by Eden O'Neill
Why he was asking I didn’t know, and his other texts had been asking me to call him. He didn’t call himself, but he really wanted me to call for some reason.
Me: Home is far away from Arizona. I’m not coming back. I’m sorry about how things ended. I know you were just trying to help that night.
My phone buzzed, but not with a text. Ramses’ name flashed on my screen, and I thought about answering just because I had felt bad about how I’d been so shitty to him.
Ultimately letting the phone go to voicemail, I sent another text.
Me: Please don’t call. I’m not going to answer. Goodbye, Ramses, and thank you again for what you did for me.
To cement that, I blocked his number, removing his text messages. I obviously couldn’t explain to him what really happened, that I’d been kidnapped and brought back to the place that had become central to my nightmares. I needed his calls and texts to stop, so I made that happen.
One less thing I had to deal with.
The wait for Birdie I passed by either staring through the window or lying down on a bed half the size of the room. Windsor House’s rooms dwarfed my old bedroom, and the whole day virtually passed before I finally got not a phone call but a text message from my friend.
Birdie: I’m so sorry, December, but you staying with me isn’t going to work out. I asked Shakira and Kiki too, but no dice. I’m so sorry. I thought you’d be able to stay. It just won’t work. My dad’s being funny, and I couldn’t get him to budge. I’m so sorry!
But she’d been so sure, and I threw my phone at the bed, not knowing what else to do. I felt like a prisoner both physically and in my own head. I told Royal I had friends, resources.
So much for those.
A knock hit my door, and I’d been so pissed the fuck off I was almost ninety percent sure whoever it was I’d punch in the goddamn face. Especially if it was Royal. I’d punch him for trapping me here, for literally being my only resource for survival. I most certainly looked amped the fuck up when I opened the door and most assuredly looked pissed, so when I whipped open that door, I wasn’t surprised Jax had stepped back. Like he physically stepped back like I was going to tackle him.
I didn’t see what he had, or should I say… who until I finally came out of my head cloud and gazed down at his burly arms. He had a puppy there, my puppy, and she was literally huge! Hershey climbed all over Jax’s arms, face, and everything. She was amped to hell too, yipping and trying to wrestle herself free.
“Jesus, Lindquist.” Jax blanched, putting more distance between us. “What’s your deal? I was just going to give you the damn dog. You look like you’re going to hit someone.”
I kind of was, but all that was forgotten as I put out grabby hands for my cute big girl. A thought triggered she might not remember me, but as soon as Jax slid her over, all that was forgotten.
She licked my face, immediately filling me with adrenaline and dopamine and all kinds of other shit I learned about in science class I couldn’t think of right now.
“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh! Hi. Hi, honey,” I crooned, squeezing her. She licked my face, giving me her little dog smile, and I laughed, rubbing her. “I missed you so much. You don’t even know.”
The void she left couldn’t be filled, my one regret taking off so quickly, but the wound from that started to mend at the feel of her in my arms again.
Jax laughed, folding his colossal arms. “Well, it seems I did good.”
Not if he stole her, stole her from a friend. I shook my head. “You didn’t take her from Rosanna, did you?” That’s where she’d been staying.
Jax rolled his eyes. “No, Lindquist. Hershey goes to the vet for daycare during the day while Rosanna works. Right, little girl?” He petted her like he knew her, and when she started licking his face, I knew he did.
My eyes widened. “So you took her from there?” I asked, not really okay with how comfortable he was with my dog. It was like they really knew each other, played with each other. Excited, Hershey actually jumped out of my arms and to the floor, and Jax got right down there with her.
“Yes, and no,” he said, getting her on her back. He rubbed her belly while she wagged a leg. He looked up at me. “Well, yes, basically. The daycare she stays at is Royal’s uncle’s practice. You remember he’s a vet, right?”
How could I forget? I’d been inside when the entire facility burned around me. If it hadn’t been for quick thinking that night, Royal… I swallowed. I guess his uncle got his practice up and running again.
“He’s got a new place on Wright Street, doesn’t he?” he crooned at Hershey, looking pretty freakin’ funny with how big he was. A boy and his dog. He flopped her ears. “Anyway, Hershey’s there all day playing with the other dogs. Rosanna doesn’t even know she’s gone.”
“And they let you just take her?”
“For the day, yeah, and every day if you want.” He frowned. “I mean, unless you don’t want me to take her for you…”
I hunkered down, bringing Hershey to me.
He grinned. “That’s what I thought, and how about a little thank you? I did get your dog for you.”
I really didn’t want to owe any of these boys any more favors, but they kept giving me things, things I couldn’t turn down like safety, shelter, and now my dog, and though I didn’t really want to accept them, I felt compelled.
I played with Hershey, Jax watching me. I really did want Hershey here. But my thoughts couldn’t help but wonder at what cost.
