Page 58 of In Chaos We Reign (Midnight Mayhem 4)

I didn’t need to move to know that my head was already nodding up and down. I wanted to. I wanted to be a good girl for him. “Good.”

His hand came to mine and I looked at them both together. He was old. Old enough to be my father. “How old am I?”

He raised me to my feet. He stayed hidden from the camera, but I could see him just clear. “They will say too young, but I say perfect.”

I looked directly down the camera lens, my head leaning to the side. “Who is they?”

His finger dropped down my cheek, into the front of my top, where he rested it against my nipple. “They are you. They are all there for you.”

I slam against the wall on the other side of the room, sweat sliding down the side of my face. “What?”

Lilith’s hands are on my face, swiping my hair away from my welted skin. “Hey! Hey!”

“No!” I scream at her, squeezing my eyes closed. “This isn’t supposed to happen, they weren’t supposed to get in my head, Lilith! They—they—not me! What—” The door bursts open, and both Kyrin and Keaton stare down at Lilith and me curled in the corner. “What the fuck is that!” I scream at all of them, pointing toward the TV. “Who is that little girl, and why do I see this memory in my fucking head?” Before the tape can replay, Keaton kicks it over with his foot and grabs at his hair, turning back to face me but looking right at Kyrin.

“No!” I push up from the ground until I’m standing directly below both of them. I know Kill and King are hovering in the back somewhere, and someone else who I’m guessing is Kohen, but right now, I need to see Kyrin and Keaton, because they’re the ones I know when they’re lying. “What was that? No one was supposed to come near my head!”

Keaton steps in front of Kyrin, shoving him out of the way. “Who was it that was with you?”

My mouth snaps closed before reopening. “I—I don’t know.” I squeeze my eyes closed, frustrated that I can’t remember. Bile rises up my throat anyway, as if my body recognizes even if my mind doesn’t. “Keaton.” His name comes out with an exhale and my knees give way. I start falling when he catches me with his arm before I hit the ground.

“I promise we will figure out whatever is happening.” His finger touches my temple as he swipes my hair away from my face.

“You promise?”

His eyes search mine, like a tornado ripping through a forest. “Yes, I promise.”

“You could have told me.” I push up from the ground, looking between Keaton and Kyrin. Kyrin, who is glaring at the back of Keaton’s head. Clearly, he’s still not okay on the whole Keaton and me fucking around thing. “Both of you could have told me. I know you knew. Part of Killian’s mastery is seeing when someone’s memories and mind have been tampered with. You think that was Dominic with me?”

King steps in the middle, nudging his head to the door. “We can talk about this back at the hotel. I don’t know, but this place will be wired up hotter than hell.” I follow behind King when he leads us out, but I don’t believe him when he says he doesn’t know. The way they all look between each other before answering me is a red flag.

Keaton’s slightly behind me, and Kyrin and Lilith behind him. So close. We came so close to finding Eli and bringing him home all for what? To be shown a memory that the boys never told me about?

And what else are they not telling me? A part of me is hurt. That deep part that always trusted them without question is now at the surface of my mind, scratching, teasing, like a warning.

I shouldn’t have given them that trust so easily.

Being in Prague wasn’t ideal now that we knew Eli wasn’t here, so we packed up and gathered everyone back onto the plane. The questions were annoying, but nothing I couldn’t brush off. We needed to get back to familiar ground so that I could separate Mayhem from Kiznitch. I didn’t need to drag a couple of hundred people around the world as a disguise anymore now that all cards were out on the table. We still hadn’t spoken about anything. I knew we were all waiting until we were back at The Village.

Once we were back, I met with the boys in their bus sans Perse since she was kicked out for this conversation and sulking outside.

“By the way, Perse already hates me. She’s going to even more now that she knows I’m in here when she’s not.”

“You’re the fucking CEO,” Keaton snaps, baring his teeth slightly before dragging his rage onto King. “And she’ll either respect that or fucking learn to.”

King’s finger taps against his own thigh. “She will. I just have to talk with her about it. She doesn’t hate you, Cartier. She was the first to like you out of the new girls.”

“She was the first one I met out of all the new girls,” I correct, but honestly not caring how much she hates me. I just hate that King is in the middle of it.

King snickers. “There’s something about Dominic Stranger that you need to know.” Behind King is Killian, smoking on a joint, and beside him is Kohen. I haven’t seen Kohen much lately, but I know he and Dove have been seeing each other. I can see it in his eyes. He’s not as frantic as he is when he hasn’t been around her. They’re Harley and Joker, absolutely crazy over each other. The kind of crazy that will kill them one day.

“Well, I’m here, so tell me.”

“And me.” Lilith raises her drink beside me, and I reach for the filled whiskey sour that’s sitting on the table. I actually may need it.

“For a long time, he has been a connection between Kiznitch and The Elite Kings.”

“Okay…” I say, leaning back on the sofa. My head hits a pair of hands on the edge and I peer up from below at the perfect jawline of Keaton, who has his eyes directly on Kyrin when he speaks next.

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