Page 56 of Kings & Carnage

She smoothed my hair and took my cheeks in her hands, studying my face. "No offense honey, but it shows.”

I laughed. "It's been a tough few weeks.”

"Rock said you've been roughing it so I made you a big dinner," she said. "Meatloaf and mashed potatoes, plus my famous chocolate cake for dessert.”

I knew it would all be awful — all of Reva's cooking was awful — but right then, I didn't even care. I was just happy to be back in the Kings’ big kitchen with Reva's comforting presence.

"Sounds amazing," I said. "I hope you made a lot because the Kings really love your meatloaf.”

I bit back a smile, looking forward to the moment when Reva would force extra helpings of her meatloaf onto the Kings, who would be too polite to turn it down.

"You know it, sugar," she said. “Can't have you and my boys going hungry.”

I smiled. "You take such good care of us.”

"It's my pleasure to do it," she said.

"Speaking of, why is that?" I asked, walking to the fridge.

It was a question I'd been wanting to ask for a long time. Now it felt like Reva knew everything about our absence from the house.

And that meant she probably knew everything about everything.

What I didn't understand was why she was so loyal to the Kings. I was sure they paid her well and everything, but her loyalty felt like more than a paycheck.

I uncapped one of the two bottles of water I’d taken from the fridge and guzzled half of it in one go.

"Let's just say I got myself into a marriage with the wrong kind of man," she said. "When it all became too much I needed a little help making him disappear.”

"So they killed him for you?" I asked.

The thought of the Kings killing someone no longer shocked me. I'd seen them do it with the men who'd invaded the house before we went to the island, had watched Neo and Oscar return covered in dirt after burying the bodies.

Reva laughed. "Oh honey, I didn't need help with the killing. Just the disappearing.”

Now I was surprised. "You killed him?”

"Tried everything else," she said, opening the oven door to peek at the three loaf pans lined up inside. "Anyway, the boys made sure there weren't too many questions, and if there were, no one would find any answers. Then they gave me a gig working here at the house. My ex was an asshole but he did have a paycheck, and I'm sorry to say, I don't have much in the way of marketable skills.”

I looked at the sweet Southern woman who spent all her time taking care of us and tried to imagine her murdering her husband. How did she do it? Frying pan? Smothering him with the pillow in the middle of the night?

I wanted to ask but it seemed like bad manners, and even though there was a time for bad manners, this didn't seem like one of them.

"I'm sorry you went through all of that," I said instead.

She turned off the heat under a pot of boiled potatoes. "Don't be. I learned that the worst things that happen to us in life usually end up leading us to the best places.”

It was hard for me to believe with Emma missing and probably dead, with the other girls missing and probably dead. My dad was gone, also probably dead, and my mom had turned her back on me for an abusive psychopath.

But I didn't want to ruin Reva’s silver lining.

"Well, I'm glad you found your way to the Kings and to me," I said.

She smiled. "Me too. I might never have known what a good cook I was if I didn't have to cook for those boys.”

I plastered a smile on my face and nodded because I wasn't about to burst her bubble. "For sure.”

I caught a flash of light near the trees surrounding the house and moved closer to the window to gaze out over the property.

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