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

You’re right. I’ll try to let her go.

Then I opened up Spotify again, ignoring the notification that pinged almost instantly after. Thanks or no thanks to Wi-Fi in the air. I pressed play on “Hurt you” by The Weeknd and let it play, closing my eyes again.

“I don’t know what to do, bro,” Nate exhaled, burying his face in the palms of his hands. We had dropped everyone else off. Me without saying shit to Madison, but managing to sneak a look at Micaela—as did Nate. I could see it, even if he couldn’t, I saw what happened when he laid eyes on his daughter. It was love at first sight, which was why I knew what his issue was right now.

“What do you mean? About Tillie or about Micaela? Which by the way, I need to talk to you about that.”

He shook his head, bringing one foot up to rest on the dash. He ran his index finger over his upper lip. “No need to explain, B. I know that there’s always reasoning to your chaos.” He said it as if he would explain the weather—with ease.

“Alright, but just so you know, what happened tonight was always the plan. Daemon had been helping Tillie since she gave birth. Apparently, he, Tinker, and another nurse were the ones who helped her through the birth. He called me up and let me know what was happening,” I paused, my eyes flying out to the side window before I took the onramp to a new highway. I needed to get the fuck out of here for a while, and going home right now wasn’t an option. Out of all the Kings, it was no mistake who my numero uno was, and he earned that on more than one occasion. If there was anyone whose company I didn’t mind when I was feeling this fucked up in the head, it was Nate’s.

Nate let me continue as I drove. “I didn’t know she was pregnant before that point, dawg. On my life. When Daemon told me, I cut a deal with Katsia. Only the bitch tried to get Micaela killed.” I shot him a quick look to see his eyes zoned out.

“I believe you.” His jaw turned rigid.

I focused on the road again. “Anyway, I should have picked it up. A few months ago, after that shit went down with Madison and Daemon and she was in the hospital, I caught Tillie trying to sneak into the room.”

I could see Nate look at me out of the corner of my eye. “I asked her what the fuck she was doing and she said she couldn’t talk but that someone had told her that there was an incident and that Madison was hurt. I didn’t even think to look at her stomach because she was so fucking small, but the was wearing an oversized hoodie, which now that I think back, was fucked up, but her, in general, was fucked up. She was off, different. More than usual. I knew she cared about Madison, so I let her see her, but before I did she told me that Katsia had captured her after that night at the cabin.” I chanced a glance at him now. “Katsia couldn’t have known that she was pregnant at this point.” I looked back to the road. “Anyway, I said I’d get in touch with her when I need to and I let her see Madison.”

“This shit doesn’t make sense anymore. Lines are getting blurred and I don’t know, bro, I just feel like there’s a war brewing.”

I nodded. “Agreed which is why I’ve come to this conclusion.” I sucked in a breath. “The girls need the fuck away from us.”

“Madison, this is bad. Just having her here with that baby is putting all of us at risk.”

“Dad!” I snapped, putting my hands on my hips. “I need to do this.”

His eyes glassed over. His brows were furrowed. He was worried and my heart sunk more. I was being selfish.

“I have a solution, but you’re not going to like it.”

“What?” I asked, defeated. “At this point, I’ll take anything.”

“Actually, we have a solution.”

Bishop’s voice launched butterflies in my chest. I turned to the door. “What is it?” He and Nate walked inside and then came into the kitchen. They both took a seat on a bar stool.

“Bishop?” I urged him, leaning against the kitchen island.

“You need to run. All three of you, and the kid.”

“No.”

“Madison…” Bishop sounded exhausted, rubbing his hands over his head in frustration. “Look, not for long, just until we sort out this war. We have never had to worry about casualties until you three came into the game. Now? Now we have you and Tillie and Tatum and for fuck’s sake a newborn baby who has a damn hit on her head, Madison. Think, be smart. You know it, we all know that this has to happen.”