Page 33 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

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Deon

To say that I got slightly irresponsible in driving around town in Felicity’s car would be an understatement. It was so refreshing to be out in the world temporarily without the fear of being snatched, or killed, or having a body drop from the sky in front of me. I did go to a fast food restaurant, drive along the coast, and take in the fresh summer air.

The last of my stops was a pier that hung out over the ocean. The sun was cresting over the sky and starting to set, and for some reason Cherri came into my brain. Maybe just because the sunset was beautiful and so was she, but I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I wished beyond anything that she could be there next to me, looking at the amazing colors against the waves. Maybe I’d get lucky enough and one day I’d be able to bring her and we could just sit for hours.

Us having sex in her car blossomed into my mind then. I hadn’t thought once about how starved for her skin I was until that moment. Finding and taking down Connor was more important than ever because I wanted to get back to the love of my life. I wanted to hold her and make love to her again, and I wanted to be the one who could protect her from anything trying to hurt her.

The sound of a car pulling up near where I was sitting on the pier made me jump, but when I turned around, Felicity was pulling up in her other car. She got out and walked down the pier and sat down next to me.

“You scared me,” she said. “I thought something happened. Thank god I have the locator activated on my car.”

“Sorry,” I replied. “I got out of prison last July, and then I went on the run again in October. I was bouncing from place to place until Connor’s guys snatched me in like March or April. I don’t even fucking remember. I haven’t been able to just…” I took a breath in and then let one out. “Sit. When I came to stay with you, I finally was eating good food, sleeping in a comfortable bed but—”

“It still feels like prison?” Felicity finished.

“I love living with you,” I said. “But I don’t remember the last time I was able to just sit and not feel like I was running. Even after I got out of prison, I saw Nathan and Connor almost right away, and then it felt like I was dodging them again. I haven’t had a normal life since the 8th grade.”

“I hate that,” Felicity said. “We’re gonna get you back to a normal life, but when you just disappear…”

“I know,” I cut her off. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”

Felicity put her hand on my back and started to rub it. “You’re safest at home. I know it sucks, but all it takes is for one wrong person to see you. I just need you to hang on a little bit longer. We’re gonna get you back home, back to your family, back to your woman. We’re close, probably closer than it feels like. Just be a little more patient.”

I nodded, knowing she was right. “Yeah.”

“How did the meeting go?” she asked.

“Good. I told Nico everything I knew. Nathan probably would have been more helpful, but I’m glad he’s not this deeply mixed up in all this shit. Nico was pleased with the information I was able to provide. He seemed confident that he’d be able to dig something up.”

Felicity let out a sigh of relief. “Excellent. I’ll be sure to brief Garrett when I see him next week.”

“You’re seeing Venom next week?” I asked.

“Yeah, to go over his appeal,” Felicity said. “It’s been filed, but I keep filing extensions on the court date because I want to make sure we have everything we need to be successful in the case. We only get one shot locally, then we’d have to take it federal, and that’s gonna be much harder with judges who don’t understand the influence Connor has. I think I’m going to set the court date for later this month. If we can file while Connor isn’t around to testify, then the main thing that caused the violation of Garrett’s parole won’t be there. We stand a good chance.”

“But what if Connordoesshow up?” I said.

“Well, it wouldn’t look good for Garrett, but then we’d have him at least,” Felicity said.

“I’m not willing to wager Garrett’s freedom like that,” I said. “We have to wait.”

That seemed to suck all the air out of Felicity. “I don’t want to wait. This is so important. This might be the only shot we get.”

“It’s too risky. It will be better if we can get rid of Connor for good and ensure that Garret gets out. We can’t rush it,” I said. “It’s like you just said, we have to be a little more patient. If we can sort Connor out, there’s more than one problem we’re going to be able to solve.”

A smile came across Felicity’s face. “Okay,” she said. “We’re in it together, so we wait it out together?” Felicity said.

I nodded. “Exactly.”

“Okay. I’ll file for another extension. The judge respects me a lot, but hopefully we can bring this to an end soon. Their patience with me has got to be running out.”

“Nico’s on the case now, and if I know my brother at all, and oddly enough, I think I do, he’s not just sitting around either. The other shoe is going to drop, we just have to wait.”

Felicity started to laugh. “Wait, when did it flip from me convincing you to you convincing me?”

I joined her, chuckling myself. “I think we may both be much better at giving advice than we are at receiving it.”

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