I splayed my fingers over his chest. Royal’s heart was forever racing a mile a minute.

  It’s why he runs from me. A heart like this can’t slow long enough to trust.

  “We can change that plan,” I said. “I’ll find a way.”

  A harsh noise strangled his throat. “It’s not your job to save me, princess.”

  I softly pecked his lips. “Someone has to.”

  I was first out of the room. Cassius and Clay were knocked out on the pullout bed. Low, breathy noises leaked through Clay’s parted lips, proving he snored despite his denials to his sister. I couldn’t resist that sound. I listened to it as I lay awake in Cassius’s arms, spent and sated from our sex, and turned on from Clay watching.

  His soft snores were cute. A word not often associated with a tattooed, bruise-knuckled gangbanger.

  Trying not to wake him, my kiss gently swallowed his breath. I moved around and kissed Cassius too.

  Royal came out and jerked his head toward the door. Time to go.

  “Should we bring Hiro anything?” I asked as we climbed in his car. “Food. Change of clothes.”

  “We’re not going to Hiro,” he said. “I’ll text the triplets to stock my place up. Doc is going to bring him here to ride it out until he can go back to the academy.”

  “We’re not? Why? Where are we going? And why is he staying here?”

  “Hiro’s parents are dead. He’s got nowhere else to go.”

  That shocked me so much we were ten minutes into our drive before I noticed he didn’t answer my other questions.

  “If we’re not going to Hiro, where are we going, Royal?”

  Royal eased into the next lane. “Your parents’ note... Did you ever do it? Leave flowers for your sister?”

  One question and memories crashed into me. The music box splintering. The squeal of brakes. My mother screaming.

  I didn’t notice I was crying until Royal wiped a tear from my cheek.

  “No,” I rasped. “I didn’t.”

  “Do you want to?”

  Ten seconds passed.

  Then thirty.

  Then a minute.

  Then five.

  I nodded.

  “Then that’s where we’re going.”

  Royal stopped by the florist. He went inside to buy the bouquet of carnations and peonies because I couldn’t get out of the car.

  “Raven River Cemetery?” he asked as he placed the flowers on my lap.

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  “Okay.”

  Royal fell silent. He wasn’t pushing me to talk about Rory. Maybe that’s why I did.

  “There was nothing for me,” I said so softly he might not have heard me. “In their final note. They wanted Rory and Eli to know they still loved them, but not me.”

  “They were bastards, Em. What happened to your sister was an accident. Terrible, tragic, and hard to live with. But still an accident. They were wrong to make you feel like you didn’t deserve forgiveness.”

  “I don’t.” My voice. My heart. My soul was dead.

  Royal laid his hand over my clenched fist. “You do.”

  His touch didn’t reach me. “I wanted to visit before,” I said. “My uncle wouldn’t give me the car unless I told him where I was going and I... couldn’t.”

  “It’s okay, Ember. You’re going now.”

  Raven River Cemetery was a pocket of land on the edge of town, bordering the forest. It was oppressively silent. No birds singing in the trees. No critters skittering over the forest floor. No bustling noise from the town. The sounds of life did not touch this place. As though man and creature alike knew to give the peace these people did not have in life.

  Royal parked just as the workers opened the gate. Eight a.m. on the dot.

  “I figured it’d be empty at this time,” Royal explained. “You’ll have privacy.”

  “Thank you.” I made no move to leave the car.

  “Do you want to do this by yourself?”

  “No.”

  My feet stayed planted on the floor mat.

  “Should I carry you inside? How literally are you taking this princess thing?”

  I cracked a smile, and marveled that he made me do that. “You dress me, cook for me, chauffeur me around, and carry me to bed. A girl can get spoiled.”

  “I’m good to spoil you today.”

  Royal came to my side of the car. He reached a hand out to me, patiently waiting for me to take it. We walked into the cemetery fingers laced.

