by Rebel Hart
“He had to reconnect with his brother, dad. I think that takes precedence over being interrogated by you literal hours after he was brought home from being on the run for eight months,” I said.
My dad rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
“I’ll bring him by soon, I promise,” I said.
“We’ll be just fine,” my mom said. “You kids go. Tell Deon we’re glad he’s okay, and we’re looking forward to seeing him soon.”
“I will. Maybe don’t tell Gus that he missed me,” I said.
“Yeah, because we were looking forward to hearing him whine all night,” my dad grunted.
“Chris,” my mom hissed.
“Oh my god,” Avery yelped. “It’s so cute. You’re just like them, Cherri. I never knew!”
“Welcome to a look into where I get it from,” I said, then I tapped Alistair on top of his head. “Come on, buddy. It’s time to go.”
In dramatic, flubber-like fashion, Alistair rolled to the side so far that it looked like he was going to drop onto the floor, then he stood to his feet. He leaned all the way back, his long blond hair dragging behind him, and dragged himself towards the front door. Avery, Nikita, Brayden and I opted for a much less showy departure, each giving my parents a hug, and saying our goodbyes before heading out into the night. We all piled back into my car and made our way back to Nathan’s house.
Inside, Nathan, Kyle, Sicily, Colette and Jaxon were sitting in the kitchen working on a platter of sandwich ingredients. My heart dropped a little when I realized Deon wasn’t among them.
I opened my mouth to say something, but Nathan held up his hand before I could get it out. “Relax. He’s with his mom.”
I let out a sigh of relief, but I still wanted to make sure. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed Ciara’s number, just to curb my own fears. The phone rang a few times, and then it picked up. “I’m okay, gorgeous.”
Deon’s voice filling my ears immediately made me feel better. “Okay. I just wanted to make sure you made it okay. I won’t bother you again.”
“You are never a bother to me,” Deon replied. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I said.
There was a rustle and then a new voice came across the receiver. “Cherri?”
“Hey, Ciara,” I said. “How is it having your baby home?”
“I can’t believe it. You really found him. You brought him back to me,” she said, sounding like she was on the brink of crying. “Thank you so much. Thank all of your friends for me.”
“I will. Enjoy your time together,” I said. “I’ll see you soon, I promise.”
“Okay, sweet girl. I love you loads,” she said.
“I love you too. Bye.”
The call ended and I went and sat around the kitchen island with everyone else. Despite being stuffed from dinner at my parents, I grabbed a couple pieces of cheese from the platter and started to nibble on them. It was pure stress eating. I believed that Deon was just fine at his mom’s house, and I knew Nathan had made certain arrangements to keep Deon out of the eyesight of law enforcement for a while, but after everything we’d been through, I’d always be anxious when Deon wasn’t at my side, at least for a little bit.
“Don’t let me do that shit again,” I said to the group in general. “I don’t want to be that girl.”
“It’s okay for it to make you a little nervous for a while though, Cherri,” Avery said. “He literally went missing for eight months. If that happened to Ali, I wouldn’t want to let him out of my sight.”
“Literally, at one point during our last semester, we initiated a buddy system, and we always had to be with one other person in the group, right after Brayden went missing,” Kyle said. “We even tried our best to always keep you and Sicily in our line of sight at all times. With Connor out there literally snatching people off the street, we’ve pretty much committed ourselves to always staying together.”
That actually made me feel much better. “Thanks.”
“Deon told me that my dad manipulated even Venom,” Nathan said. “I guess Felicity was one of those women like Ciara and Miss Abrams that he was using to his advantage. He was able to exercise control over Venom that way, and he was actually the one who killed and dropped that body in front of you all those years ago.”
My jaw dropped. “I can’t believe that.”
“Fuck!” Brayden snapped. “It seriously feels like the more we find out about Connor, the more we learn that he’s been pulling strings since forever. What in our lives hasn’t been masterminded by him?”
