by Eden O'Neill
“But if your dad wiped it?” He could have, right? I shook my head. “So much can go wrong—”
“But so much can go right.” Royal lifted my hand. “Don’t lose faith. Yours is all I have.”
He’d said that so seriously, something in his eyes telling me he meant it. Who knew the emotional back-and-forth he’d been through before they brought me in on this? My hope may be all he had.
Vowing I’d be strong for the both of us, I allowed Jax to lead us inside the store, but as we crossed the threshold I wondered about the cameras. Wouldn’t we be all over them? Where the hell was Knight?
“Took you guys long enough,” Knight grumbled. He actually lounged inside the jewelry store’s back entry, LJ beside him. A sheet of polished glass and a set of double doors kept them and now us from actually accessing the merchandise part of the store. The building resembled much like a bank in that fashion, multiple secure entry points that could be either locked or opened to the public. Knight and LJ leaned on a wall next to a keypad by the doors, but both pushed off after seeing us. Knight frowned. “I disabled the security forever the fuck ago. You got the keys so we can actually get inside?”
Jax, I guess, had secured the keys from his cousin, pulling them out of his pocket and handing them to Knight. With keys in hands, Knight immediately went to those glass doors. He put one into the lock, turning it but stopped after a click. Right away, he moved to a keypad, punching in a random sequence of code, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Um, so he’s a hacker now?” I asked, and LJ’s chest bumped in laughter. I shook my head. “And how did you guys get in here?”
“The same way you guys did.” LJ chuckled, watching Knight in awe like the rest of us. “The first set of doors just uses a key code entry. Jax shot that over to us via text before you got here.”
“My cousin is an idiot and saves his work code on his phone. Swiped it and his keys at family dinner last night.” Jax dropped an arm over my shoulder. “He didn’t have access codes for the store front though. The store has a two-code entry. His other co-worker has that.”
“Which is why we have Knight.” Royal moved over to his friend, smirking as the guy worked. “He would have cracked the back-door codes if we let him, but I figured we’d give him a break.”
“But what about the cameras?” I asked, that’s a pretty big freaking deal. Who cares if we got into the building if we’d just be caught.
“On loop.” Knight stood back, another lock sound popping. There must have been two on the double doors. Knight opened one. “Did that while you guys were outside bullshitting. Come on. It’s on a timer. We only have maybe a couple hours.”
Astounded by Knight’s skill, I allowed myself to be led into a jewelry store once filled with staff and people. It was empty now, of course, the glass cases covered with velvet coverings. I didn’t know why I thought the floor would be lined with green security lasers and booby traps like in the movies, but today, it was just a jewelry store with dim lights on. The boys quickly moved us through it. Like they’d been there a million times and maybe they had since Royal’s dad obviously owned it. My phone buzzed right when we hit the elevators, and Knight growled at me.
“Turn that off,” he chided. “Some of these alarms are sound activated. I haven’t turned the ones in the vault off.”
Feeling bad, I quickly shut it off, seeing another text from Ramses. It was a picture of him and his dad, the two wearing skis. He really was in the Swiss Alps.
Royal raised a hand to Knight. “Lay off her. She didn’t know.”
“Well, that’s not a good enough excuse for us to get caught, now is it?”
Royal sneered perfect, white teeth. “I said lay off her—”
“Yo.”
Both men panned to me, my hands on my hips. I reserved a frown for each of them before shooting a finger at Knight. “You, don’t be an asshole. I didn’t know, and you do need to lay off.”
Knight’s dark eyebrows jumped the height of his face. He obviously hadn’t expected me to bite back the way I had.
I faced Royal next. “And you. I don’t need you to defend my honor. That’s very nice, but I’m good.”
That shot Royal’s luminous green eyes wide and got a chuckle from Jax. LJ actually had to choke back his own laughter from sounding in the room, and I think we all waited to see what would happen next. I didn’t tend to do much standing up when it came to Knight or Royal, so needless to say, I’d been surprised as fuck when Knight came over and grinned at me. Like legit he grinned, a full mouth of his own perfect teeth directed at none other than me.
