SWNOVELS Tiny Dark Deeds: Chapter 45
Sloane
The dark prince slept with a shotgun in his lap.
But he slept.
He hadn’t asked to sleep with me, beside me, but I didn’t think he would even if I had asked him. Instead, he took the corner of my bedroom, his ankles crossed, his head touching the wall. The location happened to be where the only window in the room was, and he took it, the gun he’d gotten from the shed out back across his legs. He slept restlessly, sporadic between tugs of the curtain, but when he did, I watched him.
I couldn’t help it, I guess.
I used to enjoy watching him in those rare moments when he forgot to leave my bedroom. The morning rays of early sun always hit his hair, flecks of gold bouncing off his feathered locks. It was always messy as hell before he woke up, perfect, and the result of a late-night fuck.
He always teased me when he caught me looking.
There was no teasing now, none of that at all, and this morning, I had to pretend to be sleeping when he ultimately got up. I’d just about vomited last night when I saw his reaction to being tricked.
This morning, I took the coward’s way out and pretended I didn’t notice when he peered at me from the side of the bed. He’d gotten up, come over, but just stood there, his dark shadow looming largely over the sheets. He lingered for so long, and my body called out to him. That he’d touch me and tell me everything was going to be okay.
But then, he left.
“You talk to Dorian this morning?” I asked Ares what felt like hours later. I ended up going back to sleep after Dorian left but woke up again when my phone rang. I draped my arms over the sheets, watching as my twin brother scowled at me through FaceTime.
“Yeah, I did, and he’s pissed like the rest of us.” He wasn’t lying down and had his running clothes on. I didn’t know if he was going for a run, or already had. He sighed. “You lied to him, and we had to lie to him for you.”
None of that had been my idea, but his parents’. I’d panicked after I started getting calls from both our parents after they all had realized I was missing. Dorian had been beside me in the car, and he would have known something was wrong if I didn’t appease our parents with some kind of explanation.
It’d been the biggest surprise when December herself had texted me to let her son keep driving, that she and her husband felt it was safer Dorian and I were away from the city and together. Brielle and Ramses only backed her up in subsequent texts, and I went into protection mode then, protecting Dorian from himself because I knew what would happen if he found out what his grandfather had done. He’d be the dark prince, and I couldn’t risk what came with that. He’d tried to kill his grandfather when he’d threatened him before, and I saw what that had done to him. He thought he was a monster, and I couldn’t let him become one.
Especially over me.
“It kept him safe,” I said, no regrets. “He can be pissed at me. You can be pissed at me.”
“I would be if I wasn’t so worried about you.” Ares wet his lips before moving a hand down his face. “You okay? D said you guys got through the night all right when we talked this morning. Sounds like the storm gave you hell, though.”
It’d been loud, that was for sure, and we’d definitely gotten snow when I looked outside this morning. “We’re fine. You guys?”
“Yeah, we’re good. I haven’t seen Dad, but Mom came through and joined the mothers with us last night. The dads are all still out doing stuff. They won’t tell us what.”
I didn’t know what that meant, or what they were doing to help. Before I’d left, they had asked me to trust them, and it had only taken me a night after Callum had threatened me to know I did need to tell them what had happened.
I didn’t know this world, but I had come to know the people who were around me every day. They were fiercely protective, but I was too. I knew they could handle things, but I wanted to protect them as well. I wasn’t going to let Callum use me as a bargaining chip, so I had to leave and did once I’d been told Bru was safe. Before I’d run, Ramses and Brielle had said they’d gotten Bruno from school, and he was in transit back to their house. That hadn’t left me with a lot of time because I knew others would be notified next.
Dorian would know next.
The dark prince was the one person… the only person who could completely break my resolve about leaving. I knew, if I’d seen him, I wouldn’t have been able to do the right thing, and that was leave all the people I did care about. I would’ve wanted to stay, be weak and be with him.
Which was why things were as fucked up as they were now.
I had one toe in and one toe out in my plan to leave and had ended up betraying Dorian. “How’s Bru?” I’d spoken to my brother briefly yesterday when I’d gotten here. I’d called him but getting a read on him had been difficult. His anger had been evident, but he’d looked like he was trying to mute it through FaceTime. I think he’d been doing it for my sake and had spent most of the conversation in a sea of apologies, looking completely guilt-ridden over something that had nothing to do with him. Callum had betrayed him as much as me, and my brother had simmered with anger.
