Malum: Part 1 (The Elite King's Club 4)

He pauses, his eyes searching mine. “You’re right, Tillie, I don’t. The same set of rules that apply to every other female walking this earth have never applied to you. You feel me?”

I do. I feel you everywhere which is precisely the problem. Asshole.

“No, I don’t. You said that I know how you play, when in fact—”

He cuts me off. “You have about three seconds to stop talking before I fuck you on Daemon’s bed, and you and I both know how fast that act alone will conjure his spirit back to us. I’m not really keen on being haunted, so…”

I freeze.

He jackknifes up, the weight of his body instantly gone. I ignore how my stomach throbs with emptiness from this fact, and slowly make my way off the bed—again—

Nate stops when he reaches the door, his back turned to me. “…Regardless of what kind of monster you think I am, Tillie, and make no mistake, I can be a fucking monster, I never let that side of me touch you. Ever. However, if I find out that you’re hiding something from me, that side won’t just touch you, it will annihilate you.”

Then he leaves, shutting the door behind himself.

I exhale a deep breath, overwhelmed by him. Everything that is Nate Riverside is just too much. He’s too much everything for me, but I won’t let that feeling be a weakness for me. I choose to use it as a weapon instead.

After showering and throwing on some of Madison’s clothes that mainly consist of skinny jeans and Harley Davidson t-shirts (that show way too much of my stomach). A stomach that isn’t exactly flat after Micaela, I make my way downstairs to find her.

I can hear whispering coming from the side lounge that sits off the kitchen and turn toward it, leaning against the entryway when I get there.

All of The Kings are here now, not just Bishop and Nate.

Brantley, Cash, Chase, Ace, Hunter, Jase, Saint, and Eli.

“Am I interrupting?” I ask, looking directly at Madison. I can’t stomach looking at any of The Kings. They’re not just intimidating, they’re downright terrifying. Madison always handled them with excellence, me, not so much.

Madison smiles, pointing at the sofa that’s empty. Some of The Kings are standing, spread out on the U-shaped couch, and some are apprehensively pacing.

I can see Brantley glaring at me out of the corner of my eye, he’s the one spread out on the sofa, one leg kicked up on the coffee table.

“Tillie,” Brantley says my name with just enough warning to let me know that if I don’t answer him, I probably won’t like the consequences. Out of all of The Kings, Brantley has been the one that scares me the most. More so than Bishop and Nate.

I turn to face him. “Yes?”

“Is there anything that you’re not telling us? Anything that we need to know as far as the kid goes? Because I’m giving you your chance now to speak up and trust us. Any time after this, you’ll be dealt with as an outsider if you’ve betrayed this trust.”

She has your daughter, Tillie. Right now, I have no other option but to lie. Who knows what Peyton has hidden. Who knows if she has cameras set up in this very house that we don’t know about.

Lie.

“You know everything. She took me the day before Daemon’s funeral and wouldn’t let me go. She kept Micaela and I holed up somewhere in the city,” I pause, clicking my fingers together. “Oh, wait, and also, Carter is with Peyton and The Circle…”

“The Circle is being dealt with as far as I know,” Bishop interferes. “And Carter we already knew about.”

“Anything else?” That’s Nate, and my eyes find him instantly. He’s against the wall on the other side of the room, one leg propped up and his finger running across the top of his lip.

“Not that I can think of right now. Before I got here, she took Micaela and wouldn’t give her back. I don’t know what she’s playing at, but I sort of have a feeling that she has this sick side of her brain that thinks she’s taking over for our—” I pause, hating the next words that are about to come out of my mouth. “Mom.”

“Wait, but she can’t, right?” Madison turns to face Bishop, and when he doesn’t answer her, she turns around to face Nate.

Nate shrugs. “Yes and no. Yes, because Perdita still needs to be run, and the only person who can run it is a Stuprum. Khales has been spending some time over there though. The Lost Boys are funky little fuckers. They’re far more warped than you can imagine, and they don’t take any orders from anyone but a Stuprum. It’s all cult-like, but it’s the world they, and we, live in. No, because we don’t fucking allow it.”