In Peace Lies Havoc (Midnight Mayhem #1)(94)

“What is up with you two anyway? I’m confused.”

She laughs, looking between my glass and me. “Because you’re drunk, or because of Killian and me?”

“Not sure.” I sink the rest of my drink. “Both, I think.”

“Well.” She exhales. “He and I have been best friends since we were babies. Inseparable, that’s us. Only we’re just friends. There was this one time when I was younger that we had sex. He wanted to be my first, and I wanted him to be my first, but after that, he shifted me back into the friendzone, and I him. He scares everyone off me, but I sit there and take him with everyone else.”

“Sounds like these boys have a pattern.”

Maya smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Kill doesn’t. He just doesn’t care.”

“Yo! Perse!” Keaton waves me over with his big, burly, inked, demonic arm. I notice a lot of things about Keaton, and one is that he talks to no one. I mean no one. Except for The Brothers and Delila. He sneers at everyone else. I’m thankful I have never seen his feral side, because he’s scary enough to look at, and that five o’clock shadow is not helping.

“Yes, brother dearest.” I drop down beside him.

He shakes his head. “Wanna sing?”

My eyes go up to King, who’s sitting in a chair opposite us with his hoodie drawn. He has a bottle of whiskey dangling between his fingers, his dead eyes drawing all of the energy out of the room and throwing it into my chest.

“Sure!’ I answer recklessly.

He starts singing the opening to Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes.” It throws me off because I wish he would have played something else, something with him singing too, not just me alone. I sing through the lyrics anyway, and when the chorus hits, I can’t help but find my eyes on King.

Everyone else disappears around us, and it’s just he and I and the crackle of electricity that’s passing between us. I don’t move, never leaving until the song finishes and Keaton shoves me playfully. “That voice.”

I laugh, but then when I find myself disappearing behind my smile, a stab of loneliness beats at my heart.

King nods his head, raising his glass to his mouth.

I stand and make my way to him because I want this. I want him. I’ve not gone through all that I have all to just give up on him.

I’m standing in front of him when his knees separate and his head tilts back. I see it in his eyes what he wants me to do, so I snake my hand around the back of his neck and lower myself onto his groin.

While I straddle his waist, he buries his face in my neck. “I’m fucking sorry.” His voice is mumbled, but that doesn’t destroy the fact that every single one of those words had a direct line to my heart.

“It’s okay,” I whisper, massaging his head.

He tilts his head up to me, and I drop my lips down to his. I kiss him softly, and his tongue sneaks out, licking me in my mouth.

Everyone starts clapping in the background, and I turn my hand around and flip them off behind my back.

He pulls away, searching my eyes. “I can’t have you in the final act. Period. We will have to take that up with Delila.”

“She’s not going to like that,” I answer, and King turns around to face everyone.

He pushes his fingers between his lips and blows out a whistle. The music pauses. “Yo! Anyone else looking at finding a chick, falling in love, and thinking maybe you’ll kill a fucker for laying hands on her in the final act?”

Everyone pauses, but my breathing has caught.

What did he just say?

He continues. “So everyone understands that if you find love in Midnight Mayhem, you still have to whip your cock out for shits and giggles at the end of the night? None of you bitches are going to detest it? Use mine and P’s relationship as a get out of jail free card?”

They all agree with a round of murmurs.

I want to say that’s not fair. Obviously, none of them are in love right now. I turn my head over my shoulder as my eyes fall on Maya, who’s glaring at Killian. “Agreed!”

Jesus.

Wait. Back up.

“Good!” King’s grip tightens around my waist as his attention comes back solely to me. “Guess we have a selling point.”

“But you said in love,” I whisper, searching his eyes.

He freezes. “What? You think I didn’t figure I loved your annoying ass way back when you ate all of my cookies?”

I pull my lip between my teeth and smirk. “You love me?”

His head jerks back, and he brushes me off. “Outta here, girl.”

“You heard that, right?” I say to Saskia who is beside us.

She laughs. “Yup!”

I bring my lips to his and rub against his growing cock. “Okay, can we go to bed?”

He lifts me off the ground and starts carrying me to his RV. Everyone starts clapping again with a whole round of “Finally!”

“Yo! You two need your own fucking RV! Fucked if I’m putting up with that noise!” Kill calls out through his laughter.

I don’t care. I have King in my arms again, and although our journey wasn’t an easy one, it was one that we both needed to take. Every turn, every bump we hit in the road, only helped pave the way to our future. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you know you love someone, or they know you love them. Sometimes, you still have to fight for it, for them. For us. Marriages fail because so many give up without going through the hurdles. Love is a battlefield, and my knight is a villain.