Page 17 of The Lost Kings

Scotty’s men groaned from the ground, trying to hold their sides together. There was so much blood that I wasn’t sure who or how we’d clean all this up. “She can be done for the day. But let me be clear about one thing. Presley will not break unless it’s you two doing the breaking.”

The men around the ring had already dispersed, and the threats were gone so I rolled over to check on Presley. She’d shed her shirt to help me wipe my eyes and was in just her sports bra, but she had her arms crossed over her stomach and was turned away from us.

“You hurt anywhere else, mi reina ?” I gently touched her face and prodded at her arm.

Gio was next to her too, and we looked her over. She winced as she tried to move, which had Gio gently pulling her closer. Her entire left side was black and blue.

I didn’t process it fast enough, but Gio’s eyes narrowed on the bruise, his nose flared and then he spun and let his hand fly.

A knife sailed from his hand and was buried in Scotty’s shoulder within the blink of an eye.

Reaper, the fucking dog I’d witnessed rip out a man’s throat, turned its head and darted for my brother.

“Gio. Kill him!”

“NO!” Presley screamed, trying to sit up. She was worried about the dog.

The fucking demon that ripped someone’s throat out. He was still running toward us when Scotty yelled a word in German and the dog immediately stopped and laid down.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” My dad appeared with Alex on his heels, tears streaming down her face. I felt bad for how panicked she must have been.

“A training session that your sons infiltrated and now stopped,” Scotty said with a bit of a gasp. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go see our doctor.”

He walked past us with the dagger still protruding from his shoulder like it was nothing at all. Gio’s fingers were shaking as he watched him walk away, and that’s when I felt Presley’s hand close around mine.

I looked down and saw tears gathering in her eyes all while Dad carefully took the other knife from Gio’s hand. “Son, why does this have blood on it?”

My brother’s eyes were still on the door where Scotty walked through. He wanted to murder him, that much I knew.

He wasn’t going to speak up, so I did. “Scotty wouldn’t let us get to Presley.”

Dad’s eyes went round as he looked back over his shoulder. “So, what, you stabbed someone?”

Gio finally looked up at Dad and smiled, using all his teeth. “Look at Kingston. Those fuckers busted his eyebrow to shit; he’s going to scar. I should have stabbed more of them.”

Dad’s muttered “fuck” was all we needed to hear for him to realize that something had shifted in our family and that we might have started out on a path he never wanted us to walk. But how could you assume a monster wouldn’t also breed monsters ?

Presley got up and held her side.

“Thanks, guys. I love you.”

I watched her walk away, feeling her words hit my chest like a piece of dynamite. She loved me.

I’d always known she did…but for some reason it felt different now that I was fifteen. Different now that I realized I wanted her love.

That night I lay awake, staring at my ceiling.

There, taped above me was the wrinkled picture I’d drawn to imitate Presley’s farm last year.

She’d found it under my bed and because I was too embarrassed to just admit that I’d had my own dream about our lives and how that barn window would be the perfect place for us to see the trees and plants during the day, and the stars at night, I had lied instead.

After she saw me toss it in the garbage, I walked back into my room and pulled it out, smoothed it and then hung it where only I’d see it. Presley hadn’t been to our room since that day, as far as I knew at least.

My brother and I were traveling less but somehow Presley was gone more.

I didn’t like the way change felt inside my chest, as if there was a crevice forming between the three of us, increasing every day.

Gio had mentioned it too that this felt like a long-drawn-out goodbye.

We hadn’t really talked about it, but we felt like it started last year when we’d fought over the reality of our parents’ jobs.

Gio was in his bed, watching something on his phone, when someone filled the doorway of our room.

“We need to talk,” Dad said, pushing his shoulder into the wood frame.

Gio dropped his phone with a sigh and I sat up.

Dad locked focus with us both before moving to my desk and pulling out the chair. Once he was leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs, he sighed.

“What happened today was too far over the line for either of you to ever go.”

I flicked a quick look at my twin and saw his eyebrow twitch. He was thinking about how he hadn’t gone far enough.

Speaking up, I chose my words carefully, so it didn’t seem like we were trying to get out of trouble simply by blaming Presley.

“He has her training to fend off five grown men at once.”

Dad let his head bob, his eyes on the carpet.

Mom once said we were walking replicas of how he looked at our age, but I’d seen photos, there was a similarity, but we looked like her too.

We had the shape of her eyes, nose and mouth.

I thought of what I had said about her plant earlier this morning and suddenly felt guilt push up like a weed in whatever soil surrounded my heart.

“Scotty’s training methods are unconventional, which is why he isn’t in charge of yours.”

Gio swung his legs over his bed and scoffed. “You expect us to just excuse his behavior because it’s unconventional?”

“No, I don’t expect you to excuse it, but you do need to accept it. Presley is being trained to become someone significant for their family. Mostly, Kyle doesn’t want her to ever be at the mercy of her enemies without a chance at survival.”

I shook my head, not liking that explanation. “She’s being killed slowly now so no one else can kill her abruptly later?”

Dad didn’t respond to that, but he knew I was right.

“Bottom line, boys. You need to understand that Presley isn’t ever going to live a life that others would call normal.

She’s not ever going to be the girl that’s carefree like Carter is.

She will always be held to a higher standard, and if that’s going to be a struggle for you both to be around, then we need to discuss the possibility of separating ou?—”

“No!” Gio shouted right as I shook my head.

Dad stared us both in the eyes before gnawing on his lip like he wanted to say more but was holding back. “I can’t have you stabbing people in this house because you don’t agree with how Presley is being trained.”

Gio threw himself back on his bed with a huff. “Fine. I won’t ever stab him again.”

“Not just him.” Dad swung his gaze over to me. “I know you don’t particularly care for her father either. We live in peace, or we don’t live here at all. Respect how she’s being trained or I’ll remove you from her life.”

“Dad, you can’t do that!” I yelled right as Gio sat up in a panic.

My brother’s voice broke as he stood to his feet in front of Dad. “We’re just worried about her; she’s our best friend.”

“She’s like your sister, I get that,” he corrected Gio, but it felt strange, almost like he was trying to remind us. But I didn’t think of Pres as a sister; it felt infinitely different with her than it did with Alex.

“She’s ours,” I muttered, but Dad’s glacier expression told me that was the wrong thing to say.

He shook his head and snapped a little too aggressively. “She isn’t yours.”

Yes, she was. but I wasn’t going to argue that with him.

Our dad stood and heaved another sigh. “I just need to make sure you both understand. Presley isn’t going to change her training, nor will the methods used to help her get there. You need to accept it, or I promise you, we will leave.”

My stomach tilted in the wrong direction, but I gave him my agreement just the same.