Page 28 of The Lost Kings
Isat cross-legged in the hayloft, watching dawn claim the sky.
The cool air caressed my skin, making me tug my sweater tighter. The farm was beautiful at various parts of the day, but nothing aside from starlight beat the dawn cresting over the hills.
My eighteenth birthday had finally arrived and with it a wave of grief unlike anything I had experienced since the twins first left. I had two twin holes in my heart, both of which obstructed any happiness from taking up that space.
Tears gathered in my lashes like little clusters and then dripped down my cheeks in a cascade of sadness.
I was supposed to be with them when I became old enough to allow this tiny flame in my heart to flourish. The crush I’d grown on my best friends was unforgivable, and the reminder that their absence was entirely my fault was growing to be too much.
Lately, my only way of dealing with this pain swirling in my chest, breaking me open and pulling the cords of my heart out was to go see Adrian.
I’d be there now if it weren’t for some business he had here in the States.
The memory of him first explaining that he’d begun to develop feelings for me was the tinder to a friendship I desperately needed. Trust was the thin membrane of our relationship. I knew I shouldn’t, but I had fallen for him anyway, in the sense that he was dependable, kind and considerate. I didn’t feel romantically any way toward him, but he’d claimed part of my heart regardless, merely by being there.
Unlike my best friends.
Tugging my phone free, I stared at the text thread between the twins and me from the last time we texted one another. It was a joke we’d made about Scotty eventually getting some sort of hairpiece because his head was balding so rapidly.
I knew they would have texted me today. I knew Scotty’s phone was lit up with a string of messages from them, and all this time they just assumed I was ghosting them. Isn’t that what I had said I’d do?
Shouldn’t it be what I wanted after all they did?
A tear slipped off the tip of my nose and I swiped at it aggressively, while dialing a number I shouldn’t.
The whole time it rang, I inwardly shouted at myself to stop, but I just let it keep going until…
“Presley?”
I paused before letting out a shuddery breath. “Adrian?”
“What’s the matter, is everything okay?”
The sun crept through the clouds, illuminating the sky, which reminded me how early it was. “Sorry, were you asleep?”
“No,Bellissima, I was on my run. What’s wrong?”
A tiny hiccup escaped me as I tried to reel in my emotions. “Are you still in New York?”
“Yes, for another few days.” His voice was stern, like he wanted to know why I was upset. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
The sun moved past a few lingering clouds and was so bright I closed my eyes. “It’s my birthday today. I wanted to know if you could take any time?—”
“Yes.” He cut me off and began barking out orders in Italian to someone in the background. “Can I come to you?”
I hesitated. Scotty would kill me if I allowed Adrian to come here, but wasn’t this what he wanted to begin with? Wasn’t I the one tossed on the stone altar of sacrifice to keep this family safe, even when my cousin so carelessly tossed us to the wolves? Why was I the one who kept being held accountable and no one else cared? The twins bailed, Carter did whatever the fuck she wanted, and Alex just hid away in the manor, helping her mother with their charity.
I cleared my throat and replied, “You can come here.”
I metAdrian at the gate, so the guards posted there didn’t shoot him. I didn’t tell anyone that he was coming, but it felt safer this way. When he pulled up, he was alone, which made something in my chest crack.
What the hell were we doing?
The second the gate opened, and he drove in, he pulled closer for me to get into his car. We drove toward the larger garage that housed our armored vehicles and faced the opulent rolling hills behind the manor. The tree line was dark as a few wisps of fog clung to them.
“A spring baby. Who knew.” Adrian laughed and I found myself smiling too.
“Technically it’s still winter for another few weeks.”
