Page 29

RACHELLE

L iliana’s eyes look equal parts amused and sad. My body hurts, and my socks are wet. I’m also laying on someone that’s hard and unyielding. As I begin to twist to look at them, Liliana shakes her head quickly.

“Eyes on me for a little while longer,” she murmurs. “I just want to look at you. Does anything hurt?”

“No, I mean yes, but my socks are wet and it’s really bugging me,” I rasp.

Liliana pulls them off without making a face and tosses the offending socks away. Next, she pulls a blanket around me as if she’s tucking me in for bed before gently rubbing her thumb over my cheek.

“You’re real, and you’re in my home,” she says, as if reminding herself as she tells me. “Some assholes were chasing you.”

A scoff behind me makes me turn again, and my pillow grunts as I push my elbow into his stomach accidentally. I only know it’s male because of the sound. Oops.

“The Kings are my bosses,” I hiss, as if it’s a secret.

“Yeah, baby, I know. There’s a lot going on, and I want you to know that I’ll shoot anyone who is mean to you without a thought, okay?” she asks. “I’m your step-father’s enforcer for a reason.”

“He never told me that,” I admit. “Emil seems to be keeping many secrets, but I also couldn’t handle them. The last two years have been really lonely.”

“I’m going to need to have a heart-to-heart with my father,” my body pillow grumbles. My hand moves only to brush against a rock hard thigh, and I realize I’m nestled between his legs. I also never thought I’d hear that voice again.

This time, when I crane my neck again, Liliana lets me, tears already beginning to burn.

“Oh my god,” I gasp, blinking rapidly to clear my vision. Nacio gazes down at me, his lips grazing my temple.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, baby. You ran right into me, and it’s the best collision I’ve ever had.”

Lili huffs out a laugh, but it’s watery with tears.

“This reunion feels very one-sided,” a dark voice mutters. My eyes track down Elijah’s glower, and I shiver as I find the Kings glaring at me.

“How’s your side?” I snark, feeling brave as Ignacio’s arms wrap around me.

“You brought down a King,” Nacio murmurs. “I hope his ego shrivels up like a prune.”

“Or more likely his nuts,” Lili teases, turning on the floor to look at the Kings. Her hand finds mine, and I feel less alone than I have in years.

“You’re ganging up on me,” Elijah mutters, pouting as they move into our view.

“How are you alive?” Jared asks, his lips curled up almost in disgust.

“Do you want to try again to see if you can succeed?” I ask, despite my heart beginning to thump and race at seeing them.

Jared pulls air into his lungs as he shakes his hands out. He looks as if he’s about to punch something, and I can feel my body tensing.

“Just wait,” Nacio whispers into my ear. His lips are barely moving, I can just barely feel the vibration of his voice. This is just for me. “He’s working through something, I know that man as well as I know myself. At least, I used to. You’re safe with Lili and I.”

My brain interprets that with an ominous ‘for now’ add on, because I don’t think it’s possible for me to feel safe. My body isn’t sure either, which means that a light cold sweat is threatening to coat my skin.

“No, I don’t want to fucking try again,” Jared growls. “The guilt we feel is soul crushing, Rachel, Rachelle… Whatever the fuck you’re calling yourself. Goddamnit, I wish we’d been smart enough to have thought of faking your death.”

“Then why terrorize me and chase me?” I ask.

“Hunts are what we live for,” Theo grunts, appearing coiled to strike, despite attempting to look relaxed as he leans against the wall. “Why did you choose our mystic store out of all the other shops in the area?”

“I don’t have a car, and I haven’t left my apartment in a long time,” I confess. “I saw an advertisement for it when I was searching for work as part of my therapist’s homework for me. If I had somewhere to go, someone who was depending on me, I’d be more likely to leave the house.”

“You didn’t today,” Elijah states. It’s not an accusation, but rather an observation. “Why?”

“Fight or flight,” I sigh. “Too tired to fight.”

“Lie,” Theo mutters, pulling the neck of his shirt down to reveal the multiple scratches across his skin. “You wouldn’t have forced yourself out the window, across the thin siding that barely held your weight, and down the fucking fire escape if you didn’t have any fight left in you. Try again.”

“Avoidance,” I reply. “I’ve been hiding because I can’t function in society.”

“Being buried under the crippling weight of dirt as if you’re already dead has that effect it seems,” Nacio says.

Theo, Elijah, and Jared avoid my gaze while I shrug.

“Consider this my notice,” I say. “I’m quitting.”

“I don’t accept that,” Elijah growls, his eyes snapping to me as he steps forward. A knife flies at him out of nowhere, and he jumps back with a yelp. “Fuck, Liliana! You’re a damn menace.”