Seventeen
December
Jax turned out to be yet another dutiful flunky for Royal Prinze. He not only brought Hershey and returned her to the vet each day, but also got me pretty much anything I wanted. He made sure I had food and even got my clothes cleaned when I asked. I didn’t have to leave my room, but did at night and in the early mornings. That seemed to be when I heard fewer voices outside my door, and I didn’t hear many. In fact, so few, I idly wondered if I’d been put in this section of their Court palace so I wouldn’t be around a lot of people. I saw no one, not even the boys, outside of Jax who checked on me daily. He’d bring Hershey before school in the morning, giving me updates like how she’d been fed or if she needed to be walked, and it truly showed the power of Royal’s hand. He had this guy doing whatever he wanted, all of them.
Even me.
I mean, I was in his place, on his turf and doing exactly what he wanted. Realizing that, I did start to go out more, keeping to myself as I passed staff and stayed in the more dormant areas of Windsor House. That proved easier to do as people didn’t tend to go above the first couple floors and I was on the fourth. Over the captivity, I decided to start taking the walks I did do with Hershey out on the property a bit. This was nice because since it was so cold, people didn’t go outside, but I found myself liking the cold. I never thought I would, despite the name my parents had given me, but I felt myself at home in it when my boots crushed ice and snow. Hershey made it even more fun to enjoy. Especially when it snowed. She liked to run and play in it, not the only dog at Windsor House. The guys had a ton here, like literally all kinds of breeds. They mostly ran around the House, but sometimes I’d catch a groundskeeper playing with a hound outside. That happened today, and after letting Hershey tire herself out with the other pup, we took our walk back to the House. We usually liked to walk through the stables because, well, this place had fucking stables. They were heated and everything, a nice way to put some warmth back in the two of us before going back to my prison. Hershey trotted happily all the way through, but the pair of us stopped suddenly at the sight of another up ahead.
Royal had his own puffer coat on, snowflakes coating the jacket and his blond locks. He wrestled them out of it, his cheeks flushed as he guided a horse back into a stall. The horse sprinkled with snowflakes too, the pair had clearly gone out for a morning ride, but he stopped when a man came charging into the stables.
I recognized the man as his dad.
Hershey and
I stayed back, and I hunkered down, keeping the puppy by my side.
“What’s this?” his dad asked him, some kind of paper in his hand. He wore a long wool coat, black gloves on his hands and a tight scarf around his neck. The scarf resembled the colors of Windsor Preparatory Academy, the school’s blood obviously running deep in him. He started to hand the paper to Royal, but he didn’t seem to need to. Barely looking at it, Royal kept pushing the horse into the stall.
“An acceptance letter to flight school,” Royal said, locking up the stall. He looked at his dad. “But you can throw it away. I’ve got other things on my mind these days.”
Petting Hershey, surprise at what Royal said rattled within me. I obviously didn’t know a lot about Royal, but the fact he desired to go to flight school definitely surprised me. I didn’t know why, though, just surprising.
His dad lowered the letter. “Why do I get the feeling those ‘things’ don’t have anything to do with college?”
Royal started to leave but stopped, his dad’s hand on his arm. His dad braced his arm, actually jolting Royal he had to stop so suddenly.
His dad stared him down. “You had no business even applying for this program.”
“Then why does it matter?” Royal asked, sliding his arm out of his dad’s grip. “You’re getting what you want.”
“Am I?” the man asked, shaking his head. “I checked, Royal. Dartmouth, Yale, and even Harvard haven’t heard from you, and your acceptance letters came over a month ago.”
Royal said nothing, but I noticed his hand, a dark glove clenching and unclenching at his side. His dad was rattling him, getting to him.
His dad got closer. “What are you trying to pull? Do you know all I’ve sacrificed for you? All I continue to sacrifice for you? If you did, you wouldn’t be playing these games.”
“Why don’t you tell me, Dad?” Royal said, different than how I’d seen him with his dad before. Last time I came across them he looked almost fearful of him, but today, today he was standing up to him. Royal shook his head. “Tell me exactly what you’ve sacrificed for me.”
His dad didn’t need to say… because he hit him, actually hit him and not some tap. His dad struck him, socked him across his jaw with the force of a man to an enemy, and that blow sent Royal down clear to his knees.
“Royal!”
Everything stopped, the pair looking at me as I charged over with my dog at the lead. Royal’s dad didn’t even move, watching me, and Royal himself did too, his eyes wide as I got to my knees with him. The blow had charged his face a hot red, and when I attempted to touch him, he moved away.
Soft green irises ignited like emerald fire, Royal’s gaze leaving me and shifting to his dad.
His dad lifted his chin. “I recognize you. Rowan Lindquist’s girl, right?” He looked at Royal. “Is she staying here?”
Royal moved his jaw a little, his nod subtle as his gaze averted. How quickly he’d gone back into a shell beneath the man before him, the position of power shifting. It pissed me off, and even though Royal wouldn’t let me touch him, I stayed close. I didn’t know what I could do, but I wasn’t leaving his side.
His dad pocketed a hand. “Change that,” he said, and before I knew it he was crinkling up the paper, the acceptance letter to flight school. He tossed it at Royal. “And get rid of that. I don’t want to hear anything about it again.”
He started to walk away, but Royal said his name, a soft but present, “Dad…”
It was enough to make the man turn. He wet his lips. “You’ll do what I say. You owe me at least that for taking your mother and sister away from me.”
