Page 15 of The Lost Kings

Presley

I sat cross-legged in the hayloft, watching dawn claim the sky.

The cool air caressed my skin, making me tug my sweater tighter. The farm was beautiful at various parts of the day, but nothing aside from starlight beat the dawn cresting over the hills.

My eighteenth birthday had finally arrived and with it a wave of grief unlike anything I had experienced since the twins first left. I had two twin holes in my heart, both of which obstructed any happiness from taking up that space.

Tears gathered in my lashes like little clusters and then dripped down my cheeks in a cascade of sadness.

I was supposed to be with them when I became old enough to allow this tiny flame in my heart to flourish. The crush I’d grown on my best friends was unforgivable, and the reminder that their absence was entirely my fault was growing to be too much.

Lately, my only way of dealing with this pain swirling in my chest, breaking me open and pulling the cords of my heart out was to go see Adrian.

I’d be there now if it weren’t for some business he had here in the States .

The memory of him first explaining that he’d begun to develop feelings for me was the tinder to a friendship I desperately needed.

Trust was the thin membrane of our relationship.

I knew I shouldn’t, but I had fallen for him anyway, in the sense that he was dependable, kind and considerate.

I didn’t feel romantically any way toward him, but he’d claimed part of my heart regardless, merely by being there.

Unlike my best friends.

Tugging my phone free, I stared at the text thread between the twins and me from the last time we texted one another. It was a joke we’d made about Scotty eventually getting some sort of hairpiece because his head was balding so rapidly.

I knew they would have texted me today. I knew Scotty’s phone was lit up with a string of messages from them, and all this time they just assumed I was ghosting them. Isn’t that what I had said I’d do?

Shouldn’t it be what I wanted after all they did?

A tear slipped off the tip of my nose and I swiped at it aggressively, while dialing a number I shouldn’t.

The whole time it rang, I inwardly shouted at myself to stop, but I just let it keep going until…

“Presley?”

I paused before letting out a shuddery breath. “Adrian?”

“What’s the matter, is everything okay?”

The sun crept through the clouds, illuminating the sky, which reminded me how early it was. “Sorry, were you asleep?”

“No, Bellissima , I was on my run. What’s wrong?”

A tiny hiccup escaped me as I tried to reel in my emotions. “Are you still in New York?”

“Yes, for another few days.” His voice was stern, like he wanted to know why I was upset. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

The sun moved past a few lingering clouds and was so bright I closed my eyes. “It’s my birthday today. I wanted to know if you could take any time?—”

“Yes.” He cut me off and began barking out orders in Italian to someone in the background. “Can I come to you? ”

I hesitated. Scotty would kill me if I allowed Adrian to come here, but wasn’t this what he wanted to begin with?

Wasn’t I the one tossed on the stone altar of sacrifice to keep this family safe, even when my cousin so carelessly tossed us to the wolves?

Why was I the one who kept being held accountable and no one else cared?

The twins bailed, Carter did whatever the fuck she wanted, and Alex just hid away in the manor, helping her mother with their charity.

I cleared my throat and replied, “You can come here.”

I met Adrian at the gate, so the guards posted there didn’t shoot him. I didn’t tell anyone that he was coming, but it felt safer this way. When he pulled up, he was alone, which made something in my chest crack.

What the hell were we doing?

The second the gate opened, and he drove in, he pulled closer for me to get into his car. We drove toward the larger garage that housed our armored vehicles and faced the opulent rolling hills behind the manor. The tree line was dark as a few wisps of fog clung to them.

“A spring baby. Who knew.” Adrian laughed and I found myself smiling too.

“Technically it’s still winter for another few weeks.”

He turned the car off and faced one another. I tried to relax into the plush leather but the way he was watching me had my stomach flipping.

“I got you something.” Adrian lifted the middle console hatch.

I smirked, moving the smallest bit so he had more room. “Swing by a gas station on the way over?”

His eyes lit up with humor as he smiled. “No, I got this for you when I last visited Spain. I saw it and instantly knew it was yours.” Pulling out a velvet box, he opened it, revealing a necklace connected with just a singular diamond circle.

“You’re complete, Presley. You act like you’re not, but it’ll be my goal to prove to you that you are.” He pulled it free from the plush setting and leaned closer.

I watched as he placed it around my neck and then gently traced my shoulder, encouraging me to turn so he could clasp it. “Thank you, Adrian. I love it.”

His lips were near my ear as he whispered, “Happy Birthday, la mia Bellezza .”