“Don’t forget it,” she says calmly. “She should be able to quit if she wants to.”

“Brea really likes you,” Jared says, attempting to guilt me into staying. “I think you should keep working for us.”

“Shit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one carries more weight,” I say without thinking. Liliana snorts but it’s how I feel. “Brea is the reason your shop is making money. I hope you pay her well. She said that you didn’t think it would be successful.”

Elijah opens his mouth before closing it abruptly. He says something under his breath in another language, and I wrinkle my brows.

“Rude,” I mutter.

Nacio leans in to catch what he says before leaning back on the pillows.

“No, she doesn’t know about your other business ventures,” he says easily as they glare at him. “We all grew up learning languages, Arabic isn’t going to throw me, assholes.”

“It’s the one language I didn’t pick up at school,” Lili says under her breath so the guys can’t hear her.

“What other business ventures?” I ask to cover up what Lili said. “Drugs or sex?”

“How little you think of us,” Elijah says. “You really didn’t notice that the shop is a front? Before you freak out, it’s hiding a speakeasy behind one of the mirrors. The code phrase is something about donuts. I always forget, but Brea has that on lockdown.”

Rolling my eyes, I realize that’s what I was hearing in the background on my first day.

“I heard someone say it but didn’t ask questions because I was focused on filling out the employment paperwork,” I confess.

I explain how my first day went, right up until I ran into Elijah and called Emil when he passed out from hitting his head.

“How does my father fit into this?” Nacio asks.

“Your dad, ugh. I need to call him,” I groan.

Lili hands me her phone, and I immediately miss holding her hand.

“Before I call him, Ignacio said ‘business ventures’ as in many of them,” I remember. “What are the other ones?”

“It’s just one other,” Theo says. “The speakeasy is hiding the sex club downstairs in that building. They have to make a previous reservation, jump through a bunch of hoops, and pay a membership to use the facility. Even though the speakeasy serves drinks, they have to be able to prove that they’re sober by blowing into a breathalyzer when they step inside.

There’s also a two drink limit to be able to play in the dungeon. ”

“Wow,” I mutter. “I think I’m a little too innocent to have heard that.”

Liliana chuckles under her breath as Ignacio gently squeezes my body in a hug.

“Nothing wrong with that, Baby Girl. Call my dad if you’re ready. I don’t think they’re leaving any time soon,” he says.

Nodding, I enter the number that I have memorized. It’s one that will forward to his phone and only exists for me.

“ Rachelle,” Emil breathes. Despite my fake name, he’s always given me a sense of normalcy by calling me by my real name. “ How bad is it?”

“The Kings have graced me with their presence,” I say sarcastically, resting my head on Ignacio’s chest. “I think the jig is up, but I don’t know where that leaves me.”

The guys make a guttural, angry, strangled noise, but I ignore that as Nacio’s fingers rub the strip of skin underneath my shirt.

“ Alive,” Emil grunts. “ It leaves you alive. This was never going to be long term, Rachelle. The Kings Society can never find out though. Please put me on speaker.”

Bringing down the phone, I click the screen to do as he says.

“Hi, Mr. Emil,” Liliana says smirking.

“ Hello, trouble ,” he mutters. “ Can you boys hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” they say together.

“ That never gets any less creepy,” he sighs. “ What’s it going to take for you to keep Rachel’s existence a secret?”

“I hate her new name,” Elijah groans. “We aren’t planning to tell the Kings Society.”

It’s clear there’s more that he wants to say, but he bites his lip hard to hold back the words. His forehead still appears swollen and tender from last night, and he drops his head back to lay against the wall.

“We’re distancing ourselves from the Society,” Jared says. Elijah gives him a grateful glance, and I realize he was wrestling with whether or not to tell us that. “While making this a tit-for-tat thing is crass, I’m not above it.”

“Me either,” Theo says. “We want her to continue to work for us at the mystic shop. I know she doesn’t need the money, though.”

“ She doesn’t,” Emil grits out. “ This is an experiment to get her out of her apartment.”

“Those locks aren’t the best,” Theo says, flirting with danger. “I got through them too quickly.”

“I still had enough time to get dressed and jump out the window, dick cheese,” I say, blinking at myself in surprise. I’ve been a shadow of who I used to be for so long, I forgot this version of myself.

“ Then they were just good enough,” Emil says. “ You three have taken a toll on her, maybe you should help put her back together.”

“What?”

The word is said almost like an expletive by everyone in the room, because he can’t be serious. Except, I have an uncomfortable feeling that he is.

ELIJAH