Page 49 of Wicked Dreams (Fallen Royals 1)

I look over at him. “What are you scheming?”

“What are you afraid of?” he asks.

I wonder if me giving in was a bad thing. If he’d only like me for the chase.

“Margo.”

“I’m afraid…” I press my lips together. “Of my dreams.”

He snorts. “Of the boogeyman coming out of your closet?”

“There are things I don’t understand,” I say. “My mother—”

He glances at me sharply. “She was a drug-addicted slut,” he spits. A muscle in his jaw ticks, and his grip flexes on the wheel.

I look straight forward, and we’re suddenly going a lot faster. I grab on to the handle on the door. “Caleb—”

“You shouldn’t talk about her,” he says. “Shouldn’t think about her.”

I shake my head. “I can’t help who I dream about—” We speed around a corner, and I close my eyes. “Please stop.”

“Stop? Stop what?”

We’re gaining speed. It’s a sunny day on a back road. We’re nowhere near other cars, other life. Hell, we could hit a ditch flipped over, and it might be an hour before someone finds us.

Why did we go this way?

“I’m afraid of you,” I blurt out. “When you get that look in your eye. When you do mean things. When you hurt me.”

He shakes his head, slamming on the brakes. The tires squeal, smoking as the car stops on a dime. He meets my gaze. “I don’t do anything you don’t deserve,” he says.

“I didn’t deserve you kissing Savannah. I don’t deserve these games.”

He shakes his head, taking a deep breath. Under his armor, he’s human, too.

Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.

He pulls back onto the road, going a normal speed. We take a few turns, suddenly headed back toward my house. Or… his.

In the driveway, he kills the engine, then gets out without a word.

Per usual, I’m left to follow him. There are more cars in his driveway than I expected, and I walk in tentatively. Liam and Theo are in the front room, leaning over a chessboard. The furniture is still covered in sheets. Everything has a ghost-like quality to it, like no one actually lives here. Not the downstairs, anyway.

I hurry away from them, toward the sound of voices.

I find Eli and Caleb in the kitchen.

It’s hard to enter, knowing what happened last time I was in here. And before that...

“Ah, she’s arrived.” Eli smiles at me.

I frown, not a hundred percent sure I trust him. After all, he’s been hot and cold with Riley. Kind of like how Caleb is with you. “What’s up?”

Eli pops the cap off a beer and offers it to me.

When I shake my head, he takes a long swallow.

“We’re planning a party.”

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