Dirty Wicked Prince (Court Legacy 1)

There was no one to help me.

It was already done.

I did what I had to do.

“I already took care of it,” I said, forcing myself to look at him. “I took care of him.”

“Who?”

I closed my eyes. “I did what I had to do.” My jaw clenched. “And you wouldn’t have agreed.”

He shook me to make me keep focus on him. He was one of a few who could get to me. Not even Thatcher and Wells could get me to face them full on and stare whatever it was in the face like Wolf. We’d been boys since the womb. I folded my hand over my face.

“Hey.” He leaned in. “What happened?”

“I got him involved, that’s what happened,” I said, nodding. “And you were right. It was Pandora’s box.”

It was a box I couldn’t close, but I’d done what I had to do.

Cringing, I shouldered Wolf away, but he got me back.

“You didn’t,” he said, looking at me, but when I said nothing, he paled. “Please tell me you…”

“I did.” The truth. I faced away. “Why do you think Mayberry suddenly came back into town this year?”

I hadn’t exactly lied to my friends at the beginning of the school year. I’d told them I had a contact who’d suddenly come out of the woodwork to help us. That contact had been able to find Mayberry and even get her to come back into town. As it turned out, our principal had needed money. She’d spent all her late husband’s life insurance on a recent drug habit, pharmaceuticals and other shit. Our dear headmaster had turned into nothing but a drug abuser after she’d left this town and racked up quite the bill to back it.

It’d been too easy really, for that new contact to find her. That contact had power, influence.

He’d even arranged for her to get her old job back.

He had pull with the school, got them to even give her a bonus for coming back. The amount had happened to be just what she owed all those drug dealers.

How could Mayberry turn that offer down?

Yes, my contact had arranged that. He’d forced our headmaster to come back and to the mercy of my friends and me.

I just hadn’t told my friends who that contact was.

Wolf swallowed, looking at me. “I told you we’d find another way. I told you it didn’t have to come to that.”

He’d told me a lot of things.

I just wished I would have listened.

I left him, staring at the same fire I’d caught him looking into when I’d arrived. “I did what had to be done.” I placed my hand on the fireplace. “I did what I had to.”

Wolf moved with stealth in the room. I knew because when I looked up, he wasn’t where I’d left him.

He was beside me. His hand came down on my shoulder. “What did you have to do?” When I said nothing, Wolf shook his head. “What did you feel you had to do?”

I did what he would have done too, what had to be done to protect my family. Had he been given the opportunity, he would have done the same. “I had no choice, Ares.” I cringed. “He threatened me, my family and our way of life.” I swallowed. “I couldn’t let that happen. I…”

He angled me around, but I couldn’t look at him. Next thing I knew, he grappled me with his long wingspan.

And I was holding on to him like a little bitch.

I couldn’t stop myself, two fucking seconds from breaking down. “I had to.”