  Fingers strangled more like. I held on to Royal so tightly it must have hurt, but he didn’t say anything.

  My sister’s grave was at the back by the fence. Two evergreens were planted beside her, shading her from the sun. Only the best for a Bancroft. My grandfather bought this plot for all of us to rest together, and he lay ten feet away.

  “She slept in my bed every night,” I said as we closed the distance. “She had her own, but she’d crawl into mine after our parents put us to bed. When I die, I’ll sleep next to her again.”

  Royal didn’t reply. I couldn’t blame him. Not many people would’ve known what to say to that.

  Royal stopped a few feet away. I tugged him but he refused to move.

  “Go,” he said simply. “I’m right here.”

  I kept going. Kneeling down, the well swirling sorrow spilled over at the state of her grave. Dead flowers in her vase. Leaves covering the headstone. A wrapper stuck in the grass from some disrespectful piece of shit.

  I flung it away with a scream. I should have come back sooner. I should be taking care of her. It’s just the three of us now.

  “Ember?”

  On my knees, I bowed before the headstone, pinned by an invisible force.

  “Don’t look away from her,” Mom hissed. She clamped down on my neck. “You did this. Face her. Tell your sister you love her.”

  The marble dug into my forehead. Tears dripped down the blades of grass, soaking the earth, seeking Rory.

  “I love you.”

  “Ember? Ember, I’m sorry.” There was something new in Royal’s voice. “This was a mistake.” He grabbed me under the arms. “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

  “No!” Clawing his hands, I ripped them off. “I have to face her!”

  “Em, stop!”

  “I did this!”

  I collapsed on the grave. Royal picked me up and crushed me to his chest. I flailed as he dragged me to Grandpa’s memorial bench.

  “It’s not your fault,” he cried. “It was an accident. Don’t do this to yourself anymore.”

  Wailing and screaming, I pummeled him. Royal grunted under my assault but didn’t let go. Over and over he repeated forgiveness.

  “You don’t get to say that to me!” I shoved him. We tipped over crashing onto the grass. “You haven’t forgiven yourself!”

  “And I won’t until you show me how!” Royal grabbed my wrists. He pinned them to the ground and covered me with his body. “You want to save me, princess? Start right now.”

  Violent sobs wracked me. I couldn’t breathe for the pain and Royal on my chest. He touched our foreheads together, silently sharing what he couldn’t find the words to say.

  I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t get to Rory or leave her. But this wasn’t Mom’s unbreakable grip as she marched me to the grave. Rio cracked a seal that wasn’t ready to break and passing through the gates crumbled it to dust. Thirteen years and I never said her name. Thirteen seconds in this place and I fell apart.

  Royal held me down, but it was truer to say he held me together. My tears slowed under his soft murmuring, and my broken pieces reformed like a video of a smashed vase played in reverse.

  My hands came up, clutching his back. “I’m sorry,” I rasped. “Did I hurt you?”

  “You clawed me to fucking ribbons.” The cuts on his face told the truth. As did his grin. “But I’ve taken worse.”

  “I’m okay now.” My voice was small. “I want to give Rory her flowers.”

  “We’ll do it together this time.”

  Royal helped me to my feet. He held my hand as he picked up the flowers and guided me to her grave.

  Holding them to my chest, I knelt, gazing at my reflection in the polished marble. She cried, but her tears fell gently, and her eyes were soft.

  “I do love you,” I whispered. “If I could go back, I’d give you a thousand music boxes. I pray you have forgiven me... because I’ll never forgive myself.”

  Taking out the dead flowers, I picked up her vase.

  Ting.

  I frowned. What was that noise?

  I shook the vase. Something rattled inside.

  “Em, what’s up?”

  Tipping it over, a glint of refracted sunlight struck my eyes.

  A key.

  “Royal.” My tears vanished under horrible understanding. “Royal, oh my gosh.”

  “What is it?”

  “The note they left me.” I showed him the small silver key. “It was a message.”

