Page 30 of Evil King

Venom’s ever-present smirk splashed across my brain. “I made better friends.”

Cherri chuckled. “Well, in the interest of total honesty?” I shrugged, so she kept going. “I would never behappyabout what you had to go through, but prison, Deon.” She looked away as she mumbled, “Pretty sexy.”

My stomach turned over. Suddenly, I was plagued with a new problem—not jumping Cherri in a public place when she had a boyfriend. “Is that right?”

“Oh, yeah.” She locked her eyes on mine. “You got the arms going on, the tatts. You’re all…buff.” Her eyes flared with a hint of excitement, emboldened by the actual flames from the fire reflecting in them. “It’s a good look on you.”

“You like the arms, huh?” I leaned away and flexed. “Well, I didn’t have a lot to do while I was in there, so I worked out a lot.”

She eyed my arms hungrily and pinched her bottom lip between her teeth. “I can tell.”

I was right on the precipice offuck it. Cherri was leaning in, her eyes were wild and intrigued, my lower half was already trying to convince my brain to flip sides, and given that my brain was already half in one camp, the debate wasn’t difficult. After four years of being apart and many more of waiting to kiss Cherri, the fact that it would be as easy as leaning a few centimeters forward to end that wait was difficult to ignore.

Unfortunately, footsteps stomping up the gazebo stairs made the decision for me.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Cherri flung herself away from me as Nathan pounded into the gazebo and rushed over to me. I stood up, and Nathan got right in my face. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he growled.

I was stone-faced and unphased by Nathan trying to size me up. “You father invited me.”

“He wouldn’t,” Nathan growled back.

“I saw it.” Cherri stood up and wedged herself between Nathan and me before shoving Nathan back a few feet. “He personally gave him an invitation.”

Nathan looked down at Cherri. “What are you doing with him here alone?”

“You’re one to talk,” Cherri hissed.

Nathan ignored her and looked back up at me. “You need to leave. Now. You’re not welcome here.”

“What is wrong with you?” Cherri asked. “You were fine with him yesterday.”

Both Nathan and I looked down at Cherri. Given that Cherri didn’t already know that Nathan was actually my brother, he must have had his own reasons for keeping the truth hidden from her. He looked up at me and shook his head. “I just don’t like someone stealing my girlfriend onmybirthday.”

Cherri crossed her arms. “I’m not someone that can be owned.”

I saw the look of frustration on her face and knew I was about to make her life much more difficult than I wanted to. We’d taken a giant step forward, so I needed to cut my losses and get out before things got any worse. “I’ll go. It’s not as if there’s much here for me, anyway.”

Cherri gave me an apologetic expression, so I tossed her a quick wink to let her know everything was okay, and then I made my way off the gazebo. The shouts of Cherri and Nathan arguing bubbled up as I was leaving. Cherri was no slouch, though, and I’d learned a long time ago not to treat her like she couldn’t take care of herself. She could handle Nathan, probably better than I could. I re-entered the house and found Sicily sitting on the sunken couch in the living room to the right of the backdoor. He was eating and had a beer in his hand. It was surprising that Connor had supplied three hundred teenagers with alcohol, but was definitely an additional reason to leave sooner rather than later. He wasn’t participating in any specific conversation but was throwing thoughts into several here and there.

I tapped his shoulder. “Sicily.”

He looked up at me and then jumped up and climbed out of the couch. “Hey. Where the hell have you been? I went to grab food, and you fucking ghosted.”

“I was talking to Cherri.”

Sicily recoiled. “The queen? Really?”

“Yeah, but the king found us, so long story short, I need to leave. Sorry. I’ll call an Uber.”

“Nah, nah. I’m full, anyway.”

I laughed. “All about the food, huh?”

“A guy’s gotta eat.” He set his plate down on the floor and raised an eyebrow at me, then stepped over it. We left the house, headed back up the path, got in his car, and left the Loches’ estate behind.

Sicily tried to get more info out of me about Cherri, but I remained tight-lipped. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share the story with Sicily. Actually, as I considered it, I felt like I probably could be honest with Sicily and be just fine, but I had so few memories of Cherri that I wanted to keep them to myself. Her watching me with that starved look in her eyes and with the night sky and lights behind her was one I hoped to remember for many years to come.

I waved goodbye to Sicily and walked up the path and into my house. I planned to stop by the living room and talk to my mom, but my phone buzzed in my hand. I could see Cherri’s name on the notification, so I gave my mom a quick hello, promised to talk about the party in the morning, and made my way back to my room. I smiled as I checked the text, feeling far more awful about the fact that Cherri felt bad than about how I got kicked out. The only thing I regretted was that my time with Cherri got cut short.

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