Chapter 25 #2
Reluctantly, Landon had to concede the point. He took both my hands in his, staring at me fiercely. “If he’s wrong—”
“Then I am, too. If Kingston thinks there’s a chance what I overheard was wrong, I need to hold onto faith. And I need to end this, Landon.”
“Fine. But—”
“Be safe. Be strategic.” I pursed my lips, giving him my best reassuring smile. “I know.”
He cupped my cheek and pressed his lips to my forehead. “That’s my good girl.”
After an easy lesson with Tristan, where we discussed the Fawn reaction I’d just become far too familiar with, I walked up to meet Max for Subterfuge training.
He leaned against the door to the training room, dressed in dark jeans, a crisp white T-shirt, and his bougie sneakers. He looked exactly like he had on our first day at the cabin.
“Why are you dressed like that?”
Glancing down at his outfit, he shrugged.
“We’re getting you off campus. Since you stubbornly insisted on attending lessons, Kingston gave me special permission.” He flicked his gaze to my stomach and frowned. “No big deal wasting my time just to keep you away from Drake D’Arthur.”
I ignored his jab and glanced down at my outfit, wondering what caused his reaction.
I’d paired my matching black workout set, a front-zip sports bra and high-waisted yoga pants, with my only sneakers and a hoodie.
Wrapped around my waist, it didn’t cover the bruise forming where Ben had hit me. When I saw it, I cradled my side.
Max noticed the movement and ran his gaze over me. Concern filled the onyx depths instead of indifference, and his jaw clenched. Fists tightening at his side in fierce protectiveness, he reacted genuinely.
For the first time, he didn’t hide it.
Finally lifting his head, he met my gaze and swallowed deeply. “Let’s go, Princess.”
My breath caught.
He’d hadn’t called me that since the Nobility Introduction. Meaning hung heavily in the croak of his voice. Even when he pushed off the door, striding across the lawn, I sensed a change in his demeanor.
Narrowing my eyes on his back, my natural suspicion made me pause.
But damn my curiosity, I followed him.
If Max appeared willing to let me in, I wasn’t going to second guess it.
Racing to catch up with him, I cursed his giant strides. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not that again.”
He scoffed and kept walking. “Worked out fine when your boy Kingston said it.”
Annoyance lodged in my throat, stifling the scoff I wanted to throw right back at him, but I could let him put on his act here and there if it meant answers in the long run. I lifted my chin and kept up my pace beside him.
“Yeah, well, at the end of the day, when Kingston told me what was going on—when I finally did see—I understood what he’d been going through, and none of the secrecy mattered.”
“Bully for you,” he deadpanned.
I wrinkled my nose. “No one says that.”
He huffed and kept walking around the back lawn until we reached the row of garages. I expected him to open one and reveal his pickup truck, but when the first garage door retracted, a sleek, blood-red sports car waited inside it.
So pristine it had to be illegal, I didn’t recognize the emblem on the hood. Not that I was brimming with expensive sports car knowledge, but this one was way over my head.
It also looked fast as fuck.
I retreated on instinct.
But the alarm bells and warnings to run didn’t come like they did my first night at Camelot Court, right before I met Max Dread. I’d seen enough, the threat had been neutralized, and I was ready to jump into the fire with him.
Wherever he wanted to take us.
I walked over to the passenger door as he studied a row of keys hanging on the wall. He grabbed a set off its hook, twirled it around his finger, and turned back to where he’d left me.
His brow furrowed, and he found me by the car.
A hint of pride flashed before he veiled it with indifference.
“Get in,” he barked.
I layered as much sass into my tone as I could. “Yes, Master.”
A low growl rumbled as he slid into the driver’s seat, and I smiled to myself before schooling my expression and getting in, too. “Where are we going?” I asked again, just to be a brat.
“Bill and Diane’s.” He smiled as he buckled his seatbelt. “Buckle up.”
As soon as I did, he started the car and pulled out of the driveway. He went slowly at first, but then, as we approached the gate, he clicked a button on the dashboard and picked up speed. My phone, which Landon had given me before I met Tristan, rang in the side pocket of my leggings.
