Page 14 of True Honey (The Hornets Nest #4)

COURTNEY

T here was a small knock on the apartment door just after I got back from dropping August off at school.

I wasn’t scheduled at the stadium until tomorrow and was taking the day to get organized in our new space.

I was dumping laundry into the washing machine and paused, not sure of what I was hearing but it came again.

I set the basket on the floor and wandered through the quiet apartment.

Popping the lock I opened the door to find the pretty blonde from the night before standing on the other side with two coffees in her hand and binder in her arms.

“I’m Ella and I’m here to help,” she said sweetly, extending the coffee to me. “It’s black but–”

“It’s perfect, thank you,” I stopped her, taking the coffee out of her hand and allowing her to come inside. I didn’t have the heart to admit I preferred it with sugar and cream.

I’d drink it black simply because it would make her feel bad if I didn’t.

“I’ve never been in here,” she said, looking around curiously.

“Why are you here?” I asked nervously, setting the cup down on the long island that separated the kitchen and the living room.

“Oh!” Ella spun, setting her coffee down and holding out the binder to me.

“What’s this?” I asked her.

“Everything.” She said, sliding onto one of the stools. “To start, Silas told Arlo everything and because Arlo can’t keep a secret to save his life. I also know.”

“You know?” I raised an eyebrow at her, cautious to lead her into giving me answers because I couldn’t be sure how much she knew and I wasn’t going to be the one to spill any secrets I shouldn’t.

Ella checked her watch. “Auggie doesn’t come home for lunch, does he?” she asked and I shook my head. “Good, that gives us lots of time to study.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so confused. What do you mean study?” I asked her, letting the binder fall open in my arms. There were at least forty pages, all neatly organized by tabs inside and it looked like a collection of information. On Silas…on everyone.

“Arlo likes to make binders, it’s endearing. He put that together for you, and sent me to help.” Ella explained and I inhaled sharply. “We know about the deal.” She added, sipping on her coffee and making a disgusted face. “Oh, lies. This isn’t mine,” she switched our cups.

“Why?” I asked her, setting the binder down softly. It was open on a family photo, Silas, two older men and a woman that shared the same icy blue eyes as Silas.

Ella hummed gently before answering, “Silas is kind of important. To all of us, I think Arlo is nervous about the whole fake wife scenario so he’s trying to protect his friend in the way he knows how. Which is helping.”

I stared at her for a second, clearly under estimating how close Silas was to all these people. The binder was extensive. There were multiple pages on Silas, and one for each person close to him.

“It was his birthday last night?” I asked and she nodded. “And he stayed up doing this for Silas?”

I’d never experienced that kind of friendship.

To be so selfless in their actions for each other was a foreign concept to me.

“You’ll figure it out,” she smiled at me like I was supposed to understand what that meant.

“Start at the beginning, read the page and I’ll answer what I can.

The hope is that if we can get you fluent in Silas then dinner next Sunday won’t be so hard.

They’ll expect you to know all of this flawlessly.

And Silas’s mother, Sylwia. She’s a wonderful woman, but all of Silas’s intelligence came from her DNA.

So she’ll see right through you if you hesitate on anything. ” Ella set her coffee back down.

“Silas and Arlo have been friends that long?” I stared at the sheet.

“They’re basically brothers,” Ella said. “Josh came along after, I don’t know the entire story but I know it was bad. Silas stepped up in a big way to get him out of the life that their father dumped him into. Josh has his days now, but Silas saved his life.”

“The grumpy one with the curly hair? The one who keeps ten feet away from everyone?”

I asked, flipping the page to find his photo with a nod.

“He’s got a bit of a thing about contact. Dean’s the only one he really lets in, and even then, some days they argue like they don’t love each other,” Ella said with a smile.

“So Josh is Silas’s half brother, and Dean is Josh’s boyfriend?” I asked and she gave me a proud nod.