He slapped a hand on Royal’s shoulder. “I guess I approve of her.”
My lips parted, actual shock stunning me silent. Knight took the opportunity to press the button to the elevator, and while we all waited, Royal nudged my shoulder. He grinned himself. “I guess that means you’re in.”
Apparently, it did. Who knew that’s all it’d take? Knight had never been my biggest fan and maybe he had lumped me in with the girls these boys had frequented in the past. He’d found me weak-minded potentially.
I guess no more.
The rest of the journey required Royal, his own set of keys, and later, his DNA. He had to use a personal keycard to get us to the right floor, something he said he’d had since birth. He’d just never had to use it. That got us to the right place, and once there, he pulled out another key he had.
I felt like I’d seen it before, a golden key. Seemingly random, he put that key into a box, and after he opened that box put his thumbprint to the plate inside.
The vault box instantly popped open.
I think we all waited with bated breath as, pushing up his sleeve, my boyfriend reached inside the box he’d chosen. He moved his hand around for a while, but in the end, he came up empty when he pulled his hand out.
“That’s my dad’s personal box,” he said, a sigh on his lips. “I thought it might be in there. He’s kept valuable things there before.”
“So what do we do now?” I asked, waiting. We were in a vault with no cell phone in the place we believed it’d be.
Royal wet his lips, and without another thought, he put that golden key into another box. He turned it, then did the same process with the thumb plate. That box opened too, and when he stepped away, he nodded at the boys. They immediately came over, searching the little box, then the next when Royal opened another.
Royal took off his jacket. “We search them all.”
And that’s exactly what we did. Royal had us search them all, each and every one as he went from box to box with what appeared to be a master key and his thumbprint. The bunch of us created an assembly line behind him, checking each box after he opened it.
Though I was told I didn’t need to help, I covered the most boxes. We stacked our coats, not an ounce of fatigue as we moved, but as time ticked down and more and more boxes came up with nothing but jewelry and other valuables, reality started to settle around us. How ironic we could be surrounded by so many jewels and wealth and not find value in any of it? At least, I hadn’t. The one thing we needed probably wasn’t worth even an iota of the cash and valuables in this room, but that didn’t matter. My sister’s cell phone far outweighed any value that could ever be in this place. That we knew and was why we kept searching despite coming up empty every time. Every box, every reveal got us closer, so we charged on. We remained hopeful…
It wasn’t until all those boxes were open, all those boxes were searched that we looked at each other. That we stopped. We stopped breathing. We stopped trying. We just stopped and even in the shock of that, no one moved. We just stood there.
Knight had been the one to break formation.
He’d checked his watch, coming over to Royal. My boyfriend was on his knees, rummaging through boxes we’d already checked and jewelry we’d already pushed around. My sister’s cell phone wasn’t there.
Try telling Royal that.
Royal pushed on, searching, and gathering
. He had probably a couple million dollars in his hands in fine diamonds, pushing them to the side like they were coal.
Knight folded a hand over his shoulder. “I can’t adjust the loop again, bro. If I do, it could set off a red flag.”
We’d been here longer than the two hours. We’d been here many hours, and Knight had adjusted the loop and security a few times. He said he could get away with it once or twice. But a third? He said that’d be pushing it. The store’s security system had learning science. Too many times would alert the security company and he’d told Royal that many times.
Even still, Royal searched the store vault box, Knight’s words as if gone unsaid. Knight nudged him. “Royal—”
“We’re not going anywhere,” he growled, tossing the jewelry. He literally threw it on the floor as if it was nothing. Forcing Knight out of the way, Royal routed to another box at his level, doing the same when he tossed a bunch of furs on the floor from another box. He’d searched that box in particular twice already. Maybe even three times. Royal sneered. “It’s here. It has to be. Something so valuable my dad wouldn’t let out of his sight.”
