“We’re not going anywhere,” he growled, tossing the jewelry. He literally threw it on the floor as if it was nothing. Forcing Knight out of the way, Royal routed to another box at his level, doing the same when he tossed a bunch of furs on the floor from another box. He’d searched that box in particular twice already. Maybe even three times. Royal sneered. “It’s here. It has to be. Something so valuable my dad wouldn’t let out of his sight.”
“Maybe he doesn’t have it.” Knight challenged. “Maybe this whole thing was pointless.”
“Well, maybe it’s not.” The look Royal shot Knight scared me and made Knight retreat. Lifting his hands, Knight backed off, making room for LJ who took his place.
LJ threw his fingers through his long, blond hair. “Hey. We need to call it, okay? It’s not here.”
“You don’t know that.” Royal gripped on to the box, a quaking volcano on the verge of eruption. “Now, quit fucking around and help me look.”
“Royal,” LJ started, but I pushed through, my hand on LJ’s shoulder. The boys made room for me then, and I lowered, on my knees with the prince of Windsor Prep.
I pushed my arms around him, quivering heat beneath my grip. It took that to finally stop him, make him see we couldn’t do this anymore.
“It’s not here, babe,” I urged, the words harsh for me as well. It was like someone told me I’d never be happy again, that it was over…
It was over.
We’d hit our dead end, the end of the line, but the thing was I couldn’t give in to the pain of that. My rock, my force of a boy, was on the cusp of breaking down, and that’s where I needed to be. I told him I’d be strong for him.
He needed me.
He leaned back into me, his huge body gripped his legs, and he closed his eyes. He didn’t want to hear what I said, closing his eyes. “Well, who has it, then, Em? Who? Where is it?”
That I didn’t know, but it was pointless still being here and risking getting caught. I made him stand with me, sliding my arms around his waist. “We’ll find it. Maybe Paige’s ex has it. We both think she could be connected to this. We could find her—”
“But how?” he growled at me now, snapping at me. I pulled away and so much emotion lined his lovely face. His jaw worked. “How would we? Paige wouldn’t tell me who she was.”
I knew that. I did.
Royal forced distance between us, seemingly mad at everyone now. Maybe even a little at himself. We couldn’t offer him anything, and he couldn’t offer anything for himself. He failed, and we had too, but one would have thought it was just him. Nothing but pure, unfiltered anger simmered off him, and that anger we let him have. He walked away from us, even me.
“She left me with nothing,” he said, barely turning his back before leaving the vault. In all this, I’d never heard him this way before. He’d had hope in his voice, always.
I guess no more.
Thirteen
December
I’d like to say things returned to normal after that. Normal… bullshit. There was no normal. Not in this town and where so much had happened. There was no normal for me or Royal, Knight, Jax, and LJ, but there was peace. There was a period of stability after prom season and when the weather finally started to change. It came around the period of when the flowers bloomed again and the world let in the sun once more. No, there would never be normal…
But there would be stillness.
There were lacrosse games. There was lacrosse season, which turned out to be more popular than football or even basketball. At least, in this town. No one showed up for Birdie, Shakira, and Kiki’s games during the winter basketball season like they had for the boys on the lacrosse field once their season began. As it turned out, the team trained throughout the whole year, preparing just for this time and a season that had the Windsor Preparatory Academy boys’ lacrosse team six and oh. They were undefeated.
They always would be with their current captain.
Royal led his team to victory again and again. I knew because I’d been at every one of those games. I showed up for him and in more than one way. I was there for his show on the field, the place he went to get out of his head. I was there for one of the few joys he had while putting away the troubles of the past. That’s all he could do. That’s all all of us could do. Eventually, we had to put our search to bed. Eventually, we had to move on and heal, and he’d taken that the most hard. He didn’t want to let go, and though I didn’t either, we had to move on.
We couldn’t be chased by ghosts forever.
My aunt Celeste had eventually come down. She’d moved in temporarily with my dad and me, and crazy enough, that had been a positive change. It’d been positive for me, nice to come home and food would be made and a familiar face there. She and Rosanna were like a tag team, the house filled with laughter so much of the time. Rosanna even got some time off with my aunt there and my aunt hadn’t driven my dad up the wall. If anything, the switch had been nice for him too. He was home so much more, many dinners where we would sit and eat together, and when Aunt C. eventually had to go back to California and work, my dad had been the first one to offer to help her get to the airport. He even hugged here there,
