You can get out of here right now. We can go to my house.”

  I blinked. “You have a house? One that isn’t underground with a secret lair like a superhero?”

  His smile was fast. “Call me a superhero anytime, Everly. Sure, I have a house.”

  “We’ll never hear the end of that superhero now.” Trace laughed. “His head just exploded, and his ego grew two feet.”

  I ignored Trace, keeping my attention on Kade. “Where is your house?”

  “Where do you want to live? That’s where I’ll have a house. I can have one right now.”

  This was always insane. “You don’t actually have a house this second?”

  “Everly?” Trace shook his head. “What do you want me to do about your father?”

  That was a very good question. What did I want him to do about my father? “I guess I’ll see him.”

  Derrick walked to the window, looking out of it. “I’ll take her. You guys all have things to do. Trace, you’re going to go deal with Ben. Well, you and Warden, right? And then Judson is going to run that whole meeting which I presume you can’t do without Kade. It makes sense I take her.”

  “You have the niggling feeling,” Judson added. “It’s a good idea you go with her. Yes, we’ll all meet up later. Ben will be dead and the meeting over. We can make some plans.”

  Plans sounded good. I like the idea of that. I just wasn’t sure I wanted them making them for me. Something about being dismissed to the other room last night had really set me off. I wasn’t angry, but I was done with that.

  “Are you okay with not killing Ben?” Derrick caught my attention. “You wanted to.”

  He was right. I had wanted that. “Something changed after I took out those assassins. I think… I think maybe I’ve had my fill of killing people. I want Ben dead. But if you or Trace or any of you want to do that for me, I wouldn’t object. I just want it done. I want whatever is going to come next.”

  “Fair enough. Let’s get today done.” Derrick put out his hand, and I took it. He squeezed my fingers.

  I stopped as we almost reached the elevator, turning to look at everyone. “Have I said thank you? To all of you? For getting me out of Ben’s basement and for not feeling like you’re pretending to feel about me since? I know I’m…”

  “Everly,” Judson interrupted me. “Don’t.”

  I looked to the others and none of them made any indication they wanted me to continue.

  Okay. I wouldn’t. Maybe thank you wasn’t necessary or appropriate. Maybe some things just shouldn’t be said. “See you later.”

  We got into the elevator together, and I let go of Derrick’s hand. “You’re not supposed to like me.”

  “I never did agree to this, but since you’re already in the middle of this then let’s go ahead and go with it. I’m not going to say shitty things to you, I’ll be quiet. Everyone expects that of me anyway. I basically only want to speak to you as it is.”

  His eyes were clearer than they�
�d been since before the surgery. “I’m sorry your surgery went the way it did.”

  Derrick shrugged. “My surgery went fine in every way except for the surgeon. And the anesthesiologist. The nurse. I’d say my half of it could be called a success. Sucked for you, too. I was never going to sit around and recover in front of a television for very long. Good news, I probably won’t snore now.”

  The elevator opened, and we stepped off. I missed his hand in mine. Even so, I couldn’t go through life holding someone’s hand all the time.

  It had to be because I wanted to, not because I was afraid.

  Fear destroyed souls, and it wasn’t taking mine.

  * * *

  Derrick pointed at my father who sat in the corner of the restaurant. It was pretty empty. We’d arrived at the end of the breakfast serving and everyone staying in the hotel had to be getting ready to see Judson talk. My father sipped coffee. Cream, no sugar. From the time I was twelve years old and beyond, I’d fixed it for him.

  “Go sit with him. I’m not far.”

  I nodded. As I slid into the booth, I realized Derrick’s definition of not far meant he was in the booth behind me.

  My father looked up. “Thank you for seeing me.”

  He looked tired, like he usually did during tax season. My father was a liar, a phony, but he was also a really good accountant. Little old ladies back home lined up to have him take care of their tax needs.

  “Did you know Ben had me?” I didn’t need to do pleasantries with this man. I loved him. He was my father. I’d always craved his approval, loved him completely. That didn’t go away instantly upon hearing he killed my mom, and that hadn’t entirely left me yet. There was part of me that wanted him to simply fix this, to make everything fine the way he would have for some problem I’d had as a child.

  He set down his coffee cup. “Not at first. Then when I found out, I tried to make headway to get someone to get him to give you back to me. But no one wants to go anywhere near Ben. He has his lackeys, but he’s gone so far off on his own that even the others have no power over him anymore. I think your… guys… had you back a week by the time I heard you’d been rescued. News isn’t moving very fast through the Alliance right now with the schism.”

  At least he hadn’t known and not cared. That was something. The waitress came by, and I ordered my own coffee.

  “Are you okay?”

  The fact that he asked surprised me. “Sometimes. I seem to be driving my… guys… crazy.”

  If ever there was someone to not break character with, it was my father. If there was a side in this strange game, we were on opposite sides. “I heard that, too. You could leave them. Come with me.”

  “Come with you?” My low simmering temper flared to life. “I could come with you? And hang out with your friends? Maybe Ben can come visit. We can have him over for dinner and reminisce about how he beat me, tortured me, starved me, and nearly killed me. It’ll be good times.”

  Behind me, Derrick moved, which made the whole booth sort of shake. He didn’t like this conversation. That was fine, neither did I.

  “Everly.” My father leaned forward. “The Alliance is a permanent thing. It’s not going anywhere. Judson can rename it if he wants, set goals for everyone, fine. Ask to have everyone’s allegiance. He’s going to get it. The current leadership has screwed up, but they are powerful. They aren’t going anywhere unless the crazy man behind you kills them all and there is no way that is happening.”

  I steeled my features, not letting myself relax. There was every chance Derrick would kill them all. Maybe this afternoon.