“Both will likely be around a lot so it’s probably best to get to know them, they might be helpful if you ever find yourself cornered by Sylwia or Seymour.” Ella laughed.

“Grandpa Shore? Like from the Godfather?” I teased gently, finding humor in it all.

“Exactly. I’ve only ever met him once at the Gala, but he’s a scary old bastard and he means business,” she said, flipping to the next page.

“He’s been around a long time, he’s the reason the King family are legacy, he was Arthur King’s mentor.

And then every single King man followed that path right down to Arlo.

” She tapped the picture of a group of men arm in arm, smiling brightly.

A combination of the Shore family, and the King. “He only wants what’s best for Silas.”

“By forcing him to get a wife, he doesn’t want so he can take over the family business?” I questioned.

“It’s not about the business for Silas,” Ella said quickly, “it’s about what the business does for the rest of Harbor.

They have their hands in everything, especially the sports at the college.

They don’t just fund the baseball team. It’s all of the teams. The majority of the money that goes into the Harbor Sports program is Shore money. ”

“Oh,” I looked down at the binder again.

All of this information was overwhelming but good to know.

At first I thought Silas was just being greedy, thinking over the deal sitting in my bed wondering if I should take it just to help a rich man get richer.

But it clearly was never about that, Silas just wanted to protect what he had built. “This is very generous, Ella.”

“It’s what we do,” she responded easily.

“Did Silas really break his hand punching Arlo when they were fifteen?” I gasped at the sheet.

“I learned about that last night and you don’t want the details,” she said, shaking her head.

By the time we got through the entire book I felt like my brain was screaming for a break.

The crash course on the Hornet family was endless.

It felt like every page we flipped there were ten more to follow.

Over the last two years their lives had drastically changed, mostly for the better but they had all gone through so much.

Ella had me fill out a small sheet to give Silas some insight on my past but I stared at the previous relationship part of her cute highlighted format in terror.

“I…Do I really need to tell him about that?” I chewed my lip and set down the pen. “My last relationship…”

“Why don’t you tell me and I’ll decide if Silas should know?” Ella offered, “I’m a little better at keeping secrets than Ar,” she said with a cute nose scrunch.

“You promise not to judge, I don’t know if I can really handle that today,” I confessed and she shook her head gently.

“Trust me, if anyone here has a sordid past it’s me.

” Ella leaned forward on the counter and tapped it with her finger nervously.

“We talked about Cael, but the reason he and I got so close was because I’m also a recovering addict.

A few years ago there was an accident, it killed my twin brother and my parents leaving me a guilt ridden orphan. ”

“Guilt ridden?” I asked.

“I was driving,” Ella said and my heart broke for her.

“I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out to tap her hand with the back of mine .

“I’m working on forgiving myself, so there's that. Now, what’s so upsetting that you’re afraid to tell him? Did you accidentally kill your last husband?” she asked, raising her eyebrow with a smile. “Did you kill him on purpose?”

“No, no,” I chuckled softly, “nothing like that.” Ella waited patiently for me to find my voice. “August’s early years were difficult. I got diagnosed with postpartum depression and… my husband at the time wasn’t equipped to deal with it. I barely was.”

“You make it sound like he was a zookeeper, and you were an ornery lion.” Ella stared at me, her brown eyes narrowing slightly. “Is that the worst of it? He never…”

“No, it was never physical like that. It was more… mental warfare,” I sighed, rubbing my chest.

“I do that too,” Ella noted, “it’s hard when the one person who is supposed to be in your corner falters. But maybe give Silas a chance?”

“It’s fake Ella, I don’t have to give him anything. I just don’t think it’s relevant to this .” I explained and she sighed, but nodded in understanding.

“I hear you,” she said, “Silas isn’t going to though.

” She shifted on her stool, standing like she was getting ready to leave.

“He’s a fixer, and a watcher. He’ll figure it out before you can tell him—and sometimes fixing something without all the facts just makes it worse.

. So when he eventually makes a mess of it, don’t be too hard on him. ”