Lawless Kingdom (Reign & Ruin 1)

It was bullshit but not anything we couldn’t handle. We were Academy Award-winning actors when it came to playing normal. No one had ever come close to the truth, not since the cheerleader incident my Sophomore year. Her naked body would have rotted to nothing by now, but the night of her death made the reality of who I was really settle in.

The people in Crudele didn’t have the slightest clue who any of us were—especially me. I was so much more than a wildly attractive prep-school asshole.

Well-mannered and civilized boys didn’t use a blowtorch to cauterize a wound in the middle of the night.

CHAPTER FIVE

Rhiannon

I knew where I was but not why.

I’d been staring up at the ceiling for a good thirty minutes. Unless I was relaxing at home, I was always out of bed as soon as I opened my eyes. My delay was an indication of how conflicted I was.

Not for the first time, I asked myself what the hell happened last night, from Dax’s strange and sporadic revelation to the gorgeous man who damn near followed us from the Barron house, carrying me into this one. I didn’t know what to make of any of it.

Pushing myself up onto one elbow, I shoved the duvet down and did a quick scan of my person. Everything was normal aside from the missing clothes.

But there wasn’t anything at all normal-like about what had happened last night. Whatever that was exactly.

Finally dragging myself from the mattress, I re-dressed quickly and then slipped out into the hall. I headed straight for Audrey’s room since she’d yet to make an appearance this morning. I felt guilty as hell for not rushing to her sooner. I wasn’t sure she was even okay.

I assumed since I was, she would be too. At the very least I hoped that if there was an altercation it would’ve broken through the fog my brain had been wrapped in. No way would she go down without a fight, even as out of her mind as she was. The girl looked like Barbie but was more relatable to Annabelle.

I flung her door open with so much force that it bounced off the wall, Audrey jumped twenty feet in the air. Her golden mane was all over her head and there was a line imprinted on her face from how’d she been lying.

“What’s wrong?” she yelled, untwisting her magenta comforter from around her body.

I smothered a laugh as she stumbled from the bed. Her entire right tit had managed to free itself from the tiny piece of fabric she still had on.

“Nothing. I mean, I don’t know. I needed to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh.” A loud breath of relief flew from her mouth. “Dammit, Rhia.” She took a few steps backward and sunk down onto the edge of her bed.

“I’m not even going to apologize. Two strange dudes carried us into your house and removed our clothing.”

Her head snapped up so fast I was concerned for her slender neck. Hazel eyes wide, she stared at me as if she were seeing a ghost.

“Oh, my god.”

“What?”

“Gavin Knight was in my room! He…” She groaned and covered her face with both hands. “They were both in my house.”

“Who was?” I waved my hands in frustration.

“Gavin Knight and Judas Barron. They were the last people I saw before... never mind. This is humiliating.”

Humiliating? This girl had me ready to slap her upside the head. “Audrey. Those assholes put something in our drinks, brought us here, took off our clothes, and left. I think them knowing the layout of your damn house is more concerning than them being inside it.”

She blinked once, twice, bringing my sensible bestie who didn’t act a fool for dick back to the surface.

“They drugged us?” Her voice lilted with anger and disgust.

“I mean…I think so.”

“And Dax?” she questioned.

I swallowed, lifting my shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t know where he is or what’s going on. He went back inside, and I haven’t seen him since. No missed calls or texts either.”

Her expression changed again, this one more of concern. “Shit, Rhia.”

“Stop doing the one-two word thing and tell me what the hell is going on!”

“I don’t know what the hell is going on!” she yelled back. “If he pissed off one of them, nothing good.”

I pulled my lower lip between my teeth and gnawed on it. He’d certainly irritated the guy who’d followed us to the front door. Something about what she just said confused me even more, though.

“I thought those families were all noble citizens or whatever? Hearts of gold and all that bullshit.”

She ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

“There have been a few rumors over the years. Nothing solid but…” she trailed off again with a shake of her head.

Excellent. That gave me zero answers as to what was happening or going on with Dax. I put no stock in rumors. They went from one source to another, becoming more and more convoluted as they were spread because each person felt the need to add their own detailed assumptions.