Page 59 of Evil King

Neither Alistair nor I argued. I didn’t have the energy to, and Alistair and Nathan didn’t get along, so Alistair often avoided any arguments with Nathan. We followed him to the gym and behind the bleachers where Kyle, Brayden, Nikita, and Jaxon were already situated. Jaxon almost immediately started handing out travel-sized bottles of booze. A few minutes later, Avery and Colette found us, and we all sat and drank in silence, apart from Alistair, who didn’t like to drink.

“All right,” Alistair said finally. “I’ll ask the question we all want to ask.” He looked directly at Nathan. “Did that woman kill herself because of you?”

Nathan scoffed at Alistair as though he’d just suggested blasphemy. “I don’t know why she jumped. Don’t accuse me of stupid shit.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time one of your leashes snapped and killed someone, now would it?” Alistair asked.

Nikita brandished one of her sharper blades and pointed it in Alistair’s direction. “Shut your fucking mouth.” Alistair seemed far from affected.

Everyone in the group seemed to know what Alistair was referring to but me, but I couldn’t be bothered to dive for any more information. I sat quietly, and Avery snuggled up to me, put her arm around my back, and rubbed quietly.

“What’s wrong with you?” Brayden asked me.

“Mind your own fucking business, brat,” Avery snapped.

“Enough, all of you,” Kyle spoke up in a rare moment of interference. “A woman fucking died yesterday. Don’t you people have any goddamn respect?” The group seemed to calm at this, but Alistair and Nathan remained glowering at each other. “Nathan. Alistair’s question is a good one. What was the last thing you said, did, whatever with Miss Abrams. If this is going to come back on you, we need to get ahead of it.”

“It’s fine,” Nathan said. “My dad asked, but I told him that I had nothing to do with it.”

“Really?” Colette asked with a raised eyebrow. “Nothing at all?”

Nathan suddenly threw a fist out and punched the metal bleachers. “I fucking said I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“What’s gotten into you?” Brayden asked. “You seem agitated.”

It was rare for Brayden to say anything that could be seen as insolence against Nathan, so the fact that he was willing to mention it so boldly meant that even he was officially uncomfortable with how Nathan had started to behave as of late.

“This is an agitating situation,” Nathan said like it made perfect sense. “Right?”

Everyone let out their own sounds of affirmations. He wasn’t wrong. It was a pretty chaotic situation to crop up out of nowhere, especially knowing there was a thread that led back to me.

“I believe that you’re not involved,” Kyle said, “but if they go digging through her office or something, are they gonna find anything that could link this to you?”

“No,” Nathan grumbled. “Besides, we know who was in her room last. Two dozen students were there when Deon flipped out.” Nathan looked sideways at me. “Do you have any idea why he was there?”

“No,” I replied. “Why would I?”

“You seem to know a lot about Deon lately,” he said. “And Brayden’s right. You do seem quite out of sorts. Did something happen?”

“I just don’t feel well,” I snipped back. “I’m not allowed to be sick?”

“Not pregnant, are ya?” Brayden asked with a laugh, but Nathan and I each just glared at him, and he slunk back. “Sorry.”

Nathan looked down at me and then over at Nikita and Jaxon. “You two, find out why Deon was in Miss Abrams’s class yesterday. I want to knoweverything. Fucking gut someone if you have to. I don’t care.”

Jaxon and Nikita didn’t waste any time. They crawled out from behind the bleachers and headed off. I was terrified, thinking of what may transpire if Nikita and Jaxon crossed paths with Deon. I was worried less about his safety and more about him hurting himself, finding the bullet he seemed to have dodged with this whole mess.

I waited a few minutes and then quietly said, “I have to pee.”

No one protested, shockingly enough, so I crawled out from behind the bleachers and made my way for the nearest bathroom. As soon as I was behind the door, I dragged my phone out of my pocket and started a new text to Deon. I was only halfway into the first word when the bathroom door burst open.

I flipped around, and Nathan was standing in the doorway. “What are you doing?” I tried to shove my phone away, but he rushed me and snatched it out of my hand. He looked at the screen and then back up at me. “I knew you were cheating on me with him.”

“I’m not,” I snapped back.

His eyes were a little wild and crazy as he started to laugh. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not. I’venevercheated on you,” I said.

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