Arranged love

“He was mad we were here,” she goes on, sounding sad.

“I’m sure he was,” he tells her through gritted teeth.

We make it to our cars. The girls hug goodbye, and we put them in our cars before I turn to the Kings.

“Any word on where Ethan went?”

“No,” Grave growls. “But that fucker is dead. I’m tired of this shit …” His voice trails off as he looks over at Bones. Grave’s eyes are full of remorse. For once, he finally realizes what he’s put his brother through all those years. The worrying, the unknown. Granted, he never put his brother’s life in danger like Ethan has April, but it’s not much different.

Bones slaps his brother on the shoulder. “We’ll find him.”

We look over as we hear someone approaching, and it’s Derek. His wide eyes look each of us over, seeing the blood that still remains on our clothes. Bones is by far the filthiest. “You guys okay?” he asks, swallowing.

“Where the fuck did you go?” I bark, ignoring his question. He left them. Just like I told him not to.

He shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I saw Mitch and went over to talk to him to keep him away from Alexa. He was acting strange, avoided me, and came up with some lame excuse that he had to go. Then I decided to order a drink before I returned to the girls. As I was ordering, I looked over in time to see Ethan spill April’s drink and Jasmine shoved him away… then they stormed off to the bathroom. What was I supposed to do?”

I can’t be mad that he went over to talk to Mitch because he did the right thing. “You walk into the women’s bathroom like you fucking belong there!”

He snorts as if that’s absurd. But it’s not, not here. I’ve done it to protect the girls. Other men do it with bad intentions.

“I’m out,” Titan tells us, giving us Kings handshake hugs. “I wouldn’t be surprised if my wife is puking in my car right now.” He chuckles.

“See you in the morning,” I call out as he climbs into his Maserati.

“Are you drunk?” Bones asks Derek.

“No. I only had one drink. Didn’t get to finish the second one I ordered.”

“Here, Jasmine’s in her passenger seat. Drive her home.” He goes to hand him the keys but then pulls them back. “Drive her home and then you go home. Got it?”

“Got it,” Derek agrees.

With that, Bones drops the keys in his hand, and gets into his car.

“Hey, I’m sorry, Cross.” Derek sighs heavily. “I didn’t think-”

“It’s fine,” I interrupt him. “It all worked out. This time.”

With that, I give him my back and get into my driver’s seat. Alexa stays silent in the passenger seat, but I can feel the heat radiating off her body. She’s pissed. I can’t say I blame her.

Taking a quick look over at her, I ask, “Going to tell me what happened back there?”

“I don’t see the point.”

I snort. “You’re joking, right?”

She stays silent.

“I found you on top of another woman in the bathroom. That’s the point.”

She’s got her head leaning back against the headrest. Opening her eyes, she tilts her head to the side so she can look at me. “I hate Rachel.”

“Why? Because I fucked her? Alexa … she meant absolutely nothing to me.”Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

“I can’t help who you fucked before me. Just like you can’t help who I’ve been with.”

I tighten my hand on the steering wheel at that thought. Fucking Mitch. I can understand how she feels about Rachel because I want to fuck him up for ever touching her.

“She fucked Mitch.”

So she does know that he’s sleeping with her? I didn’t think she’d care. Obviously, I was wrong. “What?” I growl. “Why the hell do you care that she fucked your ex?”

“I don’t now … I did when I found her in my bed with him … and we were engaged at the time.”

I did my research on her. Social media told me that she was once engaged, but he cheated on her? With Rachel? Knowing both of their track records, I’m honestly not that surprised. “I’m sorry,” I say.

“Are you?” she questions, licking her lips.

There’s no telling how much she had to drink while the Kings and I were down in the basement. It took longer than I expected it to. “Of course …”

“Because if he hadn’t cheated on me, I wouldn’t be here with you right now.”

“Good point. No. I’m not sorry. I lied. I take it back.”

She laughs softly. “Rachel told me that you fired her because I’m insecure. I never once asked you to do that.”

“It needed to be done,” I say.

“Because of me?”

“Yes and no. I was with you. I only wanted to be with you, and she wanted something that I refused to give her.” I reach over and grab her hand and bring it to my lips, kissing her knuckles. “I didn’t want any additional problems in my way to getting to you.”

“She said that you’d go back to her just like Mitch did.”

I sigh, lowering her hand to my lap but keep ahold of it with mine. “She was feeding you lies, and you ate them up like you were starving.”

“No. I wasn’t.” She snorts. “I was a little drunk and a lot pissed. I couldn’t care less about Mitch, but you … I care about you.” She lowers her voice. “I love you, Cross.”

“I love you too, gorgeous.” My thumb gently rubs over her knuckles while resting on my thigh.

“I’m so tired.” She yawns.

“And also drunk,” I add with a laugh.

We pull up to the private back entrance of Kingdom and exit the car. Making our way up the stairs and into the double doors.

She leans into me, her head rolling across my shoulder. I reach down and slide my arm behind her knees and pick her up, carrying her into the elevator.

Once I get her up to the Royal Suite, I help get her undressed and into my bed. She opens up her pretty green eyes. “Get some rest.” I lean down and kiss her head.

I go to walk away, but she reaches out, gripping my shirt. Looking down at her, she blinks, her drunken stare trying to focus. “Did you kill whoever it was?” she asks, letting go of my shirt, running her fingers over the dried blood.

I expected to have this conversation tomorrow once she’s sober and pieces together all of tonight’s events. “Yeah. He’s dead,” I tell her.

“Why? Did he hurt you?” she asks through a yawn.

I kneel next to the bed, reaching up to push her bleach-blond hair back off the side of her cheek. “No.” He threatened to hurt those who I love.

The road to being a King is paved with dead bodies. Eventually, our sins will catch up with us and demand a payment for all the carnage we leave behind. They can have my Kingdom, but they will never touch my Queen. I will set fire to the world and watch it all burn, me included, before I let her pay for my sins.

She closes her heavy eyes, and whispers, “I love you, Cross.”

I kiss her forehead once again. “Love you too, Alexa.”

Walking into my bathroom, I get undressed and start the shower, needing to wash off before I can lie down with her and finally crash.