“When you act like this, I kinda wish you weren’t here,” I said. It was the truth, even if it was a little mean.
We were about halfway down the long, winding road to the airfield now, and we all lurched forward when Rafe slammed the brakes on, pulling the car to a halt off to the side. Once it was in park, he turned toward me and cupped my face with his hands. My eyes were the only warning he needed, boring into him as a reminder that no longer was my body free for him to touch. His hands dropped away.
"I never want to see you cry," he told me. His face was serious and without any attitude for once. "You cried in your sleep a few times at the extremists’ camp, and I wanted to burn the entire fucking place down."
He'd been watching me even more than I'd realized, which would have been hard while trying to remain undercover and keep an eye on Jordan. I wondered if he'd slept much in the past month. Or had he spent that entire time awake, brooding, and letting the darkness consume him?
"I'm tired, Rafe," I whispered, feeling it in my bones. "Tired of fighting and being scared and hurting. It's... a lot. You are a lot. Like I said before, I don't play games, and this feels an awful lot like one."
His smile was wonky, but it seemed genuine. "It's not a game to me, Violet. Never was nor will be." Then oh-so gently, he leaned over and pressed his lips to mine, the first soft touch he'd initiated since our return. "I'll prove it to you."
Jordan snorted from the back seat, and when I turned to him, he didn't appear to be remotely upset by this conversation. If anything, his eyes were brighter with fewer shadows than he'd been sporting recently.
Rafe released a long breath, and then released me to go back to driving. We were on the road again in a few seconds, and minutes later we pulled into the outer perimeter of the private airfield his family used to store their planes.
It took almost no time at all to board the small jet, as they were expecting us. Jordan and Rafe each took a seat on either side of the narrow aisle, and I hesitated a moment while trying to decide where to sit.
"Ma'am," the flight attendant politely prompted me. "Please take a seat; we're ready to take off."
Rafe reached out, snagging an arm around my waist, and hauled me into his lap to hold me tightly against his chest.
"Uh, Your Highness," the pretty flight attendant said, frowning at my "seat" with confusion and annoyance. "For safety reasons—"
"She's fine here," Rafe snapped, cutting off her protest with an angry growl. "Let's go."
I gave the woman a small shrug. Who was I to argue with the crown prince of the Switzerlands, after all?
The flight attendant released a small frustrated sound, but nonetheless, made her way back to the cockpit to tell the captain we were ready for takeoff. Rafe didn't say anything else; he just shifted my weight to a more comfortable position in his lap and linked his arms around me like the most secure safety belt on earth.
I sighed, relaxing against him. I knew what he was doing; he was trying to mend things between us without having to use any real words. Well, newsflash, that wasn't going to cut it this time. If we had any hope of a future together, no matter how brief, then we needed to have some serious discussions about feelings, expectations, and boundaries. All three of us.
My gaze met Jordan's across the aisle, and he gave me a soft, knowing smile. It brought Jax's words back to the forefront of my mind. These guys were closer than brothers. They wouldn't force me to choose... would they?
I seriously hoped not. The idea of hurting one of them was so unappealing I'd be more likely to walk away from both of them than choose.
Chapter 17
A shrill squeal followed by a crash-tackle hug onto the grass in front of Arbon Academy was the best kind of welcome I could hope for.
"You're back!" Mattie screamed, almost deafening me in the process. "I missed you so freaking much, you have no damn idea! Noles has been driving me fucking insane."
"Hey, screw you," her twin replied, plucking Mattie off me by the back of her shirt. "Get out of the way; I need to smother New Girl with all my affection."
I’d only made it halfway back to my feet before the other red-haired twin launched at me, knocking me back into the grass. Nolan wrapped his arms and legs around me like some kind of overgrown, four-legged octopus and started peppering kisses all over my hair in a way that set me off laughing uncontrollably.
I'd missed the twins—of course I had. But I hadn’t realized just how much until the two of them were right there in the flesh and fighting over who got to shower me with more love. They were completely ridiculous, and I loved them to pieces.
"Friends with a guy for twelve years and this is the reception we get?" Jordan commented in an exaggerated mutter. "Nah, that's cool, Noles. Not like we weren’t also held captive in an extremist camp for a month or anything."
