by Eva Ashwood
My heart gave a little thump in my chest, and I grabbed my phone out of my bag, finally giving in to the impulse that’d been growing stronger and stronger all week.
ME: I miss you guys. Need to see you.
Twenty-Seven
Before going to Slateview and meeting the boys, I would have never considered sneaking out of the house. As the good, well-behaved daughter that I was groomed to be, doing something that would get me in trouble or shame my parents had seemed out of the question.
Now, however, I had no such worries.
So after dinner, when all the food was whisked away and Mom and Dad went upstairs for the evening, I dug through my closet for some of my old clothes I’d worn at Slateview and trekked down to the garage.
Dad kept the keys to all the cars in a case at the head of the garage. Though all the cars in his collections hadn’t yet been returned, I only needed one. I chose the keys to the car Mom had gotten from her… special friend, which she’d told Dad was a gift from some local women who had felt bad about how she had lost the first car—to a bunch of, as she called them, “degenerate hooligans” at my old school.
Since I was keeping my lips sealed about Mr. Jemison, letting my mom maintain her lie, I figured I’d earned the right to borrow the car.
I rolled out of the garage and hit the street, driving through Baltimore from the mansion-laden suburbia that I’d grown up in to the rough, run-down neighborhood I’d lived in for several months.
Tension bled from my body as I drove, the radio on and the music cranked loud, the heavy beat infusing my body. I could barely remember the first time I’d made this drive, just after Dad’s arrest. The trepidation and sorrow I’d felt then seemed like they belonged to someone else.
Now all I felt was joy.
I was going to see my trio of boys. Finally. I hadn’t realized just how deeply I had missed them over the past week, but now that I was about to see them again, my heart felt like it might burst from happiness.
Bishop had told me to meet them at the warehouse, back where all this had started. The convertible was parked out in the front, and despite the cold in the air, the three boys were lounging against it, waiting for me.
I couldn’t park and get out of the car fast enough, practically launching myself from the driver’s seat and into Bishop’s arms. I wrapped myself around him in a crushing hug, squeezing him hard before doing the same to Kace and Misael. They each got a kiss, which I took as deep as I could before going to the next one. I ended up in the middle of the three of them as three sets of arms wrapped around me, lips pressed to my cheeks, my neck, hands roaming all over me.
“Christ, I fucking missed you, Coralee,” Misael murmured, his voice both soft and rough.
“We all have.” Kace’s hands slid over my body, like he couldn’t quite believe I was really here.
“Me too,” I whispered, pulling back to look at all of them. “I’ve missed you all so much too.”
Bishop pulled me back into his hold, kissing me deeply as he threaded his fingers through my hair. I hadn’t thought a reunion would feel so intense, but I felt the spark run all the way from my lips down to the tips of my toes. It had me pressed against him, moaning into the kiss before Misael batted at Bishop.
“Alright, alright. You aren’t the only one that missed Cora,” he said, ushering us into the warehouse. “Sharing is caring, amigo. Sharing is caring.”
Bishop threw his head back and laughed, relinquishing me into Misael’s hold after pressing one more kiss to my lips.
I felt giddy, almost high, and completely relaxed at the same time. It felt like no time at all had passed since I’d seen the Lost Boys.
The inside of the warehouse was as comforting as being back in the boys’ arms, and it looked like they’d set everything up before going outside to wait for me. There were snacks, as usual, the old boom box that Misael liked to cart around for when there was a need for music, and a six-pack of beers waiting for us.
I plopped down onto the couch, Misael and Kace bookending me while Bishop cracked open the beers and passed them around.
“So, how’s being back in the rich bitch life treating you?” he asked wryly, giving me a little smirk as he cocked an eyebrow at me.
I shrugged, scratching at the label on my beer.
“Oh, you know. Fancy cars, fancy clothes. I’m practically royalty again.” I scoffed, rolling my eyes as I slouched back against the couch. “Honestly, it’s… I dunno. It’s not the same, but I think that’s for the best. Everything is clearer to me now, you know? I see people for what they are, who they are. Mom and Dad are back to playing the roles of good husband and wife to each other, despite the fact that Mom was totally cheating on Dad. People at school act like nothing even happened, like they never turned their backs on us. Honestly? I miss being here.”
The boys all gave me a disbelieving look.
“You miss being here?” Bishop took a swig of his beer, watching me with piercing eyes. “Are you fuckin’ for real, Princess? Woulda thought you’d be stoked to be back in the high life.”
I laughed. “I like having my room farther away from my mom and dad’s again. I like having a car that works. I like eating something other than box meals. But I… It’s not the same as it was before my father was arrested. I can’t just pretend that nothing happened, that nothing changed. I changed. Before I met you guys, I had my whole life mapped out for me. But now that I see that life for what it is? Honestly, it’s not very appealing.”
