Page 21 of The Lost Kings

Kingston

P resley used to make crowns out of flowers and twigs, then she’d wear the thing on her head and pretend she was a princess.

It would always be this big production where she’d ask me and Gio to be knights.

I never really cared because I’d talk her into letting me be the dragon, and I’d find some tall place to jump from that I wasn’t supposed to.

Now she was wearing a diamond tiara with a dress that made her look like real royalty, and it was making me feel weird.

She was only sixteen, but there was something about how her smile stretched over her braces that had my own smile coming out. These days it didn’t feel like anyone could get me to do that, but Presley always could.

I watched as Presley sipped something clear and bubbly from her glass.

I knew it was Sprite, but she was probably trying to act like it was champagne.

I knew her well enough to know she was trying to give the impression that she was mature for sixteen.

I could tell by the way she kept glancing at the boy near the corner that kept looking at her.

He seemed similar to my age or older, with shaggy blond hair and a tux that was too big for his frame.

It was only a matter of time before he saw her watching him, and then he’d walk over and speak to her as if he had the right.

The discomfort I felt over observing her flirting with her eyes had nothing to do with the fact that she’d snuck into our room last night and slept on our floor just so she could spend the first moments of her birthday with us.

We’d stayed up all night, sneaking out onto the terrace, watching the stars.

Presley’s sixteenth birthday had arrived and with it, an insane idea from Scotty.

While we’d been hiding from rival families all our lives, he suddenly wanted to play with this idea that we could emerge into their society and dance right under their noses without them ever even knowing it.

We went by different names and floated about the party as though not a single person would notice, but the entire idea had me on edge.

The boy across the room finally made his move toward Presley, holding out a plate for her that contained a piece of chocolate cake.

She accepted it with a delicate smile and a small blush that crept under her thick lashes.

Something stirred in my chest seeing it.

Knowing she was so focused on this boy who wasn’t me or Gio.

What did she think was going to happen here, at a party we were hiding in plain sight just to attend? Aside from that, what could he be saying that had her laughing so much?

My brother found me sulking against the wall and shoved my shoulder.

“Stop staring at her.”

I glared ahead, locking my jaw over how the idiot talking to Presley just tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.

The ear that I knew had an infection when she was seven, then again when she was eleven.

She’d had them pierced when she was twelve, and the first pair of earrings she got were two little cows.

I directed my question at my brother as I asked, “No one should feel comfortable enough that they can just walk up and touch her. Doesn’t anyone realize how fucking dangerous this entire thing is?”

There were rival families here for fuck’s sake .

Gio let out a sigh before tucking his hands into his suit pockets. “He’s not touching her.”

“He just touched her ear.”

Why did it feel like someone had placed a river rock baking in the sun all day right there on my sternum?

I’d always watched over Presley, always been aware of her movements and remained near enough that if she were in danger, I’d be there to help, but this was different.

She wasn’t the one I worried was in danger; it was me that I feared for.

Me that felt out of control watching her.

Me who was messed up in the head for looking at her the way I was and thinking she was pretty. Beautiful even.

I’d counted her freckles the last time we were on the couch watching a movie.

She assumed I was playing a staring game with her, but she wouldn’t engage.

It was better that way because it allowed me to scrutinize her every dark spot, every thick lash, and the way her cheek dimpled on only the left side of her face.

“Can you see Scotty from here?” Gio asked, bringing me back to the girl across the room now taking a photo with the stupid boy.

That was enough.

I snapped harshly enough that my brother pushed off the wall, “He can’t have photos of her.”

Scotty was already watching us from across the room with a hard set to his jaw as we approached him.

He wore a fitted suit, all black, of course, because God forbid the man wear anything aside from that color.

I knew he’d snuck in weapons, even if we’d been checked at the door.

This whole night was one of Scotty’s sick and twisted games.

We’d parade around in front of the very people who were trying to kill us, while pretending to be someone else, just to see if we could get away with it.

Since discovering our family’s proximity to organized crime, my brother and I became students of their world.

While we were here pretending to be a part of a family that no one ever heard of, all so Presley could have this mirage of a birthday party, we knew better.

