by Eden O'Neill
“Back off from what?” I asked. “What about Paige do you want me to back off from?”
What about Paige did he not want me to know? I obviously had my suspicions, but this was the first time I came forward with them. This was the first time I addressed them in any type of capacity outside of with Ramses.
Rising up, Jax scanned the area before eyeing me again. “If you think this is all a game or something you can just play around with, it’s not, December.”
“What’s a game?” I asked, and when he looked away from me, I got in his face. “Why would my sister’s life be a game? Why would anything I know be a game—”
“You don’t know anything, and I can’t have this conversation with you.”
He left me, but I followed after him. I left my things and everything, going right out into the hallway with him. “I need to talk to him, Jax. Please.”
“No, December,” he said, turning on his heels. “What you need to do is stay out of this. It’s dangerous.”
“What’s dangerous?”
“Everything, and if you get involved and something happens to you too…”
He closed his lips, the halls completely silent between us. That ringing in my ears had returned, and I approached Jax.
I swallowed. “If you don’t tell me where he is, I will rip this goddamn town apart until I find him. I’ll make noise. I’ll scream until he talks to me and tells me what I want to know.”
I deserved that. I deserved everything, and Jax folded a hand over his face.
He dropped it. “Wait for my text,” he said, adjusting his bag on his arm. “Because when I come for you, I won’t wait.”
Sixteen
December
Before I left the library, I told Jax where he could come and get me, but he waited until nearly midnight before actually texting me…
And that was only to tell me he was outside.
My dad was in, so I had to take the way out of my room Royal himself had showed me. Paige and he used to sneak in and out of the house through my bedroom window before I came to stay here. Irony hit, I used this passage now, and by the grace of God, Hershey stayed quiet. I put her in her kennel so she could sleep while I was away.
“We’re going to make this quick,” Jax stated pretty much immediately after I got inside his car. I had to go down the street to get in since I didn’t want him to park in the driveway for my dad to see. He started the car. “He doesn’t know we’re coming.”
He didn’t know? Maybe because Jax knew better. I highly doubted Royal wanted to see me.
Well, he was going to anyway.
I had so many questions it maddened. Especially after that confrontation with Jax. He drove swiftly, a red number with a loud exhaust. I had no idea the make and model. He’d stripped all that from the car, a custom job, but it looked really expensive just like everyone else’s rides who attended Windsor Prep. He had money like everyone else, and I only didn’t fight him on his speed since he was doing what I asked.
“Where is he?” I asked along the way. I couldn’t see Jax’s face, a hood over his head like we were about to rob some place. He came over in a black hoodie, not even wearing a coat tonight.
“His house, Lindquist,” he said, then faced me. “His dad’s making him stay there.”
After the suspension maybe, and I wasn’t surprised. Ramses’ family had him under lock and key after all.
Sitting back with that, I faced the window, watching the scenery change from nice to nicer. The foliage was more designed, the houses bigger and with larger yards. Eventually, we ended up outside of a gated community, one Jax key-coded his way into, then down a street that made my dad’s huge-ass house look like a fucking shack.
The homes were basically mini versions of Windsor House, small castles, and if not that, Victorians. The largest castle dwelled on the corner, but Jax stopped just short of that, pulling into a driveway next door. He clicked a button, and the garage door opened, revealing not one but two more luxury cars. One was a Lexus and the other a Mercedes SUV.
We parked between them.
“Why do you have a garage door opener to Royal’s garage?” I unbelted, but wouldn’t be surprised considering they were bros.
Jax smirked. “Maybe because it’s not his garage but mine. Well, my moms’ since this is their house.”
He said moms, as in plural. Caused me to stop a beat but not long. I mean, why would it? Jax stared at me like maybe people had in the past, but seeing I wasn’t now, he got out of the car and I did too. He waved me over after he locked the garage, and instead of going inside the house, we went behind it. We cut across a yard gorgeously landscaped with potted plants, a rock garden, and even a koi pond. It was all lovely, his moms obviously having done a great job. We didn’t stay there long because soon Jax was pushing through tight hedges and into the yard next door. This yard managed to trump even his, the castle next door, and Jax had to guide me with finesse just to work around all the design work and landscaping. There were actual sculpted hedges to look like animals and other various designs. Noticing me looking at them, Jax stopped.
“Royal’s dad keeps up with them,” he said, frowning. “They were his mom’s. All of this.”
I turned in the maze in wonder, and if I didn’t know it now, his words confirmed where I was. We were in Royal’s backyard.
We were at Royal’s castle.
He lived in one like a real prince, steeples and everything like out of a storybook. He had a real castle in the middle of a suburban neighbor.
I buried my hands in my coat pockets, and without any more detours, Jax tour-guided me right up to the back door. He put a key code in, something he knew, and after the security disarmed, he was able to open the door with his key. He stopped a moment, texting inside a dark room, then with the flick of the light, he revealed a celebrity kitchen.
Polished marble and sparkling countertops graced my eyes, a fruit display in the center of the kitchen island. I wasn’t able to observe them long, Jax guiding me along the way. He spun a set of keys on his finger as he walked, and focusing on that, I nearly screamed when a cat the size of a mini tiger skated past my leg.