Bishop looked at me curiously for a long moment. Then a smile broke out over his face. He set his beer down and walked over to kneel in front of me, his large hands sliding over mine. When he looked me in the eyes, I felt held there, captivated. His smile lit up my world, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“You’re always surprising me, Coralee,” he said. “I thought…”
“What?” I urged.
Misael nudged Bishop with his foot. “This dumb lug was afraid that when you went back home and were reminded about how good shit was in the high life, you’d forget about how good it was here. With us.”
Bishop averted his gaze, looking almost bashful for the first time since I’d met him, and my heart squeezed in my chest. I couldn’t even blame him for feeling like that. If I was in his position, the fear would be real too. Hell—I had my own fears, worrying about whether or not they would care about me or want me when I was no longer around and in their immediate presence.
I reached out, tilting his head up to meet his gaze again.
“That’s why I wanted to come over today,” I said softly, glancing from him to the two boys beside me. “I wanted… to talk with the three of you.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that.” Bishop was watching me carefully, his expression serious.
“I… I want to tell my parents about you three. How I feel about you. That I want to be with you. I want it to be an open thing, and I don’t care what anyone thinks. People at Slateview got used to it. They didn’t even bat an eye. The people from my old life can get used to it too.”
Bishop’s hands tightened around mine, and I felt the other two boys shift closer to me, but they didn’t speak, giving me room to continue as I forged ahead.
“I don’t want the kind of relationship my mother and father have, where one of them is lying and the other one is just blissfully unaware of it. Where they’re only in it for convenience or status. I want… I want what Nathaniel and Josephine have. It doesn’t matter to me where you’ve come from or what you’ve done. I know you care about me. That’s what matters. And I…”
My voice trailed off, and I felt all three of the boys around me lean forward, as if they were drawn toward me by a magnetic force. As if they were as desperate to hear the words as I was to say them.
Drawing in a deep breath, I pushed aside the last vestiges of the old Cora, the one who was too cautious for her own good, the one who did what she was told without considering what she wanted.
The
n I spoke the truth that had been sitting in my heart for weeks.
“I love you. All of you.”
The air seemed to go still around us, as if it was cradling the words, holding them aloft for the boys to savor them.
The hazel of Bishop’s eyes darkened before seeming to light up with a flare of sparks. Still on his knees, he pressed himself between my legs, hooking the back of my neck and hauling me to him for a kiss that made my world spin. Misael barely waited for my lips to disconnect from Bishop’s before he was kissing me too, and when Kace turned me toward him, I felt like I was drowning in these three boys.
They were the ocean, beautiful and dangerous, and I was the shore they broke themselves upon.
“We love you too, Coralee,” Bish murmured roughly, claiming my lips again as the three boys pressed in around me.
Kace’s breath tickled my ear, and I felt his words in my soul as much as I heard them.
“We need you, Princess.”
Twenty-Eight
I stayed as long as I could at the warehouse.
The four of us abandoned our beers and ignored the snacks, the boys feasting on me instead, and then we all ended up on the couch in a rough pile. I draped myself over all three of the boys, relishing the feel of their bodies so close to mine, unwilling to leave them so soon after seeing them again.
But it started to get late, and then it started to get early, and I knew that if I wanted to get home before my parents woke up and realized I wasn’t at home, I needed to get a move on.
The boys all kissed me breathless before I left, and I promised to see them again soon.
On the way back home, I thought about how I was going to bring up the fact that I wanted a relationship with the Lost Boys to my parents.
It wasn’t so much a matter of when, but mostly how. I knew I wanted to do it as soon as possible, so there was no question that this was what I wanted. Getting my parents in the same room at the same time might be a hassle; they were still mostly avoiding each other. Father was pouring his time into work, into getting his business back up and running, and Mom was back to socializing with her lady friends at the country club, spending long hours there gossiping and sitting by the pool.
When I pulled up the drive and parked in the garage, the sun was just coming up. I darted upstairs on quiet feet and stepped into the shower, hoping if Mom or Dad heard me, they’d just think I was up early on a Saturday morning.
After throwing on a soft, expensive top and a conservative skirt from the closetful of new clothes that’d appeared in my room over the past week, I headed downstairs to find some breakfast. I could tell I would be tired later from my lack of sleep, but right now, I was too wired to even think of going to bed.
I padded down the large, curved staircase, passing by my father’s office on the way to the dining room.
He sat behind his desk, his laptop out and open, already deep in the middle of something even though it was early on a Saturday. He was settling back into life as a man with things to do, pieces on the chess board to push. I hesitated as I walked by, wondering if I should talk to him about the conversations we’d had while he was in prison. About his promise to do better this time around.
I must’ve lingered for too long, because he glanced up as if he felt my gaze, smiling when he caught sight of me.
He waved me inside, gesturing to the seat just across from him.
“Good morning, Cordelia. Come in. Sit.”
I did as told, crossing one leg over the other. “Morning. I was about to get breakfast.”