“Maybe he doesn’t have it.” Knight challenged. “Maybe this whole thing was pointless.”
“Well, maybe it’s not.” The look Royal shot Knight scared me and made Knight retreat. Lifting his hands, Knight backed off, making room for LJ who took his place.
LJ threw his fingers through his long, blond hair. “Hey. We need to call it, okay? It’s not here.”
“You don’t know that.” Royal gripped on to the box, a quaking volcano on the verge of eruption. “Now, quit fucking around and help me look.”
“Royal,” LJ started, but I pushed through, my hand on LJ’s shoulder. The boys made room for me then, and I lowered, on my knees with the prince of Windsor Prep.
I pushed my arms around him, quivering heat beneath my grip. It took that to finally stop him, make him see we couldn’t do this anymore.
“It’s not here, babe,” I urged, the words harsh for me as well. It was like someone told me I’d never be happy again, that it was over…
It was over.
We’d hit our dead end, the end of the line, but the thing was I couldn’t give in to the pain of that. My rock, my force of a boy, was on the cusp of breaking down, and that’s where I needed to be. I told him I’d be strong for him.
He needed me.
He leaned back into me, his huge body gripped his legs, and he closed his eyes. He didn’t want to hear what I said, closing his eyes. “Well, who has it, then, Em? Who? Where is it?”
That I didn’t know, but it was pointless still being here and risking getting caught. I made him stand with me, sliding my arms around his waist. “We’ll find it. Maybe Paige’s ex has it. We both think she could be connected to this. We could find her—”
“But how?” he growled at me now, snapping at me. I pulled away and so much emotion lined his lovely face. His jaw worked. “How would we? Paige wouldn’t tell me who she was.”
I knew that. I did.
Royal forced distance between us, seemingly mad at everyone now. Maybe even a little at himself. We couldn’t offer him anything, and he couldn’t offer anything for himself. He failed, and we had too, but one would have thought it was just him. Nothing but pure, unfiltered anger simmered off him, and that anger we let him have. He walked away from us, even me.
“She left me with nothing,” he said, barely turning his back before leaving the vault. In all this, I’d never heard him this way before. He’d had hope in his voice, always.
I guess no more.
Thirteen
December
I’d like to say things returned to normal after that. Normal… bullshit. There was no normal. Not in this town and where so much had happened. There was no normal for me or Royal, Knight, Jax, and LJ, but there was peace. There was a period of stability after prom season and when the weather finally started to change. It came around the period of when the flowers bloomed again and the world let in the sun once more. No, there would never be normal…
But there would be stillness.
There were lacrosse games. There was lacrosse season, which turned out to be more popular than football or even basketball. At least, in this town. No one showed up for Birdie, Shakira, and Kiki’s games during the winter basketball season like they had for the boys on the lacrosse field once their season began. As it turned out, the team trained throughout the whole year, preparing just for this time and a season that had the Windsor Preparatory Academy boys’ lacrosse team six and oh. They were undefeated.
They always would be with their current captain.
Royal led his team to victory again and again. I knew because I’d been at every one of those games. I showed up for him and in more than one way. I was there for his show on the field, the place he went to get out of his head. I was there for one of the few joys he had while putting away the troubles of the past. That’s all he could do. That’s all all of us could do. Eventually, we had to put our search to bed. Eventually, we had to move on and heal, and he’d taken that the most hard. He didn’t want to let go, and though I didn’t either, we had to move on.
We couldn’t be chased by ghosts forever.
My aunt Celeste had eventually come down. She’d moved in temporarily with my dad and me, and crazy enough, that had been a positive change. It’d been positive for me, nice to come home and food would be made and a familiar face there. She and Rosanna were like a tag team, the house filled with laughter so much of the time. Rosanna even got some time off with my aunt there and my aunt hadn’t driven my dad up the wall. If anything, the switch had been nice for him too. He was home so much more, many dinners where we would sit and eat together, and when Aunt C. eventually had to go back to California and work, my dad had been the first one to offer to help her get to the airport. He even hugged here there, longer than I ever thought he would. They were moving on, healing.
