EVIL VILLAIN (The Royal Court #3) - Rebel Hart Page 0,80
nice. He loves you a lot, Deon.”
It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling in my stomach knowing that Cherri and Venom had the chance to meet.
“Did you get anywhere with Connor?” Felicity asked.
“Not far,” Nathan said. “Like Cherri said, Brayden sort of broke his back trying to sort out his connection to Connor, but it led to a totally cleaned out warehouse in North Postings.”
Both Felicity and I sat up a little straighter. “A place Connor had been before?” Felicity asked.
“Yeah, but he’d completely cleared it out, even tore the walls down, by the time we got there,” Cherri said.
I looked across at Felicity. “Would this be helpful to Nico?”
She nodded. “Definitely. If he knows a specific place, he could find the guy.”
“Who?” Kyle asked.
I looked straight at Nathan. “Felicity and Venom know a guy that has about as many connections as Connor does. We currently have him hot on Connor’s trail, and he’s getting close. Knowing an actual warehouse that Connor had used though. That’s golden information.”
“Can you write down the address for me?” Felicity asked. Nathan immediately pulled out his phone and started flicking through it. When he found the info, Felicity gave him her number and he sent the info over. She smiled up at me. “As soon as we’re done, I’ll go tell Nico.”
That was when it hit me. These were my friends and the brother I was so desperate to get back to. They’d managed to stay out of Connor’s clutches up to that point, and even if they hadn’t, adding me to the mix wasn’t going to make them any more of a target—they already had Nathan.
“Done,” I said quietly, then looked at Felicity. Cherri was in my lap, and I knew I couldn’t be separated from her again. Nathan was there, and I was excited to be back around him again. “I’ll be going back with them, won’t I?”
Felicity nodded. “I’ve been talking to them about everything. How safe they’ve managed to stay and the fact that they’re taking Connor head on, and I think that would be best. You’ve been wanting to go back to Cherri and Nathan this entire time, now you finally get to.” For some reason, that left a knot in the pit of my stomach. Cherri must have noticed it, because she started to rub my back and rested her head on top of mine. Tears slowly rose to Felicity’s eyes and I had to bite back my own emotion. “Dammit, Deon. I cried in the bathroom about this for like twenty minutes this morning just so I’d be okay. Don’t look so sad, it’s heartbreaking.”
“I am sad though,” I said. Concrete was snoozing in Felicity’s lap despite the loudness in the room, and Felicity looked so normal in her spot on the couch. “I liked this life too.”
“Getting shot aside?” Felicity asked.
“What?” Cherri and Nathan yelped at the same time.
Felicity looked at them both and then groaned at me. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I’ll explain all of that to them later.” I tapped Cherri’s leg and she climbed out of the chair so that I could stand up. Felicity moved Concrete’s head out of her lap and stood up as well and we walked to meet each other in the middle of the room. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly. “I’ve loved being here with you for the past few months.”
Felicity sniffed against my chest. “I’ve loved having you. Promise me you’ll visit soon.”
“Oh I’ll be back. We’ve still got a man to break out,” I joked.
Felicity finally pulled herself away, her eyes drenched, and said, “I’ll go back your stuff,” before fluttering out of the room. Ordinarily, I’d fight her on something like that, but I knew she’d need a minute.
“You okay?” Cherri asked, wrapping her arms around me from the back.
I rubbed her arms, loving that she was that close again. “I will be. Felicity’s become like a mom to me. I’m gonna miss her.” I walked over and knelt in front of Concrete and rubbed his ears. “I’m going to miss you too, you big oaf.”
Concrete slobbered a lick up my face, and I scratched his favorite spot behind his ear. “These two are my family now and their lives have been just as affected by Connor as ours have.”
“How so?” Nathan said.
“Like I said, I’ve got a lot to explain to you, but not here. If we don’t leave soon, I may never leave.”