“Ah, good. Beatrice has something wonderful baking by the smell of it.”
A small smile tilted my lips. I had noticed the aroma of some kind of pastry floating down the hall. Beatrice was the new cook, and I’d loved almost everything she had made so far, although her fancy meals didn’t diminish my pride in the things I’d managed to cook with the Lost Boys.
“Yeah. I can’t wait to see what it is.”
He nodded. “Same. But before you go—how are you? Settling into school well? I know I’ve been busy since coming back and haven’t been able to catch up with you, but I want to know that everything’s going alright. I missed you, and I hated missing out on even a second of your life while I was in prison.”
His words took me off guard. My father had never really been a sentimental man, and open displays of affection were rare for him.
Maybe prison really did change him.
Maybe his time behind bars, grappling with the belief that he might lose everything, had softened him in a good way—made it easier for him to feel empathy and love.
My relationship with my mom had gotten worse over the past several months. But maybe this whole mess would be the thing that brought my dad and I closer together. Maybe he had some inkling that I’d been the one to recruit Nathaniel to help him get the charges dropped.
“Well, it’s about the same as it ever was,” I said, speaking carefully. “It’s like nothing’s changed at all.”
“Good. That’s good. I’m glad you’re settling back in.”
He sat forward in his chair, resting his elbows on the desk and steepling his fingers.
“You know, I had a lot of time to think while I was away,” he said. “I thought a lot about the state of our family, and what it would take to rebuild our life. I meant what I said, Cordelia. I want to take a different approach this time. Different business practices. Different investments. I can do good while still growing this empire, and I want to do that.”
A smile spread across my face before I could stop it, hope rising in my chest. “That’s great, Dad.”
He nodded, looking pleased. “Yes. I’m anxious to get started. Of course, the first step is to build our family back to the standing we once had. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Cordelia. I have plans I think will be good for you, for this family. Because I love you and your mom, and I want what’s best for all of us. You understand that, right?”
I tilted my head, curious. “Yeah, I understand. What plans are you talking about?”
“You’ll be graduating high school soon.” He cocked his head at me. “Your mom and I married straight out of high school. Did we ever tell you that?”
“No.”
I shook my head, blinking in confusion. Why is he telling me this now?
“Well, we did. Because it was the right thing to do for our families. Because combining our family resources was what would make all of this”—he gestured around, indicating the house—“possible. It’s what I want for you, Cordelia.”
I straightened up, shifting in the chair, gripping the arm rests tightly.
“Actually, Dad, I wanted to talk to you about something in regards to relationships—”
“I’ll be announcing your engagement to Barrett King at the end of the week.”
His voice rose over mine, and my words cut off as if someone had hit the mute button.
Silence fell between us.
Words failed on my tongue.
Everything that I had intended to say about my own plans for my own relationship went completely out the window as I absorbed what my father had just said to me.
My engagement? To Barrett?
“I—don’t understand,” was all I could say, my voice flat, ice in my stomach.
“Your engagement to Barrett King,” he repeated. “You remember—”
“I remember.”
How could I not? That haughty, lecherous boy who’d turned his nose up at me the night Dad had been arrested, just moments after having attempted to flirt and charm his way into my pants.
I remembered, very clearly.
“I just… I don’t understand.” I swallowed thickly. “I don’t know him. I haven’t even spoken to him—”
“It was something that was in the works before my untimely incarceration,” Dad explained, his voice carefully patient. “His father and I had been talking about nudging the two of you together for some time now. With my release from prison,
we just have a reason to move it up.”
“And the reason for that is?”
“The family,” he said simply. “Security. I need to move us back into a position where our name continues to hold weight. We’ve integrated well after this whole incident, but there are… conditions I still need to meet. Money that needs to flow—”
“So you’re selling me?” I burst out, realizing what all of this was really about. “That’s what you’re doing. You’re selling me—”
“I’m securing an advantageous marriage for my daughter and my family’s security, Cordelia,” he said, his tone sharpening. “And you will do this. You’ll be married after graduation. In the summer—a beautiful, warm wedding just before it gets too hot to be enjoyable.”
He stood, coming around the desk to stand in front of me, tilting my chin up to meet my gaze.
“You wouldn’t do anything to put this family in jeopardy again, would you, Cordelia?”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat.
For weeks, months, I had obsessed over how to prove my dad’s innocence, how to free him from prison. I had risked my life, put the boys I loved in danger, and made bargains with ruthless criminals.
All to free my father.
And in return, he would put me in a prison of his own making.
To Be Continued…
Our love doesn't make sense.
But it might be the only thing that saves us.
Mad Love, the final book in the Slateview High series, is coming soon!
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Thank You For Reading
Thank you so much for continuing Cora and her boys’ story! Reviews make such a huge difference to authors—if you enjoyed Wild Girl, please take a second to leave a review!
You can also try my college-age bully romance, Who Breaks First, or my paranormal academy series, Gift of the Gods.