Page 96 of Played
“See, I told you he was fine,” my mother says cruelly.
I try to move, but I’m chained to the floor. “W-what the fuck?”
“It’s for your own good, son,” my father says, his voice taking on an annoyingly saccharine tone like he actually believes that bullshit.
“I’m not a kid anymore! This shit won’t work.” I pull on the chains again, my anger giving me a burst of adrenaline. Pity there’s not a lot I can do about it. I spent a decent part of my teenage years chained in this cold, dark basement. A few days every few months, to stop me from being tempted into sin. It was where they kept me for four whole days after he caught me andMason. I left as soon as he let me out, but I still remained their good little boy, didn’t I?
“Take a few days,” my mother says. “I’m sure you’ll come around to our way of thinking.”
“What? Give you Grampa’s money so you don’t lose this house and nobody ever finds Cassidy’s body, is that it?”
“It was an accident,” my father repeats. As if that somehow makes what they’ve done okay. Given what I’ve learned about him in the last twenty-four hours, I’m not sure I believe it was an accident.
“Then you should have called for a fucking ambulance. Or the police!”
“He won’t see sense yet, Kyngston, but he will. He always did in the end.” She must be referring to how, after a few ice baths and a couple days without food, I would usually tell them with my whole chest that I wasn’t gay and that boys who liked other boys disgusted me. Fuck, does she not understand I would have told them the earth was flat if it could have gotten me out of here?
But if she thinks there’s a chance I’ll cave, I might just be able to get out of here after all.
Chapter
Forty-Eight
MASON
Ikeep checking the time, but it doesn’t change the fact that King is thirty minutes late, which is unlike him. When he does get caught up, he calls, and I haven’t heard from him since he left my office this morning.
His phone goes straight to voicemail, and I tell myself that he could be somewhere he can’t get a signal. There are all manner of explanations to explain his tardiness and his lack of contact.
He could have been in some kind of accident and be bleeding out in a gutter somewhere.
I tell myself to calm the fuck down, but that doesn’t stop me from calling every hospital in the state of New York to see if he’s there. It’s after seven-thirty by the time I’ve confirmed that nobody by the first name of King or Kyngston or the last name Blackthorn or Worthington has been admitted today.
Something’s happened to him. There’s a sinking feeling deep in my gut that I’ve learned to trust over the years. After what happened yesterday, I’m certain that he intended to confront his father once he left my office, and I can’t imagine any scenario where that visit will have had a positive outcome. The best-case scenario is that he’s gone somewhere to cool off.
But he would have called.
Every instinct I have tells me King went to confront his father and something bad happened. Fuck, I have no idea what I’ll be walking into, but I have to do something. He could be hurt—he could have hurt his father. Or something worse.
I need some kind of backup. We have plenty of security on staff, but they’re all personal bodyguards or building security. I’m going to need a different kind of expertise for this.
I dial Nathan.
He picks up and says cheerfully, “Hey, Mase, what’s up?”
“Nathan, I need some help.”
It must be the tone of my voice, because he immediately switches into ice-cold defense-attorney mode. “What’s happened, and what can I do?”
“It’s King, and it’s a long story, but I’m sure he’s in some kind of trouble.”
“He needs a lawyer?”
“I wish it were that kind of trouble. But no. I think he’s in danger. I can’t get ahold of him, and I think he’s gone to see his father… And, well, like I said, it’s a long story. But I don’t particularly want to face Kyngston Worthington on my own, and?—”
“I’ll be right there. I’ll call Drake and Elijah?—”
“Thanks, bro,” I say, cutting him off. “But I think this calls for a different kind of help. Besides, if King does need a lawyer…”Or god forbid, if I do.I take a breath. “Then you need to be as far away from the situation as possible.”
