Page 24 of The Lost Kings

Presley

PRESENT

T he small bistro café was only a few blocks from Adrian’s villa, so I walked.

I wore a pair of sandals, a flowy skirt and small babydoll tank, which allowed the warm summer breeze to kiss my skin and tangle my hair. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, remembering why I loved this place so much.

I’d arrived almost a week ago and since then, the only person I had heard from was my mother. We’d been texting and talking almost daily with no mention of the twins, Scotty or my dad. It was nice, like a tiny reprieve.

Adrian was helpful, funny and charming as always. He was also a tiny reprieve that I hadn’t known I needed. He didn’t ask why I suddenly wanted to come, nor did he push for anything more than what I’d already offered him.

After taking a seat at a small table and placing my order, I pulled my phone free to check to see if my mother had sent any other messages or if there were any updates from Carter.

She felt guilty about her role in all of this, but not bad enough to stay at the manor.

According to Scotty, she’d already left on some girls’ trip with her friends.

My screen lit up, but the text on my display wasn’t from my mother.

Gio: You ran.

Kingston: Never knew you to be a coward, Pres.

The twins had thrown me in a group chat, and suddenly the feelings I’d been trying to escape by running to Italy had caught up with me.

Which meant Scotty had officially removed the forwarding feature to his burner.

In an odd, very ironic way I was thankful he hadn’t done it back when I first discovered they were being sent to him.

I wasn’t ready to confront them then, and I especially wasn’t ready now.

Gio: Guess it’s easy to be spineless when you start sucking the cock of a coward.

What the hell? Why were they talking to me like this? They’d never…

Kingston: If I find out that Presley sucked that fucker’s cock, I will remove it from his body.

Gio: Based off that picture, looked like she was friendly enough. His hands were in her hair.

Kingston: For that, I will be taking his fingers, but honestly, I’ll settle for Presley just coming home. We have a few things to talk about.

Gio: Do you think she blocked us?

My fingers moved over the keys, typing out an angry reply. How dare they text this bullshit to me after all this time of not?—

They had been trying to connect with me; I was the one who hadn’t responded.

With or without Scotty’s interference, I had been hiding from my best friends for over a year.

My chest was warm, my lungs heating with the need to yell or scream.

Leaving cash on the table for a coffee I didn’t even drink, I gathered my things and darted through the door.

My gaze was still on the phone as I walked back to Adrian’s house. My eyes watery and my heart thundering out a warning.

Gio: Holy shit, she didn’t block us. Her dots are moving .

Kingston:…Pres?

“I had a feeling I’d find you out here, walking back from town,” Adrian called to me, shaking me out of my thoughts.

I smiled up at his advancing form. He wore white linen pants, a black T-shirt and sandals. Designer shades were covering his eyes. I had been a coward, but only because I hadn’t told him about why I’d come here.

“I just grabbed some coffee from down the way,” I laughed, pointing behind me.

Right before he reached me, I did the only thing I could do regarding the twins. The only choice that really mattered because they were baiting me, and I’d fallen for that before. I wouldn’t again.

*Presley left the group chat*