Page 101 of Unspoken Truths

Throwing my mitten aside, I make sure the water has washed off the soap before turning off the faucet.

“Towel,” I demand, holding out my hand. I forgot it in my haste to get into the shower.

“If this was another day, this would go very differently,” he whispers to himself as if in prayer before handing me the towel. “For what it’s worth, what happened today was a low blow.”

“Jared made me eat and puke up mud on my first day at the prep school,” I remind him, drying myself off enough that I can wrap up in the towel. “I really don’t expect much of him or by extension you.”

“I deserve that,” he says with a nod, following me back into my room. “So what can I do tonight for you?”

“Get out,” I repeat, walking into my closet and shutting the door behind me. When I come back out, fully dressed in a pair of yoga pants, crop top, and a sweatshirt, I’m almost surprised to see he’s gone.

The room feels empty without his presence as I braid my hair and pull on my socks and shoes, but I remind myself that he’s a King. They want nothing good for me.

We’re enemies.

CHAPTER18

LILIANA

Biting my lip, I hope Rachelle enjoys this small respite I want to give her. Ignacio was true to his word, but instead of camping tents, he found gauzy white curtains, and set up a tent from the wood pergola in the backyard. It took a lot of patience, but when he added fairy lights, he took my breath away.

The projector screen was much easier for him to set up, and he made sure there was a table set up for the mini projector. It’ll hook up to my phone to play any movie I could possibly want. I added blankets, a mattress, and loads of pillows under the tent to complete the aesthetic. This looks like the perfect movie space now.

“I’m going to get out of your way,” he muttered as he left. “I hope she likes it.”

This was a glimpse of the boy who used to beat people up that were mean to me, who gave me his slice of cake in exchange for peanut butter pie. The school had it down that I was allergic to chocolate instead of peanut butter. It wasn’t until I was in the sixth grade that I finally had my father fix it so it wouldn’t kill me.

Thankfully, I’m only allergic if I ingest it, but it was my dumb way of keeping this boy in my life as long as possible.

God, I used to adore Ignacio Reyes. There’s so much good inside of him, it’s simply shrouded in so much darkness, it’s being strangled.

Now, I’m waiting for her to come back downstairs, nervous energy flooding my system. Arms wrapped around myself, I’m practically bouncing on the balls of my feet in front of the stairs.

“I see there’s a proper movie area set up in the backyard now,” Mr. Emil teases me as he joins me at the base of the stairs.

“Ah, yes. Nacio did that,” I murmur. I don’t know what else to say, because I have a lot of feelings surrounding his son.

“That was nice,” he murmurs. “For what it’s worth, I really don’t think he knew about the grade doctoring.”

“I don’t either, but I’m still really angry with them as a collective,” I sigh. “How far is this going to go before it gets out of hand?”

“I don’t know,” he says. “A part of me wants to put a call into the King Society. I just am unsure if it’ll make things worse or not.”

I almost forgot Mr. Emil was also a King once. Well, still is, since the society is for life.

“Did you kill the girl you put into the system as your bet?” I ask, shuddering. I’m no stranger to death, knowing my father gets his hands dirty for a living, but the Kings’ torture is completely different.

“It was a boy,” he says. “He was the son of a ruthless mafia man. I’m convinced Doyle would have grown up to be a serial killer if we hadn’t put him down like the dog he was. The situation back then was very different.”

Nodding, I think about that.

“Everyone is so quiet about the Kings,” I confess. “In my mind, they’re all bullies preying on people they think don’t belong in our world.”

“That’s what my son and his friends are doing,” he grunts. “They allowed their anger and self righteousness to lead them down this path. It didn’t need to be like this. They’re all brilliant boys, but also idiots.”

My lips curve up into a smile I don’t feel, because he’s right. They chose Rachelle for all the wrong reasons. She makes them feel things they didn’t like. Even when Nacio first met her, my girl threatened him.

“I’ll have to agree with that,” I say as Rachelle begins to descend down the stairs. “Hey, you’re done.”

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