  “I have powerful allies. They can make sure nothing happens to you again. Those guys don’t want you. They’re looking to get rid of you. Who else but me will keep you from Ben?”

  I ignored what he said. There was no point in continuing this conversation knowing what I knew. “How could you kill my mother? How could you do that?”

  “I can see now that was a mistake. At the time I was full of rage, angry at her, and not seeing straight. I had the power, and I took it. There is a long-standing policy in the Alliance to not let anyone screw us. I am who I am. I am who I was raised to be. You don’t have to understand it, and I’m not asking for forgiveness. I did what I did. I am still your best chance of living a long life.”

  That was the best I was going to get. “I see. Dad, I think it’s important we spend some time apart. I know I have to leave these guys. They don’t like me. Fine. But that doesn’t mean with you.”

  “Everly.” My father lowered his voice. “There are assassins after you.”

  Oh, I was more than aware and the news of what happened clearly hadn’t made its way to him yet. That was fine. “Dad, I’ll be careful. You be careful, too. We have to go our separate ways. I will always wish things could have gone differently.”

  I got up and Derrick followed me. I managed to make it into the elevator without tearing up. I looked away from Derrick. I was tired of weakness.

  One of the others might have wanted to talk about it, but not Derrick. He knew how to be quiet. Right at that moment, I appreciated it beyond all things.

  We strolled to the hotel room together both of us silent in the elevator. I didn’t know where everyone would have slept if they hadn’t crawled in with me. This suite had two rooms. Did they have other rooms?

  I wiped at my eyes and walked to the window.

  “Away from there until my heebie-jeebies go away.” Derick closed the curtains. “I can stand by the window, you can’t.”

  I moved because it made sense to do so. “Because I really want you to get shot to death. If I can’t stand there, you don’t stand there either, please.”

  “I frequently need to put myself in danger to take care of business. One of the reasons we like this room is that there aren’t great points for a sniper to stand and shoot. Having said that, there is more and more high-tech equipment that lets you be farther and farther away to take the shot. I’m not risking you, period.”

  I sat down on the couch. “Any news from Trace? Warden?”

  He shook his head. “I’d be very surprised if there was, yet. They’re going to play back and forth with Ben until they get the chance to kill him. I’ll check on them soon. They’re both more than capable of handling this.”

  “Do you have a television show you like? I’m having trouble finding something.”

  Derrick shook his head. “I actually have something we can watch. It’s a little gift for you from Kade.”

  From Kade? “What?”

  Derrick put on the television. It took me a moment to realize what I looked at. This was a live feed from the conference room. Derrick sat next to me, stretching out his legs. “Kade tends to do what he wants even if he goes along at the time. I guess he wanted you to watch. Texted me ten minutes ago.”

  Right now, nothing was happening. A lot of rumbling of conversations and eventually a voice came over the television. “My scanner says you two are watching. Hello there, Everly and Derrick. We have a full house in here.” He must have been speaking into a microphone close to his mouth, he sounded a little bit muffled. Or maybe he was whispering. “Your father just walked in, so clearly Derrick didn’t kill him.”

  “Not yet,” Derrick answered. “Can you hear us?”

  “Yes. Microphones all over the room. Your dad is squirmy, Everly. I’m not sure he’s staying.”

  That shouldn’t have been surprising that the room was mic’d, and I didn’t care two shits what my father did right then. “You guys are seriously stalkery, you know that, right? But then again I shouldn’t be surprised since you, Derrick, are a kidnapper.”

  He saluted me. “Guilty.”

  Judson walked up to the microphone. “Hey, everyone, thanks for coming.”

  His voice sounded lighter, like he was going out of his way to be easy and charming. “Are we going to tell him we saw this or is this like a don’t ever tell kind of thing? I’d rather not get down the rabbit hole of
secrets with you guys.”

  “Tell him whatever you want. Kade’s a big boy. He can live with the consequences of his decisions, and Judson doesn’t rule our lives.”

  Kade’s voice sounded low. “Tell him if you want. I don’t care.”

  Derrick’s phone dinged as Judson continued speaking.

  “I know we’ve had a rough year. I know it’s been that way for all of us. Believe me, when I tell you that I didn’t start out with the intention of creating a rift between any of us. I grew up an Alliance member. I intended to be for the rest of my life. Despite everything, I know what a privilege it is to be Alliance.”

  An electrical surge drained the power from the room and for a second we were bathed in only the sunlight from the window. Seconds later everything shot back on. “That was weird.”

  The screen turned back on, and we picked back up the feed that had disappeared for a few seconds.

  “Guess we’re using too much power here in Boston today.”

  The room laughed. I had never seen this version of Judson before.

  Derrick got to his feet. “Trace and Warden lost Ben. He ran. They’re tracking him, but he’s in the hotel.”

  The power drained again. Was something going on with the power grid? “Did you guys decide to point out our dependency on electricity today or something?”

  “Not that anyone told me.” Derrick shrugged. “That doesn’t sound like something we’d do.”

  “And we’re back again. Okay. Everyone knows what happened to my sister, Alyssa.”

  Derrick glared at the television. “You’d think he could have warned me he was going there.”

  “You’re not in the room, and he doesn’t know you’re watching. And this is Judson. He may not have thought you needed warning.”

  Derrick nodded. “True.”

  The elevator dinged open, and I looked at Derrick. “Trace and Warden?”

  “Kade,” he shouted. “Who is coming up the elevator?”

  “What?” His voice elevated. “No one. I don’t have a feed.”

  “She was murdered. Killed. She was my twin sister and the wife of an Alliance member. She made a huge mistake. We made a huge mistake. We’ve never denied it. But an Alliance leader murdered my sister.”