Page 38 of Protector

I gave you a letter once. You’ll see the ripped edges amongst the pages somewhere in here.

But I wanted to give this to you.

It’s every thought, every emotion, every single way I feel about you, all written down on these pages.

You’re it for me, Bonnie, and I can’t wait to share my life with you.

I love you.

Second star on the right…

Till Neverland,

Puck

Age 16

He’s on my mind every waking and sleeping moment. Since the night of my birthday three weeks ago, my world almost feels normal.

I’m just a girl who’s in love with her boyfriend. A girl who gets teased by her big brother. A girl who reads the love letters she was given every day. A girl who goes on dates and never stops smiling, from the moment she wakes to the second she falls asleep.

Puck has literally changed my life, and for the first time ever, all those dreams of ours feel like one day, they really will become a reality.

For three weeks, I have been living a life of total bliss, and I don’t think there’s anything, not even Carlo, that can ruin it.

Sliding my fluffy dressing gown over my pyjamas, I creep to my bedroom door, open it, and look down the hallway from both directions, straining my ears for any sound.

I decide the coast is clear and tiptoe out, shutting my door behind me, but as I reach the other side of the open entrance hall to cross to the other side of the house, I hear Carlo’s deep voice echoing up the stairs.

“I don’t know where you’re sneaking off to, boy, but I’m not blind to it. I know you’ve been leaving the house at all sorts of hours and, quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck who or what you’re doing,” he says calmly, and I flinch at his language.

“But this is my house, and you’ll play by my rules, so you can continue sneaking out to wherever you go, King, but you’re on my side of the board now. You play by my rules, you do what I say, and you’ll train hard to become the man I need you to be to run this empire after me.”

I hear a firm and solid “okay” before Carlo speaks again.

“You’ll carry this with you everywhere. We will train you how to use it properly, but I trust you to know what you’re doing with whoever you use it on. Bring Dax by in the morning, and we can make sure he’s ready too. Oh, and King?” Carlo continues, and I train my ear down the stairs to hear his last words. “We don’t shoot to play, we shoot to kill. Every time.”

Footsteps retreat, so I pull back from the bannister and run on quiet feet to my destination.

I slip inside without knocking, knowing he’s waiting for me anyway, and press my back against the door, flicking the lock.

“Bonnie, what’s wrong?” Puck asks, getting off his bed and leaning down in front of me. His hands cradle my face as I take in deep breaths.

“Carlo, he, he gave King a gun and wants him to use it. He wants to train him to take over from him one day.”

Puck nods as if this isn’t news to him.

“It was inevitable, Bon. You’ve seen how much King is around Carlo recently.”

“I know, but… but a gun? He’s going to kill people?”

“Bonnie,” Puck says, keeping my head still so my eyes have nowhere else to look than into his.

“You know King. He isn’t going to go around killing people just because Carlo gave him a gun.”

I nod, because I know he’s right, but I can’t help the feeling of dread coursing through my veins after eavesdropping.

Nothing good can come from listening to a conversation not meant for your ears. There’s always a secret or intel, way too dark and damaging for you to comprehend, that you have to live with because you can’t tell anyone you heard it.

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