Page 22 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

“Oh my god, seriously?” She repositioned herself in her seat so that she was facing me. “How was it?”

I rolled my eyes clear into the back of my skull remembering the feeling of Deon all around me. “LikenothingI’ve ever experienced before. We justfittogether, you know?” I frowned then. “I miss him.”

“Aw, honey.” Avery pet the side of my head. “I know you do. I don’t knowwhatI’m going to do while I’m dorming at Yale.”

My eyes went saucer wide. “You got accepted?”

Avery flashed me a cocky grin. “Of course. Who do you think you’re talking to?”

I pulled her into a hug. “I’m so proud of you, Avery. They aren’t gonna know what fucking hit ‘em!”

Avery giggled as we released. “That’s the hope. Thanks, Cherri. When I got my letter, all I wanted to do was call you.”

“Yeah, and thanks to your dick friend you couldn’t,” I grumbled. “Fuck.”

Avery started chuckling again. “It’s gonna take some getting used to hearing you swear all the time.”

“Shit. Sorry,” I said, then I yelped. “No, shit. I mean shoot! Damn it. No. Ugh!”

“Just stop,” Avery said. “I like potty-mouth Cherri.”

I smiled. “Good.”

We made it to school and parked just outside the walls. Brayden walked to where he usually met with Connor’s goons. “Okay, I usually met them here. They would blindfold me, and I assume they were putting me in the back.”

“Okay. Avery and I will be Connor’s thugs. Kyle, since you’re driving, you, Nikita, and Jaxon will be the hand-offs. Put him in the back, Jaxon and Nikita, you ride in the far back, and Avery and I will get in the passenger’s side front and second row seats,” I explained.

“Okay.” Kyle put a hand on Brayden’s shoulder. “You good?”

“Yeah, I got this. Thanks.”

With that, Kyle, Nikita, and Jaxon walked back over to his car and started it up. Avery pulled the scarf she’d grabbed out of her pocket and then walked up to Brayden and started to wrap it around his eyes. I noticed Brayden’s entire body tense up, so I reached out and stopped Avery.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Brayden took a deep breath and then nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay. You can keep going.”

“Okay. We’re right here. If you need me to, just say the word and the blindfold comes off,” I said.

“Thanks, Cherri,” Brayden replied. Avery resumed putting the scarf around Brayden's eyes and then stepped back. "Oh shoot," Brayden said, lifting his wrists. “My hands were usually zip tied. The only time they weren't was that one time Nikita and Jaxon found me.”

“Uh, okay. We'll use my hair tie,” Avery pulled the rubber band out of her hair and her perfect brown curls fell down in front of her cocoa skin. “It's not as tight as a zip tie.”

Brayden scoffed. “That's just fine.”

I held Brayden’s wrists together and Avery laced her hair tie around them. Once again, I noticed his body tense up, but that time I just gave his hand a little rub to assure him that we were there, and then pulled back.

“Okay. Where did they normally grab you?” I asked.

“My arms. My left one, typically, because they were usually dragging me across the street,” Brayden said.

Avery grabbed Brayden’s arm and dragged him across the street, and Kyle picked up on the hint and did a U-turn to pull up next to us. We loaded Brayden into the seat he was normally in, and then I climbed in the front passenger's seat with Kyle, while Avery climbed into the second row passenger’s seat across from Brayden.

“Okay, I’m gonna go. If we get somewhere where you feel like you remember a turn, just let me know,” Kyle said.

“Okay,” Brayden replied. There was a shake to his voice, and I could see in the way Kyle looked back over his shoulder that he noticed it too, but then he just looked at me, and pulled away from the curb.

We started going straight for a few blocks until Brayden weakly said, “H-here.”

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