Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
AUDREY
The Kenton Home
I surround myself with Neanderthals. Laying back on Lexington’s bed, I questioned the intelligence I had if these were my chosen friends.
The thought was fleeting yet stirred decade old hurt, nonetheless.
The contemplation of which secrets I would have to reveal to remain inconspicuous weighed heavily on me.
Preoccupying myself, I tried to set up my board for the plays I would need to make, but Lexington rudely interrupted my scheming.
“We’ve all completed our first trial, except you, Audrey.” His inquisitive tone snapped me back to the present, as I realized they were all now silently staring at me, waiting.
“You’ve been very tight-lipped about what exactly you had to do.”
“Wait…you’ve all done your first trial? When?”
“Little Viper, where’s your head? That’s what we’ve been discussing all morning,” Worth dryly stated, staring at me so intensely it felt like he was stripping my mind bare.
“If I didn’t know our Little Queen better, I would say that you almost look…
afraid,” he finished, smirking and giving me a quick wink before he turned around to Lex.
“The brothers once again pulled a bait and switch. Lexy-Boo completed Worth’s trials while Worth was…out.” Ellery picked up the thread, tilting his head at Worth. “He was left hog-tied out at the arena and told to find a way back before the ice completely liquified.”
Nodding to Lexington, he continued, “And get this—brosef’s trial was to survive a whole night. Alone. They tied him to Worth’s bed and replayed hours of recordings of someone being kidnapped and tortured to make him believe Worth was gone.”
Chills skated down my spine as my fears were confirmed. I always knew my trial was different, or that I would be doing each of the five trials, plus the additional one I was selected for, alone.
“So, we were all taken in the past week?” I pondered out loud, wondering why the last two of our five had yet to say what they had to face. “Speaking of, has anyone seen Lilah today?”
Ellery jolted as if my question electrocuted him.
Their feelings toward each other were one of the worst-kept secrets in this town.
Everyone in Alabastor Cove knew that the heir of the Remington fortune was completely infatuated—embarrassingly so—with the vonBermere beauty.
And we also all knew she felt something for him in return, though she would never go against her family to claim him as hers.
Their relationship was like a Shakespearean tragedy just waiting to happen—a bond that neither would be able to break, but a truth neither had yet to accept.
The vonBermeres were old money, older than my adoptive name, older than the family I had been born into as well.
So old that their family tree was soaked in bribes and blood so thick they would never break free. Lilah especially.
The innocent love between Ellery and Lilah could never be.
The secret of her arranged marriage was one only I was aware of until recently, but one I had promised to never tell, even though a piece of my soul had been sacrificed once I learned of who her parents had signed her over to.
Lilah was arranged to be engaged on her eighteenth birthday, as had been the tradition for all women of her line and name.
A union written in blood-drenched ink that would shake the foundations of the various underworld leaders—the media, as well. It had been put in motion years ago, or so she had been told. That had been a lie though. I knew because the man she was promised to had grown-up side by side with me.
My face twisted with dissatisfaction when I imagined all he would give up once he signed his life to hers—to the vonBermeres.
The name of her match had been heavily guarded, and she claimed not even she knew, but I called bullshit.
There was never any information our little hacker could not uncover, which meant Lilah had her own secrets that she kept locked up tight.
“She’s at the estate, dealing with preparations for her eighteenth,” Ellery muttered, staring sullenly at the corner, like his will alone could make her appear. “Important family shit.”
“Oookay,” Lex drawled, “so what was your trial, Ellery? Tell us one more time, for the space cadet over there.” Chucking a pillow at him, I pretended to wipe the sleep from my eyes, rolling them instead when I caught his amused stare from the corner of my eye.
“I’ve been busy. Bite me, you wanker,” I griped at him, rolling my head to Ellery and motioning with my hands for him to get on with this hesitant bullshit. I had no patience for it today.
“I was given information and a phone…” His eyes went vacant as he forced hollow words from his mouth, and I knew what he was about to say before he started again.
“I was given the contract sealing Lilah’s arranged marriage and a phone number.
I had an hour to decide if I would blow the marriage alliance to smithereens, or I could pretend I never saw his name next to hers and instead act as if we had only ever been friends. ”
From his sullen presence, I assumed he did not—or could not—place that call, and that he had accepted the realization that Lilah would never be his. “We’re here for you, El. Whatever it takes. You know that right?”
“No, I couldn’t.” He sent me a beseeching look, showing how he would protect her to the bitter end, no matter the cost to him. “I couldn’t do that to her,” he whispered so quietly, like he knew more but was resolute in not telling us yet.
“Audrey, what happened to you? It was like you just…vanished.” Drawing us back to the discussion, Worth sat like a silent pillar, unbreakable and unmovable. “And don’t think I didn’t notice those teeth marks and the bruises on your neck…”
He was always much too observant. It was what made him such a promising hockey player. I was not going to let it come back to bite me in the arse. It would not be in the fun ways I imagined.
“I was drugged in my house and left in the woods, blindfolded and loosely bound. Told to find my way back before the break of dawn. Warned to avoid the hounds that were out hunting the grounds…” I thought back to the monster that I was caught by; instead, my thighs came together when I recalled how delicious he had felt inside me again.
