Page 104 of Wicked Empire (Knight's Ridge Empire 3)

“Just…” Theo holds his hand up in the hope of stopping them. I can’t help but laugh because… does he not know his friends at all? “Don’t. Okay? Don’t. I need coffee. Strong fucking coffee.”

He just takes a step toward the kitchen when I hear something else. I’m not the only one either, because every head turns toward Theo’s bedroom as someone else steps out.

“Oh my fucking God,” Alex damn near squeals. “Hell yes, bro.”

Emmie legit looks like she’s been dragged through a hedge backward. Her hair is a matted mess on her head, she’s got last night’s dark makeup everywhere, and she’s wearing Theo’s shirt. But the most startling thing is what looks like dried blood down the side of her face.

“Em, what happened?” I ask, clearly the only one to see the real damage and not just get carried away about the two of them emerging from the same bedroom.

“I don’t know,” she hisses, “and that prick won’t tell me.”

I turn my angry stare back on Theo, but he’s too focused on the coffee machine to appreciate the pure death in my glare.

“Someone order her a fucking Uber,” he snaps. “I’m going back to bed.”

The second he’s got his coffee made, he disappears back down the hall and slams his door so hard the entire building vibrates.

“Well, I’ll make my own then,” Emmie shouts after him, flipping him off.

“I’ll do it,” Seb offers, making my heart sing.

“Thanks. Can I?” she asks, pointing at the box of painkillers on the coffee table.

“Help yourself,” I say, and she does. Throwing two small pills into her mouth, she swallows them down dry, making my eyes widen in surprise.

“So?” I ask when she falls down beside me.

“So nothing. I’m having coffee then leaving.” Her head falls back against the cushion and her eyes close.

“What happened to your head?” I ask, my eyes zeroed in on the blood.

She shrugs. “Ask that arsehole.”

“Did you two—”

“No,” she snaps, sitting up so fast it must make her head spin, because she squeezes her eyes tight and takes a deep breath. “No, we didn’t. I don’t even know how I ended up in there.”

“Are you sure?” Alex asks, looking way too amused by all of us. “If you can’t remember what happened, then how do you know you didn’t…”

“Because I know,” she snaps. “Either that or his cock is so small it didn’t touch the sides.”

Alex laughs as Nico sprays coffee everywhere.

“I’ve seen it. That’s entirely possible,” Alex happily supplies.

“Whatever,” Emmie scoffs, turning back to me. “We didn’t. You know?”

I nod, knowing what she means. Reaching for her hand, I squeeze gently. “I believe you,” I whisper.

Seb passes her a mug and settles back on my other side.

Silence fills the room for a few minutes, the guys all lost in their cells until Alex feels the need to read out some lame-ass joke that he finds hilarious.

“You wanna come and use our bathroom to freshen up?” I ask Emmie. “We can take you home to change before…” I trail off, wanting to remind her that we’ve got plans but not wanting anyone else to know.

We had originally planned to get up and go to school today. Seb was insistent that life continue as normal despite everything, but I think we all unanimously agreed to forget about it somewhere between the vodka and the weed last night.

The clock is already showing that it’s past lunch, so I think we all thoroughly fucked the idea of attending any class today, but thankfully, we’ve still got plenty of time for the surprise I’ve planned for Seb.

“Before what?” Seb asks, not missing a thing.

“You’ll see.” I drop a kiss on his cheek. “Come on, Em. Let’s go fix you up.”