A heavy sigh gusted from his lungs. “Fine. But like I said, not here. It’s not safe… which that weasel-dick bastard Zach damn well knows.”
“Fine,” I shot back, my jaw clenched in anger and frustration and… fear. “Where, then?”
He gave me a small headshake and flipped his palm reader open. “Come on. I’ll tell the guys to meet us there.”
* * *
Ugh.I should have guessed where he would take me.
“They might be a minute,” Rafe told me, stepping aside to allow me into the secret underground apartment that I’d been inside of just once before. After my last fight night… when Rafe and I….
Ugh.
“You want to shower or something?” he suggested, closing the door after us and setting the lock. From what I’d seen—this time I’d been paying attention—the door was locked with a keypad entry. Jordan and Nolan must also have the code.
“No,” I snapped, totally helpless to stop my mind’s looping replay of the scene from the last time we were here. How I’d threatened to take care of myself in the shower, and it had ended with Rafe—“I just want answers, okay?”
He shrugged, but his eyes gleamed with amusement and the vicious slant to his lips held a fraction of a tease. Fucker.
Seconds later—thank all the gods—the door clicked unlocked and opened to admit Jordan… alone.
“Where’s Nolan?” Rafe asked, on the same wavelength as me.
Jordan shrugged, looking between the two of us. “No idea, I came straight here when I got your message. What’s going on?”
Rafe frowned, then looked at his palm reader when another message came in.
“Noles?” Jordan asked him, and Rafe nodded.
“Not coming. Mattie had a few too many drinks, and he doesn’t want to leave her alone when Zach is in the academy.” His gaze came back up to rest on me, then he spared a quick glance for his best friend. “Guess it’s just the three of us then.”
He reached behind him to flick the door lock once more, and my stomach sank.
Locked into an underground apartment with thetwoguys I’ve been fucking? What could possibly go wrong?
Straightening my spine, I pulled on my big girl panties and shared my death glare equally between them. Fuck it. Own the situation, Violet.
“Alright, first one to answer all my questions gets his dick sucked. And, go.”
Chapter 23
“You okay, girl?” Mattie asked with concern as I slumped in my chair and rested my forehead on the dining table.
I groaned, threading my hands through my hair like I could hide under my own arms. I hadn’t bothered straightening it, but thanks to Mattie’s Miracle Balm—which she kept me well stocked with—my usually wild-birds-nest of curls was just sexy and disheveled.
“No,” I answered. All the words sitting on the tip of my tongue hurt because I couldn’t tell her. I couldn’t tell anyone. Jordan and Rafe had made that painfully clear last night when they’d finally started spilling their secrets.
The resistance. They were part ofTheresistance. In a very small capacity, and mainly so they could keep tabs on it for their families, but also because they didn’t totally love the way the monarchy ran the world. Nolan was a new recruit, but they seemed to think Mattie didn’t know. Since she didn’t fight, they’d been able to keep this part of their lives from her, even though she clearly hadsomeknowledge of the resistance. My bestie was the kinda girl who kept her ear to the ground, even if the boys around her didn’t notice.
But still, I’d promised to keep their secret, and now I also had to keep something from my best friend. I wasn’t happy about it at all.
I still couldn’t quite comprehend that the three princes were involved with an organization that had been secretly waging war against the monarchies since… fuck, since the Monarch War. And now they wanted me to join them.
No, scratch that. Rafe and Jordan were vehemently against me joining, but the underground fights were entirely run by the resistance—sorry, TheSociety—and I’d made a splash.
Mattie grunted a pained noise. “I hear that. I haven’t been this hungover inyears.”
Despite having the weight of a thousand secrets resting on my shoulders, I snorted a laugh at her. “I heard Noles left you to sleep it off in the bathtub after you vomited all over him.” I raised my head just enough to give her a teasing grin.