I closed my eyes, willing the tears to stay in place. Adrian had been hinting at feelings for me, but I’d been too young. Now, I wasn’t sure he’d continue to play games; he was the sort of man who just claimed what he wanted, and it was clear he wanted me.

I just wasn’t in the place to be claimed.

I needed a friend, and I hoped that’s all he’d be for me right now. To ensure he didn’t kiss me or do anything else, I spun around and threw my arms around his neck, then just as quickly, jumped out of the car.

Once he was outside with me, I headed toward the front door of the manor.

“Come on. I have a movie marathon on the horizon for us.”

He smiled at me, then tucked his hands into his pockets before walking toward me. “Okay, but no vampires.”

My hair lifted as I spun around, and I caught his broad smile as I did. “Definitely vampires and a few zombies too but only the kind that can fall in love.”

“Of course.” Adrian laughed, and when I went to open the front door, I felt like my smile had finally returned too. Even if it was short-lived.

Adrian left around eleven at night after spending the entire day in my room, watching movie after movie with me while we ate pizza, salad—for him—and drank our weight in strawberry milk .

Reaper’s gentle trot warned me that my uncle would arrive soon. I sucked in a deep breath and counted to three.

One.

Two.

Three.

“What the fuck did you do?!” His voice was a thunder crack in the room.

Turning toward him, I made sure my mask was in place as I feigned confusion. “What do you mean?”

“You brought our enemy into our home . He now knows where we live. How could you be so reckless?”

“Me?” I gestured at my chest, feeling it heat with anger. I walked around the coffee table and pointed at him. “You’re the one who pushed me and pushed me over there and told me to create an ally. Well, I did! How can you be upset with me?”

Scotty’s eyes were burning as he glared at me. “You revealed where we live, Presley.”

“What exactly did you think an ally would do, Scotty? We’re supposed to trust him.”

His jaw clenched tight as Reaper watched us argue, before lying down and placing his face on his paws.

“I wanted you to gain his confidence, be casual and reel him in. I didn’t want you to fall for him.”

“I didn’t fall for him!” The shock that he assumed that felt like a crack in my ribs, but perhaps it was the shame of how close his statement landed to the truth. Was I falling for Adrian?

Scotty stepped closer, his nose flared in obvious frustration. “Then why the fuck did you invite him here on your birthday and spend all day with him in your bedroom? The entire manor was on high alert all fucking day, Presley.”

“Because I have no one else, Scotty!” I sneered, while a few tears slipped down my face. “I have no one else. The twins aren’t coming back. Carter and Alex are hardly ever here. I’m alone. I have you and my parents, and that’s it. ”

My uncle was quiet as he watched me cry, and then after enough silence had passed between us, he pulled out his phone and pressed a few buttons.

“Fine, Presley. You’re lonely? I’ll fix that…don’t blame anyone but yourself for this.”

“What do you mean by that?” I searched his face, panic filling me.

He kept pushing buttons, and my anxiety continued to rise.

“What do you mean, Scotty?”

He finally dropped his phone and glared at me once more. “I mean your little friendship with the head of the Adesso family is over.”

The echo of his steps reached me before he did, and when he held his phone out to me, I wasn’t sure what I was even looking at but as he walked past me, I realized exactly what he’d done.

He’d been texting the twins from his own number, the most recent message was a picture of me lying against Adrian’s chest while he played with my hair in my bed. The television played against the far wall, and our snacks were strewn next to us.

The text below it read:

Get home now.

New emotion clogged my throat as my head whipped up and I watched Scotty walk away. A sob worked into my voice as I dropped his phone.

“I hate you.”

He didn’t turn around, but I heard him as clearly as if he had. “That’s fine, Presley. Hate me all you want, just take that fucking necklace off while you do it. It’s probably a tracking device.”

“They are only going to be coming back because you ordered them, just like one of your dogs.”

His feet faltered for one second before his head dipped. “At least they’re obedient when it comes to protecting the family. Something you still need lessons on.”

“Fuck. You. ”

Suddenly Scotty spun on his heel and glared back at me.

“You forget that I never had to order them to protect you, Presley. You forget that I nearly died at their hands because of that instinct. Never pretend like I am not aware of what’s at risk, but more so, stop pretending like they aren’t in love with you. ”

“They aren’t!”

“You are not stupid, Presley. Stop acting like this before you get someone killed, or did you forget you’ve already done that too?”

He disappeared around a corner before I could reply that it wasn’t my fault…all the times they’d tried to protect me. It was his.