Page 6

ELIJAH

I ’ve been sleeping like shit the last few days. Is this what guilt feels like? I know I haven’t been all here since I spoke to Lili, and a part of me wishes she had shot me in the gut.

When I was leaving the bathroom at the rest stop, I saw someone who resembled Rachelle. She was short with haunted eyes, and had on a hooded sweatshirt. I caught just a flash of her, and then it was gone. I think I’m losing my fucking mind.

She’s dead. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. There’s no way she’s alive.

There’s a million things to do around the house, and Calvin is now in charge and has moved in.

He brought one suitcase and got to work.

His first action was to call the cleaning company and send the documented shoddy cleaning efforts to them.

He was able to get half of the money paid back and then he cleaned everything.

In true petty fashion, Calvin also sent those photos of the immaculate surfaces to the cleaning company. It was a thing of beauty. The truth is we aren’t really prepared for life in the real world.

At least, not at the level where Calvin believes we need to be at.

“Have you seen Jared?” he asks, a small frown on his face.

“Yes, he’s in the weight room,” I tell him.

One of the extra rooms has been turned into an epic weight and training room. Everything we need is there, and we decided to get up early each morning to run. Jared is getting a work out now with Theo before we go into town to look at real estate.

I fucking hate not having money. It may have come with strings before, but now my inheritance is all tied up in an estate that only my guardian can touch. The three of us agreed not to touch the Kings Society’s money, so I pretend it doesn’t even exist.

However, I don’t like knowing that my friends are fronting all of our costs. Having a club that we own together will give me some breathing room, and then I won’t have to ask my guardian for money either.

I don’t really need a car because I enjoy catching a ride with the guys. I’ve always been a passenger prince in that way, since I hate fucking driving.

My curiosity is piqued by Calvin, so I push aside my worries to follow him into the weight room.

“Jared?” Calvin asks, stepping into the room.

Jared is finishing up his reps, and puts the weights down to sip from his bottle of water. He’s out of breath, but nods to Calvin.

“Yeah,” he says. “What’s up?”

“I am concerned about your parents and my ties to them,” Calvin says uncomfortably.

We all know that he’s forced to report back to Jared’s parents on some level. It’s not his fault, it’s just the nature of our lives.

“Are they already hounding you about what and how I’m doing?” Jared asks. “Since the Society sent formal communication after we completed our bet, my parents should know that their role in my life has ended as parental units. I graduated, we’re done.”

“I’m aware, I heard all about it whenever they would argue,” Calvin grunts.

“Is there a solution you’d like to propose?” I ask. This has been going on for years, I doubt he’d bring it up without offering something in its place.

“There is,” he says, blowing out a breath. He appears really fucking nervous.

“Out with it,” Jared says, raising his brow. “It’s just me.”

“I’m considering putting in my resignation to your parents if you’ll hire me full time,” he says quickly. “The only issue is that it has to be with money that’s not tied to them.”

“Fuck,” Jared grunts, standing. “The guys and I are going to open a club so we’re completely financially independent. It’s just going to take some time for us to get it off the ground.”

“It wouldn’t be right for us to ask you to work for free either,” Theo adds. “We all jumped at the opportunity to have you here with us, since this is a big house, and we’re about to be really busy with school and the new business.”

“All of my money is in savings, and I never pay for anything regarding board or food,” Calvin says honestly.

“I mean, that’s how it would work here as well. When you go grocery shopping, also shop for yourself with the card,” Jared says with a shrug.

“What exactly are you saying?” I ask, feeling as if there’s more to Calvin’s words.

“I’ll stay for free until the business is profiting,” he says firmly. “Jared, your mother just called me with very probing questions that I didn’t feel comfortable answering.”

“It’s because she and my father no longer have me under their thumb,” Jared grunts. “I hate that they are still doing this to you.”

The two men share a long look before Jared nods.

“Alright,” he says. “Turn in your resignation, and we’ll draw up our non-disclosure agreement and contract. We both know that’s the only way my parents will get off your back.”

“Yes,” Calvin says, releasing the breath he’s been holding in relief. “Thank you, sir.”

“None of this sir shit, please,” Jared says. “I’m just me.”

“Of course,” Calvin says with a wide smile. “Should I go ahead and resign now or wait for the paperwork?”

