The corner of his mouth kicks up in a grin. “I never changed, Tillie. You just never knew me.”
He shoves me back, finally unleashing his grip. His eyes go to Brantley. “It’s started, but Bishop isn’t here.” I see a few other boys exit out of the clearing that Nate did.
“I haven’t heard from Madison either…” I add, my eyes going between Nate and Brantley.
They stay quiet.
“Let’s go,” Nate says, nodding his head toward the forest. I run to catch up to him and fight with walking beside him or Brantley, but before I can make a decision, I find myself beside Nate, with Eli, Cash, and Hunter on the other side of me. The forest is dark, the only lighting from the moon touching the slight curves of the pathway. Orange flames lick the midnight air, and the clearing finally turns into one large circle. It’s the same place we were at with Bailey, only I have obviously come in from a different entrance. There is another group of boys sitting on a log. Younger. I recognize them from that night. There are four, all slouching down and glaring at me. On another log, behind the big bonfire, is a line of three men. One, I recognize as Hector. I freeze, my jaw clenching. The reason I’m here has to be with him—right? My eyes catch movement on another log to the side and opposite the young Kings, and there’s another line. I see Jase, Spyder, and I can’t remember his name, as well as another guy.
These are the closest generations of Kings.
I see behind them there are other logs, but they’re empty. Nate yanks me down onto the one that they all sit at.
Hector looks over at us. “Malum, where is my son?”
I look up at Nate to see his jaw clenched from behind the face paint. “Not sure. Was about to ask you.”
Hector leans into a man who is seated beside him. I don’t recognize anyone, but I don’t really know because of the face paint.
“What’s going on?” I look up at Nate. Nerves break through my body when I realize why he didn’t want me dressed like this. I’m in the middle of a cage with some very hungry lions.
He looks down at me. “It’s a meet. When all of The Kings join for one night a month to touch base.” He exhales. “Look at me, Tillie.”
I do, slowly bringing my eyes to his.
“This is not the place to be a brat. You will start a war if you do, but most of the men here wouldn’t speak to you unless they are spoken to. Most except for Hector.” He pauses, another jaw clench. “Do you remember last year when Madison came to the races? Her and Bishop had a massive fight and she ended up riding shotgun in his car to make a delivery?”
No, but I don’t say that.
He carries on. “Well, that was on a meet. Every time is different. If there has been betrayal, the person who did the betraying will be there”—he points to a cage, the same cage that Bailey was in—“and we deal with it appropriately. If there’s a test that needs to be done, there will be a race or a fight. The Kings run the distribution of every underground dealing in all forty-eight states across the US, although we reside in NYC and The Hamptons, we own this fucking country. We have ties to all nationalities of the mafia: Italian, Russian, Yakuza. All outfits of the five families, the MS-13, and bikers, but they don’t matter. We have direct lines to The White House, the CIA, and every other fucking organized crime group you can think of, and wanna know something, Princessa?” he whispers. “They’re all our allies. That’s what makes The Elite Kings different. No one touches us because they’re all our allies and we can wipe any organized crime group out with a snap of our fingers. Now, the CIA and government affiliations are a little different. We can’t exactly wipe them out, but we both have an understanding.”
I’m overwhelmed with the information. I’ve always known that The Kings were lethal, but this information wasn’t something I was prepared for.
He continues. “And aside from all of that, we have our own world. We run in our circle, have our own rules.”
“Sounds like too much power.”
He chuckles. “It’s only too much to people who don’t know how to harness it. We’re trained and bred for this. We not only know how to harness it, but we utilize it. Often.”
I change the subject. “So these are all The Kings that are left?”
He nods. “Yeah, the ones older than Hector are either dead or have moved away, so they don’t bother every month though they come when they can.” He shakes his head. “Kings are rare, but they’re needed in this world because without them, there’s no structure.”