Page 71 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

Inside, Nathan, Kyle, Sicily, Colette and Jaxon were sitting in the kitchen working on a platter of sandwich ingredients. My heart dropped a little when I realized Deon wasn’t among them.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Nathan held up his hand before I could get it out. “Relax. He’s with his mom.”

I let out a sigh of relief, but I still wanted to make sure. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed Ciara’s number, just to curb my own fears. The phone rang a few times, and then it picked up. “I’m okay, gorgeous.”

Deon’s voice filling my ears immediately made me feel better. “Okay. I just wanted to make sure you made it okay. I won’t bother you again.”

“You are never a bother to me,” Deon replied. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I said.

There was a rustle and then a new voice came across the receiver. “Cherri?”

“Hey, Ciara,” I said. “How is it having your baby home?”

“I can’t believe it. You really found him. You brought him back to me,” she said, sounding like she was on the brink of crying. “Thank you so much. Thank all of your friends for me.”

“I will. Enjoy your time together,” I said. “I’ll see you soon, I promise.”

“Okay, sweet girl. I love you loads,” she said.

“I love you too. Bye.”

The call ended and I went and sat around the kitchen island with everyone else. Despite being stuffed from dinner at my parents, I grabbed a couple pieces of cheese from the platter and started to nibble on them. It was pure stress eating. I believed that Deon was just fine at his mom’s house, and I knew Nathan had made certain arrangements to keep Deon out of the eyesight of law enforcement for a while, but after everything we’d been through, I’d always be anxious when Deon wasn’t at my side, at least for a little bit.

“Don’t let me do that shit again,” I said to the group in general. “I don’t want to bethatgirl.”

“It’s okay for it to make you a little nervous for a while though, Cherri,” Avery said. “He literally went missing for eight months. If that happened to Ali, I wouldn’t want to let him out of my sight.”

“Literally, at one point during our last semester, we initiated a buddy system, and we always had to be with one other person in the group, right after Brayden went missing,” Kyle said. “We even tried our best to always keep you and Sicily in our line of sight at all times. With Connor out there literally snatching people off the street, we’ve pretty much committed ourselves to always staying together.”

That actually made me feel much better. “Thanks.”

“Deon told me that my dad manipulated even Venom,” Nathan said. “I guess Felicity was one of those women like Ciara and Miss Abrams that he was using to his advantage. He was able to exercise control over Venom that way, and he was actually the one who killed and dropped that body in front of you all those years ago.”

My jaw dropped. “I can’t believe that.”

“Fuck!” Brayden snapped. “It seriously feels like the more we find out about Connor, the more we learn that he’s been pulling strings since forever. What in our liveshasn’tbeen masterminded by him?”

“Not much,” Jaxon said. “I fucking hate that guy.”

“Still, the other thing Deon and I were talking about is how none of us would be here if it weren’t for him. Maybe a few things here and theremighthave happened, but the reason The Royal Court exists, the reason Cherri made it to Maine, it’s all because of him. I really think we need to start viewing this as a silver-lining,” Nathan said. “For as much bullshit as he put us all through, he also brought us together.”

“We should never, ever, say that around him though,” Cherri said. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to give thatdickthe satisfaction of thinking he did anything positive in our lives.”

“Agreed,” Avery said, and everyone else nodded along as well.

“Deon’s stuff is up in your room, and I think he’s planning on coming back tonight, so I think it’s just a matter of waiting now,” Nathan said.

We sat and chatted for a little while, some of us eating, others not, and eventually, Deon came back home. He walked into the kitchen and straight over to me, putting his hands on either side of my face and kissing me. “Hey, my love.”

I smiled at him. “Hi. I’m glad you’re home.”

“I’m glad to be home,” he said. He sat down on the stool next to me and started putting together a sandwich. “So, what are we doing next? You said you’ve been working nonstop right?”

“Well, right before we came to find you, we sort of hit a wall. I think the next thing we’re waiting on is—” Nathan’s phone rang at that exact moment. He picked it up and held it out. “Is this.”

“That’s not the first time that we’ve gotten perfect moments down to the second like that,” Colette said. “I swear our lives are so weird.”

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