Page 38 of Wilder
I suck in a stuttering breath as I back up with my hands held in front of me. “And when I didn’t hear from you, that’s when I finally gave up.” My lip trembles, out of my control. “It—it broke me, Royal.”
“Why are you backing away from me?” The wound in Royal’s eyes is deep, and his usually steady hand shakes as he holds it out to me. “Listen to me. Someone did this to us.” His brow furrows. “We talked about this. The possibilities are fucking endless as to who it could be, but at this point, I wonder if the same person who screwed with us then is still messing with us now.”
My mind spins with that thought, and I reach out to grab his offered hand. “I’m scared, Royal.”
His jaw tight, he murmurs, “My opinion hasn’t changed. Someone deliberately sought to harm us and our relationship. To keep us apart. Were they somehow blocking our fucking calls? Stealing the goddamn mail?” He exhales as he draws me close again. “We know in the last couple of weeks that we’ve been able to text and call, no problem. I don’t get it.” His forehead pinches in concentration. “I didn’t back up any of my old shit when I got a new phone, but I kept my old number. I wiped everything. The first thing I did was add you as a contact. Despiteeverythingwe went through, the only part of my life prior to prison that I wanted to hang onto… wasyou, Echo.”
Those words are a sucker punch straight to my heart. I stare into his eyes, as the first tear spills from my eye. “You have me. You’ll always have me. And now you’ll have Chase, too.”
SEVENTEEN
BECKHAM
Something wenton upstairs earlier between Royal and Echo. They’ve been exchanging tender looks and smiles, which is totally not something I’ve seen from Royal ever. Then again, he didn’t date last year. Never even so much as a casual fuck. And now we definitely know why. He loves that girl. Hell, I love that girl, I admitted it to myself last night. And Wilder loves that girl. We’re all completely fucking smitten, and I can only hope she feels the same way.
And I’d love to ponder all those sweet-ass feelings, but right now, I think it’s time I paid a visit to Megan at the women’s penitentiary and ask her what she knows about those fucking photos that appeared in the SIN entryway to mess with my head. I swear, if she had anything to do with it, I will go ballistic on her. And really, there were only two people in that house with me that could have done it. Her. And my father. He stepped in, stopping what was happening the instant he knew about it. So, what the actual fuck is going on? I’d been sick over it before, disturbed by how those images got onto our wall, but even more so how they were captured in the first fucking place. I’ve bypassed the embarrassed stage and progressed to straight-up pissed off. If Megan bears the brunt of that, oh fucking well. Maybe in the future, don’t prey on goddamn minors.
“Beck?”
I look up at the sound of my name. Wilder’s staring curiously at me. “What? Did you say something?”
“Just your name.” He motions to the food on my plate that has gone uneaten. “What’s going on? I think this is the longest homemade waffles have ever stayed on your plate.”
Royal’s brow goes up as he places the blue plastic toddler fork that Chase just chucked at him back on his tray. “You not feeling well?” He eyes me, and I know I’m acting all fucking twitchy and weird. Totally not myself today. I was hungry. But then, not. Fucking Megan.
I take a deep breath, eyeing my plate. “Yeah, maybe I’m a little off my game. I’m just— I dunno.” I don’t miss how Wilder and Royal exchange a look right before Wilder jerks his head toward the den.
“Come on, man. I need a minute with you before I head out.” I know damn well Wilder’s anxious to get out the door and get his mind right for tonight. He’ll probably go for a walk to somewhere he can be alone with his thoughts for a while.
Before I get up to go with him, my attention shifts to Royal, who is assisting Chase with his syrup-sticky fingers. “Need help?”
He glances up with a smirk. “Nah. We’re good.”
“Where did Echo and Kara go?”
Royal huffs out a laugh. “I think this is part one of my crash-course training on how to be a D-A-D-D-Y.”
“Ah. Okay, well, I guess we’ll leave you to it. Good luck educating yourself.”
“No problem. I got this.” He smirks before returning his attention to Chase, who’s just stuck his hand on the messy tray again. He huffs out a laugh as he chuckles at the mess he gets toclean up for a second time. “Duuude. Party foul, little man. Party foul.” As I walk out of the room, this time there’s a click as Royal removes the tray. He’s learning.
I let out a breath as I walk into the den to see Wilder sitting on the love seat, waiting impatiently. His brow arches, and he studies me as he grinds out, “Sit.”
Because it’s a very me thing to do, I don’t just sit, I flop, landing sideways on the seat with my legs on the arm of the couch and my head in his lap, giving him a cheeky smile that I don’t really feel. “You rang?”
“Yeah. You’re acting fucking weird,” he grumbles. “Tell me what’s going on.”
The jerk knows me too well. Must divert his attention. My lips twist, knowing one thing for sure that is likely to work. “Did I hear some… noise through the wall last night?”
A muscle at the back of Wilder’s jaw jerks, and a rush of blood under his skin makes his skin flush pink from his neck all the way to his cheeks. “I had a nightmare.”
Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting him to say. “Fuck, really?” I sit up, immediately turning to him, but he stares straight ahead. Grasping his chin with a few fingers, I turn him to face me. “You okay? I was joking around about the sex sounds. I didn’t know about anything else. What happened?”
“Royal was there. It was fine. I keep seeing Freya and Zane in your bed.” He bites his lip and shakes his head, then looks steadily at me, those dark eyes boring into mine. “We fucked. It got my mind off things for a while.”
Whoa. Fuck. Okay.“I hate the nightmare thing for you. That fucking sucks. But I bet you and Royal were fuckin’ hot together.”
The twitch of his lips is the only indication I have that it was, indeed, everything I’m imagining. “You’re good with it?” He pulls a lip balm from his pocket, running it over his soft lips. Ican tell he’s totally trying to figure out whether or not I actually am cool with it, or if I’m hiding something.
