Page 15
It isn’t an excuse. Just another layer of bullshit stacked on top of all the rest. Truth is, I’ve been avoiding it. Letting timing and chaos do the hiding for me.
Coward’s work.
“What’s going on?” DK asks, his tone sharpening immediately.
“Billy said something to me in the tunnel right before I killed him.” I let that sit for a second, jaw tight, then add, “It’s probably why I killed him.”
That’s bullshit, too. I was going to kill him anyway. God, why does this girl have me so wound up?
DK’s teeth catch the ring in his lip, tugging hard enough to pull the skin white around it. “Jesus. What did that asshole say?”
“He told me he raped Ari when she was in captivity.”
The words land in the cab like a grenade.
I don’t know what reaction I expected, but it’s no surprise when DK drives his fist into the dashboard hard enough to make the whole truck shudder. A vicious stream of curses tears out of him, raw and furious, ending with, “Son of a fucking bitch. Are you serious?”
I wince, half for his hand and half for the battering my truck just took.
“He said he took her virginity as payback to the King for killing his ‘brother.’”
“Fuck,” he exhales, the rage collapsing into something darker. “She passed the virginity test her uncle insisted on.”
“I know.” I grimace. “It’s not exactly foolproof.”
But, it’s enough that the contradiction has been gnawing at me ever since Billy said it.
DK flexes his hand, rolling his knuckles one by one like he’s checking for damage. “Do you think he was telling the truth?”
“Fuck if I know,” I admit. “He looked like he meant it, but he was also a liar, a manipulator, and a sadistic bastard who knew he was already dead. It could’ve been one last parting shot. Something to leave behind and poison everything after him.”
DK grunts, which in his language means he agrees.
For a moment, the only sound in the truck is the hum of tires on pavement. Then he says, “I assume you haven’t told her.”
“No.”
“Don’t,” he says immediately. “She doesn’t need that fucking with her head.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” But the words taste wrong the second they leave my tongue. There’s already so much of Arianette’s past locked behind broken doors and missing memories. So many pieces taken, buried, or hidden from her. This would just be one more truth kept out of reach. Only this time, I’m the one holding the key.
The road stretches black ahead of us, and the knowledge that the ring on DK’s finger doesn’t change the fact that we’re drowning in a swirling pool of chaos and deceit.
5
Arianette
I’d barely registered it when Damon came in and told me that someone would be watching me while he and Hunter went to the meeting with the Kings.
He’d said it while I still felt the warmth of him inside of me. The lingering stretch and fullness. The connection, binding me back to my men. It’s only when the nurse comes in that I fully connect with who else is in the room with me.
“I wanted to pop in with an update,” she says, before blinking at the new visitors—at the tall, ink-covered man and the blue-haired waif next to him. How long have they been here? “I’m sorry, I was instructed not to share this information outside the family.”
“Whoa,” Remy holds up his tatt-covered hands. “I’m next-of-fucking-kin. Do a blood test or check the goddamn registry.”
She glances at me, and I don’t know what else to do but nod. Remy is Timothy’s son. He has a right to be here.
The nurse exhales and says, “The surgery is still underway, a little more than halfway through. The injury is in a precarious spot near an artery. The doctor is being careful.”
