Grave (Dark Kingdom, #3) — Chapter no 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

GRAVE

I FIND IT very off that April called me to meet her for coffee, but I didn’t question it. The moment I answered the phone and she said her name, I knew it was about Ethan. But I’m not going to willingly give her any information about him. If she wants to know, she’ll have to come out and ask.

She averts her eyes and blows on her coffee. I look her over. Her hair is up again today in that messy bun she seems to love. Her face is free of makeup. She looks gorgeous, but her ice blue eyes look tired, and I bet it has to do with Ethan.

“I like your bike,” she says, looking out the window.

“Thank you,” I say, taking a sip of my drink. I went out with Cross last night and got fucked up. I left my car at Kingdom and woke up at my house this morning, so I decided to drive my bike.

“So what is it you do for a living, Grave?” she asks, unable to look me in the eyes.

There it is. The million-dollar question. “I work at Kingdom,” I say vaguely.

Her dark brows lift. “Oh really? How long have you worked there?”

“Going on four years now,” I answer.

She nods her head.

“How long have you worked at Roses?” I counter.

She places her cup of coffee down. “I started working there when I was

twelve.”

“That’s a long time.”

“My mother opened it, and I helped her out. I took over when she passed away.”

My chest tightens at her words. Her mother is dead. Just like mine. “That was nice of you to help her,” I say before taking another sip.

“Yeah, well …” She shrugs. “It was all she had, but she loved it.”

A silence falls over us, and my cell vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out to see it’s Lucy.

Lucy: Where are you? I thought you were coming over this morning.

Ignoring the message, I lock my phone.

“What about your father?” I ask. “Does he help you with the shop?”

She shakes her head. “Left when Ethan and I were young.”

Well, fuck! This is going worse than I thought it would, but at least I know who Ethan is to her—her brother. That’s good to know.

My cell vibrates again but this time it’s my brother calling. “One second,” I tell her, then answer it. “Hello?”

“I need you to be in my office in an hour,” he barks.

“I’ll be there when I get there,” I say and hang up on him.

Her ice blue eyes go from my cell to mine. “You can go if you need to,” she says softly. Obviously, she’s changed her mind about whatever she wanted to meet me about.

I want to tell her that it’s fine, but I do need to get to Kingdom. I’m not in the mood to put up with my brother yelling at me all day, so I stand. “I’ll walk you back to Roses,” I say, tossing what’s left of my coffee into the trash can by the door.

She stays silent as we walk down the sidewalk and into Roses. She turns to face me once we step inside. Her eyes run over my neck tattoo and then my sleeve. She’s never treated me differently or looked at me any different than other customers, but I want to know what she’s thinking. Do they turn her off? Disgust her?

I can see the question written all over her face. The one that everyone asks—why did you get those tattoos? Do they mean something? Do you think you’ll regret them when you’re older? It’s always the same.

“I like art,” I say. Her eyes find mine, but she doesn’t say anything.

“That’s what you were thinking, right? Why I have so many?”

She averts her eyes to her black sneakers, and a blush covers her cheeks.

God, she’s gorgeous. In a dream sort of way. Like nothing I’ve ever seen in person.

“Can I show you something?” she asks shyly.

“Yes,” I answer, stepping away from her to allow her space.

She walks toward the back. I follow her without being told. She pushes a back door that reads exit only, and we enter a narrow back alleyway. She takes a few steps away from the door and then turns to face me. I come to a stop and just stare down at her. It’s a sunny day here in Vegas, and the sun hits her eyes just right. They look almost see-through. Hypnotic. “What did you want me to see?” I ask, clearing my throat.

Placing her hands on both of my shoulders, she spins me around to face the back of the building with her. “What the …?” I trail off as my eyes look over the building. It’s covered in various shades of blue, red, green, yellow, and purple.

I step up to it and run my fingers over the brick. Blue water plays its part of a river. Tips of white make it look like it has rolling waves. To the right are mountains with peaks covered in dark clouds. To the left are tall buildings at night. Silver makes up the windows as they shine from the moonlight. “Someone vandalized your building,” I say. “It’s beautiful.”

“You think so?” she asks softly, still standing behind me.

I nod. “Absolutely.” I take a step back, coming to stand beside her and place my hands in my front pockets, just taking it in. “Fuck, it must have taken them forever to do it.” It spans the entire back of the building. There is no way this was done in one night. Well, that’s not true. I guess it depends on how many people they had working on it at once. But it doesn’t look like several people did it. It looks like one. Art is like anything else.

Everyone’s strokes are different. There is nothing in this pic that doesn’t match. No. One person did this. And it took them more than one night.

They used paintbrushes. Not like they threw some spray paint on it and ran.

