by Rebel Hart
The man was tall. The only person in our group that maybe stood taller was all six feet, four inches of Kyle. His arms and legs were built like tree trunks, forcing the fabric of his button-up and slacks to do the work of keeping them contained. He kept a hand situated low on the woman’s back, making me feel like they were romantically involved.
“There’s my boy!” The woman yelped.
Nathan jumped up out of his seat, and the smile he got was blinding and bright. “Anisa!” He damn near threw himself into a hug and the woman squeezed him close, reminding me of a mother holding her son. The man slid over and put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder, and Nathan unfurled from the woman he’d called Anisa, and clasped into a hug with the man. “Cobalt.”
“Man, you’ve gotten tall. It’s been too long,” he said.
Colette balanced her head in her hands and smiled at the interaction. “The parents he deserves,” she whispered to herself, and it actually brought a tear to my eyes. There were people out there who loved Nathan the way he deserved. That made me happier than words could express.
“My god, is that Nikki?” Anisa said, and Nikita nodded. “Oh my god. You look beautiful! Look, Cobalt.” Then her eyes scanned further. “And Kyle!”
Kyle’s jaw dropped. “Wow! Oh my god. Anisa. Cobalt. It’s been… years.”
Nikita and Kyle were the two people that Nathan knew even from before starting The Royal Court, so it made sense that they’d know them as well.
Anisa and Cobalt settled down into the two empty chairs and Nathan returned to his seat. “Guys, this beauty here is Anisa, and this titan of a man is Cobalt. They used to work for my dad, but they left his employ after seeing how he treated me.”
“Nathan was just this cute, innocent little thing, and that man was destroying him,” Anisa said. “I couldn’t stand by and watch it. I would have done anything to take him with me.”
“He turned out okay though,” Cobalt said. “I’ll admit, when you called us, we lost our minds. I don’t think Anisa stopped crying for two days.”
“Well, I have these people to thank for that.” He set his hand on Nikita’s. “You guys know Nikki, and we’re together now.”
“Seriously?!” Anisa yelped. “Yay!”
“Next to her is her best friend Jaxon, his girl and my friend Colette next to him. You remember Kyle, and that’s my friend Brayden next to him. Then my friend Alistair and his girlfriend Avery.” He pointed at me. “That ray of sunshine there is like a sister to me, Cherri.” Both Anisa and Cobalt shifted a little at my name, but continued to smile and nodded at me. “And then next to her is my friend Sicily.”
“That’s right. I’m his friend. Me. Sicily,” Sicily said.
“That can still change,” Nathan joked.
Sicily held up his hands. “Sorry.”
“Anisa is a military war hero who took shrapnel in the eye defending her platoon. She’s the strongest person I know, and when my father was trying to torture me, she was taking care of me. She’d sneak me candy and toys. I loved it,” Nathan explained. “Cobalt… well, no one really knows what he did, but I did manage to get out of him once that he may have been in the Secret Service.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Cobalt said, and then winked.
“About five years ago, they left my dad’s employ, right before I started The Royal Court. Anisa tried to keep up with me, but my dad wouldn’t let her. Then when we trapped those two goons a couple of months ago, I called her for help,” Nathan explained.
“Ah, so that’s where they went,” Avery said.
Nathan crossed his hands. “It was a quick, darkened exchange, so I didn’t get to really see or say hi to them, and they’ve been keeping them for me, but I figured it was finally time to come together and compare notes, given that all of our trails seem to be running cold.”
Anisa frowned. “I tried to tell you we don’t have much. Those guys are pretty tight-lipped.”
“I know, but I wanted to see you, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to all toss some stuff around. Who knows, you guys could have a single piece of information that would answer a question we have.” He smiled at Anisa. “Plus I wanted to see you,” he repeated, earning himself a kiss on the cheek. “I hope it’s okay, but I didn’t want anyone just wandering back while we’re talking and hearing something they shouldn’t, so I just ordered large portions of their four main dishes to share. I said they could start them once the last two guests arrived, so they should be out soon.”
Over the course of the next hour, Anisa and Cobalt explained all of the information they’d managed to gather from the two men that had attacked us, whom they’d been keeping under lock and key. A lot of what they knew was already stuff that we’d managed to discern ourselves, and mostly it sounded like the men were being very tight-lipped.
“That doesn’t surprise me, knowing my dad,” Nathan said, but he seemed more frustrated than he did at first. He looked around the table, letting his eyes eventually land on me. “I’m sorry, Cherri. I really thought there would be more.”
“There is one thing that’s pretty obvious. Connor is still operating in and around Postings,” I said. “That’s better than nothing.”
“No wait,” Sicily said. “It really is better than nothing.” All eyes fell on him. “Connor had Deon snatched too, right? Would that suggest that he’s here too?”
Silence enveloped the table as we all pondered that thought. How had that never occurred to us before?
“Deon, wow. A blast from the past,” Anisa said. “You still haven’t found him?”
“No,” Nathan said. “We’ve had a few leads, but we’re coming up empty.”
