In heels, we were practically the same height. Some of my unease must have communicated because she pulled back, her phone still fisted in her hand.
“I didn’t know you were going to be here,” she said, the faintest of tremors in her voice. It wasn’t quite baby doll, but it betrayed a hurt she didn’t want to advertise. My eyes narrowed at the first notes and I pursed my lips as I took a step away from her.
“Clearly,” I said, hating every moment of this. Tally was my friend. One of my very best. If you’d asked me who were my most trusted, I would have said Em and Tally. This betrayal…it cut so deep and what was worse, I didn’t think Tally even realized it. “But we needed to talk and I needed you to be unprepared.”
Her eyes were troubled and her expression deeply concerned. She glanced from me to the doorway where Karagiani stood guard then back again. I didn’t take my gaze off of her. “Alright. What’s wrong?”
“Are you seeing Julius King?” So many questions I’d wanted to ask. Too many more I wanted to say. But it all came down to this one question. Tally adored older men. She always had. She loved them older, wealthy, and just this side of scandalous.
Julius King more than fit that criteria.
Even with the proof that Bodhi had brought me, a sliver of me held on with both hands to the numb hope that we were wrong. That it was just a coincidence or a rumor. Maybe it was something else entirely.
The moment I asked her, her expression shuttered and that fragile hope died a swift death. “Why are you asking?” Her eyes narrowed. “You know I don’t always talk about my paramours.”
“Usually because they are married,” I reminded her of a string of regrettable decisions during our twelfth year at school. “Or engaged. Or friends of your father.” The words fired out of me like bullets. “I don’t care about any of them. I care about whether you are seeing Julius King. Is he your man of mystery from the past year?”
“Lainey…” Pleading joined the surprise in her voice. “I—”
“It’s a simple yes or no, Tally. Is Julius King your lover?” It made me want to vomit even saying it.
Her gaze darted everywhere but me. The crash of my illusions and our history seemed to be fracturing like so many panes of glass. “I hate that you’re asking me this.”
“You hate it?” I raised my eyebrows. “I loathe that I have to think of that man putting his hands on you or you rushing into his bed.”
“You’ve never cared before.” Her nostrils flared. I’d insulted her. “Julius is quite the handsome man and extremely discreet. So I would very much prefer to not answer the question.”
Which, of course, was an answer.
“Tally…” She really was seeing him. “Do you talk to him about me?”
“Of course I—” She hesitated when I raised my hand. “Lainey what is this about?”
“Tell me, do you bring up me? Or Pretty Boy? Or anything that you’ve seen or heard around me?”
“I assure you, that the men I’m seeing and I have far more to talk about than my best friend.” But her discomfiture grew more intense. “You know, maybe we should go somewhere more private…”
“Do you know who Julius King is?” I said, ignoring that overture. “Who he really is?”
“Very well, I suppose we’re doing this here. Have I mentioned you? In passing, yes. I love you and I worry about you. Sometimes, when he asks me what is troubling me, I tell him. You’d be amazed at what a wonderful listener he is. I promise, I’ve never been too indiscreet nor betrayed you. Though—I have brought up all the men who seem to be interested in you. It’s rather sweet you know…”
Tears burned behind my eyes.
“Honestly, he wasn’t all that interested. He just gave me an ear when I wanted to confess how worried I’ve been and how worried I still am. You have so much on your plate right now. Almost too much. I know with your grandmother and your mother… Then of course there’s Hardigan. I’m glad he makes you so happy, but you’ve always had a thing for Adam and Ezra definitely has eyes for you. Even my brother can see it. When he sees something you know how real it is.” Her smile turned almost coy. “I heard rumors about you and Phillip Cavendish though, and if that is true you’ve been holding out on me.”
“Tally, Julius King had another name before he came to the city, before he took over the Royals and before he began twisting our families around his finger and sending them out to do his bidding.” When she would have opened her mouth, I raised my hand. “That name was Jeff Hardigan. He lived in Braxton Harbor.”
“Hardigan…” She almost stuttered. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, it would seem that your lover is so discreet he is keeping secrets from you. How unfortunate… But I need to make something exceptionally clear. Jeff Hardigan is the man who abandoned Milo and Emersyn when Emersyn was a baby. He is the reason Em was adopted by the Sharpes because he left them in the care of their drug-addicted mother.”
Tally paled.
“He abandoned them. Then he came here and manipulated his way into controlling the Royals and using those connections to control others through blackmail, coercion, and lies to do his bidding, whether it was killing people or stealing from them. He is in every way a loathsome man who makes the emptiest of promises, because all he wants is to win and he doesn’t care who he uses to get there.”
Head dipping, Tally stared down at her phone and then up at me.
“A few months ago, he came to tell me that Andrea was being tapped because Adam had walked away…”
Horror drifted into Tally’s face.
That horror offered me the smallest measure of comfort.
“She’s twelve—thirteen. She’s still a kid.”
“He doesn’t care. How old do you think Adam and Ezra were? How old do you think your brother was?”
I knew who they all were now. Adam and Ezra had given me every name. Not all of them were influential, but he had his hands into every family.
“So maybe you should ask yourself who you think you are sleeping with and what he wants from you…”
“Lainey, I promise you. I didn’t know.”
“I believe you,” I said. “But I can’t trust you right now, Tally. I don’t know that I can again. King made moves against Milo, against Andrea… against so many.” He was involved in that damn arranged marriage too. “Whether you realized what you were telling him or not, you are in bed with the enemy.”
That was what I’d come to say as much to get the last bit of proof and to give her that warning. I owed her that much.
“What can I do?” She grasped at my arm, the horror in her eyes a real misery. “Please tell me what I can do. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry…”
