Page 64 of Evil Queen

Alistair squeezed Avery a little. “That’s enough.”

Avery giggled. “Aw, come on, Ali. You know no one puts it down like you.”

“Okay,” Nikita whined.

I held up a hand. “Without the colorful commentary, please? Let’s have some respect for our potentially scorned friend.”

Avery still let out a little chuckle before continuing. “Yes, in short. I always noticed it most when we’d go out on like dates and stuff. Sometimes, guys would walk by us, and he’d glance after them. We had this long-running joke that Timothee Chalamet was on both of our freebie lists, so if he ever turned up, and if we were presented with an opportunity, then we’d just go for the threesome. I know threesomes are just as much a straight guy thing as a non-straight guy thing, but I made a joke about how the session would last days, and he said we could tag out for breaks in between. That was when I really started to suspect it, but I didn’t ask.”

“So, you think he’s bi?” I asked.

Avery opened her mouth, but it was Alistair who responded. “I get more of a pansexual vibe from him. I just don’t really think Kyle cares as long as there’s an attraction.”

Nikita scrunched up her nose a little bit. “I guess we need to address the bigger issue, then. Is Kyle attracted to Brayden?”

Everyone looked off in their own directions as we pondered it. Kyle hadn’t had a ton of dating history, but those few people he had been with were all incredibly beautiful. It wasn’t that Brayden was unattractive, and maybe I just didn’t know how to gauge it, but Brayden didn’t seem like Kyle’s type.

“I don’t think Kyle likes Brayden like that,” Avery said. “I mean, for a while, he couldn’t stand him. Even when he slowly started to tolerate him, it was still like everything Brayden did sort of pissed him off. I always felt like he was just dealing with Brayden. Even recently, you’ve been going through all your stuff, Nathan, and Kyle’s such a wonderful guy. I think that’s why Brayden was talking about when he mentioned pity back there. Kyle is just showing Brayden an unusual level of friendship because he feels bad about the ground Brayden’s lost with you.”

That killed me. Not only had Brayden felt like he’d lost a friend in me, but Kyle had to step so far outside his comfort zone just to clean up my mess. Again.

Alistair leaned around and kissed Avery’s cheek. “Let’s go, gorgeous. I’m exhausted. Let’s get some dinner and go to bed.”

Avery nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

They stood up, said goodbye to Nikita and me, including a warm hug between Alistair and myself, and then they walked off toward Alistair’s car. Nikita walked around to face me, tilting her face back to look up at me and looping her arms around my waist. Our relationship, if that’s what it could be called, was still new and undefined, but Nikita hadn’t been big into PDA so far. That day, however, there was something totally new. Her mood had been good since the beginning of the day and had only improved since lunch.

I didn’t ask about it. I figured we’d get around to discussing her feelings at some point, and I was too afraid that if I brought it up now, it’d ruin the moment. I leaned down and kissed her instead, relishing in how easy it was and how amazing it felt. It was awful that I’d denied us one another for so long. I would never be able to repay her for all the pain I’d caused her, but if she’d let me, I’d spend the rest of my life trying.

“I spoke to Sicily earlier,” she said. “He’s seen the men following them too. That confirms Jaxon’s theory that they’re probably after Cherri and me. I told him what we thought and told him not to leave her alone. I also lightly suggested that they always stay within screaming range of The Royal Court, but I’m sure you can guess how well that went.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Still. Fuck. This has to be my dad. I swear to god, if they try and hurt any of you, I’m going to flip my shit.”

“Well, let’s not get too up in arms yet. We stick together, we look out for each other, and hopefully, Deon will pick up a scent soon.”

“Oh my god,” I said. “I completely forgot to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Deon’s missing. I mean, as much as he can be missing. The day after you got into that fight with Cherri, he called me. We were talking about what’s been going on, and he told me he thinks people are following him too. Then mid-conversation, the line just went dead. I waited for him to call back, but he never did, and I haven’t heard from him since.”

Nikita’s brow furrowed in concern. “How frequently had he been contacting you before?”

“Every week or so. Sometimes eight or nine days in between, but that was the max. It’s been almost two weeks now.”

Selfishly, I wished that I hadn’t remembered. It’d been such a good, borderline normal day, and all of a sudden, all my stress was back. It wasn’t a normal day. It was deceptively quiet. I rubbed my temples, and Nikita kissed me, no doubt trying to push my obvious stress away. I let her.

“Dinner and sleeping sounded really nice when Alistair said it,” she said.

I nodded. “It really did, didn’t it?”

“I’ll pick something up and meet you at your place,” Nikita said. She craned her neck to kiss me one last time and then reluctantly pulled away from my grip. Before she got too far away, I grabbed her hand. She looked back at me with a grin. “What? I’m gonna see you again in twenty minutes.”

“We never made a decision about prom at lunch today,” I said.

“No, we didn’t.”

We’d probably end up going as a group. I knew that, and I could see in Nikita’s eyes that she knew it, too, but I still pulled her back to me and set my hand on her face. “Hypothetically, if I were to ask you to prom officially, as my date, what would you say?”

The small smile on Nikita’s face got larger. “Hypothetically?” She gave me a quick peck. “I’d say yes.”

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