Broken Empire (Boys of Oak Park Prep 3)

I knew part of it was because Cole didn’t always sleep well. Some nights, he would knock on my door and crawl into bed with me, and I would do my best to wrap my small frame around his larger one, as if I could shield him from whatever nightmares tormented him.

But the violence that lived inside him was tempered more and more by the sweetness and gentleness that had always been there too.

I could see it in the way he was with Penny. In the way he was with his mom.

In the way he was with me.

A nerve in my leg pinched as I crossed toward the table, and I gave a stutter-step, sucking in a short breath. Mason and Cole both looked up quickly, twin looks of concern reflecting in blue and green eyes.

“You okay, Princess?” Mason was already half out of his chair, like he was about to pick me up and carry me the rest of the way to the table.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Just a little twinge.”

I shook my head and waved him off, rolling my ankle in careful circles to work the kinks out. It was still stiff in the mornings, some days worse than others, but my strength and flexibility were improving. I could walk almost normally now, and although I had to modify the steps a lot, I’d been able to start dancing again.

Just like Elijah had promised, he played and I danced.

Mason watched me with narrowed eyes as I started toward them again, and when I reached the table and gave a flourishing little bow, he grinned sardonically.

“Like a champ.”

Cole reached up and hooked the back of my neck, tugging me down for a kiss, and as I settled into the seat beside him, Mason’s feet found mine under the table.

Elijah left a few minutes later, and Finn rushed out a little while after that, calling out a goodbye over his shoulder. But two seconds later, he darted back inside and crossed around the table to kiss me again before muttering something that sounded like “love you” and “gonna be late”.

The other guys rolled their eyes at him as I watched him leave, a dopey grin on my face.

I had told him once that if he ever wanted to earn my trust back, he would have to show me, over and over and over, that I could trust him. He’d earned it back with interest by now, but I didn’t think he’d ever stop trying to prove he deserved it, and I loved him even more for that.

Erin Bennett had helped me access more of my trust, and in another year, I would receive the remainder. The Princes’ still had family money, although none of them were set to inherit the vast fortunes some of our classmates from Oak Park would anymore. But none of them seemed to care too much about it, maybe because they’d seen what greed had done to their parents.

I was studying business and had started interning at a clinic that specialized in using dance as a form of rehabilitation, with the goal of opening my own facility one day.

For now, I was just getting my feet wet, but I loved it—maybe even more than dancing under bright lights on a big stage. I helped people who’d had their lives turned upside down by tragedy or trauma find their bodies—find their voices—again. I helped them move, and I listened to the stories they told through those movements.

And it was enough.

More than enough.

Mason had an eleven-thirty class, so he offered to drive me. I hopped in the shower after breakfast and kissed Cole goodbye before we left, glancing back at the slightly messy living room as we headed out the door. A guitar was leaned up against the wall by the couch, and tab sheets were spread over the coffee table from something Elijah had been composing.

“He must be working on something new,” Mason murmured, tracking my gaze as he pulled the door shut behind us.

“Yup.” I grinned.

“Maybe we’ll have a dance party later.”

“Yup.”

He gifted me with an easy smile, threading his fingers through mine as we walked outside into the spring sunshine.

Usually when Elijah worked up a new song, the only way I could get him to play it for me was by agreeing to dance to it. Sometimes I danced my modified ballet steps, and sometimes the other guys and I just slow danced around the apartment.

Our place was small for a five-bedroom, but it never seemed claustrophobic. I’d felt like it was important for us each to have our own spaces though, at least for the first year or two, although more often than not one or more of the Princes slept in my bedroom.

I had worried a little about what people at our new school would think, but from day one, we had never tried to hide or justify our relationship.

This was who we were, what we had chosen, and in Finn’s words, anybody who didn’t like it could fuck right off.