“At first,” he says, his voice beginning to fade. “When I was in the house.”
I remember Mabel leaving the house, how sketchy she was acting. So that’s what she was doing. The psychotic little cunt was feeding my brother while he was chained up like an animal. Through it all, she knew where to find him. Devlin’s dad could have found out, but he didn’t. He didn’t tell anyone. He lied to the cops, to Dad, to me. For all I know, he knew all along and didn’t tell Devlin until he asked. He stood there and told me how sorry he was while knowing exactly where Royal was and what condition he was in. If I hadn’t gotten to Devlin, if I hadn’t convinced him to help me, Mr. Darling would have let Royal die down there.
Royal’s body relaxes beside mine, and I think he’s sleeping. But he keeps mumbling for another minute. “We’re gonna get them, Crys… He saw me like that… Gave me water… Mabel… Can’t let them hurt you…Dad’s gonna make sure of it…”
“Shhh,” I say, laying a hand on his chest and pressing my head into his shoulder. “It’s okay, Royal. You can tell me later. Just rest.”
“Can’t,” he mumbles, but the next second, he’s snoring softly.
And for the first time in a full week, on a narrow hospital bed with a rail digging into my back and a mattress that must be made to discourage people from staying any longer than absolutely necessary, I sleep soundly, too.
thirty-six
Crystal
I wake when a fat black nurse wheels a cart into the room. “Aw, look at y’all,” she coos.
I scramble off the bed, ready to be yelled at for crowding her patient or breaking hospital protocol or something. “I’m his twin,” I explain quickly.
“He mentioned he had a sister,” she says, putting her stethoscope in her ears. “Twins, huh? That’s pretty special.”
“Yeah,” I say, glancing around while she checks his heart and lungs.
“Looks like y’all have been though a lot.”
Outside the small window, it looks like late afternoon. I’ve been sleeping all day in here. She’s probably already been around and seen us and left us to sleep. I’m grateful but also guilty that I’ve been in here so long. The others must want time with Royal, too.
Not to mention the state I’m in. I’m starving, my arm is numb from lying on it, and I could use a long, long shower.
The memory of the last shower I took sends another spiral of guilt and conflicting feelings through me. Royal doesn’t know I’ve been with Devlin, that I’m still with Devlin. He doesn’t know Devlin’s so much as touched me. He doesn’t know that just yesterday Devlin bathed my naked body, savoring every inch of me inside and out. That he’s tasted me and moaned with pleasure like I’m the most exquisite delicacy. That he’s forcefully slammed his raw, bare cock into the depths of me and filled me with his cum.
He doesn’t know that I’m falling for him. Not just the enemy family, but Royal’s captors. I want to puke again, but instead, I make an excuse and escape before he wakes up, like the coward I am. It was one thing to face my other brothers after I slept with Devlin. I didn’t have to tell them because he did it for me. And more than that, we had the shock of Royal’s disappearance to focus on. Royal, who now I have to tell. And there will be nothing to take the focus off what I’ve done when Royal finds out.
My brothers are all watching TV in the waiting room when I walk in. They must have gone home at some point, because they’ve all changed into clean clothes, and Duke’s wearing a backwards ballcap that he wasn’t before.
“Sorry,” I say, sitting down beside them. “I didn’t mean to stay in there so long.”
King gives me a distracted glance and hands me my phone before returning his attention to the TV. I try to turn on my phone, but the battery is dead. When I look up, I catch my breath. It’s a local news channel, and though it’s muted, the line scrolling across the bottom of the screen tells me what’s coming before the earnest newscaster’s face is replaced by a picture of Devlin.
“Turn on the sound,” I say, balling my hands into fists so hard I feel my nails cutting into my palms.
“… In a prank apparently gone horribly wrong,” the woman is saying. “Local authorities say the house was searched already in the week-long ordeal. They’re still looking into how the victim could have been hidden during the search.”
The screen cuts back to the anchorman in the studio. His forehead furrows as he adopts an overly solemn expression. “That sounds a rough time for everyone involved, Jackie.”
“I’d say so,” she says, the camera cutting back to her. In the background, the ugly brick hospital squats. “It can’t be easy for either of the families. The missing boy is in stable condition, though, and reunited with his family right here inside Faulkner Regional.”
“Sounds like a happy ending for everyone,” the anchorman says. “We’re always glad to see those.”
“It won’t be such a happy ending for the Darlings,” King says. “That bastard’s bail is set at a million.”
“Are you serious?” I ask, turning to him. “How do you know that?”
He shrugs. “I looked it up.”
“Can they even release that?” I ask. “He’s a kid.”
“He’s eighteen,” King says, his jaw tight. “He’s not a kid, Crystal. You’re a kid. Royal’s a kid.He’san adult.”