My eyes widened, but Royal closed his lips, looking away. His dad charged into the winter air, and when the stable closed, I reached for Royal again.
He didn’t let me, standing.
“Royal—”
He whipped around. “You get off on watching shit like this? Spying on me?”
I had before, seen him before with his dad. I approached. “Of course not.”
He shook his head, his hands up. “What are you doing out here?”
I gazed down at Hershey currently using her leash to wrap Royal and me together. She snugged us in, and even though Royal let her for a second, he pulled his legs out. He started to walk away, but I called him.
“You shouldn’t let him hit you,” I said, completely overstepping here, but I didn’t care. He took that, took it so easily like it’d been done before. For all I knew it could have, many, many times, and I saw that in his eyes when he faced me. I cringed. “And I’m sure whatever happened with your mom and sister—”
He closed the distance between us in seconds, his finger pointed at me. “Don’t think you know me or know anything about me and my family. My dad may be an asshole, but that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve it.”
Shocked he said that, I stood back.
Especially because of what he said next.
“I never should have let Knight bring you back here,” he said, the words a hard swallow in his throat. He dampened full lips. “You need to go. I can arrange for—”
“I’ll be out tonight,” I stated, making him blanch. I nodded. “And I don’t need any more favors from you.”
The heat in his eyes alleviated a little, and his lips parted, like he wanted to protest.
He didn’t.
He walked away, leaving me in the stables with Hershey. The door slammed shut behind him, and I fell to my knees. I stayed there for a little while.
But after that, I made a call.
Eighteen
Royal - Age 16
“God, you’re such a ho.”
So she’d noticed my hair, the lipstick on my jacket. Girls tended to like marking me these days.
Smirking, I only shook my head to find Paige Lindquist on my bed. I left my window open, always had since we were kids. We did that for each other.
“Fuck your judgment,” I said, teasing, then got serious when I noticed the bag by my bed. I frowned. “You staying?”
She had before, for a little while. My dad couldn’t fucking know about that shit, but it got easier and easier to hide things from him since he spent so much of his time juggling himself between Model A and Model B. I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Paige crossed her legs at the ankles, on her cell phone. She shrugged. “Dad caught me in my room with a girl.”
“So who’s hoing now?”
She directed a finger. “Okay, so not okay for you to say that. I’m a girl, you bitch, so take your slut-shaming somewhere else, and yes, you’re a ho because every time I come over here, I got to check and see if you and one or three will already be in here before I come in.”
“Last I checked, you took one or two of those from me before,” I stated, eyeing her.
She grinned. “It’s not my fault I’m hotter than you.”
I made a face when she said that. Paige Lindquist hadn’t been a member of the opposite sex to me since we were kids when I realized she was more of a bro than a chick. I stripped off my shirt, tossing it for another.
She looked up over her phone. “You going somewhere?”
“A party,” I said, working it on, and she shook her head.
“From life number one to life number two. You think you’d be tired after schmoozing all night with the other royalty from the Court kingdom.”
She always had something to say about the Court, and I didn’t blame her. It took me away a lot, away from her and our friendship, but I couldn’t help it with the opportunities the affiliation to the Court allowed me. I basically got free rein of any college I wanted, connections, and though I felt bad about leaving her all the time, it didn’t have to be that way. She could be involved with the Court and take advantage of all the perks too. She just chose not to.
“You know you can go to these things with me,” I stated, tucking just the front of my shirt in. “Join Court?” It’d never been done before, a girl joining the Court without dating or be
ing married to one of the guys, but everybody loved Paige. If me, Jax, Knight, LJ, and the other guys fought for her, she’d get in. I frowned. “You stopped coming to these things with me, but you didn’t have to.”
And I never got that. We went to so many of these Court events together when she first moved here and we became friends. That first one had been something, the two of us getting into all kinds of shit and working my dad’s nerves. He got on me pretty bad that night, but for the first time, I hadn’t cared. I hadn’t been… scared.
Paige made me different, better, and I didn’t care about all the shit with my dad. It made it all a lot easier to deal with.
Paige actually lowered her cell phone after what I said, and I figured she’d say something like she always did, how the Court was a cult or some other shit like that.
“Paige?” I questioned. Paige Lindquist was never one to lack for words, but she was now.
She shrugged, passive about it. “I just don’t like going.”
“You just don’t like going,” I parroted. I tossed my dress shirt at her, and she caught it easily, one of the best on the lacrosse team with me.
She balled it up. “Things just got weird that last time we went, with one of the guys there?” She rolled her eyes. “He got handsy, and it freaked me out, I guess.”
I froze, seeing nothing but red.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked, coming over. “Who got handsy with you?”
We’d literally been all of twelve the last time the pair of us went to one of these things together, so if someone came after her, touched her…
“Oh, bro down, caveman. It’s not a big deal.”
“Paige,” I gritted. “Who? Did someone touch you?”
“No, I didn’t let him,” she said, sitting up and looking like she accomplished something. “And I’m not telling you who because you’ll go make a thing of it.”
“You’re damn right I’ll make it a thing. If some… sick bastard was trying to touch a kid, then yeah, I’m going to make a thing of it.”