“Suuuuure that’s all that happened, honey-boo,” Ellery taunted, seeming to have shaken off his sullenness from just moments ago as he attempted to make heart eyes at me. “You sure you have no other sins to confess? Over here on your knees?”
I snapped my head to Ellery, a retort on my lips when Lex chuckled from where he was spread out on the floor.
“Damn, joker boy caught you red-handed, Little Queen. Must’ve been some great dick to get you all fucked up like this. I mean, do you see this, guys? She’s blushing.”
“It was nothing. He’s no one.” Peeved my friends were able to see parts of me so easily, I flopped to my back. “It was a one-time thing. A way to blow off some steam.”
“Yeah, okay. Like, none of us has ever heard that line from you before when it comes to him.” Worth cackled, shocking us all into silence.
“Your sarcasm is not appreciated, big man.” Gaping, I turned my head to him and glared.
“Just saying, we all know Aleksandr was the reason you were sent away right after you turned eighteen. We also didn’t miss how in the two years since you returned, he was nowhere to be seen.
We all witnessed every game you two played in some insanely hot but twisted version of intensely edged foreplay. ” They didn’t, though.
“He knows this time is different,” I refuted, but it sounded insincere, even to me.
“Audrey, baby, that man is not letting you go. Please tell me you aren’t in de-lulu land again…
” Bounding to the bed, grumpiness forgotten, Ellery jumped and landed on top of me.
“That boy is six-and-a-half feet of sinfully delicious man-meat. He has been singularly obsessed with your princess pussy since you refused to kneel at his feet.”
“Joker boy isn’t wrong. Witnessing you going at each other at school was like watching two rabid beasts circling each other.” Lex’s admission hit a little too close to home, even if he had merely been chiming in on his attempt to never be outdone. “Bet he’s an absolute goddamn freak in the sheets.”
“Right? And the murdery, possessive vibes he exudes…it’s like he has the exact pheromones to ensnare our Little Queen.” Shooting a glare at Ellery, I silently encouraged him to shut his trap. Turning my attention to Worth again, I twitched when I saw a slight smile on his normally broody face.
“Little Viper likes things that aren’t afraid of her bite. Or that bite back, it seems.” His voice rumbled through the room, dissolving us all into laughter.
“I guess I will see. I’ve never been good at refusing things I need.”
“Little Viper, that man has practically permanently fastened a barbed wire fence around your dark little heart. You just need to open your eyes and see what’s been happening when you don’t have your head in the sand.”
Worth was always like this—seeing more, hearing more.
Dropping bits of wisdom like he had lived lifetimes instead of one more year than me.
Except this time, he was wrong; my head was not in the sand or the clouds.
I was just denying the truths that were laid in front of me.
That I would have to choose—him, them, me, or something in between.
And I needed to be swift about it, before the choice was taken from me, and my omissions were aired with brutal honesty.
“Not everyone gets to have their peace in this life, take it from me.”
Getting up, I made my way over to him. In a bone-crushing hug, I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my head against his heart. “Thanks, big man.”
Letting go, I roped them back on track. “So, the first trial was overcoming a fear or banishing a demon. Sounds like they wanted us to begin to purge our secrets before we truly begin.”
“Yes, but the card for Trial Two sounds even more ominous. No one has been able to figure out what it could mean.”
Lex jumped up and walked over to his computer, pulling up a screen and projecting it to the television hanging on his wall. A picture of a silvery-black envelope filled the screen with the same elegant writing from Trial One’s:
You have completed the first trial of these games.
Two more must be done before game one is complete.
To complete Trial Two,
All truths must be found.
One for each hand.
Three for a crown.
A liar must be found.
“It sounds like we'll work as a team on the next trial. But what secrets do you think they will want us to find?”
Lex shook his head, feigning disappointment at me. “Well, it obviously isn’t that you ran and hopped onto Russian mafia cock again.”
“Quiet, you fucker.” I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. Dear Lord, give me strength. “You sound jealous, Lexington. Would you like to join us next time? You know being shared gets me hot.”
I threw a salacious grin at him and winked, letting him and our audience, who were avidly watching, know that I was joking.
But I wasn’t. Because it had me recalling a night I had spent with Aleksandr just over three years ago, a night where another man joined in on our fun.
Where hands had trailed over my skin, when calloused fingers that felt so similar to the hands that had pushed me against the door a few nights ago had gripped and squeezed, positioning me to take his cock perfectly.
The memory niggled in the back of my head.
A piece clicked into place in my brain as I realized why those hands seemed to feel familiar to me. Why I had never truly felt afraid or ran from the stranger who walked right into my house.
I only knew one man who would be able to bypass all the security precautions the Yateses had in place. He isn’t here though…unless…is he? A man who had been the best-kept dirty secret old money always wanted to hide.
Standing up, I made my way to the door.
“I have something to take care of. I’ll be back later, shitheads.” Walking out of the Kenton estate, clear skies greeted me as I hopped onto my bike, revving the motor as I slid the helmet over my face.
Grinning up at the sky, I breathed out a sigh of relief that no one had followed me.
“I have a ghost to go see.”