  “HOLY SHIT.”

  Royal put his key in the ignition some time ago but didn’t try to go anywhere. We sat in his car as the rising sun brought more guests to the cemetery. This peaceful place did see life. It saw families and loved ones through the worst times in their story and, as I finally discovered, it also kept a secret.

  The seal was reforming. The effect of my time with Rory and being violently forced to face her again clung to me like film. I wasn’t fine, but as had been the case over the last thirteen years, other things crowded my mind to the point I was able to lock my tragedy away to deal. My eyes were red-rimmed but clear as I faced the new problems of the key.

  “Holy shit,” Royal repeated. “That’s why they didn’t flat-out write for you to go to the cemetery. If the cops got their hands on it, they wanted to make sure you were the only person to come here.”

  “It’s the only explanation,” I said, pieces clicking together. “Something like this wouldn’t end up there by accident. No one else has a reason to go near that part of the cemetery. Grandpa bought that plot for the Bancrofts.”

  “Your parents left you a key.”

  I nodded slowly, gazing at the piece of cut metal that turned everything I knew upside down. “They left me a key.”

  “A key to what?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “We have to get out of here.” Royal started the car. “This changes everything, Em.”

  I tore my eyes away. “Changes everything? You’re not— Royal, you can’t tell your dad. You can’t tell anyone!”

  “He’s Rio. Don’t call him my dad.” Royal screeched out of the parking lot, zooming onto the main road. “I’m not telling him shit. He believes that message meant nothing. He has to keep believing that.”

  “You promise me?”

  Royal gave me a hard look. “Do you really need to ask?”

  I searched his face. “No,” I said. “I don’t.”

  Inhaling deep, I held my breath till my lungs ached. It burst out of me as I made up my mind.

  “Pull over.”

  “What? Why?” asked Royal.

  “You know why.”

  The road to the cemetery was a lone dirt path surrounded by forest. Royal veered off the road and drove us through the tree line.

  It was too much. Rio. Hiro. Cassius. Clay. Damien and the brutes. Rory. The key.

  Forget crowding my pain out with more of a different kind. I wanted the brief relief to not feel pain at all.

  We were on each other before he shut off the car. One hand tore at my zipper. The other yanked the key out. I drew back, throwing open the door, and my heart thumping like the bass at a rock concert. Royal’s growl at my escape was an injection of lust straight to my core. I was an attractive girl and boys flashed me interest often. But it was nothing compared to the burning hunger in Cassius’s eyes. The lingering desire in Clay’s touch. Or the possession in Royal’s actions. I wasn’t used to being wanted the way these boys did me.

  We met in the backseat, lips clashing in a shower of sparks. The first night we were together was incredible in every way, but there was something different about this kiss and what was to come. Royal and I weren’t kids anymore. We were older. Sharper. Jaded. Smashed to pieces and then put back together not quite right. I was the girl he talked off the ledge. He was the boy still dangling on the edge.

  “Don’t be gentle,” I gasped. “Fuck every bit of this awful weekend out of me.”

  Royal scraped my bottom lip between his teeth. “Whatever the princess wants today, she gets.”

  I couldn’t get his pants off fast enough. Royal panted in my ear, biting my lobe as I shoved his jeans down. Our clothes came off in a flurry of grunts and filthy promises.

  “I should’ve fucked you while the triplets listened outside the door.” Royal licked a stripe between my breasts, collecting the sweat beading on my overheated skin. “Give my little screamer what she wants.”

  Grabbing my hips, Royal flipped me on my hands and knees. “From here on, I’m not showing that much restraint. When I want you, I’m taking you.” His finger found the bundle of nerves between my legs. “Unless you have objections.”

  “No objections h-here,” I breathed. Royal was squeezing and tormenting my clit between two rough, calloused fingers. He shoved two digits inside of me and my knees gave out. “You have two years to make up for.”