“Let me draw it up,” Theo says. He is still taking pre-law classes because they come in handy when things like this come up. “We’ll go into town once I’m done and we’re cleaned up.”

Never a dull day, I swear.

JARED

Glancing at Elijah as I get into the car with him and Theo, I try to figure out why he’s been acting so odd.

Even though we are setting up our own rooms, we’ve still been crashing in Theo’s at night because he ordered a king size mattress almost immediately after we moved in.

Calvin gave it his stamp of approval after vacuuming and cleaning, and we dragged it in.

It’ll do until we get a frame for it. I think it may end up being the bedroom we sleep in. It’s not unusual for us to sleep together when we’re going through a big change.

Or fighting personal demons.

None of us are magically over what we did to Rachelle, though I pretend better than the other two. I am planning to spend some serious time in the pool after Calvin ensures it’s up to my needs. Until then, I’ve been punishing my body through running and weight training.

However, Elijah doesn’t drop into bed the way I know I do, and the exercise certainly isn’t quieting his demons. Instead, he twitches and mutters in his sleep, waking up exhausted.

It’s worse than it was in Portland, and I know that because he was sleeping with me in the pool house. He slept deeply. If he had nightmares, they weren’t apparent back then.

Something recently happened to fuck with his head. I intend to find out what it is. Somehow.

There are actually two driveways to the house. One is at the front of the house, and the other is at the side and goes toward the backyard. It’s all done with beautiful pavers, there’s no concrete. This area definitely knows how to build a unique home that’s not simply ostentatious and ugly.

Driving off the property, I merge onto the road to drive into town.

I feel better knowing that Calvin is cut off now and protected from my parents.

Theo drew up the paperwork and Calvin signed it.

Theo is so talented, no matter what he decides to do, there will always be a flair with which he does it.

I appreciate that Calvin came to me with his concerns immediately, so we could fix it. He was on the phone with my parents to end his employment with them as we were walking out the door.

Theo and Elijah, on the other hand, are harboring secrets. Theo hasn’t done much hacking or coding unless it’s for a specific reason, and has given up his work on the dark web for extra money. Secrets have a way of creating division and destroying friendships, the way that Ignacio’s did.

Fuck him for falling in love with Rachelle and Liliana. It’s not like we’d have been able to retract the bet, not once it was sent in to the Kings Society. He’s the one who chose her.

Fucking Rachelle didn’t have to lead to catching feelings. That was all him.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t immune to her charm, it’s why we had to kill her. Even then, we struggled to keep it together long enough to bury her.

Fuck, I don’t want to think about that night. All of it was fucked up.

Focusing on our goals, I drive to the real estate agent’s office in downtown Santa Barbara. The town is historic and rich in history, and I’m hoping there will be the perfect place for our speakeasy. I wouldn’t mind needing to go to Montecito if necessary.

I have a feeling people will be willing to travel the extra few minutes.

Parking on the street isn’t terrible at this time of the day, and the three of us walk in to meet with Mrs. Terry Walker. She also sold us our house and is who I’ve been working with.

As soon as we walk in, she pops her head out of her office.

“You’re here! Come in. Louise, can you ask if they need anything before they do? Hold my calls too, please,” she says gruffly before disappearing again.

Her secretary, Louise, raises her brows at us as if to ask if we need anything, and we shake our heads before stepping into Terry’s office.

She’s tall, a ball buster, and doesn’t take any shit, which is exactly what we need. There could have been a lot of red tape to cut through before we moved in, but she took care of everything for us.

“First of all, I’m sorry that the cleaners didn’t do a good job,” she says. “I’ve been using them for years, I just cut them from my list as soon as I heard what happened from Calvin.”

My lips twitch, because my butler is someone who will raise hell if things aren’t done up to his standards. Those poor people will have a difficult time finding a job anytime soon. Maybe don’t half ass something because a bunch of kids hired you.

Dickheads.

“That wasn’t your fault,” I reply. “It is a teachable moment for us, though. Theo, we should create a limited liability company name so that we can run all of our business through it. This way, this is less likely to happen since we’re on the younger side.”

Theo nods, pulling out his phone to take notes. We sit around Terry as she gazes at us in amusement.