“Not much,” Jaxon said. “I fucking hate that guy.”
“Still, the other thing Deon and I were talking about is how none of us would be here if it weren’t for him. Maybe a few things here and there might have happened, but the reason The Royal Court exists, the reason Cherri made it to Maine, it’s all because of him. I really think we need to start viewing this as a silver-lining,” Nathan said. “For as much bullshit as he put us all through, he also brought us together.”
“We should never, ever, say that around him though,” Cherri said. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to give that dick the satisfaction of thinking he did anything positive in our lives.”
“Agreed,” Avery said, and everyone else nodded along as well.
“Deon’s stuff is up in your room, and I think he’s planning on coming back tonight, so I think it’s just a matter of waiting now,” Nathan said.
We sat and chatted for a little while, some of us eating, others not, and eventually, Deon came back home. He walked into the kitchen and straight over to me, putting his hands on either side of my face and kissing me. “Hey, my love.”
I smiled at him. “Hi. I’m glad you’re home.”
“I’m glad to be home,” he said. He sat down on the stool next to me and started putting together a sandwich. “So, what are we doing next? You said you’ve been working nonstop right?”
“Well, right before we came to find you, we sort of hit a wall. I think the next thing we’re waiting on is—” Nathan’s phone rang at that exact moment. He picked it up and held it out. “Is this.”
“That’s not the first time that we’ve gotten perfect moments down to the second like that,” Colette said. “I swear our lives are so weird.”
“Hello?” Nathan answered. “Yeah, hey Felicity, what’s going on?” He went silent for a minute and then said, “Oh sure, hang on.” He pulled the phone away from his ear, pressed a button, and set it flat on the counter. “Go ahead.”
“Deon?” Felicity said.
“Hey, mama,” Deon said with a smile. “Miss you already.”
“Same here. I’m not even going to send you this video of Concrete walking in and out of your bedroom looking for you. It’d break your heart,” she said.
Deon frowned. “Yeah, please do not send me that video.”
“What’s going on?” Nathan asked.
“I heard back from Nico,” she said. “With that info about the warehouse you found and the lead we already gave him from the road show, he was able to track down someone quickly. There’s a guy there in Postings, who only goes by ‘T.C.’ and operates out of a night club there called the Black Star Night Club. It’s 21 plus from what I could see online, so I don’t know how you guys will get in, but Nico set up a meeting with him tomorrow night at 9:00 pm.”
“That sounds like a job for…” Sicily stood up off of his stool and put his hands on his hips like a superhero. “Super Sicily!”
“Oh yeah, Sis?” Felicity asked. “Fake IDs fall under your purview, huh?”
“Fake IDs were, like, freshman year,” Sicily replied. “I’ll have ‘em done by morning.”
Felicity laughed. “Nothing like having a shady agent on your side.”
“That’s right,” Sicily said.
Deon chuckled at Sicily. “I missed you, man.”
That seemed to double Sicily’s excitement. “Thanks, man. I missed you too.”
; “Well, I’ll text you all the info so you have it in writing, Nathan. Please be careful. You have no idea what you’re walking into. Be smart,” Felicity said. “Deon, don’t tell your dad.”
“I won’t if you won’t,” Deon replied.
“I love you, kid,” Felicity said.
Deon smiled. “Love you too.”
“Bye guys,” Felicity said.
“Bye,” The Royal Court echoed.
Nathan pressed the button to end the phone call and pulled his phone back. “Okay. Well, now we know what’s next. The Black Star Night Club.”
“I’ve heard of that place,” Jaxon said, and it didn’t surprise me at all that he was the one who knew it. “Apparently the security guards there are all cops who are paid to look the other way for the dirty dealings.”
“Have you ever been, Jax?” Colette asked.
“Nah. It’s a little too on the nose for me. A real pop music and tight clothes kind of place,” Jaxon said.
Avery smiled. “Sounds amazing to me.”
