Page 43

A baby was sold. Who was sold?
My heart squeezes. The baby subject is too much for me right now. Too sensitive. It touches too close to her.
There are only a few pages left so I flick through again, and it’s Hector’s house.
Hector, her? If I didn’t see the body with my own eyes, I would think that Hector had her instead of having her—I choke.
I flick to the second to last page and it’s the back of a small girl. Her hair is long—so very long, hanging down to her lower back.
I flip to the final one, and it’s a drawing of Brantley’s house.
There are no more pages.
Why are there no more pages? He said that I would have my answers when I reach the final page!
I throw the car into first and skid out onto the road, heading back to Brantley’s.
I need to talk with Daemon, and I need to talk with him now.
Tillie
You don’t judge an ocean by what you see on the surface the same way that you never, and I mean never, judge a King by his demeanor. They know more than they show and are worse than you could ever know. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. I know this, but the information that they hold from everyone, me included, is something I can only handle for so long.
I push open Brantley’s front door, tossing Nate’s keys onto the small table that accommodates loose items.
I press the door closed and quickly head for the door that leads to the floor level, to my room. I need to ask Daemon what this book has to do with me and why he didn’t tell me that that boy was him. Is this why I have always had feelings for him? Because they’ve always been there, under all of the damage from my past?
I don’t know, but as I move down the long hallway, I know I’m about to find out.
Lifting my fist to his door, I knock a few times, but no one answers.
“Daemon?”
I squeeze the handle and push at it, finding his bedroom exactly how it has always been. I haven’t seen him for a couple of nights now, and I’m starting to get worried. He’s not been the same since we found him.
I sigh, flopping onto his bed with the book in my hand. Slipping my wrist through the bracelet, I loosen it enough so it fits comfortably, and lay back, flicking through the pages again.
Maybe I’ve missed something between the pages. Maybe there’s something in-between that I’m not catching…
Nate
Betrayal is the feeling of your stomach being yanked from your body. It’s watching as someone you thought you could trust, throws it into an ocean of hungry sharks. It’s feeling your trust meter completely empty. But there are a few seconds after feeling this when you go numb. You stop and think to yourself, well fuck. Now what?
I didn’t feel this when we became aware of Hector possibly being involved in Micaela’s death. I went straight to the numb feeling.
“We have to be careful with how we execute our plan,” Brantley mutters, putting a smoke into his mouth.
I stay still, my eyes glued to a spot on the wall, not wanting to show any emotion.
Bishop sits with his head hanging between his shoulders. “We can’t kill him.”
A hiss escapes my lips. “What the fuck do you mean? If he killed my daughter, Bishop, he is fucking dead, whether I take myself down with him or not.”
Bishop rubs his face viciously with the palms of his hands, the frustration evident. “He’s still my fucking dad, Nate.”
“And since when the fuck did that matter to you?” I shoot back, my eyes narrowing.
“Since we were plotting his fucking death!” Bishop stands from the table we’ve all become accustomed to at Brantley’s. He leaves, the door slamming shut behind him.
Brantley’s eyes come to mine. “He’s a dead man if this is true.”
Eli shifts uncomfortably. “Taking down Hector Hayes? The daddy of the EK? I don’t know… I get that you’re angry, man, but—”
“—but nothing,” Jase interrupts. Jase is the older brother of Hunter and Madison, but he’s always been around because of Hunter being in our generation.
Jase brings his dark eyes to mine. “If it is revealed that he was behind her death, Nate, you have my word—I got your back.”
We have a divide, but I know that has to do with Bishop. If he was all in, there would be no buts about it.
Brantley stands from the table, his phone vibrating. His eyes shoot to mine. “She’s got the book back. Now what?”
I think over his words, running my finger above my lip. “Now we wait.”
After leaving Brantley’s house, I need something to take the edge off, so I hit dial on Billie’s number as I stroll back to my car. The keys are in the ignition, but everything smells of her. Her smell attaches itself to everything I fucking own, including my cock.