Page 97 of Vicious Desire (Fallen Royals 4)

She goes to turn it off, and we’re left even more quiet than before.

It’s still somewhat dark in her room. Just enough light for us to see each other. So I don’t know why the time takes me off guard—unless it’s the fact that my parents might now be awake, and there will be an impending interrogation upon my return.

Or that I might run into her parents on my way out.

She shifts. “Normally I’d go for a run. Today, though…”

Ah, that reminds me. “You shouldn’t run alone anymore.”

She stiffens. “Why do you say that?”

Is she serious?

“Because someone followed you and recorded it.” I cross my arms. “You usually run this early? Five a.m.?”

“Yeah,” she murmurs, scuffing her foot along the rug between us. “You were out there one day. I almost thought it was you following me—”

I snort.

I mean, it would’ve been a great scare tactic. But I don’t really give a shit about that anymore. Not when it isn’t me trying to frighten her.

“I’ll meet you here on Monday, okay? Don’t leave without me.”

She bites her lip, then nods. “Fine. But you need to leave now.”

I don’t give her a fight, instead just grabbing my shoes and cracking her door. The coast is clear, down to the front entrance. She watches me from the stairs, hugging herself, and I have an inexplicable flash of seeing her mother in her—that same sort of stillness.

If she dives any deeper inside herself, I don’t know that I’ll be able to retrieve her.

I shake off that bad feeling and jog across the lawn to my truck.

She just has to be okay for another hour or so—then I’ll see her at the school, and it’ll be okay.

24

Riley

Two Years Ago

My phone buzzes in my hand. The screen goes blank for a second, then a number I don’t recognize pops up. I jerk back, surprised. It’s late. Too late to be getting random phone calls from spam callers, for sure.

Against my better judgement, I answer it.

“Hey,” a husky voice whispers back.

It takes me a moment to place it. Him. “Eli?”

“You left in a hurry.” He doesn’t acknowledge if I’m right, and his voice doesn’t get any louder. “Why?”

I roll onto my side, tucking the phone between the pillow and my ear.

He’s referring to the party. I bailed out early, and I was positive no one would notice. And no one did—for hours. I’ve been home scrolling through Instagram since nine o’clock, and my alarm clock reads just after midnight.

“No one wanted me there,” I mumble.

Not even him. He was the one dancing with Jackie on the table, a bottle of Jack Daniels dangling from his fingertips.

Oh, how I hated him in that instant. We managed to hold on to our hidden friendship for months, through the summer and the start of school. Our barbs were easy to swallow when he joined us at the lunch table, or before school began.

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