Even if he’d tried not to let me see.
It killed me he was going through that, but it was better I was here. I also knew the families would keep him safe, and he was better with them.
“He’s good,” Ares said. “He was still asleep when I got up this morning. Him and the rest of the house.”
A familiar face came through behind him, Brielle. She too had her running clothes on, and it sounded like they may be going together when he called back to her. The chatter stopped when she noticed I was on the screen, though, and Ares handed the phone to her.
“Morning, honey,” she said to me, both of them on the line. Ares hugged her and said he’d be outside with security. It sounded like a team was going to escort them when they went out this morning. Ares said goodbye to me first, though, saying we’d talk later. I waved at him through the line, and Brielle smiled at me. “I didn’t know you were up. Otherwise, I would have called.”
“It’s fine.” More emotion hit my voice than I wanted, seeing her, missing her and Ramses too. I’d cried my eyes out between them both when I’d told them what had happened with Callum. “How are things? Is Ramses okay?”
“Yeah, honey. He’s good.” Her smile was a shaky one, like she was trying to stay strong and struggling. “He misses you. I miss you too.”
“I’m sorry for running.” I lowered my head, using the blanket to wipe my eyes. “I keep running, and I’m stupid.”
“No, you were scared, and Dorian said how you didn’t want to be a liability. He called us.”
He did?
“But you aren’t one, you understand?” She wiped her eyes now. “Something terrible happened to you. Unimaginable, and we’re going to do everything to make sure you and everyone else stays safe. I want you to know that we are handling this, and we will all be all right on the other side of it.”
But how could we? Callum had said so many things…
I was scared, scared for everyone. I just wanted it to be me, me to suffer. At least, if I left he couldn’t use me against anyone else.
“Ramses and I love you,” she said, a sheen over her eyes. “We love you so much, and you will be safe. You, Bruno, Ares, Dorian, and the other kids. Callum Prinze is not going to win this. He will burn for this and will not bring fear to this family. We are stronger than him, and even more so, because it’s not just us. Rest assured, all the parents are working together on this issue to ensure you will have a safe place when you come home.”
Her words made me ache, the emotion in them. “I love you guys too. Tell Ramses that. Please?”
I wished he was there, and I could tell him. Somewhere along the way, they really had become my parents and I’d become their daughter, and I know that was why I told them the truth. I hadn’t even considered another option. They were my mom and dad.
And I needed a mom and dad.
Brielle did cry then, not bothering to wipe away her tears. She pressed her fingers to her lips, before touching them to the screen. “My love, you just wait for us, okay? Your dad and I are fixing this, and we will make it safe for you to return to us. Whatever it takes, we will.”
I think that was what scared me the most. Callum Prinze was a dangerous man, and what if whatever it took…
Left nothing but ash.
*
A fleet of more than one car rolled up to the cabin later that morning, security. Brielle had told me they’d come before we’d hung up so I wasn’t surprised. I got dressed, and by the time I got downstairs, the dark prince had already let them inside.
He was hugging one of them.
“How you holding up?” the guy asked Dorian, and I recognized him. I’d met LJ and Dorian’s other god dads at Bru’s birthday party.
LJ was a tall man, broad-shouldered, blond. He had a sea of dirty-blond locks that, at the present, he wore tucked in a bun behind his head. Coming away, the man folded a hand behind Dorian’s neck. “You both get through the night okay?”
I saw Dorian nod, but just barely. A beautiful redhead obstructed my view a little, and I knew her to be LJ’s wife Billie. Brielle had mentioned Billie and her husband were coming over with security to be with us.
“Hey, sweets,” Billie said to Dorian, hugging him next. The dark prince swallowed her up with his size in comparison, but that didn’t matter to Billie. She squeezed him so hard his shoulders bumped like he’d laughed a little.
I hoped he had.
The security team who’d come with them started filling up the house, and when one greeted me, Billie and Dorian both broke away from their hug. I gained LJ’s attention too, the tall man coming forward.
“Good morning, Sloane,” he said, taking his wife by the hand. His other went to Dorian’s shoulder, and I noticed the dark prince looked at anyone other than me in the moment. He’d merely pocketed his hands, his eyes to the floor. LJ smiled at me. “I’m LJ. Met you at your brother’s birthday party.”
I remembered, raising my hand to him. “Thank you for coming.”
