Page 76 of Wicked Games (Fallen Royals 2)

He grunts, catching it before it drops.

“You had Margo freaked out,” Liam announces. He lets the shoe fall from his grasp instead of throwing it back.

That’s how I know Eli spilled the beans. He was probably the one who said something to make Margo suspicious in the first place.

“I know,” I say. “Because she showed up.”

I can’t say I’m mad about it. Not at her. It makes me actually happy that she came to me—a buzzing in my chest like a million wasps. But I am pissed at my friends for being so fucking transparent.

Eli shrugs. “She’s a feisty one.”

“Interrogated all of us.” Theo flops on the couch. “Guess who gave in?”

“Eli,” Liam, Theo, and I all say at once.

Eli groans. “Look, man, she just was pouting, and then Riley was staring at me—”

“Softie,” Liam says through a fake cough. “So… You wanna talk about it?”

I roll my eyes. “About the hell weekend? Not particularly.”

“My parents will be back soon,” Eli says. “This shit won’t fly.”

“It will until I’m eighteen,” I mumble. “If I want to see a single dime, I have to do what he says.”

“Or what? It’s in your name.” Eli glares at me like this beating was my fault. And honestly, it kind of is.

I instigated my uncle’s behavior. Pushed his buttons. Set fire to his carefully constructed plans with glee.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Consequence.

Punishment.

It isn’t like he kept me locked in the basement. It was a little subtler than that. Dinner with my mother, aunt, and uncle in near silence. Mother is thinner than normal, makeup creased under her eyes in an attempt to hide the dark circles. She picked at her food, much to Aunt Iris’s distain. I was surprised to even see Mother there. Usually she made a quick appearance—a day, two—and then vanished.

Uncle David grilled me relentlessly.

I didn’t give him anything except hoarse wheezes while he put his cigar out on my flesh.

“Dude.” Eli waves his hand in front of my face.

I jerk back, shoving him away.

“Easy,” he mutters. “Lost you for a second.”

Come back to me. Margo often went down the rabbit hole of memories, worrying me the way her face got blank. I must’ve looked the same.

“April fifteenth,” I say, shaking out my arms. My back pulls, but I lean into the pain. Pain means I’m still alive. “I just have to make it until then.”

“Five months,” Liam says. “Easy.”

Right.

“What was the ultimatum?” Theo asks.

I tilt my head, surprised he went there. His family is fucked up, too. He understands on a level Eli and Liam might not. Eli has absentee parents and a large extended family. Liam’s got his parents and brother piled on top of him in a small house, where no one gets away with anything—but there’s love there.

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