Page 30 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

A smile crooked up Nico’s cheek. “Well, you really are Venom’s kid. Don’t you worry. These things take time, but for every contact in Maine that Connor has, your boy Nico’s got two. I’ll dig him up. It’s only a matter of time.”

11

Cherri

“Okay, go!”

I held my phone up as Gus barreled into the swirling slide that splashed down into the main pool of Nathan’s house. Water went everywhere, spraying over Kyle and Colette who were standing closest to the bottom, and Kyle quickly wrapped his arms around Gus and lifted him out of the water, tossing him away. Gus’ cheery laughter filled the afternoon air, and I smiled.

It felt good to just be happy for once.

“Cherri!” Gus popped up from the water at the edge of the pool. “Did you get it?”

“Yeah, bud, I got it. I’ll send it to your phone,” I said, stopping the recording. “That makes about twelve videos you’ve had me record.”

The hot sun felt good against my exposed skin, and I was excited for the tan I’d be getting. Avery was sitting next to me, her legs dipped into the pool, with her head knocked back, soaking in the rays. Nathan, Nikita, and Jaxon were sitting at the bar, drinking and laughing, each in their own swimsuits and Alistair was camping at the table that Nathan had stacked high with food. As soon as I mentioned that Gus wanted to come over for a pool party, The Royal Court went all out. They decorated, Nathan bought a bunch of brightly colored pool floats, and food and drinks of all sorts were brought in. When I asked Gus if he wanted to invite some friends, he funnily enough said no—he wanted all the spotlight on himself.

“What are you going to use all the videos for, Gus?” Avery asked.

Gus’ face lit up. “My YouTube channel!”

My eyes widened. “Your what?”

“I want to become a YouTuber! This kind of stuff, like playing in a rich, fancy pool, gets like millions of views,” Gus said.

Nathan looked over from the bar. “You should do a tour of the whole house, even the back one,” he pointed to his smaller house towards the back of the property. “Title it ‘Connor Loche’s decommissioned house’.”

Colette snickered. “That’s clickbait.”

Nathan shrugged. “It’s not. It’s true.”

“Will you give me a tour?” Gus asked.

Nathan nodded. “Of course.”

Gus clapped. “Yes! I’m gonna be famous.”

He swam away, over to where Kyle and Colette were wading, and started to play with them. I looked over at Avery, with my brow furrowed. “Is… is my baby brother gonna become a douchebag?”

Avery giggled a little. “He’s certainly on his way.”

“Great,” I replied flatly, making a note to myself to talk more with Gus about his new venture later. YouTube had been blowing up with kids lately, and he had what it took to be a successful one, but being in the limelight that much could kill a kid. I at least wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting into. “Here,” I said, handing my phone to Avery. “You’re on camera duty while I pee.”

Sitting up straight, she took the phone from me and pointed it out at the pool. “Mission accepted.”

I dragged my legs out of the pool and stood up, grabbing one of the towels off a nearby lounge chair to dry off as I walked, and made my way into the house. There were a dozen bathrooms inside, but the closest one was just on the other side of the kitchen. I walked through to get to the bathroom and noticed Brayden sitting at the kitchen island. He had a plate of food, and it was only then that I realized he’d gone in claiming to be going to the bathroom, but never came back out.

“Hey,” I said.

Brayden looked up. “H-hey.”

Instead of continuing on to the bathroom, I slid down onto one of the stools across from him. “You doing okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just needed a few minutes. I feel… bad, out there.”

“I know what you mean,” I said. “I was the biggest bitch in the world to these people, and it doesn’t feel fair that now I get to just have a pool party with them and have fun.”

Brayden popped a chip from his plate into his mouth. “Exactly.”

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