Right as we reached the gate to leave Camelot Court.
Kingston’s name flashed across the screen, and I swiped to pick it up. “Hey! Is everything okay?”
“Yes, love. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, Max is just taking me on his super-top-secret-special-mission for my Subterfuge lesson. And I’ll admit I’m glad to put space between me and your dad. Not to mention Ben.”
Thinking of his constant phone alerts always interrupting us, I asked Kingston, “Did you see us cross the gate?”
“I did. Quinn…”
A hint of concern in his voice raised my suspicion. “Are you sure everything’s okay? Did something happen with Ben? Is he…?” Met with silence, I grew concerned. “Is it Landon?”
I swatted my left hand at Max, hitting his bicep before putting my phone on speaker.
“You’re on speaker, Kingston. Max, we might need to turn around. Landon’s—”
“Landon is fine, Quinn,” Kingston interjected, leveling his voice. “Everything is fine. I just…wanted to make sure you were alright going on your super-top-secret-special-mission. I didn’t get to check in with you before you left, so I—”
Although he sounded normal, I frowned. “Yeah, of course. We stole your fancy sports car, though. Hope you don’t mind.”
At his clearly forced laugh, my gaze slid to Max.
I scrutinized him in the driver’s seat. Placid expression. No smirk, no overworked jaw.
He had his hands at ten and two on the steering wheel, and he acted completely normal.
Too normal.
I looked at his hands.
His knuckles were white. He gripped the steering wheel so hard it might snap. It was the only thing giving away that something was off.
“Max…” I hedged carefully, but he didn’t respond. I took Kingston off speaker and lifted the phone back up to my ear. “Kingston, what’s going on?”
Without sparing a glance my way, Max held his hand out. “Time to hang up now, Quinn.”
Kingston’s muffled curse came through the line.
My heartbeat picked up. “He didn’t get permission for us to leave, did he?”
“Don’t make me ask again, Quinn,” Max growled as Kingston breathed, “No, love.”
With a slightly frantic edge to his words, Kingston said, “Stay safe. I have to believe—”
“I know.” I tried to reassure him it would be alright as quickly as I could. “I’ll—”
But before I got the words out, the phone left my hands.
Max grabbed it, shut it off, and pocketed it on his left side where I couldn’t reach it.
“Max, what is this? What’s happening right now?”
He smiled, but nothing about it reassured me, especially when he answered with a single word.
“Subterfuge.”
“What does that mean?”
He flicked his gaze in my direction, right as he took a sharp curve and increased our speed.
I grabbed for the handle above the door, but the bougie car didn’t have one. As I grappled for something to hold onto, I didn’t take my eyes off Max.
Fear licked at my spine like fire at my back. A fire that had been there since day one. A fire I’d convinced myself was safe.
It burned in his onyx gaze, sinister where there’d once been secrets. “It means your time at Camelot Court is done, Quinn Everly.”
My breath caught. “You mean, you—?”
“Used your pesky feelings to lure you into the car?”
“But why?”
“The same reason I’ve said before.”
“So, this whole time—?”
“Of course. I tried to tell you, didn’t I?”
As he sped down the mountain roads, my mind raced, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Everything became clear.
He hadn’t been lying to me since this challenge…From day one, he called himself the villain. The bad guy. The asshole.
I’d thought he’d been filling a role he never wanted to have. One that never quite fit him. Denying who he was and refusing to stand beside his King. But instead, he’d been shifting directions, playing both sides of the board, and carefully lining up his next moves. Not a Knight, but a…
“Rook.”
It settled in the air between us as Max’s smirk deepened.
He’d waited until he was in the perfect position. Ready to wipe out the threat. Poised to take Kingston’s only hope off the board. By eliminating the unsuspecting pawn, who hadn’t seen him coming, as soon as I set my sights on being Queen.
“The King’s Maiden is no longer part of this game,” he said. “And I’m finally done playing it.”
My face fell, and the truth hit home.
Max Dread was exactly who he’d said he was.
And he’d been lying to me the whole time.