I exhale the breath I didn’t know I was holding, lying back on the bed until I’m resting against the headboard. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s fine,” she says. “Do you want me to get you a drink of water or anything?”
I shake my head. “No, it’s okay.”
My phone rings on the bedside table and I reach for it aimlessly. When I see Brantley’s name flash over my screen, my insides crumble.
Madison follows my eyes and flinches. “He scares me. Please answer it.”
I swipe my finger across and slowly bring my phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Question.” His voice is low, and every single vocal cord that he exudes hits every corner of my soul. Ice slides down my spine and goosebumps rise all over my flesh. My eyes find Madison and she runs her fingers over the tiny bumps on my arm.
“Yes?” I ask softly, hoping it will soften the blow.
“Why the fuck do you think I’ve kept you locked in this house for all those years?”
“I heard you tell Nate one night.”
Silence. “What night?”
Madison stands to leave, but I stop her with my hand on her arm. I shake my head and she slowly lowers herself back on the bed. “The night you all had a party at the manor and Nate tried to open my door. You said that he couldn’t have me.”
Brantley pauses again, before chuckling. “You really think that is all?”
“Well, now that you say it like that, no…”
“Get home. Now.”
“I can—”
“Saint? Do not fucking play with me. Home.”
“Okay, but ther—”
“Saint…” he growls, and the purr skates over my eardrums, rocking my core. “Home.”
“Okay,” I answer through a whisper, squeezing the phone. Right after I finish doing what I’m doing. “Could you tell Bishop I’m okay? He was stressed last night.”
“He knows.”
“I’ll see you soon…”
There’s a long pause, before I hear a door close in the background. “Put it on speaker.”
I panic, my eyes shooting to Madison.
“What?”
“Do it.”
I bring my phone down, hitting the speaker button. He doesn’t waste time.
“Madison, if anything happens to her, I swear to God I will make your life a living hell before slowly, and carefully, destroying you. You understand me? Not a fucking hair on her head is to be missing when she flies home. I don’t know what the fuck you’re both doing, but I trust Saint enough to know she wouldn’t do something unless there was a good reason. She’s smart, fucking way smarter than anyone I know, and she’s about three steps in front of the human brain. You fuck with her, you fuck with me.”
Madison sighs, leaning forward. “Bran, she’s safe.”
“Keep it that way.” Then the phone call ends and Madison’s eyes come to mine. “He’s gotten worse with age.”
I stifle a groan. “I thought he was just always like this.”
She shakes her head. “No. Never. He was the quiet one that we were all too scared to approach. Seeing him worked up is new.”
Madison’s shoulders jiggle as she tries to contain her laughs. “Man, I hadn’t felt like I was missing much being away, but I would sure pay for a front-row seat to the Saintley show.”
My laughter dies out slowly. “There’s not much of a show. We’ve had sex twice, the first time he was my first time, and the second time felt more like hate sex, which I kind of liked.”
Her lips stretch wide. “Well, I can’t be of much help there.” A small smile comes onto her mouth before she taps my hand. “The doc is here. You’ve been out eight hours!”
I swing my legs off the bed. “I’m ready.”
Warm liquid filled my mouth, the heavy taste of metal running down the back of my throat. I still hung to the tree, swinging back and forth like a pig hunted, about to be singed before being eaten.
“We know what you do…” Brantley said, and I lifted my head up, using all of my strength, dangling between my shoulder blades. “We know who the fuck you are.”
I rolled the slimy liquid in my mouth and spat it onto the ground. “Then you know that you’ve just signed your death certificate.”
Brantley laughed so hard that birds probably flew from the trees. He stepped up closer, tilted his head while keeping his eyes on mine. “Nah, you see, we know who you are…” His tongue flicked out to his lips before the corner of his lip kicked up in a sinister smirk. “But do you know who we are?”
“I said I don’t!” I yelled, tugging on the ropes that are bound around my wrists.
He came closer, and the night went silent. The leaves and twigs crunched beneath his heavy boots, and I faintly caught the other boys in the background, over his shoulder. “We’re the motherfucking Elite Kings.”
I paused. The blood that filled my mouth now spilled from my lips.