by Eden O'Neill
“Hey.” I pulled back. “You got groceries?”
“Got three more mouths to feed.” He wagged blond eyebrows. “Four if you count Knight’s gladiator ass.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Knight came around the corner in his big-ass puffer coat, and I was reminded by how he’d let me wear that once. He’d saved me, literally giving me the coat off his back. He came into the room with about three more bags to each one Royal had. Knight placed them on the bar. “I paid for all this shit so I eat what I want.”
The guys chuckled, Royal too when he stripped off his jacket. He put it on the back of my chair and started to take the groceries to the kitchen, but Knight told him he had it covered. He must have not been too mad at what Royal said because he not only put all the groceries away but set out place settings for the other guys. After he was done, he hung his coat and took off a gray hat from dark locks.
“I see you started without me.” Royal threw an arm around my front, smelling of heat and boy. He pressed his face into my cheek. “Sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up.”
“So is this how it’s going to be now?” Jax directed a fork at Royal. He’d taken his seat and started eating too. He grinned. “You being all ‘Kept’ and bitch ass?”
“December’s not Kept.” LJ pulled the words right out of Royal’s mouth and so quick Royal hadn’t even had to say them. LJ winked. “Clearly, look at her neck. You know she’s wearing his ring.”
“Yeah.” Royal hugged both arms around me. “She’s in. Obviously, since we took this trip.”
“So she knows everything?” Despite bringing in so much food, Knight didn’t eat any of it when he sat down. He folded his fingers. “She knows about everything?”
The tone of the room changed with the very words, and even though Knight had said them, his expression fell as well. Dark eyebrows narrowed, his eyes looking away, and nothing but the clanks and clamor of Jax’s eating filled the silence. Eventually, Jax stopped doing that too, just staring at Royal and me.
Royal pushed hands down my arms. “I told her why she and I are here and what brought me here initially.”
“So she doesn’t know who we think had something to do with it?” Knight was very blunt, but I could hold my own with him. I could hold my own with all of them.
I sat back. “He told me he had some suspicions but hasn’t said whom.”
All eyes shifted to Royal in that moment, and at that point, he took the empty chair next to mine. He spun it around, sitting on the back right next to me. “Remember when I said there was a private company that did your sister’s investigation? A company I thought I recognized?”
I nodded, and he placed a hand on mine, threading them together.
“Well, I later did after I found out what happened to Paige. I Googled and realized it’s one of my dad’s companies, Bankable Assets & Holdings LLC.”
The room spun, and I thought I’d throw up what little I’d eaten. The tofu turned into a mass in my gut, the bile charging up my throat like molten lava.
“Are you saying your dad…” I couldn’t even get the words out, swallowing hard. “Are you saying your dad did this to my sister? He touched my sister…”
“No, December. No.” He brought my hands in with his. “Fortunately for him, my fucker of a dad has an alibi.”
“He was with us.” LJ raised a hand off the table. “We were all called away to help with some Court business.”
“The Court has a gala every year.” Royal panned in my direction, frowning. “Senior members make a big deal about it. I’d been avoiding it, honestly. Dad nailed me that night.”
“Roped my grandfather in to help him do it,” Knight grunted. “They all make a big deal out of that shit, so we went.”
“We shouldn’t have gone.” The words were said by Jax. Done with his food too, he threaded his fingers. “She was alone.”
“She insisted on it.” Royal’s attention shifted to me. “Hazes are supposed to be done singularly, and even if they weren’t, Paige would have made us leave. She had to push me to leave in the end.”
In the end… the story came out again. He was there that night, they all were like I’d been told before.
“So he just covered it up?” I asked. “Why?”
Royal dampened his lips. “That’s one of the things we have no clue about. I assumed it was to protect me. I bet a lot of it had to do with me.”
He had done a haze that night, he and the other boys…
How fucked up.
I lowered my head, and my shoulders were rubbed, Royal on one side and LJ on the other.
“That’s not all, though, Royal.” Knight leaned forward. “Tell her everything.”
“Everything?” I looked over and Royal’s jaw moved.
He sighed. “There’s a lot to this, December. A whole fucking lot, and we’re still working it all out.”
“Enlighten me.” I needed to be goddamn enlightened. I needed the truth. “I told you I want to know everything.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking, December.” LJ grappled our attention, his mouth in a hard frown. “There’s a lot of pieces to this. It’s all dangerous.”
“Well, you’re in it,” I stated, and they confirmed with nods. My throat jumped. “Tell me everything. I’m going to be in it too.”
The room was silent again with no one eating. Royal eased his chair closer. “The minute I found out about Paige I wanted revenge. I wanted to find out whoever it was and end them. With my bare hands if I had to.”
I took his, squeezing them, and he did back.
He touched his forehead to mine. “I had this whole plan, Em. Even roped in Mira. I got close to her. That’s why I came with her to Paige’s reception. I needed her close. My only link to the sheriff’s office and finding out the truth.”
I looked up, and he placed a hand to my cheek.
His thumb brushed my skin. “But then you wanted to leave. Fuck, did I want to leave with you.”
“He did.”
I left his hand, LJ cringing when I faced him. LJ frowned. “We begged him not to, December.”
“We had to find out who did this to Paige.” Knight shrugged. “No other option.”
“But we are sorry, all of us and especially me.” LJ touched my shoulder. “I lied to you.”
“You all did for me.” Royal gazed around. “You did for me. You knew what we needed to do, what I needed to do.”
“We did it for Paige,” Jax said. “It wasn’t all his fault, December. Letting you go? It was all of us. We wanted to protect you.”
And I was starting to understand that now. There wasn’t much out there that would make me lie or hurt Royal or now, any of them. But my sister was one of those exceptions. I’d do anything.
“So that day we were supposed to leave,” I stated, focusing on Royal. “The guys convinced you not to go with me?”
“Surprisingly, my father was the one to make me change my mind in the end.” He frowned. “He threatened me. He threatened you to the point where… I honestly questioned how much him covering this whole thing up had to do with me.”
Eight
Royal
This was hard, admitting all this to her, but it was the fucking truth and she deserved it. I called the guys all here today for support. We were all involved in this, and we all had to be here.
I took December’s hand again, so warm. I was putting her through the fucking wringer, this beautiful and sweet girl. I kissed her hand. “He told me to stay away from you. Threatened me if I didn’t.”
I took such a beating that night, one none of them, not even Jax, LJ, and Knight knew about. I kept that one close to the cuff.
December touched my cheek, her dark hair skating across her lovely skin. I wanted to touch her too and I did, my thumb parting her lips.
“So you pushed me away,” she concluded. She nodded. “You put me on a bus.”
I put her as far away from this place and my fucking dad as I could. He had basi
cally unlimited resources, could hurt her and her family. I couldn’t take the risk, not at that point. I nodded. “I did.”
“And the whole thing with Mira?” she stated, looking hurt. I hate that I fucking hurt her. It killed me. Still even today. She swallowed. “Being with her when I came back?”
The same. Once I knew she was back and in my life, I had to put up a brick wall.
I folded my fingers behind her neck. “I was going to do whatever I had to, to keep you away. To keep you safe.” And I had ultimately, some of the things still sickening me. I had to touch someone else to put up a divider from her. “I let her think it was because of the blackmail. She knew about the haze that night, how her dad helped cover it up. I let her think that’s what our relationship was. Easy.”
A shuddered breath shook her shoulders. “But why? Why would your dad even threaten me in the first place?”
“It definitely put my back up. All of our backs.” I gazed around the room at the guys, getting their nods. “We didn’t know if it was just about me at this point. If who attacked Paige was a drifter…”
“Or someone in house.” Knight whispered the words, working his hands like he was going to annihilate a motherfucker. I knew he would. We all would to get to the truth. “This brotherhood is tight.”
“So tight.” Jax wet his lips. “It could be anybody in the Court, so we made the decision to move into Windsor House.”
“I told my dad the move was because I wanted to get more involved with Court.” I smirked. “He leaped for fucking joy.”
“My grandpa too.” Knight lifted a brawny shoulder. He laced his fingers across his chest. “We’ve never been into the Court like they all have.”
“It was a good cover.” I frowned, my eyebrows narrowing hard. “Gave us time.”
“For?”
Beautiful, nut-brown eyes stared back at me, and I touched December’s cheek. “Remember those texts your sister sent me? The ones that said she was leaving and getting out of town?”
Those haunted me for such a long time, the presence of them causing me to deny our ultimate reality. It wasn’t until I’d seen the proof of Paige’s death, the images of what some sick fuck did to her body and what the autopsy report said that I allowed myself to actually believe something more to the story was going on. I finally admitted my friend hadn’t just skipped town and gotten in an accident, but was murdered and someone was covering it up.
“Yeah.” December squeezed my hand. “You said she sent them the next day. How was that possible?”
“It’s not,” I basically growled, knowing how false they were. “We had that redacted case folder un-redacted.”
“Cost basically all our college tuition to do it.” We all looked at Jax who shrugged. “What? It did.”
“What did it say?” December leaned in, and I took her other hand.
I called for strength. “You sister didn’t get hit a town over. She died, right there at Route 80 on the tracks, and a train later came through and dragged her away. She was ultimately found in Corrington Meadows but the murder happened there first. Those text were false. Someone sent them to me so I wouldn’t come looking, knew to send them to me of all people. That’s another reason why I thought my dad trying to protect me wasn’t just for me. Someone knew that I knew Paige. We looked everywhere for that cell phone. Tore up Windsor House, our houses.”
The color bled from December’s face. “She probably knew them, didn’t she? The person who hurt her?”
“Most likely, yeah.”
December’s skin paled a few more shades, and I wanted to stop. I didn’t want to do this to her anymore, but she wanted the truth. She wanted to be a part of this.
My throat jumped, so many things about this fucked up. “We’ve had everyone followed. Our dads, uncles, grandfathers.”
“Everybody but one.”
We all panned to Knight, but he had eyes on me.
Knight crossed a leg at the knee. “We haven’t looked into who actually started all this, the reason why your sister even did that haze and was out there in the first place.”