Scotty planned this, and he was likely testing us like he tested everyone.

“This is reckless,” I hissed, close to Scotty’s ear.

He glared down the length of his nose at me like I was shit on his shoe. “Kingston. Giovanni.”

Gio glanced at me like he wanted permission to hit Presley’s uncle. Instead, he stepped closer and matched my pitch as he repeated, “This is dangerous and stupid. The guy drooling all over Presley is part of the Milano family.”

Scotty sipped his liquor then with more ease than I cared for, and said, “If you two are so worried about Presley, then perhaps you should take it upon yourselves to protect her. She’ll go places I can’t follow.

If you’re so inclined, you can trail her.

Watch her. She’ll never be able to date, not anyone regular that is.

She’ll get them killed, so maybe you’re doing her a kindness by stepping in. ”

“So you’re asking us to go and take care of this?” Gio asked, seemingly confused.

I was too. Why not just stop all this and get her out of here?

Scotty took another sip of his drink. “I’m telling you that if you’re worried, then simply take care of the threat yourselves.”

With that, he slipped through the crowd. We turned back toward our best friend and found her smiling at the Milano kid. He was closer to her now and touching her hip.

Red hot rage lit me up and that’s all I could see as I turned toward her. Gio followed, only to bump my arm seconds later. “I’ll distract her.”

My eyes didn’t leave the couple as they continued to laugh.

One of the Milano soldiers stood close enough to them, telling me he was likely the son of someone high up in the family.

Possibly even the don of the family. Good, maybe this would warn enough of them to stay the fuck away from—well, we had no family name here.

We were pretending, acting out exactly what Presley’s dad used to do. We’d dug into his background once the news landed that he was a part of the mafia but had stolen from them. The Joker surfaced and we realized exactly how fucked up of a legacy Kyle had left for Presley.

“Elvis,” Gio sang, walking up behind her and grabbing her attention. Her expression was reluctant, but she turned away from her admirer and gave her attention to my brother, which gave me enough time to move in.

“Gotta talk to you for a second, Josh.” I pushed on the kid’s neck, and right as Presley turned to see what was happening, my brother pulled her in for a hug.

It allowed me the chance to push the kid behind a corner, without the soldier near him seeing.

“My name isn’t Josh!” His face was red as he tried to push at my hands.

I let him go but quickly swiped his leg, so he fell on his ass.

“Hey!”

Bending down, I plucked his cell phone out of his pocket, turned his face to unlock it and then found the pictures he’d snapped of Presley. Her smile was infectious, her eyes sparkling and even her skin was glowing. Whatever that presence was on my chest became heavier.

“Sorry, Josh, it isn’t personal, but you can’t have these.”

“What the fuck is your problem?!” he yelled, pushing his palms into the marble floor, elevating his chest. His face was tomato red. There were words on my tongue that I wanted to spout off at him about touching Presley, about thinking he had the right, but I realized it wouldn’t matter.

“Stay away from that one.”

His eyes narrowed; his lip lifted with a sneer. “Fuck you. Which family do you belong to, we’re going to fucking destroy you.”

He was exhausting.

With a heavy sigh, I pulled out one of my knives.

“Can you understand what I’m telling you?”

He tried to push me again, but it only had me moving the blade to his throat.

“Try it and you’ll be dead in seconds. I have men stationed everywhere, they?—”

My mind merely replayed the way his hand splayed open on Presley’s hip, and the way she had given him one of those smiles she’d never given me, and my hand moved on its own, plunging the knife into the palm that had spread over Presley’s body.

His mouth opened and closed like a goldfish as he gaped at his hand.

“You scream and alert anyone and I have another blade for your tongue.”

His whimper was quiet, but he pulled his hand to his chest in agony.

“A kindness from me. You touched her, you’re lucky all I settled for was stabbing you. I could have taken it clean off.”

I smirked before standing above him, and right as I did, Presley and Gio rounded the corner. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, then flicked angrily over to me as if I had been the one to fuck up tonight.

My jaw clenched, and before she could say anything, I pulled her farther into the hall and disappeared behind a door.

