Page 78 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

“I think so too. It’s exhilarating asking for what I want,” I said.

“You should always do that,” Deon said. “Ask for what you want from me. In or out of the bedroom, if I can give it to you, I will.”

I snuggled back against him. “I love you.”

“Hey, can I ask you for a favor?” he said.

“Of course.”

“Tomorrow, when we go in search of Connor. Can you stay back?” he asked.

I turned my head so I could look up at him. “Stay back? Why?”

He curled his arms tighter around me. “I don’t want to lose you. If he hurts you, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“No,” I said. “Deon, I’m coming with you wherever you go. I’m a ride or die.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want you to die,” Deon replied.

“I won’t,” I said. “I can take care of myself, and besides, you’re not going to let anything happen to me and neither are our friends. The only one who should be scared as shit is Connor.”

Deon didn’t seem to like that answer very much, but nodded. “I’d sooner die than let anything happen to you.”

“Well, no dying for you either.” I repositioned myself and leaned back against Deon’s chest and closed my eyes. “We’re going to do this how we should have been doing it all along. Together.”

29

Deon

“Woo hoo!” Colette said, starting a round of applause as we walked into the pool area where the entire Royal Court was hanging out. “There they are!”

“Hey, how was the honeymoon, you two?” Kyle asked, snickering.

Brayden, who was floating in the pool between Kyle’s legs, smacked his knee. “Hey, that’s not okay.” He looked over at Cherri and I. “No wedding without the flower girl.”

Cherri and Nikita immediately broke out into laughter, along with Brayden, while everyone else just stared in confusion. “I don’t get it,” I said.

“None of us do,” Sicily said. “This is an inside joke the three of them have that theyrefuseto let us in on.”

“I’m sorry,” Cherri said. “I know we probably would have gotten started sooner, but we were… preoccupied.”

“Even this morning?” Alistair asked.

I shrugged. “Checkout wasn’t until 11.”

“Yeah!” Avery said. “Get it, Cherri!”

“Well,” Nathan said. “As much as the sexual exploits of my brother and ex-girlfriend interest me, I would lovenothingmore than to shift the topic as far away from that as possible.”

Nikita tapped Nathan’s leg, chuckling. “That’s fair.”

“Let’s shut this pool party down then, and head inside to make a plan. We have a crazy man to shut down,” Alistair said.

Those few people who were in the pool started to climb out, and everyone else stood up from the lounge chairs and barstools scattered around the pool. We all made our way back inside. Even though my back and legs were sore in the best way, I did my best to look unaffected by my long, lovely night with Cherri and kept her close to me as we walked in.

Those who were wet went up the stairs to get changed, while the rest of us sat down in the living room. Cherri and the other members of The Royal Court bounced casual conversations off one another for a while, and I still felt a little out of place. I’d judged The Royal Court so harshly back before I went to prison. Though to be fair, so did Cherri. As shitty as Connor was, he’d presented us all with an opportunity to grow as people and become more honest with one another, and as I watched people like Cherri and Sicily chat happily with people like Brayden and Colette, I knew that the universe was hard at work trying to give us back what Connor Loche had stolen from all of us.

Once everyone was in the living room, Nathan stood up and leaned against the fireplace at the front of the room. “Okay. This is it, guys. This is everything that we’ve been working towards. We got Deon back and now it’s time to take Connor Loche down.”

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