Tacet a Mortuis (The Elite King's Club 3)

“Yo, so I’m thinking I want to throw a party this weekend since everything has been so fucking depressing.”

“Why?” My eyes remained on Khales’. Hers dropped to my mouth, and then came back to my eyes. I knew what she was doing, and if she tried any shady shit, I’d rip her lips off.

“Well, our girl isn’t doing so good…”

“My girl,” I corrected through a growl.

Khales' eyes slanted, so I brought my hand to her throat. Shock flashed across her face.

I grinned. “Continue.”

“Yeah, you might need to get used to sharing her.”

My grip around Khales’ throat instinctively tightened. “What the fuck do you mean?”

She started tapping at my hand, so I released her a little.

“She’s mad, I get it.”

“Nah, she’s not mad. She’s… numb.”

“What? You feel what she’s feeling now?” I grilled, letting Khales go and stepping backward. There was something he was hiding, and whatever it was, better not have anything to do with them both fucking around with each other again. My patience was thin. One more misstep with her, and I was throwing in the towel. No point fighting for someone that doesn’t wanna be fought for.

“There was an incident…” Nate cleared his throat.

“What kind? She kill someone incident, or she trip and fall on something incident?”

He cleared his throat again. “Ah, well, a Peyton problem….”

My hands squeezed around the phone. Peyton was Tillie's older sister who in short, was messing around with Jase’s generation of the Kings. She had four of them wrapped around her finger, and when they were over fighting about it, they all decided they'd just share her.

“You and who.”

“Ah, Brantley.”

“How far did you get?” My eyes narrowed on Khales’, then dropped down her body.

“Pretty far, but then Jase walked in.”

“I’m done,” I murmured. “I’m done with her, dawg. I’ve not fucked up once since she’s been here, aside from secrets and shit. This is the third time she’s run off into someone else's arms. She’s your issue now.” My eyes connected with Khales’, who was smirking in triumph. “Oh and bro? I’ll throw the party.” I threw my phone against the wall until it smashed into a thousand pieces. Khales jumped in shock but quickly collected herself. I stepped backward, reaching for the door.

“You’re too good for her, B. You gave her too much.”

“Shut the fuck up and don’t touch me.” I shoved past her and walked out the door. She was right in a sense. I did give Madison too much leash. I got too soft on her, cared too much, let her get away with too much shit. If she thought I was an asshole when she first met me, she ain’t seen nothing yet. I took the stairs two at a time, and just as my feet landed at the top, my dad walked out of his office.

“You gonna tell me your plan with Khales?”

He grinned, pushing his hair back. “Have I ever?”

Leaning on the stairwell, I crossed my legs at the ankles. “Well, give me something to go on before I kill her.”

His grin deepened. He knew I wouldn’t, but that’s not to say I couldn’t. “You won’t do that, son.” Sidestepping around me, he made his way down the glass stairs, just as my mom entered the lobby.

“Oh good, I’ve finally got you both in the same room. Come and sit down, please.” A bit rich, considering she spends most of her nights jet-setting all over the world working on new movies, but whatever. I headed down and went straight to the living room, resting in the corner and kicking one leg up to rest on the couch while the other remained spread. I stretched my neck, running my hands through my hair. What the fuck was Madison playing at. I understood her anger. Finding out I had slept with her—who she had always assumed was her—mother, as my initiation process would be a hard pill to swallow, and then Khales. But she didn’t even fucking ask me why I did it. In her defense, she probably assumed I’d just keep it a secret like I had with everything else, but it wasn’t that at all. Khales was under my protection. I always had her under my protection, as kids, we were inseparable. Through me sleeping with Victoria Secret models to A-list actresses, she was still there. I fucked around on her a lot, fucked with her head even more, but I had never fucked up on Madison, yet, she still did me dirty. It wasn’t cheating, because we technically weren’t together, but fucked if it felt like it. If what Nate told me was true, they’d just trampled on my stomping ground, and there will be repercussions for that—as they will know it. This was a no trespassing zone, and you know what they say about trespassers…