Gio would fix my fuck-up by alerting Scotty to my little blunder.

“Why did you do that?” Presley spat at me as she spun around in her dress, letting it flare around her legs. I watched her, as entranced as I’d ever been by anything that I’d ever witnessed grow from the earth or bloom under the sun.

“Kingston.” She said my name again, and I finally sighed, giving her my answer.

“You can’t get that close to people here, Pres. He was dangerous. You told me there were enemies after your father. Be smarter than that next time you want to cozy up to someone who could hurt you.”

She crossed her arms, which pushed her chest up, and my eyes betrayed me by lingering on the plump flesh that her dress dipped to reveal.

“I was only talking to him…why do you care who I talk to?” Her bl ue eyes flashed the smallest bit with curiosity, and it felt like a ripe, red apple in the hands of a delicate sinner. I would be the corruptive snake that shed some artificial light on her.

Stepping closer, I smirked. “Maybe I was jealous, Elvis .” I slowly dragged my finger across her collarbone, and along the column of her throat.

I watched as she swallowed and her chin wobbled. “Jealous in what way?”

Tilting my head, I toyed with her. “What way do you think?”

She tried to take a step away from me, but I held her in place with a palm to her hip.

“Do you…” Her pink tongue came out and wet her bottom lip. “Like me?”

Like her? I thought over how I’d woken up early just so I could walk along the ridgeline and hide amongst the brick chimney to watch her walk with her cute little slippers out on her balcony and smile at the sunrise.

Her hair always blew around her face like she’d made an invisible friend and it had waited all night to greet her.

At night I’d occasionally make my way there and crouch near that window just to ensure she was tucked inside, safe and protected. With a strange jolt in my chest, I decided this was enough.

A laugh escaped me as I stepped back. “You should see the look on your face, Pres.”

Her shapely brows curved in, crowding her cute forehead and the three freckles that rested near her hairline. That strange shudder in my chest returned tenfold, making my airway feel too tight.

“You were joking,” she said matter-of-fact and then she lowered her face as if to hide the blush that crept into her fair skin.

“Of course I was. You’re like a sister to me.” I stepped forward and gripped her chin between my fingers and then shook her head as if to dismiss this entire thing. “Doesn’t change the fact that you have to be careful in places like this. Nobody gets to touch you.”

Her eyes burned with ire, and I welcomed it because I liked warm things.

I enjoyed the heat Presley gave to me when she burned hot enough to give it.

It made me think of the jar of dirt she once gave me; all warm sunshine baked into the dust of the world that so consistently failed me.

She had no idea how impossible she made existing.

Her presence was a thorn, puncturing and piercing my chest, but I learned to live with the pain.

Even as kids, I had learned to tolerate how painful it was to look at her and not become completely undone by her, but then she grew, and she became more beautiful than I had ever imagined she’d be.

She grew fierce and bold and completely perfect.

Now she stood there, glaring at me with hate and anger radiating from her in waves.

I was crazy because I was half tempted to hand her the knife and ask her to cut me, just so I’d always remember this moment.

This one time in space where it was just us, not our family, not Gio, no one.

Just a glass jar, like a flower, trapped and protected.

“How about you not fight my battles, King.” Presley finally pushed past me, digging her shoulder into mine.

I laughed, gripping her wrist and tugging her back. “Oh no, and why not?”

Within seconds, she had a knife at my throat, pushing me back, her teeth bared. “Because I’m more skilled at battle than you are.”

Our lips were mere inches apart and I had to push down the way my fingers ached to grab her face and pull her closer.

I knew it wouldn’t be welcomed. Presley wanted a stranger, someone to come in and sweep her off her feet.

She didn’t want her best friend who spent more time in the dirt than most flowers.

My fingers had a permanent layer of dirt under them; my clothes smelled like soil, and I was as positive as the diamonds that gleamed from her tiara that Presley James would never belong to someone like me.

She was a star, the sun…the skies we spent our childhood searching.

But one thing she’d never become was mine, so I ducked my head and let her release me. Then I watched as she opened the door without looking back.