My phone vibrated on the table and I snatched it, seeing it was Bishop.
“Hi, are you ok?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Sorry I didn’t text you yesterday, we’ve been getting some shit in line.”
My eyes went to Tillie, who got up from her chair and came to take Micaela. “What sort of shit?”
“I’m gathering all of the previous Kings that I can find, and bringing them in, because on Friday we’re all flying back to Perdita to settle this.”
“I want to come.”
“No.”
“Bishop…” I whined, even though I knew that it would never work on him.
“No, Madison. No fucking way. You stay there and stay alive.”
“And what about you?” I whispered, anxiety taking a hold of my airways and trying to suffocate me. I never thought I’d end up being one of those girls who put all her feelings into one guy, but Bishop crushed those assumptions. The thought of anything happening to him would almost put my heart into cardiac arrest.
“I’ll be fine, baby,” he answered smoothly. “I gotta go. Listen, I need to talk with my mom about something…”
“Oh?” I shuffled up in my chair. “She’s at work right now.”
“It’s my dad. Him and Khales, they’re…”
“Oh ew!” My face scrunched in disgust. “He would never!”
“Nope, he had, and is…”
“That’s disgusting.” I shook my head.
“Yeah, but don’t tell her yet. I’ll tell her when I see her. I just wanted you to have a heads up. Looks like she might be hanging around longer than I would have hoped.”
“That sucks.” Another phone call beeped through and I looked down at my screen. “Carter is calling me…”
“Mathers?” Bishop asked, shocked. “What the fuck for?”
“I don’t know. Call me later?”
“Yeah alright.”
After hanging up on Bishop, I answered my phone, giving Tate a confused look. “Hello?”
“Madison?” He sounded desperate.
“Carter? Are you ok?”
“Are you in town?”
“What? No. I’m out of town right now, why?”
He sighed. “Can you text me when you get back? I need to talk with you.” And he hung up.
“That was weird.” I put my phone back on the table and pushed it to the middle. “I haven’t heard from him in months and then he calls me out of the blue.”
Tillie shook the baby bottle, her eyes going between Tate and me. “What ever happened to him?”
“Nothing,” I answered, picking up my plate and carrying it to the sink. I rinsed it quickly before turning and leaning on the counter.
“I don’t know what to do,” Tillie whispered under her breath, feeding Micaela.
“How so?” Tate asked, her head tilted.
Tillie shrugged. “I think I need to leave.”
“Leave—where?” I tried hard not to sound critical, but it came off as that instantly. “Elena doesn’t know that Micaela is her granddaughter, and then there’s Nate…” I added.
“Exactly!” Tillie shrugged. “I just think that he would prefer I not be in his hometown, if you know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t, and please don’t tell me you’re thinking of running because honestly, Tillie, he would kill you if you took his daughter away.”
“He’s going to kill me anyway, Mads!”
“Why!” I threw my hands up, suddenly annoyed at the whole situation. I loved Tillie, but sometimes we didn’t exactly see eye to eye.
“Because I—I may have met someone else, and I don’t know, I think that he would hate that some other male would be a big part of her life, ya know?”
“I need a holiday.” I rubbed my temples with my fingertips. “Ok, here’s what we are going to do.” I pushed off the counter and made my way back to my seat. “We are going to all sit the fuck down when all of this is over, and have a flat-out chat about what we are going to do with little princess. Tillie.” I brought my eyes to hers, drilling them into her. “I do not, under any circumstances, think you should run from Nate. He will find you, and the erratic way his behavior has been since finding out he is a dad, I wouldn’t trust his intentions with you once he does find you, so I honestly think you should take my route, and ju—”
“—Ok!” she snapped at me with a smile on her lips. “You’re still persistent.”
“That shit will never change,” Tate muttered, standing and going to the sink to rinse her plate.
“Now,” I grinned. “Who is this man you’ve met?”
Her face fell.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Honestly, it would never work out. We had a moment, and I don’t know… I just, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Well, who is it? Do I know him? Please don’t tell me it’s one of those weird guards at Perdita.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m wasting my time because it could never happen. He’s too involved with Katsia to look at me again, and we had a moment or two, but then he went cold and I honestly think it’s a waste of time me even mentioning it. It just made me realize that if something ever did happen between me and someone, Nate wouldn’t allow it.”
“I do have a plan, though,” I said.
“Oh goodie!” Tate bit into an apple. “Let me guess, you want to gatecrash this war?”
I smirked.
“And how are we supposed to get past the wicked witch of the west?” Tatum asked, crunching on her apple loudly.
I skipped toward her. “Well, the wicked witch isn’t as wicked as she seems.”
We finished up breakfast and washed the dishes. The house we were staying in was a two-story loft air BNB. There were two bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. Tillie and the baby stayed downstairs while Tate and I crashed in here. Flopping onto the bed, I bring my phone up to my face and send Bishop a text.
Weird conversation with Carter.
What did he want
I flipped onto my tummy. I don’t know. He said he wanted to talk with me when I got home.
I waited for the three little circles to pop up, but they didn’t. Two minutes pass before I decided to send him another. The
