up at him, meeting his dark stare. “Are you serious?”
“Unfortunately, and if I’m completely honest with you, I think I resented you right up until I threw you against the wall of that shitty foster house and fucked it out of my system.”
“Well for what it’s worth,” I tell him, “I apologize for being such an awesome baby. Not all babies could have been as cool as me, and unfortunately, you were the prime example of that.”
King knocks my hips as we’re walking and I fumble over my next step, but he’s right there to catch me. “Knock it off,” he tells me. “The shitty babies are the ones who grow up to be fucking geniuses.”
“Uh-huh,” I laugh before glancing up at him again. “So, how are things with your father now? You don’t seem like you want to kill each other, so I guess that’s a bonus.”
“You just caught us on a good day,” he jokes. “But for the most part, it’s fine. We butt heads a lot, but I’m his heir so it was always going to be strained. It’s the same with all the guys and their fathers. I have a little brother and sister, Cody and Caitlin. They’re fraternal twins and I guess were Mom’s miracle babies. She didn’t think she could have any more and then seven years ago, she found out she was pregnant. They’ve thawed out a lot since they were born.”
“Really?” I ask, my eyes brimming with happiness. “I don’t know why I always seem so shocked when I learn something about all of your siblings. I guess it’s hard to picture such brute assholes like you with little kids running around.”
King laughs as we reach the top of Carver’s driveway, and just before something can come flying out of my mouth, his hand over my shoulder shoots up and presses down against my lips. He nearly picks me up and drags me toward the bushes by the front gate. “Shhhhh,” he whispers, putting me right in front of him and staring down into my eyes, watching me closely to make sure I’m not about to give us away.
I search his eyes, desperately listening for whatever it is he hears, when I finally hear the faint, hushed voices on the other side of the gate. “Two o’clock,” a woman murmurs, a strange familiarity to her tone but nothing that I can place in the dead of night.
“Consider it done,” the person with her responds, this voice even softer, yet somehow has a chill sweeping through my body. “When do I get paid?”
“When you come through with the goods,” she says. “Now get out of here. It’s too risky.”
My brows furrow as King stands impossibly still, and then all too soon, the voices fade away, leaving us with questions that we didn’t know we wanted to ask. I capture his gaze, and after a beat, he deems it safe to step out of the bushes, but he leads me straight back to Carver’s front door, deciding that our midnight stroll has already been exciting enough.
CHAPTER 14
The sun burns against my skin and I let out a deep sigh. It’s been far too long since I’ve been able to relax by the pool with a friend by myself. It's early April, and while the weather is usually a cold and unpredictable pain in the ass this time of year, today the sun decided to shine. There's still a chill in the air, but when the breeze slows, the glorious warmth of the sun gets to do its thing.
Ember moans beside me, soaking it up just as much as I am. “So, this is really your parents’ place?” she asks me, glancing across at me as she lays on the sunbed in her tiny black bikini with her head tilted up toward the sky.
“Apparently,” I say with an awkward shrug of my shoulders. When the sun decided to come out and play, I couldn’t resist inviting her over, but when the questions came about why I was still hanging out at this place and not at Carver’s, a few minor truths had to come out. I figured telling her that this was my parents’ home was the easiest one to go with.
“You’re telling me that Ravenwood Manor, the house that the whole town was named after, was your parents’ place?”
“Yep,” I say, refusing to look her way in fear that she’ll be able to tell that I’m only just touching the surface. “At least, that’s