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

“B?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Nate slammed the passenger door after letting Daemon out. I turned to face her and watched as her eyes widened on Daemon.

“Holy shit, is that?” Her attention followed them as they passed her and headed to the side of the house.

I shut my door. “Daemon? Yes.”

“I’ve heard so much about him. They call him Six.”

“Who are they?” I narrowed my eyes.

She crossed her arms in front of herself, finally looking back at me. “Everyone in The Circle.”

“The Circle is full of shit, and what the fuck do you want?”

“I was coming to say hi and to see if you were ok. You haven’t been home—”

“When do you leave?” My eyebrows rose.

“Um, well—”

“She’s not,” Dad interrupted, walking down the steps with his hands in his pockets.

“What the fuck do you mean she’s not?” I threw my head back.

His arm rested on her shoulders as he pulled her into him. “She’s staying, son.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking shitting me,” I deadpanned, and then grinned. “You’re getting more senile with old age. You don’t buy her shit, do you? And what about Mom?”

“Son, you know deep down that your mother and I haven’t exactly been together for some time, and you’re grown. Swallow the fucking pill so we can move on.”

My eyes flew to Khales before they went back to my dad. “Huh.” I stared off into the distance, and then smirked, looking back to Khales. “And how do I taste? Since she’s licked my balls more than once…”

Dad chuckled, pulling out a cigar and lighting it up. “About the same as I do, apparently.”

I shook my head in disgust.

He blew out a cloud of smoke. “Now back to business, get in the office so we can talk.”

I looked at Khales one last time, and she watched me in worry, but her shoulders were relaxed under Dad’s handle. She wasn’t faking it. I knew this girl inside and out, and she seemed to genuinely love my dad. My eyes slid to him, but there was no use in me trying to analyze him. He hid his emotions better than me. I can decipher and read any human walking this earth, but not him. He trained me to be like that. I think the only person who could read him was my mom.

I shot Khales an evil glare and shoulder barged past her. I didn’t give a fuck that she had moved on with my dad, but I gave a fuck that she was now going to be around a lot more than I ever wanted her to. I saved her all those years ago because she was a friend. As much as I hated her now, I wouldn’t pretend that I hated her back then, because I didn’t. I didn’t love her, but I didn’t hate her. She was just there, and I cared about her, so I saved her. Now I wish I hadn’t. Now that I see what’s going on between her and Dad, though, I’m thinking there’s a lot more that he isn’t telling me either.

I sunk into one of the leather chairs in Dad’s office as he watched me from behind his heavy mahogany desk. “What happened?”

I leaned back. “Well, a fucking lot, but first I need to ask you if you knew about the underground tunnels on Perdita?”

“Yes.” He nodded, leaning forward to flick off his ash in the ashtray. “Of course I knew.”

“And you used them?” I shot back, watching his reaction.

His eyes squinted from the smoke. “Yes.”

“What for?”

“Why all the questions?” His eyebrow quirked.

“Why all the secrets?” I shot back.

He sighed and ran the palm of his hand over his slicked-back salt and pepper hair. “There are no secrets.” He flicked his ash again, and I watched as his suit jacket rode up to display the edge of his sleeve tattoo. He had swagger for his age, I’d give him that, and girls—of all ages, apparently, gravitated toward him. The smart ones ran after sex, the dumb ones like Khales stayed and thought they could tame him. He could never be tamed. Before him, was my pops. He rode a Harley until the day he died and ruled the underworld just as my dad does and as I will when he passes. Some days I miss my pops though. He was the only one who really understood the shit that I felt. He was still hard like Dad but wasn’t cold like him. He had a heart when it came to family, but was ruthless with everyone else—my dad wasn’t like that. He was just flat out ruthless to everyone, fuck family.

“That underground pathway is used for a lot of things. Weapons, bodies, and anything else there may be.”

“Drugs?” I asked flat out because I needed a straight answer from him. I’d never known the Kings to be in drugs, and Pops would turn in his grave, but the way my dad was, one could never be too sure.