Page 129 of Unspoken Lies

“We all will,” Theo says.

Rachelle makes it about halfway through the movie before she falls asleep against Theo’s chest.

“Will you grab her laptop for me please?” he asks.

“She’s got a planner too with what’s due when,” Elijah adds.

Nodding, I get up with a last glance at Rachelle and go to her room to hunt down what Theo needs. Her phone is largely ignored, while we take ours everywhere. She’s still an almost dead girl adrift in the world, and I fucking hate that.

Pulling out my phone, I begin making a note of people who could help me in the Kings Society. I need to begin to put myself in a position where I can indebt them to me. One of these days, her secret won’t be able to remain as such, and it’s up to me to ensure she can safely return as herself.

Deep in my thoughts, I shove my phone away to pick up Rachelle’s laptop and planner. I know Mr. Reyes has to also beworking on things, so I need to speak with him before I move too far into my plan. It may need to span months to make this happen.

I’m not beyond blackmailing people and inviting Kings Society to our club for the video tapes to do it with. However, a sex tape has never ruined anyone, unless they’re running for some type of government position.

Walking back to the room, I run into Calvin just outside of it.

“Is she alright?” he asks. He doesn’t even need to use her name. There’s only one person he could be asking about.

“She misses Ignacio and Liliana, and we are poor substitutions,” I grunt.

“You’ve had a very rough road,” he observes. Unfortunately, he pulled the full story out of me recently when I told him that Rachelle was moving in with us and that I was married to her now.

I’ve never seen him so disappointed in me, and he’s been with my family since I was a kid. I tend to fuck up often in private.

“We’re working on it,” I promise. “She’s asleep though. I’ll let you know if she gets hungry.”

Nodding, he makes himself scarce as I step into the room. Theo and I work together to roll Rachelle into my arms so he can work, and he begins to go through her emails, school portal, and documents alongside her planner.

“She’s completely caught up,” he mutters. “I’ll write up the resources for her on this last paper, but otherwise she’s begun to work ahead for assignments.”

“Rachelle has always busted her ass for school,” Elijah murmurs. The movie is turned down so that the background noise will help keep her asleep, and I have to admit I’m kind of committed to see if this guy will wake up from a coma or not. “If she has nothing else to do, it’s not a surprise that she’s overdoingit. Do you think she may be ready to start working at the store again?”

“What if we only do tarot card readings for a few hours?” I suggest. “Working a full shift feels like it could be exhausting. Just the trip to the school wiped her out.”

“I think that could work,” Theo says, his fingers moving across the screen as he formats the resources in the correct way for Rachelle’s paper. She had them loosely linked in another document so she wouldn’t forget anything, making it easy for Theo to do.

“I’m serious about making her understand that this is real,” I say, changing the subject. “We all lost our fucking minds when we lost her a second time to the hospital. We need to get her to understand that we’re all in.”

“I don’t know that I’ll ever get her to forgive me,” Elijah says. “I didn’t tell you this, but Ignacio told Mr. Reyes what happened the night we buried her. Rachelle knows it all too because her stepfather chose to tell her. I was the one who fought the hardest about unburying her. It was so fucking stupid.”

“Your parents traumatized you,” I remind him. “We were fucking kids to begin with. The Kings Society preys on the children of Carlysle Prep to force us to think there’s no other way out of the obligations we’re born into. All of our parents are monsters. Lili’s father is fucking scary.”

“The difference is that we pushed Liliana over the edge to follow in her father’s footsteps so she could deal with Rachelle’s absence,” Theo grunts. “Everyone has a choice, or are forced into unsavory decisions due to circumstance. We aren’t special, but the Kings promised to make us gods.”

“I dressed Rachelle while on my knees, and I’ve never felt so powerful or vulnerable,” I rasp, my hand smoothing her short hair. “I don’t need other people to worship me. We can get whatwe need without it, with fancy lawyers and shit. I need her to accept that we’re not going anywhere and we’re enough.”

“Ain’t that the fucking truth,” Elijah says as Theo glances at us.

“Huh. I thought it was just me,” he mutters before going back to work.

Smirking, I play with Rachelle’s hair, allowing the tapping of the keyboard to lull me into a nap.

CHAPTER 30

RACHELLE

For three days, Theo, Elijah, and Jared rearrange their schedules for me. It didn’t matter how often I told them I was fine, they refused to listen. To be fair, my cramps are the worst this period than they’ve ever been. All I wanted to do was curl up and cry, but they took turns keeping me occupied.