Page 76 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)
The hot liquid scorches my throat on the way down, but I barely feel it. All my focus rests on one choice that I seem to keep paying for.
“Let’s go,” he says. “We were only supposed to be gone for a half hour or so.”
I nod sharply and follow him outside. I glance at the poster of Natalie on the way. They’ll pull it down soon enough, once word spreads.
“Her parents haven’t made a press conference today,” I say quietly. “The first time they haven’t been on the morning news in… a while.”
He sighs. “There’s no point anymore.”
I shrug.
“She’s dead—you said it yourself. You admitted it was Natalie, even though you’re apparently not allowed to tell anyone.”
“I’m not.”
“Because…?”
I shiver and wrap my jacket tighter around myself. “The detectives told me not to. And another one told me it was because there was a third missing person.”
He stops.
It takes me a few steps to realize he isn’t behind me, and I circle back.
He stares, head tilted. “Another girl?”
“From just before school started,” I say. “Still missing.”
“Masters tell you that? Obsessive bastard.”
I cringe. “Dr. Penn insinuated something, ah, similar. That he couldn’t let an old case go.”
Liam hesitates, then shakes his head. There’s something on the tip of his tongue that he won’t spit out, and I almost ask him.
Almost.
Instead, I say, “She’s probably already dead.”
“You’re morbid.” He loops his arm around my shoulders, and we continue.
While it’s weird being this close to Liam—and vaguely uncomfortable—I don’t pull away. His body is warm, and there’s security in his grip. As if nothing would make him let go. Not me, not a psycho murderer, not even…
“Mom?”
She’s holding the door open, directing uniformed movers carrying my bed.
She glances over her shoulder. “We’re remedying the whole bed situation.”
I squint, then horror washes over me. “You’re packing my room? What did you do with the plants? We can’t move them now, it’s too cold—”
“Relax,” she says. “Breathe. They’re in a box upstairs, we’ll take them over with us.”
I exhale. “Okay.”
“Anything else we should be worried about?” Liam asks lightly. “A vibrator, maybe?”
I elbow him. No use answering him there, because if they’re moving the bed, they’ve already found it.
Mom rolls her eyes.