I had to cover my mouth and everything, a freaking jungle cat with a long tail and spots just casually walking down the hallway.
Jax looked at me over his shoulder, smirking when he noticed yet another holdup. He hunkered down to that big ole animal and ran his hand down its back. The thing appreciated it, purring before falling over. Jax scratched behind its ears. “Don’t let Dinah intimidate you. She’s a big softy.”
She was big and I guess maybe soft like he said. She didn’t even bite at him, clearly familiar with him as she leaned into his touch. He stood. “Let me go see what the holdup is. I texted him we’re here. Don’t know what’s keeping him.”
I figured that’d been who he texted in the kitchen, and nodding, I chose to stare at the walls while he went somewhere else in the house. I didn’t wander far, fearing I’d get lost, and in any sense, the photos in the hall stole my attention anyway.
There were so many, lots of Royal through the years. There were some of him as a little kid, a small boy with sandy blond hair and always seemed to have some type of athletic gear in his hands. He played many sports over his various ages, football, lacrosse of course, and soccer. He even skied, and in that photo, he was with a few other people. One I immediately recognized as his dad. He looked the same, his hand on top of Royal’s head. That’s how young Royal was in the picture.
I stepped up, studying the other two people, a young girl not blond but red. She was on a set of skis with polls in her hands, grinning at the camera and slightly taller than Royal. Behind her was a woman, also redheaded and with the most gorgeous smile. She hugged both the girl and Royal, a pair of ski goggles on her face. The whole family stood in front of a snowy backdrop, the note Vale, Colorado stamped in the corner and with a year, a year a long time ago.
I ventured back, the wide expanse of hal
lway filled with pictures of the girl and the woman with the beautiful smile. They always were together and with Royal, the three of them peas in a pod. Royal’s dad was in some of the photos, but they were mostly just the three of them. The majority of them consisted of Royal and the young girl from the baby stage to around eight or nine. The girl was clearly older, Royal a year or two behind in every photo. I noticed eventually, though, Royal’s photos started to age. He got older, by himself, and the photos of the girl and the woman stopped. It was like they were frozen in time while Royal continued on, by himself through the ages.
“Why are you here, December?”
Royal behind me and Jax behind him when I turned. The pair stood in the hallway, both brooding, but Royal could have taken the award. He wasn’t happy, wearing a robe and with wet hair. I guess that’d been where he was when Jax texted.
Royal frowned. “Why is Jax saying you’re asking about Paige?”
Maybe because I was and started to move when he stalked toward me. His robe silk, it parted off him with his heavy strides.
That’s when I saw the bruises.
They chased completely up his right side, a large surface area across his ribs and abs. He even had a few punches to the chest, and I honestly hadn’t believed the fight with Ramses had been that bad. It wasn’t that bad. I’d been there. The robe settled the moment he crossed the hallway, but by the time that happened, I was taking inventory of his face. Ramses had gotten him on the cheek that day at school, but that was it.
Royal had two black eyes now, the left side even worse than the right, and the new cut on his lip wasn’t bleeding but it was there. He honest to God looked like he’d been in a car accident.
He honestly looked like someone beat the shit out of him.
Someone obviously had, and for whatever reason, I grabbed his robe. I needed to see the damage. I needed to see what someone had done to him.
“December,” he warned, but I noticed he didn’t stop me. He let me look, the garment falling off his muscled shoulder. He had a bruise there too.
“Your dad?” I questioned, knowing the truth when I covered it.
He shrugged. “Old man doesn’t like fighting.”
How ironic since he hit his son, and in the distance, Jax lounged against the wall. His eyes averted, but he was completed privy to this conversation.
“You didn’t come here to ask me about my dad,” Royal said, forcing me to look directly at him. He scanned me, my eyes, my mouth, and I wanted to push him. I wanted to shove him for affecting me and complicating my feelings. I wanted to yell at him, yell at him so bad, but when he looked like this? Beat up like this? Royal’s nostrils flared. “You came to talk to me.”
I did, but staring into two black eyes rattled my nerve. It brought me pain, and I hated it. I wanted to hate him, but he made it so goddamn hard. I blinked over cloudy eyes. “I did come to talk to you.”
“So talk.” He approached, a jump in his throat as he looked at me again. He stared all over my face, as if memorizing every flaw and every freckle. As if seeing me for me. “Say what you have to say.”
I swallowed, finding I couldn’t, and in those moments, he walked away, passing Jax. He was done with this conversation. He was done letting me try to talk, and I lost my window.
“I just need to know one thing.”
He stopped, my voice causing him to turn back and peer over his shoulder. I didn’t waste the opportunity this time, tears in my eyes as I approached him. I was glad my vision was cloudy and couldn’t see him well. What I had to say scared the ever-living shit out of me, and I didn’t know if I could face him full on.
“Is what happened that night,” I started, swallowing and blinking down tears. “Is what happened that night with Paige at Route 80 something she chose? No one made her. No one had it out for her. It was something she chose to do?”
Because at the end of the day it was a choice, the reality of which ripped me apart. That my sister chose to be out there. That she made a choice…
Just like Ramses and Royal before him.
All of the boys before did. They all did what they wanted, and knowing my sister, she would have been the same. No one would have been able to stop her that night. Not if she truly wanted to do something.
It made me want to throw up just thinking about it, but I waited. I waited for Royal to speak and to tell me the goddamn truth.
“Tell me, goddammit.” Full-on crying now, the tears streaming down my face. “Was my sister out there because she made a choice?”
It was obviously the wrong one, one that went bad, and he knew the truth. If he did, he needed to tell me, and finally, he turned around, that rough exterior completely gone. Emotion filled his eyes to the point he needed to squeeze them, a torture lining his face I’d never seen. It brought out the emotion in me, the sickness rising again.
His throat jumped. “I begged her not to, Em.”
My breath caught, wavering right there in the hall. From behind, Jax’s arms moved from in front of his chest. He didn’t approach, lingering in the distance, but he was watching this.
He was there for a fallout.
He was there for Royal, Royal’s hands coming up to grab mine. He squeezed them. “I begged her to the point of getting on my knees. I pleaded there was another way, another way to…”
“To what?” The ache I heard in my voice, more tears blinking down my face. Royal captured my cheek, wiping them away.
“To get revenge,” he said, that emotion in his eyes making him blink. “She wanted revenge, December.”
Revenge… something I wanted not long ago but now felt like a lifetime away. My mind was a haze, and I didn’t know what to do with it all. I didn’t know what to do about him or this or anything that happened.
I gripped his hand, but he wouldn’t let me hold it long. He let go, putting distance between us. He shook his head. “I’ll never forgive myself. I should have fought harder, fought her.”
“Royal—”
He shook his head. “Please stay out of this, Em. Forget about what you think you know about it, and stop talking about all this. You need to get out of this town and as far away as you can get from me after graduation. I couldn’t do this anymore if you got hurt too.”
He hadn’t explained with “this” was, but I had a feeling it was darker than I ever wanted to question. It was darker than I could even think, and before I knew it, Royal was talking to Jax down the hallway. They were whispering something, something about making sure I got home safe. Royal had said that part, and after he left Jax, Jax came to me.
His expression was grave, his hands in his hoodie pockets. “I’m going to take you home and after, this needs to end between you two. You’re making things worse for him right now, worse for all of us.”
I wanted to ask him in what way. I had so many questions, but hell if he let me ask them. He passed me, leaving me there in the hallway. Royal had been long gone, off somewhere in the house, and eventually, I had to leave too. There was nothing else to do.
They were clearly shutting me out of whatever this was.
Seventeen
December
I drove downtown in my sister’s Ranger Rover, taking a second to breathe with my hands on the wheel. I was about to embark on something I might not be able to come back from. Something that scared the boys, something having to do with what happened to Paige. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything out of them, so I was trying the next best thing…
Knocking on doors myself.
The only clues I had regarding my sister’s intent to even be out at Route 80 at all that night came from Royal. He’d said she wanted “Court involvement.” The “involvement” so obviously meant joining Court and she wanted to do so because he’d said she had gotten in a fight with someone, a girl she’d been seeing. He never told me who that girl was, but if my sister wanted to join the Court in order to do some kind of revenge on this girl, I wanted to know who she was. I wanted to stare her in the
face and make her take some kind of responsibility. I idly wondered if I had already met this girl or at least, had seen her. She very well could have come over to California for my sister’s services.
Here we go.
I slid my sister’s journal off the passenger seat, gathering another shuddered breath. I wagered, out of all people, my sister’s counselor, Lena Hastings, may know something about the people my sister used to hang with. I knew she hadn’t worked with Paige since her freshman year, but that didn’t mean the counselor didn’t keep up with her. This was a moderately small town, and considering my sister’s friends wouldn’t talk to me, maybe her counselor would.
She gave me her journal after all.
Google said Principal Hastings’s wife had a small practice she operated out of in the heart of Maywood Heights. It was actually right down the street from city hall and held a view of the hall’s steeple and several shopping centers.
Lena Hastings, PhD, LCPC
Standing back from the door, I checked to see if I had to be buzzed up or anything, but since the door was unlocked, I went ahead and let myself inside. The walk up led to several businesses behind wooden doors, and I found Mrs. Hastings’s office easily between an attorney’s office and a massage therapist.
I poised my hand to knock only to have the door open in my face. A woman stood before me, a woman with long, dark hair and sparkling blue eyes and I nearly said something to her until a literal doppelganger came in beside her.
I swore to God I saw double, two of Lena Hastings staring at me. One wore yoga pants with stars and galaxies on them, her top nothing but a workout bra. She’d opened the door and had a coat in her hands, staring at me with wide eyes, while the other Mrs. Hastings wore something a little less casual. Her suit made her look like a working professional, her dark hair up, and widening the door, Professional Mrs. Hastings came around to see what the holdup was. Seeing me, she smiled, placing hands on her doppelganger’s shoulders.
