Page 142 of Kings & Corruption

But I was tired of balancing on the knife’s edge of trust with them — telling them enough to get what little information I could out of them without fully trusting them. Now, I knew Emma’s fate wasn’t the only thing at stake. Other girls had gone missing, and Nikki was dead.

I needed allies. Real ones. The Kings had told me they were on my side, but I hadn’t fully believed it, and to be fair, they hadn’t given me much to go on.

Then again, trust had to start somewhere.

“I talked to Claire about Emma,” I said before I could change my mind. “She’s the one who told me about Nikki, that Nikki had been to Aventine with Emma.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Rock asked. “We could have gone with you to Nikki’s. Without the car chase, I mean.”

My cheeks got hot. There had been no way to keep my theft of the Maserati from Oscar and Rock, but I hoped with a vengeance that Neo hadn’t told them about how close we’d come to fucking on the road. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure I trusted you.”

“Why?”

It was such a simple honest question that it took me a second to come up with an answer. “You said you’d help me find out what happened to Emma, and you haven’t told me much that I don’t already know.”

“And?” he prompted, his blue eyes piercing.

“And… you’re part of it.”

“Part of what?” he asked.

“Aventine, the parties, all the shady shit that goes down at school,” I said.

He sat back in his chair and rubbed the scruff on his jawline. “You’re not wrong.”

“I’m not?”

He shook his head. “We haven’t given you enough. I see that now. But listen, kitten, you don’t have to steal a car or put your life in jeopardy if you’re pissed or suspicious or whatever. Just talk to us.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay, I will. But you have to talk to me too. Tell me what you know about Emma, about what happened to her.”

“That’s… complicated, but it’s not because we were involved,” he said. “Do you trust me. Do you trust us?”

I swallowed the fear in my throat. Lust was one thing.

Sex was something else.

But trust? Well, trust was my kryptonite.

Still, I wasn’t going to find out what had happened to Emma by myself from the luxury prison of the Kings’ house while they watched me like sexy hawks.

“I trust you,” I said. I had to force the next sentence out of my mouth, Neo’s face swimming in my mind. “All of you.”

His smile lit up his face. “Good.” He stood and held out his hand. “Now come on. We have to go."

“Why?” I asked, taking his hand. “It’s Sunday.”

He pulled me up. “Yep, and that means training day.”

Chapter64

Willa

“Ididn’t agree to this.”

I was in the gym at the Kings’ house with Oscar, arms folded over the pink tank top I’d thrown on over a sports bra. Rock had explained on the way home from town that Oscar would be teaching me some basic self-defense maneuvers. They didn’t plan to leave me alone anytime soon, but they didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

“Can you really come up with an argument against it?” Oscar asked. “This is basic stuff. Honestly, every woman should learn it.”

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