“If only we could get into those guys’ phones. I’m sure they’ve been communicating with Connor, or at least other contacts of his. They get pretty regular phone calls, but the phones are so protected, you have to know the password just to answer a phone call,” Cobalt explained.
“You have their phones?” Nathan said, and then his eyes shot over to Sicily.
Sicily leaned back in his chair and a sly smile crossed his face. He interlocked his fingers and stretched them out away from his body. “Once again, it’s time for Sicily to save the day.”
“Once again?” Colette said. “We’re still grinding our way through the fifty thousand pings you dug up.”
“Hey!” Sicily snapped. “We are all learning a marketable skill, and we’re doing it together. Trade and friendship. That’s invaluable.”
I just shook my head and chuckled at him. Be it comic relief or just his pure inability to be anything other than laid back, Sicily was a much-needed light in the dark halls of The Royal Court.
“I can bring you their phones,” Anisa said. “Do you think you can get in?”
A voice we rarely heard croaked up. “He can do it,” Jaxon said, bringing everyone’s attention to him. “What? I can recognize talent.”
Sicily’s hands flew to his face. “Did… Did Jaxon just compliment me?” He picked up a napkin and dabbed it at the corners of his eyes. “I wasn’t prepared for this. I’d like to start by thanking my parents, and my best friends, Deon and Cherri.”
“You mean Cherri and Deon?” I said.
“Stop,” Jaxon growled.
Sicily nodded. “Stopping.”
Cobalt chuckled. “I like this one. He’s weird.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, he is, but Jaxon is right. If you can get us those phones, Sicily can get in.”
Anisa smiled. “I’ll bring them by tomorrow.”
Just like that, the trail that was running cold was blazing again. This was different from my and Nathan’s phones that only contained a single, designed-to-be-untraceable phone number. These guys worked for Connor and could have even communicated with the people who were after Deon. It was a huge development.
The rest of dinner with our renewed hope was enjoyable and delicious, so much so that the restaurant had to kick us out when it was time to close. We spilled int
o the parking lot laughing and chatting, and Nathan gave Anisa and Cobalt each huge hugs, promising to see them again soon. I watched them and my stomach burned thinking of my own parents. I’d apologized, but it still felt like there was a huge wall between us.
One only I could break down.
“Cherri?” Avery said. “You ready? I know you rode with Jaxon and Colette but…” She glanced over in their direction and I followed her gaze to where the two were embroiled in a massive makeout. “You probably aren’t going to want to ride back with them.”
“Yeah, uh, actually… Do you think you can bring me to my parents’?” I asked. “I just… I never told them the whole truth about everything, and I think I’m ready. Nathan and Deon both had these fractured families and I have two parents who love me that I’m lying to. It’s time to come clean.”
“Wow,” Avery said. “Sure, if that’s what you really want.”
“It is,” I replied. “My parents deserve to know everything.”
16
Deon
Felicity was fidgeting back and forth, while I kept trying to keep a clock on the people who were following me, a tough enough task on its own given that everyone was in masks.
“How did this happen?” Felicity said. “Was it immediate? We haven’t been here that long.”
“I’m not quite sure. I found a man who I think was the guy who put Connor in contact with a bunch of the women he slept with for the purposes of using them for his own gain. All of the women that my mom discovered he was sleeping with, including you and her, are women who had some sort of second use for him. His wife Alicia may have just been a trophy, but my mom cleaned his house, including some shady areas most likely, you have pull over Venom, this teacher at my school was blackmailing my brother. Every woman he used, he used for a reason, and I think he found the right ones here,” I explained. “I found the guy, but when I started inquiring about a woman, almost immediately, he flagged these people down.”
“What people?” she asked.
I looked over my shoulder again, and the people still had their eyes on me, but weren’t advancing, at least not at the moment. “About 8 o’clock. Don’t look though, I don’t think they realize I’m with you.”
Felicity didn’t listen, which I might have expected. She turned to her left first and pretended as if she was looking for something, then she turned to the right and did the same, then got back to facing forward. “I see them.”
“One of them is one of the guys who snatched me on Connor’s behalf a few months ago. I don’t know if the other one is his partner or not, but if it is, I’m more afraid of her. She’s vicious.”
“Well, it’s like you said, Connor knows some unique women,” Felicity replied. “Shoot. I have a hot lead too. I’ll have to find a new way to follow it.”
“No,” I said. “If you have a lead, we need to follow it. We’re struggling enough as it is. I’ll lead them away and keep them busy while you do what you need to do. When you’re ready to go, go stand by the bright pink Caddi near the front, then I’ll know you’re ready to go.”
She didn’t immediately respond, but then sighed and said, “Okay. Deon… please be careful.”
“I will. You too.”
At that, I flipped around and left the group of people and headed straight for the center of the car show that was the most congested. Peeking behind me, I could see the two were following, which was good, because I just wanted them as far away from Felicity as I could get them. Once I’d done that, then I could worry about giving them the slip.
