Page 35 of King of Liars

“We’ll never know because—”

“Rule Four: Respect the King’s privacy,” I said.

Two nodded.

“A lot of fucking rules to be a part of this crew.”

“Just the five solid rules:Obey the King’s every command. Bow and kneel before the King at his request. Disavow any feelings for the King beyond physical attraction. Respect the King’s privacy.And—”

“Most importantly,” I said, just as King had told me when he’d gone through the list before I took my oath, “Rule Five: Never lie to the King.” I sighed. “Right down the rabbit hole, lost in Wonderland.”

And fearing how much I was loving it.

11

Two

Afew guys chanted, “Chug, chug, chug,” filling some idiot up at the keg as I downed a Jell-O shot. I tossed out the plastic cup in a nearby trash bin, took a sip from my beer bottle, and continued through the house. Hole and One had King wedged between them in the living-room-turned-dance-floor. They were having plenty of fun on their own. I didn’t see Aiden—Boss—anywhere, so I went hunting for him. It wasn’t the first time he’d slipped away while we were at some party.

Since his official induction into the knights, he’d hung out with us at social events. He was one of us, especially now that I knew he could handle the sort of violence King expected from him.

It had been hard to watch him cave to that dark part of himself, and again when we’d had another similar session a month later.

Of course, there would be another soon enough, but for the most part, it was all just good fun and wild orgies. Boss had brought new life into our circle, and lately, he and Hole were able to go at it without giving any thought to that first instance when Hole had crossed the line.

I headed out the front door, onto the porch, which wrapped around the house. A few couples were making out on the sofas and tables. Figured I was looking in the wrong place for my fellow knight, when on the other side of the porch, I noticed the shirt Boss had worn out that night. He was sitting on a set of steps near the corner of the house.

Relief rushed through me, the way it usually did whenever I saw him these days.

“How’s it going, Boss?” I stepped up behind him, then planted my ass down beside him. “Missing a good party in there.”

“Not exactly my thing.”

“Yeah, mine neither. Here’s to that.” We clinked beer bottles. “King loves this kind of stuff. Always the social butterfly, always looking for some future knight.”

Boss glanced around, as though he had some troubling thought on his mind, before saying, “So fucked up. I keep thinking about that night when I first saw him at a party, just like this. The moment he saw me, just fucking saw me, it was as if he was looking right into my soul. As if somehow he picked up on all these things there was no way he could have picked up on.”

“I think about it a lot too. He did the same thing with me. Like he can sense these things, knows a person is just right for this. I obviously don’t think it’s psychic. But he must be getting some kind of read on us. Then he talks to you, and he has a way of controlling a conversation…maybe things he’s doing to gauge us from the get-go. As you’ve probably noticed, the King of Liars is fairly mysterious.”

“That isn’t how he actually sees it, though, right? That can’t be healthy if he thinks we’re all a bunch of liars.”

“Oh, Boss… You signed up to be a knight, and maybe you think that’s going to lead to some answers about this beautiful enigma that is King, but trust me, the longer you know him, the more curious you become, but you can’t do anything about it because—”

“Rule Four: Respect the King’s privacy.”

“Yup.” I took a sip from my beer.

Because Lord knew we were all so fucking curious about how a person like King came to be who he was. And I wouldn’t even share with Boss how obsessed I’d personally become on the topic—speculating, wishing I knew more…

So fucking desperately.

Boss gazed off into the yard as two guys made their way from the bushes, one vomiting as the other helped him to his feet.

As Boss cringed, I laughed at his reaction. “Hey, what do you say we beat it for a bit and head back to my place?”

“Yeah, that’d be cool.”

Typically, if the knights weren’t out at a party together, we were heading back to King’s to play around, but that night we’d messed around beforehand, so we’d be going our separate ways after.

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