“Well, we’ve got a long night ahead of us tomorrow, and Felicity is right, we don’t know what we’re walking into. Some of us have had crazy sleep patterns,” Nathan said, looking at Brayden, Nikita and me specifically. “Some of us have had crazy eating patterns, and we don’t have room for any of that. Eat up, get some rest, and I’ll make sure tomorrow’s meals are protein-packed.”
“Given that it’s a shadier place, do you think we can get our guns in, Jaxon?” Kyle asked.
Deon’s jaw dropped. “Guns?”
I looked sideways at him. “Yeah. You find once you’ve been attacked by grown-ass men you gotta keep yourself armed. We’re all licensed carriers.”
Nathan pointed at Deon. “You will be carrying no guns. You’re in a good spot right now, but you can’t carry on parole. Just let us do the heavy lifting.”
I could see Deon shifting uncomfortably at the concept, but I put my hand on his back. “Please?”
Deon looked at me and nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He picked a chip up off his plate and popped it in his mouth. “Damn, if someone had told me that I’d be holding back and letting The Royal Court of all people carry instead of me, I’d have punched that person in the face.”
“We’re sort of The Dark Royal Court now,” Alistair said.
Nathan smiled. “I like that. The Dark Royal Court.”
27
Deon
The Black Star Night Club was situated in Downtown Postings, ironically not far from where Loche Corporation Enterprises was located. I couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t chance placement, and I imagined that Connor Loche had done more than one shifty dealing in the bowels of the place. The outside was painted black brick with gold stars painted all over it, so it stuck out like a sore thumb from the modern, sleek buildings that were situated on either side of it. Postings was a manufacturing city, so most of the downtown buildings were offices to support all the commerce coming into Maine from the coast. There were a few night clubs and bars, as any city had, but it seemed Black Star Night Club was the club of choice. When we got there, there was a line of people around the block.
“Wow,” Cherri said. “Packed to hell.”
“I mean,” Colette said from the back seat. “We’re not normal people. We should be able to throw our names around and get in, right? We’ll be standing in that line long past nine.”
Cherri was driving a car with her, me, Sicily, Colette, and Jaxon in it, and Kyle was driving in front of us with Brayden, Nathan, Nikita, Alistair and Avery.
“That’s going to be up to Nathan, I think,” Cherri said. “He’s the one with all the clout at the end of the day.”
“Excuse me, Colette has clout,” Jaxon said.
I turned around and looked backwards at him, and saw that his face was stone serious. I laughed and looked at Cherri. “It’s unexpectedly adorable.”
“Oh I know. I can’t get over it,” she replied.
I took a moment while we were stuck in traffic to look Cherri’s outfit over once again. She was wearing a high-waisted, black leather skirt and a black, ruffled crop top. Her hair was down, and she’d applied a layer of dark makeup with black lipstick and a deep purple eyeshadow. She looked good enough to eat.
“Stop it,” Cherri said. “We’re never going to make it all the way through this night if you keep looking at me like that.”
“Fine by me,” I joked, glancing sideways at her, but she just shook her head. I loved the slight blush that rose to her face.
Eventually, Cherri’s car phone rang, and she answered, “Hey.”
“Hey,” Nathan said. “We’re not standing in this line. We’re gonna go park in the L.C.E. parking lot and walk over.”
“Okay,” Cherri said.
We followed Kyle’s truck around the block and into the parking garage that was attached to Loche Corporation Enterprises. We all climbed out of the cars and walked across the street and back down the block to where the line was beginning. Nathan strode right past the line, and I shook my head at how entitled he looked, not even making eye contact with the pissed-off people glaring at him from the line. If the situation were any different, I would have demanded we wait in line like everyone else, but we didn’t have time for that.
When we got to the front of the line, the thick-armed, broad-shouldered security guard looked us up and down. His lip curled up as he hissed, “This isn’t a fucking daycare. Run along, tykes.”
