Page 40 of His Kingdom

Carlo’s eyes widen, and then he smiles. “What the fuck? Good thing I have a hankering for pork tonight.”

“Let’s go.” Sammie nods at me.

ChapterTwenty

What on earth is happening right now? He just walked out. Louie just walked out of here with a gun. I don’t know what to do. I should warn Owen, right? Tell him to get out of town if he hasn’t already.

But Louie isn’t going to actually kill him. He wouldn’t actuallykillsomeone. He looked really worked up, but I don’t think he’d do that.

Shit, what if he does? What if he ends up in jail because of me?

Reality crashes into me. I’m more concerned about what’s going to happen to Louie, a man I’ve just met, than I am about Owen, a man I spent the last few years beside. Something is wrong with me.

Where is my phone?

I look around the room and find my cell plugged into a charger on top of the bedside table. Louie must have grabbed it again. I swipe it up and call Evie. I know she’ll still be awake—she suffers from severe insomnia—and I don’t want to bother Rachel when she said she was going to bed.

“Charlotte, what’s happening?” Evie answers right away.

“I messed up,” I tell her.

“Okay, but did you do that with clothes on or did that happen afterwards?” she asks me.

I look down at myself. “Shit! Sorry.” I forgot I didn’t have a top on. Pointing the phone towards the ceiling, I walk into Louie’s closet and grab a shirt from the shelf. Ignoring the safe he left wide open. The safe that’s filled to the brim with weapons.

Why does one person need so many weapons?

“It’s fine. What happened?” Evie presses.

“I went out. I was going to just go out by myself after I spoke to you and Rachel,” I tell her.

“Yep, and then what?” She urges me to keep going.

“The moment I stepped outside the casino, Owen was there. He grabbed me and dragged me to the side,” I explain.

“Hewhat? Are you okay?” Evie starts pacing around her bedroom.

“I’m fine. I told him to go home. That I knew what he and Melanie did. And then I returned to my room and just went to sleep.”

“Okay, so how did you mess up?” Evie asks.

“Louie came home. Saw I was there and brought me back to his place, but then he saw the bruise,” I tell her.

“What bruise?”

Turning the screen towards my arm, I lift my sleeve to show her the bruise.

“What the hell, Charlotte? Owen did that?” she yells, and I nod.

“Yeah, when he grabbed me. But I’m fine.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Evie seethes.

“I think Louie might beat you to it,” I whisper.

“Good. I hope he does.”

“No, Evie, I’m serious. He lost his mind. As soon as he saw my arm, he kept asking me who did it and I told him and then he got dressed and he…” I stop.

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