In the congested center of the show where there were several booths set up selling food and drinks, I weaved in and out of the crowd in no particular order. The last thing I wanted to do was draw more attention to myself, so I’d move a little, pretend to be assessing a menu, and then move again. The two that were following me, however, were doing a pretty good job of keeping an eye on me, so I had to come up with another plan.
Finally, I looked over and saw a woman in an extravagant white dress drinking a beer. There were several people standing around her, and whether it was because she was someone of importance or just because she was stunning, I wasn’t sure, but she was the center of attention. Keeping the people chasing me in the corner of my eye, I slid closer and closer to her, and then I pretended as if I tripped. I knocked into someone standing closer to her and he bumped into her, sending her beer spilling all over her. She let out a loud screech as her beer dripped down her dress and drenched her hair, and the people encircling her created an uproar. They were tripping over themselves offering her napkins or their jackets to hide the spill, and the congested crowd started to close in on where she was.
Letting the crowd push me inwards for a bit, when I was right in the midst of a sea of people, I ducked down, crouching, and kept myself low in the crowd. A bunch of people were running back and forth between the nearest booth to get napkins to help the victim of the beer spill, so I crept my way along the side of them until I was able to successfully duck behind the booth. Fortunately, a car was not far from the back of the booth, giving me a little nook to crawl into and hopefully stay hidden. I looked in all directions to see if the two were still following me, but no one was looking in my direction and I let out a sigh of relief.
I waited longer than felt comfortable before I stood up and looked around the booth to see if my pursuers were still nearby. The crowd that had converged on the woman had mostly dissipated as she’d chosen a specific person to help her, but the center was still thick with people eating and drinking. I scanned the group until I finally managed to catch a glimpse of the two people against one of the booths opposite the one I was hiding behind. Their eyes were flicking in all directions, and I could tell they had lost track of me. As long as I could stay hidden where I was, I would be able to stay out of trouble and meet up with Felicity when it was time.
At least that was the plan, until the two chasing me started to move.
I furrowed my brow and watched them closely. Were they giving up? Did they see someone else that they think was me?
Against my better judgement, I crept out from behind the booth and side-stepped my way back into the crowd. My height had me at a disadvantage as I was looking over the heads of most of the people around me, but at least I was able to keep an eye on the two goons. The tables were turned and it was now me who was stalking them, but what they were up to, I still wasn’t sure. Connor would have told them not to leave without me. There was no way they’d give up so quickly. Were they baiting me out? If so, it was working.
They had their attention focused on something in the distance, but it was difficult to see what until one person broke away from a group they were looking at. As soon as that person walked out of the group, their eyes followed and they changed direction to keep up. I stopped watching them long enough to get a glimpse of the new person they were tracking.
It was Felicity.
“Shit,” I growled to myself.
I thought I’d successfully kept them from figuring out that we were together, but maybe I didn’t do as well as I thought. That was proving to be the theme of the day. I wanted to believe that I was fully prepared to hunt Connor down and stop him from tormenting me and my family, but I was quickly learning that it was not the case. My confidence was shaken, but now was no time to worry about that. I had to protect Felicity.
Keeping a safe distance for the moment, I stayed on the trail of the two who’d been chasing after me, as they turned their attention on Felicity. They seemed to just be keeping tabs on her, maybe assuming that I’d show back up at her side at some point, but then she came to a stop near the front, at the car we’d designated as our meetup spot. She stood still, keeping her eyes out on the crowd, and eventually her eyes landed on our pursuers.
Slowly, they lifted their masks off their faces and revealed themselves to Felicity outright. Everyone around stopped and turned to look at them, and then backed away, giving them a ton of space. The man was the o
ne who’d revealed himself to me earlier, and the other was, in fact, the woman who was the other torturer who’d captured me. She was the truly sadistic one of the pair, and I didn’t want her seeing Felicity’s face and knowing she was helping me out.
Leaving to come to the car show with her had been a mistake.
Then both of them reached for their waistbands. Peeling back the jackets of the suits they had on, they each reached for a gun they had hidden, but their eyes were on Felicity, not me. I panicked, thinking that things were going to get worse for Felicity or they were going to figure her out, so I did the only thing I could think to do.
The dumbest thing, for sure.
I stepped out into the clearing that the crowd had created and screamed out, “Hey!” Both of them turned to look at me and smiles curled across their faces. If it had been their plan to coax me out by threatening Felicity, it had worked. “I’m what you wanna see, right? Make good with your boss? Come get me.”
Felicity took a step forward. “Deon!”
“I’ll meet you near Concrete!” I screeched, then I turned around and bolted back into the fray of the car show.
A couple of gunshots cracked against the music playing in the background of the show, and all of the attendees started to duck and run for cover. There was no longer anywhere to hide, only do the one thing I’d mastered in the past year.
Run.
I leapt over anyone that got in my way, including shoving people aside to get around them. The good news was, they weren’t openly shooting at me, at least not while I was around everyone. As long as I could keep a few people between them and me, I could keep from getting shot in the back.