Maybe she didn’t notice it at first. She doesn’t come out here very often, and they came back multiple times to do it. “I can pick up some paint and

cover it up,” I tell her.

“What?” she asks, turning to face me.

I do the same and look down at her. “I can cover it up.” I sigh. “Not gonna lie, I’d hate to do it, but they shouldn’t have done that to your building.”

She tilts her head to the side, looking up at me. “If you could erase any of your tattoos, would you?”

I frown but answer without hesitation. “No.”

She looks over at the back of the building and smiles. “Me neither.” She steps up to it and places her hands on the brick. “I did this.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

She turns to look at me. “I painted this.”

My mind is a little slow at the moment, so I point at it. “You did this?” I ask stupidly.

She looks down at her black Converse and bites her bottom lip. All of a sudden, she’s nervous.

I step into her and place my hand under her chin, lifting it so she looks up at me. Her piercing blue eyes shine from the sun hitting them. Then she lifts her hands and runs her fingers softly over my neck tattoo. I can’t help the shiver that runs through me at her softness.

“I like art too, Grave.” She speaks quietly as though the world can’t know our secret.

My hand drops from her chin to wrap around her waist, and I pull her body flush with mine. She doesn’t fight me or push me away. “You’re amazing,” I say honestly. I’ve never met anyone like her before. She’s the exact opposite of me. Full of life. Breath of fresh air. Talented.

She gives me a soft smile. Her eyes drop to my lips, and I try to think of anything else but her hands on me because I don’t want to get hard and ruin the moment.

But when her hands cup my face, I lose the battle. Her eyes meet mine again, and she whispers, “Kiss me.”

I begin to walk forward, forcing her to walk backward. Her back gently hits the building, and I bring my left hand up and cup the side of her face.

She leans her head back, staring up at me with heavy eyes.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” I whisper.

“Grave …” My nickname shakes on her lips. Her hands come up to my

chest and grip my T-shirt.

“April,” I whisper, and she whimpers.

Lowering my lips, I gently touch mine to hers. She parts her lips for me, and my tongue enters her mouth. She tastes like sugar. Addictive.

She moans into my mouth, and my other hand comes up to hold the other side of her face. I tilt her head and deepen the kiss, memorizing every stroke of her tongue on mine. The way she pushes her hips into my hard dick and grips my shirt, greedy and wanting.

I pull away and rest my forehead to hers. We’re both panting. I open my eyes to look down at hers, and they’re still closed. “Have dinner with me tonight,” I say before she comes back to reality. Before she remembers who

I really am and why she wanted to meet with me this morning, bursting this bubble she has built around me.

Her eyes open, and she looks up at me. “Okay.”

APRIL

AFTER I WATCH Grave exit the shop, I pick up my cell to call Alexa but then pause, afraid of what she’ll say about my date with him tonight after what her brother told us about the Kings. So instead, I dial up Jasmine. We traded numbers that first night when we went out after leaving her own party.

“Hey, doll.” She answers on the first ring.

“I need to talk to you,” I say in a rush. My heart’s still pounding from our kiss. It was a mistake. I know it was. It was so unexpected, but again, it was what I wanted. When he asked me out on a date tonight, I didn’t think twice

about it.

“Everything okay?” she asks.

“I’m not sure.” I bite my bottom lip.

“Tell me everything and we’ll figure it out together,” she assures me.

I like Jasmine. I don’t know her all that well, but she seems to be a good kind of friend to have.

“You know the Kings, right?” I come right out and ask.

“Yeah …” she trails off. “Why?”

“I have a date with Grave tonight.” I close my eyes and bow my head in shame. Why did I say yes? Why did he have to kiss me like that? My heart still pounds. He looked at me like he was seeing something for the first time. My skin still tingles from where he touched me.

She whistles. “Oh, girl. What are you doing around noon today?”

I frown, but answer, “I’ll be at the shop.”

“Okay, I’ll come pick you up then,” she states.

“Why?” I ask.

“We’re going to go have lunch with the girls.”

_______________

JASMINE AND I pull up to Kingdom. “What are we doing here?” I ask, getting out as the valet slides in the driver’s seat of her car. I’ve never been here.

But the hotel and casino dominate the Las Vegas Strip. It has four towers— one for each King—and is its own city.

“The girls and I have a tradition that we meet up for lunch at Empire.”

We walk into Kingdom, and it’s exactly as I expected. White marble floor with the same black circle with a golden K in the middle. We entered the hotel side. I can see off to the right where it opens into the casino.

She grabs my hand and pulls me to a bank of elevators. We make our way up to the twentieth floor, passing slot machines, and enter the restaurant. I see the girl from the other night; