by Eden O'Neill
It had to be.
I took up about three parking spaces when I parked. For one, because I didn’t know how to frickin’ drive this thing, and for second, because Royal was actually coming out of county lockup the moment I showed up. He was basically being dragged down the steps by his father who not only looked pissed the hell off but showed him that when he jerked him. I didn’t know whether Royal was over that or just standing up for himself because the next thing I knew Royal shoved his father back. Like literally shoved him to the point where he stumbled in his leather shoes and trench coat. The swing came out of nowhere, and it had to have because it caught Royal right in his eye. His dad sent him down for the count, and I threw myself out of the car.
“Royal!”
This gained Mr. Prinze’s attention in ways it had before, the man assaulting his son only for other witnesses to see. I’d been that witness two times now.
“This is family business,” the man in a trench coat growled at me, and with what I knew now about him, it took all I had in me not to attack him. He covered up my sister’s murder, but right now, he definitely didn’t need to know I knew that. It was pertinent so we could keep up our search for evidence. Because of that fact and only that, I ended up on me knees in the chilly winds instead of punching the man’s lights out.
“Royal…” His eyebrow was bleeding, not a direct hit this time to his eye. He lifted a hand as if he was fine, and seeing that, Mr. Prinze charged forward.
He grabbed Royal’s arm. “I said this is family business—”
“Fuck off, Dad.” Royal got to his feet, pulling away from his dad and grabbing me. He did so to shield me, but when his dad appeared to be coming at him again, I did the shielding.
I put a hand out, one between the both of them.
“He’s coming home with me,” I gritted, daring that man to come at me and strike my boyfriend again. I shook my head. “Sorry, Mr. Prinze, but he is.”
Truth was, I wasn’t sorry. I wanted him to fucking bleed, but I needed Royal safe. I didn’t know what he’d do to him if they went home together.
I think what I said surprised both of them, Royal’s eyebrows jumping just as steadfast as his father’s. It must not have frazzled him long because in the end, Royal chose me.
“Leave, Dad,” he said, standing up to him again. His throat jumped. “I appreciate you bailing me out, but I’m not going with you. Sorry.”
He seemed even less sorry than I did, and eyes wild, I wondered if Mr. Prinze would strike us both, strike me. A glance at his watch took him in another direction.
Eyes of a dull green shifted our way. They weren’t bright like his son’s. They were dark, cold. Mr. Prinze’s eyes narrowed. “You’re lucky I’m late for a flight out of town on business. You haven’t heard the end of this, boy. You have to come home eventually.”
He may be right, but he wasn’t going home now. Not tonight and definitely nowhere with him.
Done with us, Mr. Prinze shifted on his patent leather shoes, and like clockwork, a chauffeured car pulled up right in from of him.
I pushed arms around Royal’s waist, and Royal brought me in as his dad got inside. He rubbed my arm, turning away from his dad, who gave us both a death stare. The man quickly peeled off, and after, Royal kissed the top of my head.
“You’re braver than me,” he said, and I laughed, but only for a short while. The blood on his eyebrow dripped a stream down his cheek. I attempted to touch it, but Royal squinted. He angled his cheek away. “Don’t freak. I’m sure it looks worse than it is.”
“Maybe, but either way, you’re coming with me,” I said, taking his hand. “We’re going home.”
*
I’d been so quick to the precinct I missed Jax, LJ, and Knight in the end. They arrived after us, and Royal and I got the text while we were on my dad’s couch. He wasn’t home from work yet, just the two of us, and currently, I was on my knees in front of Royal, cleaning up his face. I dabbed at the cut above his eye with some stuff that made him curse, not the best at this, but I think I got the right thing. The liquid bubbled over his wound, and he had stopped bleeding.
“The guys want to know where we are,” Royal said, reading his phone. Touching the cut with a cotton ball, I got him good in the eyebrow again and he lowered his phone with a cringe. “You trying to heal me or hurt me, princess?”
“Shut up.” I put some ointment on it, then handed him a princess Band-Aid for being smart. “Put it on yourself since I can’t do this right.”
I started to get up, but he got me by the hips. A quick maneuver and I was on his lap, straddling his hips.
He settled my weight on him, slinging heavy arms around my waist.
“I want you to do it,” he said, giving me big, green puppy dog eyes. “Please.”
It’d be hard to deny him with as warm and as hot as he was, and in the end, I succumbed, taking the Band-Aid from him. I put that Disney princess design right on his cut, pressing a finger on each side to secure it. I did it slow, clearly bothering him but apparently not enough for him to push me away. Heavy arms brought me closer to the heat between his legs, his eyes closing as he rubbed me against him. He was hard and touched his mouth to my blouse.
“What happened?” I asked, pushing my fingers into blond hair that smelled so good. I buried my face in it. “At the Sheriff’s office?”
Clearly killing the mood, Royal tossed his head back, smoothing his hands over my bottom when he settled back into the couch. “Mira. I guess she mentioned me in her suicide letter. Her dad found it this morning. It was in an envelope on his desk. He said he must have missed it since he’s always got a bunch of shit on it.”
“What did it say?” I moved my legs, no longer straddling him when I sat on his lap. He let me, holding me to him with strong arms.
“Only that she was sad,” he said, frowning. “That she was in love with me, but I made her life miserable. That’s ironic as fuck since she made my life miserable. She was manipulative and tried to use what she knew about the haze to ruin my life. I told you why I gave in to her.”
To push me away, the only reason. I looped my arms around his neck. “Why would she say that?”
He sat with that, irises flickering up. “I guess to ruin me even in death. The last thing she said before she died to me was I’d regret leaving her.”
Had she meant that? Killed herself really over him? It was so sick, sad. I swallowed. “Why did you have her cell phone?”
“I didn’t.” He wrestled fingers through his dusky blond locks. “She must have put it there, wanting to beef up the letter or something. Anyway, it was evidence enough for them to bring me in. They couldn’t charge me with anything because I didn’t do anything. They had to let me go and did once my dad showed up. They gave me a call. I decided to use it on him since I didn’t know what I was dealing with. I’m regretting that now, and don’t you ever do what you did today again. Don’t stand up to my dad. Don’t fucking talk to him.”
“Why?”
He tossed me on my back, literally maneuvered me underneath him. He pinned me down, and when he forced his fingers into my hair, guiding me to look up at him, my heart raced.
He was so beautiful, shallow breaths releasing from perfect lips. I touched one, and he kissed my finger, his tongue touching the tip.
Harsh heat simmered between my legs, Royal’s hard length pressing into my stomach.
“He won’t ever hurt you,” he said, pulling my thumb into his mouth and sliding a hand beneath my skirt. He pushed into my underwear, cupping me. “And you make it harder for me to protect you if you do things like that. Don’t ever stand up to him, December. Don’t ever. Promise me.”
“I promise,” I sighed, trembling when he slid a finger inside me. He dipped in deep. In and out. In and out, and I rocked my hips up to meet his strokes. He only just had me on the brink of falling apart when a pound hit the door, both of us jumping. The knock followed three more, and next thing I knew, taps were hitting t
he window of the living room.
I tossed a head back into the couch the same time Royal looked up, and what did we get? Jax’s fucking grin staring at us through my dad’s window.
“They’re in here, guys,” he said, waving both Knight and LJ over. Jax’s grin widened. “And they’re basically fucking.”
Once Royal had gotten off me—and removed his hand from my panties—we got ourselves together enough to open the door and let the cockblockers inside my dad’s house. They came casually, sans uniforms unlike Royal and myself. They must have gone home to change, and the only reason I let them inside was because I happened to get a call from my dad basically as they came in. He said he was going to be working late, but he wanted to make sure I had the alarm system on, something I had the guys check after I got off the phone. With everything going on in this town, it didn’t hurt to have some added security, I guess, and the boys not only checked that but double-checked. They were apparently with my dad on this, and after they got the place locked down like Fort Knox, they immediately moved into raiding my dad’s fridge.
“Dude! He’s got chocolate milk!” Jax proclaimed, then frowned at me. “Sorry, December.”
I shrugged. Just because I didn’t drink milk didn’t mean they couldn’t. The boys quickly got their bounty, and soon, we were back on the couch, me in Royal’s lap while he explained again what went down at the sheriff’s station. The guys all thought what happened was bullshit—which it was—and even more so when Royal’s father came into the picture.
“One day that fucker is going to get what’s coming to him,” Jax stated, regarding Royal’s dad. He’d said it a little hesitantly, looking to Royal. Maybe he thought he may feel some kind of way about saying something like that about his Royal’s dad, but since Royal didn’t disagree with him, I think what he’d said had been cool between them. This was a messed-up situation, and I was sure Royal did feel a little conflicted about all of it.
I mean, at the end of that day, that was his dad.
I had one of those too, and I got being conflicted. There were some times I really wanted to hate my dad and others when I just wanted him to be my family, my dad. Especially after losing not just my mom but Paige.
Wow, we held so many similarities there, didn’t we?
Royal obviously didn’t talk about it, but he lost a mom and a sibling too, and as the boys and I vegged out on my dad’s couch, we all got into trying to relax into what assuredly was not a relaxing town. Maywood Heights held some dark secrets, a murderer most likely still within its borders and maybe even more than one. We lost an opportunity to go to the Prinze family jewelry store today with Royal’s arrest. I think we all came to the conclusion that right now lying low was best for the present, and as Royal later pointed out, his dad gave us an opportunity since he was headed out of town. Apparently, he was going to be gone all weekend according to Royal, so it’d be the perfect time to get down to business on a sleepy Sunday since no one came downtown. In regards to tonight, the guys offered to sit with me so I wouldn’t have a night alone in my dad’s house. I wasn’t alone. Rosanna may not be here on the weekends, but I had Hershey. I later brought her downstairs, but these boys I was quickly learning were very protective. I idly wondered if Paige had to deal with that too, but knowing her, she was most likely doing the protecting.
After the guys went back to my dad’s fridge for more snacks, we were all on the couch. Hershey in my arms, I held out several movie options for us all to pick through for the night.
“Okay, so these are our options outside of my dad’s political thrillers,” I said. Dad had a shelf full of them lining his office, so I made do with what I had, tossing the three DVDs on the ottoman for the boys to root through.
Four mini mountains eased off cream-colored suede, but it was Royal to smirk at the DVDs. He pointed a finger. “Legally Blonde?”
I shrugged. “Paige’s favorite.”
“And a classic.” Lounging back, Jax pulled large arms behind his head. “I vote for that.”
“Well, I don’t.” Royal moved it aside. “That leaves Space Jam and My Girl.”
Knight and LJ immediately lifted a finger. “Space Jam,” exclaimed on their lips but Royal and I did something different. The words, “My Girl,” fell from our mouths at basically the same time, which honestly caused both his brow and mine to shoot up.
The other three guys smirked.
“Of course, that’s the one you want, Royal.” LJ reached out for the My Girl DVD, then slid it over to me. He relaxed back. “Might as well put that one in, December. It was like Royal and Paige’s anthem or something.”
“Was not.” Royal threw a pillow at him and when LJ tossed it back, Royal picked it up and slammed him over the head with it.
“Doth thou protest too much?” LJ chuckled, boys way too large fighting each other off on the small couch. What was really hilarious was Jax was in the middle of them, getting a few slams himself and eventually, Knight pulled the pillow away and threw it across the room—killjoy.
Royal pushed his dress sleeves up his forearms, throwing his wingspan back across the couch. He shrugged. “I guess we thought we were Vada and Thomas J. or something.”
“Sure did.” Jax chuckled. He directed a thumb at Royal. “They were even each other’s first kiss.”
Now that floored me, and something I obviously hadn’t known. I propped my hands on my hips. “Really?”
Royal rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and it was the worst thing ever. I swear I washed my goddamn mouth out.”
“How do you think Paige felt?” Jax settled a popcorn bowl in his lap, scarfing a ton of what the boys hadn’t eaten after they’d popped it. He grinned. “She went swiftly gay after that—”
“Shut the fuck up.” Royal slugged him, actually getting on top of him and ripping his shirt a little. Jax was losing his shit the whole time, laughing, which I think only made Royal pissed off more. Eventually, Royal got Jax under his arm. He growled, “Apologize.”
“Sorry, bro. Sorry!” More chuckles from Jax, but when they both smiled, I knew Royal wasn’t too hurt by what Jax said. I still was surprised by the whole kiss thing. I mean, my sister was clearly gay, and after putting in the DVD, I walked over to the male-infested couch. Royal opened his arms for me, and after tucking me under one and cradling Hershey in his other, he rubbed my arm. “It wasn’t a thing,” he said. “We were a girl and a prepubescent boy. Had to get it out of the way, I guess.”
Made sense, I supposed, but it was still weird. I exchanged my snacks for Hershey who quickly bounded over to my lap, sending my Skittles flying. We were all about to clean up this fucking house before my dad came home. The boys got popcorn everywhere when they fought.
The movie queued up, and we all settled in as the credits started.
Jax crunched on some Doritos. “Didn’t that kiss happen at your birthday party, Royal? That one where your dad rented out a whole goddamn amusement park.”
Royal smirked, dragging a finger down my arm. “Believe me, the showboating wasn’t for me. Dad always likes to make a statement.” He tipped a chin at Jax. “And yeah, it was my tenth birthday, but that wasn’t the year dad rented the amusement park. That was my ninth. The tenth was the circus.”
“I thought that was your eighth.” LJ was dismissive about the statement, watching the movie. “The eighth was the circus, right?”
“Nope,” Royal stated, reaching over and grappling a bunch of popcorn. “That was the tenth.”
LJ lifted his head. “Oh, yeah. Right.”
They all sat with that for a moment before Jax spoke again and almost got a foot to the face for it. Royal was really into the movie and kicked him.
Jax flipped him off. “I was just going to say the circus was the seventh. I remember that.”
“It wasn’t. It was the tenth. Now, shut the fuck up.” Reaching around, Royal shoved Jax’s head forward, and I laughed.
Jax didn’t, though, shaking his head. He pouted. “Oh, right. You
didn’t have a birthday party that year since…”
The credits had faded, and the movie had begun, but that didn’t mean anyone was focused on it anymore. Everyone was staring at Jax, someone who paused right in the middle of devouring a chip.
I sat up. “Why didn’t he have a party?”
True silence going on right now outside of the movie and absolutely no one was listening to it. All attention had shifted to Royal, someone who was suddenly bracing the popcorn with a death grip in his hand. Unfurling his fingers, he casually ate what he had.
“Because, uh, I got sick that year,” he passed off, panning toward the flat screen again. “Too sick for a party.”
“Really?” I questioned. “What happened—”
“December.” The warning came from Knight, his head shaking. Jax and LJ had all but looked away, and I faced Royal when he brushed my arm with two fingers.
The beautiful boy smiled a little at me, a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Pneumonia,” he passed off again. “Almost took me but it didn’t.”
Christ, and how terrible? That was bad, but I didn’t understand why things suddenly got so weird, though. Nor why no one was watching the movie anymore. They all seemed hell-bent in sitting in this awkwardness, then watching Royal when he stood.
“I’m going to get some more popcorn,” he said, taking the time to pause the movie. He tossed the remote on the ottoman. “Want anything?”
Since the question had been directed at me I shook my head and Royal reached down, bending my head forward to kiss the top.
“I’ll be back.” He left me with that, left us all with that, and LJ kicked Jax.
“Go with him,” LJ growled, and Jax immediately popped off the couch.
“Eh, bro. I need something,” Jax exclaimed, traipsing after Royal, and once they cleared the room, I ran my hand over Hershey’s head.
“What was that about?” I asked, Hershey leaning into my touch. She fell on her back for a belly rub, really getting too big for that with her size, but I gave into her anyway. I smiled at her, but the guys weren’t smiling at all.