EVIL VILLAIN (The Royal Court #3) - Rebel Hart Page 0,82

brand new silver one, “is for the front door here.” He grabbed the next one. “For Nikki and my house in the back.” The next key was a wider, brass key. “This is the key to your office at L.C.E.” Then he grabbed the last key. “And this is the key to your new Tesla. It’s still registered in my name until your name is cleared, then I’ll transfer the title.”

“Wow,” I said. “I… wow. Thanks.”

“Hey, uh, Avery, Ali. Would you guys be willing to bring me to visit with my parents?” Cherri asked suddenly. “I’d like to let them know we found Deon. Nikki, Brayden, will you guys come too? I want them to meet you.”

Alistair nodded. “Of course.”

Brayden and Nikita both smiled at me and gave their own nods of affirmation. Cherri walked over to me, gave me a quick kiss, and then the four of them left without another word.

“I’m exhausted, so I’m gonna go nap for a bit,” Kyle said, leaving the room shortly thereafter.

“Sicily, we probably should clean up our mess,” Colette said. “Jax can help.”

Jaxon let out a frustrated sigh. “I guess.”

“Yeah. Let’s do it!” Sicily led the way out of the room, tapping me on my shoulder as I passed, and then I was left with just Nathan.

“That wasn’t subtle,” Nathan said.

“No, but whatever,” I responded.

Nathan pointed outside. “Wanna go talk?”

“I think that’d be good.”

Nathan led me over to the sliding glass doors in the back of his house, then we walked down the winding path to the very same gazebo where Nathan had caught Cherri and me before. It was one of the nicer gifts he’d ever given her, knowing that she loved a quiet, natural place to sit sometimes, so it didn’t surprise me that he’d kept it.

“I’m honestly a little shocked to see you still living here,” I said. “After your mom and Connor, I’d have thought you would have left a you-shaped hole in the wall.”

“I thought about it,” Nathan said. “But I don’t hate it here. I completely renovated the inside and it’s sort of the official house of The Royal Court now.”

“You’re like one of the social media groups that all lives together and films crazy videos,” I said.

Nathan nodded. “I never realized that, but it’s pretty on brand for us, honestly.”

I snickered. “Maybe y’all. Not me.”

“Well, there’s a room for you up there too, so get used to it. You’re one of us now, whether you like it or not,” Nathan said.

I sighed. “Is it weird that I sort of like it?”

“To be fair, I did offer you a position in The Royal Court before,” Nathan said.

“Oh, you mean when you cleared out an entire classroom, sat on top of a desk like some sort of shitty dictator, and threatened me?” I said. “Can’t imagine why I turned that offer down.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fair.”

“I’ve learned a lot about our father,” I said. “Venom, our meeting behind bars wasn’t just random. He used him to frame me for the death of some random guy. Apparently Felicity is one of the many women he’d manipulated and he was able to use her to get to him.”

Nathan’s nostrils flared with anger. “I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ll do you one better. He handpicked Cherri years before you met her. He moved her family here, intentionally near you. It’s still uncertain if his original plan was for her to be with you, or if he always intended to have me snatch her from you, but regardless, he’d been in control over her family from even before she moved here.”

“God,” I barked. “This guy is a fucking piece of shit.”

“No disagreements there, but I do have to say, sometimes I find myself being a little, I don’t know, grateful. I mean, if it weren’t for him, Cherri wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t know any of my friends. Hell, who knows if you and I would have ever met. For all his fucking around with us, he did leave a little bit of good in his wake.”

“I suppose,” I said. “I’m not acknowledging that to him though.”

“No, never,” Nathan replied. “No, next time I see him, I’ll be taking him down, and that’ll be it.”

“We have to keep him alive,” I said, and Nathan’s eyes widened at me. “I know, but he’s the reason Venom is locked up. The only way he’ll be able to get out is if we can prove that Connor was on bullshit when he was working with