Broken Empire (Boys of Oak Park Prep 3)

“I’m glad you’re playing again,” I murmured softly.

He made a little sound in his throat. “Well, since my parents already decided to give most of my inheritance to Sebastian, I figured why the fuck not? What else can they take away from me?”

My footsteps stuttered as the impact of that hit me again. Elijah hadn’t been completely disowned like I had. But the vast fortune that he would’ve inherited someday would no longer be his.

I ducked my head, guilt rising up for the part I had played in that, but Elijah caught my chin, making me meet his gaze. “I didn’t mean that to sound like a bad thing, Tal. It’s like the fallen angel tattoo on my back. I got it thinking of how no matter what I did, I’d be letting someone down. But I didn’t ever stop to think that maybe that’s okay. That sometimes you have to fall to be free.”

He smiled softly as he spoke, and he dipped his head to kiss me once, his oak and sage scent filling my nostrils as he did. He drew back as the song ended and whispered, “Someday, I’ll play for you, and you can dance for me.”

The sureness in his voice made tears sting the backs of my eyes, and I nodded. Then he spun me around gently, gifting me into Finn’s arms.

The broad-shouldered football player grinned down at me as the song he’d picked began to play.

“So what do you think of your real senior prom, Legs?”

I grinned back, not even trying to tamp down the thrill of joy that rose up inside me. “I think it beats the fuck out of getting chased around a stage by Adena.”

He threw his head back and laughed, and when he looked back at me, his light brown eyes were still dancing with humor. “You know we had like a million contingency plans in place, just in case she pulled some shit and tried to really hurt you, right?”

“Let me guess—did most of them involve you guys bum-rushing the stage and full-body tackling her?”

“Quite a few of them, yeah.” He nodded, chuckling.

“Do you think she’ll be more of a threat now that she lost what she wanted most? That she’ll try to pull some shit on us before school ends?”

He squinted. “Maybe. But I kinda doubt it, honestly. She’d be stupid to, especially when you could probably press charges for what she did to your car. She admitted to some seriously damaging stuff. I think she’ll be too busy dealing with the fallout from that. Did Cole tell you he emailed it to her parents too?”

“Oh, shit!”

A laugh burst out of me before I could stop it. That was mean, but too damn perfect not to enjoy. Poetic justice, I thought it was called.

“So does that mean you guys won’t need to be my bodyguards anymore?”

“Guess not.” His dimples popped out, and I had to resist the urge to kiss them. “But I hope you don’t mind if we keep hanging around. I don’t think I could stand to go cold turkey.”

“Yeah, I think I could live with that.”

I rested my head against his shoulder, burying my face in the crook of his neck and inhaling the warm, clean smell of his skin. His arms banded around my waist, holding me close against him, and when the song ended, he dipped me dramatically while the other three boys whooped into the silent gymnasium.

When Finn brought me back up to stand, I turned to look over my shoulder at Cole. He leaned back in a seat by the table with his legs spread, watching me intently, and when I crooked a finger at him, he rose from the chair like an apex predator.

“Hey, what song do you want?” Elijah called after him, picking up Mason’s phone.

“I don’t give a fuck.”

With those words, he tugged me from Finn’s hold and wrapped his arms around me. Finn tilted my head, stealing a kiss before punching Cole good-naturedly on the arm and moving to rejoin the others at the table.

A song started playing, but I realized I didn’t really give a fuck what it was either. Cole’s embrace held me tight, and he buried his face in my hair, enveloping me in his essence.

We didn’t talk.

We barely even moved.

We just held each other as the music played and the other Princes watched.

And somehow, it meant everything.

Chapter 21