“We’re happy we could be here for our friends,” he said, putting an arm around his wife. “You recall my wife Billie too?”
She reached out, taking my hand. “How you doing, honey? You both good?” Her attention traveled back to the dark prince.
“We were good last night,” Dorian said, my stomach souring when his gaze completely bypassed me and focused directly on Billie. “Didn’t have any problems.”
Not with his grandpa, no. So I guess he wasn’t lying about that.
LJ rubbed Dorian’s shoulder. “Good. Well, we’re here to make sure you kids are okay.”
“Any updates finding my grandpa?” Dorian asked, his frown heavy. “How are my parents and Ramses and Brielle? Knight, Jax, and everyone else?”
“Everyone’s fine.” LJ patted the air. “And they’ll give us updates when we need them, and I’ll give you kids updates when you need them. Your parents and the rest of the families are handling this. We haven’t found your grandpa yet, but trust us to.”
“What’s going to happen when you do?” Dorian questioned, and it felt kind of bold to. I hadn’t asked this question.
I didn’t want to know.
It turned my gut that people were laboring to fix this, and all because of me. No, I didn’t want to know, but I wasn’t surprised Dorian did.
His hand on Dorian’s arm, LJ leveled him a look. “I need you to trust us adults, and I promise you, I will give you updates as you need them. As far as you’re concerned, your grandfather is a nonissue and nothing you need to worry about. Either of you.”
Except for the fact that we did worry, and definitely if he was missing.
I swallowed, a silent dread in my body. I was well aware of what we were dealing with here. There were like a dozen women and men in here with guns. This security detail was for us, and Dorian and I weren’t even involved in where the war was supposed to be. I’d overhead Dorian’s mom tell him Callum was still in Maywood Heights, so all this was just backup for a man who had power.
Who instilled fear.
“So, with that out of the way, I’ve also been tasked with ‘monitoring’ you kids,” LJ stated, air quoting. He eyed the dark prince. “As far as all that, I only have to say one thing. I’m not either of your moms and dads, but also don’t want to know.” He raised a hand. “We’ll go with an out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach regarding all that. I remember what it’s like to be your age so, yeah. We’ll just do that.”
LJ scratched the back of his neck, awkward, and Billie laughed. She rubbed her husband’s chest. “Oh, honey.”
LJ shrugged, and I tried to hide behind my hair. Dorian, on the other hand, stared coolly in my direction. His lips thinned.
“Don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” he said, basically driving a dagger through my entire chest. He faced his god dad. “I was going to go for a jog. That on the list of approved activities?”
His words had a bite to them, and LJ definitely noticed. LJ’s eyebrows narrowed in his direction. “You can go, but someone goes with you. There’s about half a dozen guys on the porch right now and more stationing around the perimeter. Pick your poison who goes with you.” LJ glanced down. “You need something better for that hand?”
Dorian had a scrap of shirt or something wrapped around his fist, and I’d noticed his hand last night too. It’d been bleeding, but with all we’d been discussing, I couldn’t address it.
He’d also kept our discussion short.
“What happened, love?” Billie asked, raising Dorian’s hand, but he waved it off.
“I’m good,” he said, barely looking at me before cutting out of the circle. He tugged a hoodie off the couch, and I noticed he’d brought that and other clothes in last night. When I’d asked, he’d said he always kept a bag in his car for the gym.
Of course, this had been before he’d found out I had lied to him and done so with his parents. I folded a hand over my face.
“I’ll be back, and I’ll tell security,” he said, before breezing out of the cabin. The sweatpants and tee he wore he must have gotten from his bag too. It probably wouldn’t be enough for most people after the storm we’d had, but I knew he was amped up, simmering. The door closed behind him, and LJ sighed.
LJ rubbed his wife’s shoulder. “Well, my godson’s in a mood.”
“It has nothing to do with you. Either of you.” I rubbed my arm. “He’s mad at me. That I lied.”
I didn’t know if they both knew the details there, but when they nodded, I figured they did. Billie came over. “Well, Sloane, it’s still early yet. How about some breakfast? We had food brought up so I can make anything you want.”
That sounded nice, and I was hungry. We’d made stops on the road, but it’d been a while since I’d eaten.
“I’ll help,” LJ said, going with us, and I could see what they were trying to do by raising my spirits.
I just didn’t know if it’d help.