Page 17 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

“I know, I’m sor—”

“No!” I smacked his arm. “Not then, right now. What Sicily told Nikita is absolutely true. I’m not going to tell you what you did was okay, because it’s not, but I even told Deon that I didn’t feel like that was you. The shit your dad put you through, no person should have to endure. You just snapped. The fact that you didn’t snap sooner is amazing. I don’t know howyoudo it. There were times when I saw glimpses of who you really are and I thought to myself, ‘If I gotthisNathan all the time, I’d be happy with him.’”

“You have to stop. Your blind compliments are making me feel more guilty.”

“Sorry, but it’s true. You said you aren’t the victim, but you are, Nathan. I’m really sorry about your mom, by the way. Your dad, he did a number on all of us. As far as I’m concerned, it was Connor that did that to me.”

We pulled up to a stop light and Nathan looked over at me. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.” Then I threw out a fist and clocked him across the face.

“Fuck!” he screamed. “Shit, that hurt!”

“Now we’re even,” I said.

Nathan blinked a few times to clear his vision. “It still feels like I’m being let off the hook a little too easy.”

“I could hit you again if you want.”

“No,” Nathan replied quickly. “Please don’t.”

I smiled. “I’m sorry too. For the past six months. For what I did to Colette and for… allowing Nikita to kick my ass. I saw the look on her face when you covered for me. I’m sure that led to some unpleasant conversations.”

“Yeah. We didn’t talk for a little bit after that. I deserved it though. Because I wasn’t being honest with myself about my complicated feelings towards you, it led to me hurting Nikita, which she didn’t deserve either. It was… a trainwreck.”

“I was so angry about losing Deon and about knowing he was out there and I couldn’t get to him that I let that blind me to the fact that, regardless of the fact that we were all being kind of fake, we were friends and had been for years. You and me aside, Avery, Alistair, even Colette. They’d all been such amazing friends and I blamed them for something they couldn’t control any more than I did. I hate the monster I was.”

“Everything happens for a reason though,” Nathan said. “If you hadn’t been like that, I don’t think we would have had the room to grow into the people we’re supposed to be. Any of us, not us or you. We’re all raw and new now. It’s going to take some doing to gel again. It’s been awkward for all of us. Don’t worry.”

“Good to know,” I said. Nathan pulled onto the freeway to get from North Postings to South Postings where Nathan’s house was located.

For the first time since reuniting with The Royal Court, I was actually comfortable. Despite the fact that Nathan and I had never been totally honest with one another about who we were, there was a closeness that was bound to develop with how much time we had spent together and how intimate we’d become. It felt like I’d finally gotten a piece of my old life back, and though I didn’t have romantic feelings for Nathan by any means, it was nice to have him as a friend again.

If Nathan and I could make nice, the rest of The Royal Court should be a cakewalk.

We continued to catch up and laugh over the few good old times we had until we finally made it back to his house. Brayden’s car was already parked in the driveway, and as soon as we pulled up, everyone came running out, led by Nikita, followed closely by Avery.

Nathan and I climbed out of the car, and Nikita threw herself into a hug with Nathan while Avery wrapped her arms around me. “Where were you?” Avery yelped. “Kyle said you left the park before they did. We were terrified. You weren’t answering your phones.”

At the same time, Nathan and I pulled out phones out of our pockets, and I assumed he had the same collection of missed calls that I did. “I didn’t even hear my phone ring,” I said with a chuckle.

Nathan shook his head. “Me either.” He put a hand on Nikita’s face. “I’m sorry.”

Nikita had a look of judgment on her face. “What were you doing?”

“We were just talking,” Nathan replied, then he leaned in and kissed Nikita. “Easing the last of my guilt.”

Nikita shot a sideways glance at me and I was nervous that she would misconstrue the situation, but I nodded regardless. “Just two guilty souls not trying to irritate the shit out of our friends anymore.”

To my surprise, Nikita nodded and smiled. “Good.”

I must have gasped out loud because Avery linked one of her arms through mine and squeezed. “Yeah. Nikki’s a little different too. You’ll see.”

“Let’s head inside,” Kyle said from the back of the group. “Brayden’s ready to talk now.”

Brayden was standing behind Kyle and nodded. “I hope I can be of some help.”

We all walked back inside and took various seats around the living room space. Brayden sat next to Kyle on one of the couches, and Kyle made no attempt to be discreet as he slid so close the two were touching. “Just like we talked about,” he said. “Just be honest, and it’ll be fine.”

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