“Avery, go start my car.”
Avery looked at me and frowned. “Cherri, I’m sorry.”
“No! I have to go after them. Deon got shot!” I screamed.
The entire Royal Court converged on me as I started to fight back. “Stop it! Let me go!”
No matter how hard I fought, I wasn’t stronger than five people. They dragged me, kicking and screaming, out to Alistair’s car and shoved me into the back seat. Alistair deployed the child locks so I couldn’t get out, and Avery climbed into the front seat. Alistair immediately started his car. All I could think of was Deon out there, injured and getting worse. I’d waited for too long to be with him. I couldn’t just leave him behind.
“Alistair. Let me out of this car.” I tried to punch the window. “I need to get to Deon.”
“Cherri. You’ll thank us later. This is bigger than us,” Avery said. “I’m sorry.”
37
Cherri
I kept my phone sitting in my lap, waiting for Nathan or Deon to call me. We sat in Nathan’s house, watching the time tick by, hoping to hear anything, but the more time that passed, the more worried I became.
Avery walked over to me and held out a bottle of water. “Here, babe, you should drink something.”
I completely ignored her, as I had been ignoring all of The Royal Court since we got back. After everything we’d gone through to save Deon and Nathan, we turned tail and ran when they needed us most. I wanted to fight by Deon’s side, not leave him when he was injured. If something happened to him while he was out there, I would never forgive myself.
And I definitely wouldn’t forgive The Royal Court.
“Come on, Cherri,” Avery whined. “I’m sorry, but we’re just a bunch of rich kids. You’re too reckless, and Nathan was right. It seemed like Connor really wanted you dead. We had to protect you. You could have gotten arrested, or you could have died. Anything could have happened.”
Once again, I didn’t answer. Best friend or not, Avery let me down, and it might just result in Deon’s death.
In my lap, my phone rang. I jumped, and all eyes shifted toward me, but it was just Sicily. I pressed the button to answer it and lifted it up to my ear.
“Hey, Sicily,” I said, and everyone turned away from me, apart from Avery, who stayed looking at me pleadingly. I stood up and walked away from her, into the hallway. “What’s up?”
“Have you heard from him yet?” he asked.
On the way back from the cottage where we’d found Nathan, I immediately contacted Sicily. I was hoping that he could help me track down Deon, which he said he might be able to do, but he was unsure of how quickly he could do it. It made him just as angry as it made me, knowing that we left Deon and Nathan behind. He wanted to drive back out there himself, but if I knew the Loches, and I knew at least two of them pretty damn well, they probably weren’t there anymore.
“No,” I responded. “Have you been able to get a read on Deon?”
“Nothing yet. I sent out a bug, so if he uses his phone, it’ll let me know,” he said. “How you holding up?”
“Not well,” I replied. “I need to know that Deon’s okay.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll keep working. You let me know if you hear anything.”
“I will. See you.”
I hung up my phone and walked back into the living room where everyone was sitting around the sunken couch. They all stared at me, waiting for me to share an update if I had one, but I said nothing, just sat back in my spot on the couch, returned the phone to my lap, and continued to wait.
The only person I had even a shred of sympathy for was Nikita. She looked just as distraught as I felt, and though we had never really gotten along, I felt partially compelled to try to comfort her. Still, trying to relate to her had never worked well for me in the past. I couldn’t imagine she was feeling great about my involvement in everything that had gone down, so I quietly wished that there was reconciliation for us in the future and kept the rest to myself.
“Cherri,” Avery started sadly again, scooting over next to me on the couch. There was a waver in her voice that was hard to hear, but it was not enough to break my resolve. “Please talk to me. I’m sorry, okay? I should have let you stay and fight.”
It was too late for those sorts of apologies. All that was left now was to wait and pray that they came back.
What felt like hours passed by. We didn’t speak, didn’t move, just waited. We watched as the sun slowly set outside the window, and eventually, darkness found us. How many hours had it been? Three? Four? How long did we wait before we assumed the worst?
“Guys,” Kyle started quietly. “I think we need to start thinking about what we do next.” No one responded. Colette and Avery exchanged sad looks, and Alistair kicked a boot against the ground. Jaxon had a hand resting comfortably on Nikita’s head, and both Nikita and I didn’t even look up. “Come on, guys. I’m not trying to drag us down, but it’s been hours. We can’t just sit here forever. What if—”
Kyle’s voice was cut off by a sound coming from the hallway. We all stopped and looked up, unsure of if it was really the door or not, but then the unmistakable sound of it creaking open cracked across the silence, and we all jumped up and went rushing into the hallway. Nathan walked through the door, limping, bloody, and with one totally swollen eye. His arms were cut to hell, likely from running through the woods, and he seemed downright exhausted. I waited as Nathan walked in. Even