I attempted to do the same, watching from the bleachers while Royal scored points for his team. He had a freight train of muscle out there with him, LJ, Jax, and Knight always having his back. They were such good friends to him. They were such good friends to me. I called out to them all from the stands, waving, and on occasion, I got one back from all of them. They always looked out for me…
Oh, yeah, and one more.
Ramses eased across the field, only a full stride to every four of five of the opposing team. He clipped one of the Knightwood Prep boys with his shoulder, sending him down for the count and allowing Royal and crew to breeze by for our side. After, Ramses found me in the stands, flashing me a little teeth before picking up his feet and charging on with the rest of the team.
I shook my head at him, still floored that he’d decided to go out for the team. I’d honestly been flabbergasted when he told me about his intent toward the end of winter. I mean, he fucking hated Royal, and though my boyfriend wasn’t too keen on him either, the two had been surprisingly getting along and not just on the field. It’d been like my aunt and my dad in that sense, the pair clearly putting up with each other for me, but they had been doing that. Royal got over the fact whenever Ramses made his way over to our lunch table, and Ramses the same when he chose to sit at our lunch table. Ramses definitely had his own clique, still one of the most popular guys on the Court and at Windsor Prep, but he did take time sometimes to sit with us. And when he did, the two guys put up with each other, they played on the same team both on and off the field. There seemed to be a sort of truce after everything went down, and it only helped me. I’d missed Ramses, one of my good friends, and dare I say, he’d missed me too? He’d said he joined the lacrosse team because it’d look good on his college applications, but since he hadn’t given a fuck all year about grades or anything since he was so far ahead, I called bullshit on that. I only didn’t fight him on what he said because I did miss him too, the loser.
Smirking, I waved at him, calling out his name and clapping for him. We were
up in points, and though lacrosse hadn’t been Ramses’s forte, he quickly matched Royal, Jax, Knight, and LJ in skill on the field. Ramses, though a complete nerd, was obviously a seasoned sportsman. He was a jack-of-all-trades. He was good and told me he’d actually had a few recruits come out for him at today’s game. He was getting money thrown at him from everywhere apparently, and that only made me laugh. No one nicer could deserve it.
I stayed huddled with a lot of the girls this game, the breeze cool and filled with earthy, floral scents. It was so nice to have anything but winter and sadness, and I got even more of that when suddenly Kiki, Shakira, and I were joined by Birdie.
“I got in!” Birdie waved something our way, a paper in her hand as she scaled the bleachers. She’d been late to today’s game for a reason. Her dad said she’d gotten a college letter from Princeton. Of course, after school the first thing she’d done was go home. She’d said she would meet us at the game.
Apparently, she’d gotten into her dream school.
So excited for her, Kiki, Shakira, and I leaped up, grappling her like a band of idiots. We all nearly fell off the stands, and at that moment, our side scored yet another point against Knightwood Prep. The whole crowd freaked out, which was so funny with Birdie’s news. It was like they all cheered for her.
“Let’s see it,” I nudged, the letter passing between us. It was legit. Birdie was in, and we hugged her again. She’d been talking about Princeton for months, seriously her dream school.
“I know, right?” She had a flurry of brown curls in her face, pushing them away. “Ah! This is really happening. Dad says we’ll take a road trip over there during the summer. Isn’t that amazing?”
It was, and she immediately went into the details, explaining the scholarship she got for playing basketball. All the girls did. Kiki was going to UCLA, and Shakira got in at Northwestern. These girls were all making their dreams come true, and though I’d decided to stay here and go to community college, I was okay with that. I hadn’t wanted to leave, not ready yet. I hadn’t found my place in the world and didn’t want to make any moves until I did. I felt something was keeping me here.