Nathan reached into his suit jacket pocket and pulled out a few things. One of them was a white card that I couldn’t read, one of them was the fake ID that Sicily had made, and the last was a flush of hundreds. He handed all three things over to the security guard and waited.
The security guard flipped through the handful of hundreds and then looked at the card and ID. He looked up at Nathan, scanned him over, scanned the rest of us, and then looked back down at the card. Finally, he pressed the button on the walkie talkie on his chest pocket and said, “Got eleven coming in. Let ‘em by.” He grabbed the velvet rope that was separating the outside of the club from the inside, and waved us by. “Come on, before I lose my fucking job.”
We didn’t hesitate at all. We all slid inside, past the line of swearing club-goers waiting to get in, and past the second security guard inside. Flashing our IDs, we finally left the waiting line behind and entered the club. Music was pumping and directly opposite the door was a massive dance floor, sunken lower than the main level we entered on, and to the left and right were staircases that led up to a second floor with bars on it, overlooking the dance floor. Lights were flashing and fog machines were raining down on the dancers, spurring them on.
“I wanna go!” Colette yelped. “It looks like so much fun.”
“We have work to do first,” Nathan said. “Partying afterwards.”
I looked up to the balcony that was overlooking the dance floor and could see a line of purple, velvet curtains hanging down, separating what looked like V.I.P. booths. “Up there.”
All of The Royal Court’s gazes shifted up to the balcony, and then Kyle turned and led the way up the staircase to the left. There was a glowing bar situated along the wall at the top of the second floor, and once we were up there, we could see that the area with the velvet curtains was roped off and guarded. With Cherri’s hand clasped in mine, I stepped through to the front of the group and led us over to the roped area. A guard noticed us immediately and crossed his arms, preparing to face us when we reached him.
“You got a reservation?” he growled.
“We’re here to see T.C.,” I said. “Tell him that Nico sent us.”
The guard eyed me for a minute, but then turned around and walked all the way down to the booth at the far end of the line, and slid the curtain aside. He poked his head in and stood that way for a few minutes, then he turned around and came back down. He unlatched the velvet rope and motioned us through.
“All the way down,” he said. “Last one.”
I le
d the way down the row of private booths and stopped at the last one. Another security guard took over and slid the curtain aside from the inside when he got there. We walked past the security guard and into a deceptively large room. It had a set of seats encircling the walls, and a couple of tables were in the middle, topped with food and booze.
One man was sitting in the center of the couches, opposite the curtain, arms crossed and glaring at us. He had tanned skin, a clean goatee, and wore a suit. “Well now,” he said as we walked in. “Nico thinks I do work with babies now. Seems you all came in search of information.”
“You helped Connor Loche recently,” Nathan took over, stepping up to stand at my side. “You helped him secure a warehouse in North Postings.”
T.C. looked around at some of his guys, seemingly a little flabbergasted at the gall eleven barely-adults had entered his space with. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I don’t typically give information away for free.”
“What would you charge Garrett?” I said. “I would assume I’d get the son discount.”
T.C. leaned forward a little. “What’s your name?”
“Deon,” I said. “Keane.”
“Well hell!” T.C. said, his entire demeanor shifting. “You didn’t say you were Venom’s kid, get in here!” He motioned to the couches. “Sit. Do you want drinks? Food?”
“We’re good, thanks. We just need to know about Connor.”
T.C. looked around at his men, then nodded towards the door. They all filed out. The only one who remained on the side of the booth we were on was the security guard who let us in. T.C. was working on a beer and lifted it to take a sip. “Yeah. I’ve been helping him out. It’s been a bitch working with him too. He comes in here every other week asking for a new warehouse space to hole up in. When the show is over and he’s ready to pack up, he pays my men to clean house. Even tear down walls.”
“Yeah, we saw one of those places,” Cherri said.
“You’ve seen him recently?” Nathan said.
“Yeah. Last place he asked me for, he came in about a week ago for it.”
