Page 81 of The Hitman's Prince

“I feel useless.”

“You’re like their little damsel in distress,” Daren offered with a lopsided shrug. “Protected in the castle or something.”

Bellamy came down the stairs and notched himself into the crook of Daren’s arm, giving Caspian an apologetic smile.

“It’s not bad here,” he said, leading Caspian to the porch. “They’re all a lot meaner than they look.”

Caspian snorted. “I know what that’s like.”

I tore my stare away from Caspian as Bellamy led him into the house, turning my attention back to Daren, who wasn’t a child in front of me, but a man.

“I don’t want to kill my father,” I said.

“I believe you,” he said, pulling me into a rough hug. “But we can’t always get what we want, Jake.”

Chapter 60

Caspian

Bellamy walked me into the massive old Victorian house, stopping a few steps ahead of me when I paused to look around.

“You live here?” I asked.

It was dark and lush, comfortable without being overstated, and the complete opposite of Vince’s sleek townhouse. Save for the ornate wood desk and massive fireplace in his office, Vince’s place wasn’t much more than panes of glass and bright lights.

“All of us do,” Bellamy said, gesturing toward the stairs with a quick jerk of his head. “Do you have a bag or anything?”

I frowned. “He didn’t tell me we were leaving like this. We just…”

“It’s okay. Between the five of us, we’ll find some extra clothes for you.”

I followed Bellamy up the stairs and down a hallwayfull of closed doors. He stopped at the end and pushed one open, walking me into a small bedroom that overlooked the campus.

“You can stay here,” he said. “The sheets are clean, the bathroom is across the hall.”

“Where do you sleep?” I asked, looking around the dark but neatly kept space.

“Wherever I want,” he said with a shrug.

“Do you have your own room?”

“No. I sleep wherever I want.”

I thought about Vince’s bed and the four of us tucked together beneath his sheets. How before Jacob and I showed up, it used to be just him and Orion. I didn’t know if the two of them shared a bed. I didn’t know a lot about the dynamic between the two of them, and what I did know, I didn’t entirely understand. I’d even seen Orion and Jacob in the bathroom together, covered in blood and bruises with stars in their eyes like Vince hung the moon, and I just…

“Where do you sleep?” Bellamy asked, interrupting my train of thought.

“In the guest room sometimes,” I said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Sometimes with Vince.”

“Just Vince?”

My cheeks heated. “All four of us.”

“Are all four of you together?” He grinned at me and pointed at the spot beside me on the bed. I nodded, and he sat down at my left.

“Not really,” I said, unsure of how to explain.

“The five of us aren’t together,” he said as if it was a normal, mundane thing, like he was telling me they had lunch meat in the fridge for sandwiches. “Gideon only really wants Fletcher, and sometimes me, but never Daren or Luca. He watches, though. Vince has come to watch before too.”