Nolan pulled away from me just far enough to give me a devilish grin, and I snickered in response. Jordan needed to be more careful what he joked about around the twins.
Seconds later, Nolan had Jordan wrapped in a bear hug as he tried to kiss his friend's face, and Jordan pushed him away in good-natured disgust. He was laughing, but I knew it had to hurt his still-fading bruises. Thankfully, Nolan let him go a moment later, and I didn't have to go all cavewoman on his ass.
Rafe gave his friend a short nod of greeting, but Noles was apparently feeling suicidal and tried to hug him as well.
Mattie and I laughed together, her arm looped around my waist, as the boys tussled on the grass like they were back in the sandbox. It was cute as shit.
"So, I missed a bunch of gossip, huh?" I asked as we wandered up the steps and left the guys behind. "I'm almost scared to ask."
Mattie groaned dramatically. "Oh, girl. So much gossip. I mean, not the least of which was about you three and what happened to you in the aftermath of the earthquake. For, like, at least a day everyone was saying you all got killed, but like, obviously they've never met you guys." She snorted a laugh. "As if you could be killed that easily."
I grinned. "You know me so well."
"Fuck yeah, I do." Mattie hip bumped me, and I snickered.
"So, Zach's getting under your skin, huh?" I waggled my eyebrows at her, and she gave a melodramatic groan.
"Oh my god, where do I even start? Let's order food up to your room and chat there. He's got a terrible habit of lurking in the shadows and popping out when I least expect it, like some kind of fucking stalker." She rolled her eyes, but there was a blush to her cheeks that told me she didn't totally hate it.
"Who's a stalker?"
Mattie let out a small scream, whirling around to smack her betrothed in the chest. He really had just appeared out of nowhere, or so it seemed. Most likely he'd just come from around the corner and heard us talking.
"What the fuck, you psychopath! You could have given me a heart attack," Mattie snarled, parking her hands on her hips.
Zach ignored her outburst, instead meeting my eyes with a curious stare. "Violet," he said, "nice to see you made it back in one piece."
I scowled at him. He’d probably known something would go down that night, and he’d said nothing. I didn't think for a fucking second that it was a coincidence he’d managed to get Mattie safely out of the room right before the quake struck.
"No thanks to your friends," I replied, my voice acidic. "They almost killed Jordan. Did you know that? They tortured him for almost an entire month. Something you probably could have prevented if you'd given us a heads up."
Zach's face blanched. "I didn't know. I'm not allied to Uriel's faction."
"Right," I said with dripping sarcasm, "of course you didn't. Come on, Mattie, I have some new swimsuits to show you that Jax bought for me." I shot Zach a sneer. "I hope that doesn't make you insecure... You do know Mattie bats for both teams, right?"
Looping my arm back through hers, I dragged my friend away from her playboy fiancé and hurried up the stairs to the girl's dorm wing.
"Sorry," I muttered to her when I was sure we were out of earshot. "I didn't mean to—"
"No apologies needed," Mattie cut me off, her voice bubbling with laughter. "The look on his face right then was fucking priceless. Oh my god, I wish I'd caught that on camera. Arrogant son of a bitch... It's about damn time he got a taste of his own medicine." She was positively gleeful, skipping ahead of me down the Persian rug that lined our corridor. "I've totally been playing this all wrong with him."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't count on me to be your fake girlfriend, babe. I'm all for helping you make him eat his mistakes, but I have a couple of princes who might get bent out of shape if I start sitting in your lap at lunch time."
Mattie gasped in mock horror. "Um, excuse me? It'd totally be me in your lap, but you have a fair point. I definitely don't want to end up on Rafe's bad side."
We ended up in Mattie’s room, and she called our in-room dining order to the kitchens. It was the weekend—thank goodness—so none of us were expected to show up to classes for another day and a half. It would give us a chance to settle back in and get the lay of the new hierarchy.
Claudette was gone, along with her parents, which left her little sister Victoria as the ruler of the Britains. Drake's parents had been killed, making him king of Denmark. But the best news? The king of Siberia had been killed in a totally separate yet coordinated attack from the bad-resistance. I shouldn't have been happy about any murders, but after learning what they'd been doing with their forced-breeding programs? Yeah. I was glad for that death.