  Royal picked up speed and I clutched the door, moaning as I rocked back, matching his frantic pace. “Two years’ worth of sex is a lot to make up for in two weeks.”

  “I didn’t say you had to make it up in two weeks.”

  It was hot in the car. Sweat stuck my hair to my forehead and slicked the leather seats.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard.”

  Crooking his fingers, he found the spot. I kicked back, smacking him square on the ass as I gave him the screams he accused me of. “No,” I cried. “It was... a week. Definitely one week!”

  “Oh, baby, did I miss you.”

  Royal’s erection was digging in my thigh. I wanted it inside of me now, and kicked him again to convey the hint. His chuckle filled the car.

  “Easy, Em. I have my orders. One hard fuck coming up. But first, we’re picking up where we left off.”

  Royal pulled out. Taking me by the neck, he drew me up, pressing my face to his. His breath cascaded over my lips. “Lick it clean,” he ordered. “Just one. Save the other for me.”

  I swallowed his finger to the knuckle, sucking it like a lollipop.

  “Mmmh.” Royal licked my cheek. “See how sweet you taste, princess? Better than that cream stuff you love.”

  My sex was near enough weeping. I thought Cassius and I got up to some kinky fun but my dark prince was on another level.

  “Bend over.”

  I dropped—ass in the air, chest on the seat. I was so ready for him, I couldn’t stay still. Wiggling and rocking my hips back and forth. The sound of a wrapper broke through my fog.

  “We don’t need that,” I said. “I’m on the pill.”

  “Sorry, Em. I was an eighteen-year-old’s mistake. I always bag it up.”

  I smacked the door. “I’m not one of your random hookups! And nothing we do could be a mistake. I want to feel you, Royal! Just you. I get what I want today.”

  “You gotta be—! Fuck!”

  The condom landed on the floor beside me. Royal melded our bodies in one single thrust. The thrill of my victory washed under stronger, primal emotions.

  He started pumping and I arched off the seat, fingers curling around the handle.

  “That’s it, princess. Scream for me.”

  I did.

  There was no holding back. I moaned so loudly it covered the sounds of our bodies.

  Royal pounded that spot with a single-minded determination that would have earned him a medal if making me come was a sport. My head bumped the door on every thrust. Fireworks exploded in my mind as he drove me closer and closer.

  I wasn’t stupid or blind to the consequences of our bare romp. What I wanted from him was exactly what I said: Royal. The two of us had been separated by space, time, differing worlds, others’ mistakes, and hate. I had my boy in the flowers back and nothing would separate us again.

  Royal thrusted and I choked on my cry. I came hard, body shuddering so violently it closed my throat. Seconds later, Royal pulled out and exploded on my back.

  We collapsed on the seat in a sweaty, sticky mess.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered, echoing him. “You held out on me the first time.”

  He pressed a kiss to the back of my neck. “Don’t worry. I won’t be doing that again.”

  I lay still and content as he got his shirt and cleaned me off.

  “The ending was a surprise.” Reaching over my head, I found his arm and moved it under me.

  “Figured that’s what you were going for ordering me not to use a condom.”

  I rolled over, curling into him. “I kinda liked it.”

  Royal bit my shoulder. “You know you’re not a random hookup.”

  “I do now.”

  His lips skated along my skin up to my mouth. We kissed slow and deep—the opposite of our wild lovemaking.

  Though he probably won’t call it that.

  I sighed happily into the kiss. It didn’t matter what Royal called it. I knew what we were. What we had always been.

  “I’m noticing a pattern with us,” I mused. “We’re always getting together after emotionally destroying stuff goes down. Think we’ll ever have a relationship approaching normal?”

  Squeezing my ass, Royal gazed up at the ceiling. “My father tried to kill you and you’re sleeping with half of my friends. So... no.”

  I poked his ribs. “I’m sleeping with one-third of your friends actually. We can talk about it if you want.”

 

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