“You mean her girlfriend?” December sat up, and I bobbed my head once. “But why?”
“We honestly hadn’t even thought to.” LJ rested lanky arms on the table. “Not until Royal went down to California to see Paige and thought of her ex.”
“That had been my mistake,” I said. “Since Paige was clearly assaulted, I only kept my radar on the men of this town, but a woman could have been involved. It was real bad blood between your sister and her, Em, and I feel like a fucking idiot for not thinking about her. The reason they broke up? Really broke up was because the woman was married and wouldn’t leave her husband.”
Her lips parted. “What?”
“Yeah, it’s true. Paige knew she was married. Knew it was wrong. Even still, she continued to see her. The woman led her to believe she was end game, toyed with her for months.”
December cringed. “What happened?”
“She wasn’t end game.” I looked up. “I don’t know whether the woman chickened out or if it all was a lie… the whole thing concluded when her husband caught the two of them together. In the woman’s house, her bed. Paige was naked, embarrassed, but her ex let that fucker she called a husband toss Paige out without any clothes into the street like she was trash.”
The horror I still remembered in Paige’s eyes that day after it happened, and it took so much coaxing to even get the truth out of her. She was so embarrassed, heartbroken. Both parties had no business doing what they’d been doing, but it’d only been one to be tossed out naked into the road while the other slammed the door in the other’s face.
Paige had been enraged, wanting ultimate revenge. She could have gotten it from us, but she wanted it for herself. She wanted to be moving the pieces of the Court behind the scenes, to end this woman’s life like she knew the pull of the Court could. The Court could destroy lives, the benefits of living in a small town run by few. A few power plays, and the woman would be stripped of everything she held dear, to feel just an ounce of what she allowed Paige to feel. Thinking back, maybe that’s why everything had turned out the way it had. Revenge was a delicate and dark line to tread.
I wished it had been me in the end, that she let me do this for her. My friend might actually be alive, my soul able to be traded if only to keep hers.
December was shaking at this point, and I brought her into me. Her face had transferred two shades of pink, the flush close to accompanying tears but she held them inside.
Her lashes lowered. “Who is she, Royal?” she asked, easing closer to me. “Who is this woman who destroyed Paige’s life?”
I didn’t have an answer for her but couldn’t admit that and stayed silent. It was Knight who ultimately talked, my voice for me when I didn’t have one. How ironic since he was as quiet as he was.
“He doesn’t know,” he’d said. He frowned. “None of us do.”
This clearly shocking December, she sat up.
I cupped her arm. “She didn’t tell us, tell me. I think she thought we’d do something if we knew.”
“Damn right we would.” LJ smiled, and I did a little too. We’d do anything for her, anything.
I wet my lips. “She was supposed to tell me, all of us, after she finished the haze. She promised.”
“So her secret dies with her.” Fury ghosted December’s delicate features, dark hair against her flush cheeks. “And this woman gets away with everything she might have done in connection to the murder? Actually, she had everything to do with this. She’s the reason Paige even got into this stupid shit.”
What she said was all true, reality. A harsh breath flew from my lips. “We hoped finding her cell phone would lead us to the right place. Whoever has it. Hurt her, a direct link.”
“Or doesn’t.” She threw fingers through her hair. “What if they destroyed it? You really think someone would be that stupid to hold on to something like that?”
“You’d be surprised,” I said. “All it takes is one slipup for this whole thing to fall apart. Especially, if there are a lot of moving pieces.”
With my dad involved, there would be. He covered his tracks, but since he clearly didn’t do this, the other party or parties were rogue variables. They could slip up where he wouldn’t, and that, and only that, gave us hope.
“But we’ve checked everywhere for that thing, Royal,” Jax said, usually the voice of hope. He never gave up, always happy to fight another day. This whole thing had messed us all up. He laced his fingers. “We literally have torn up this entire town for that phone, and we haven’t found it. December might be right.”
The other guys said nothing and maybe that’s what they were thinking too, but I couldn’t go there. Not yet. I needed hope. I needed to bring justice for my friend. If I didn’t, I had nothing, couldn’t stomach to walk free in this world when my friend was dead, and the person responsible was still out there. It’d destroy me.
Soft hands moved over mine, and when I gazed up, December was facing the room.
“This might be out there and I don’t know where all you guys have already searched, but,” she started, then found my eyes, “have you checked your father’s vault? You know, the one at the jewelry store?”
Blinking, my eyes narrowed. “Dad’s vault? How do you know about that?”
I admit we hadn’t checked it, his customers’ valuables in there, and though he had his own, he kept the real good stuff overseas in international bank vaults all over the world. We’d have checked those, but doing so was basically impossible without his authorization.
December chewed her lip a little. “Ramses had my Kept necklace there,” she said, making my stomach sour. “Back when we told everyone we were dating, I went down there and got it. Your dad was there that day and took me into the vault to get it. Ramses couldn’t do it. He’d just been to the woods that night.”
Because we’d hazed him, all of this fucking darkness. I just wanted to be rid of it. I gripped her hands, and LJ touched my shoulder.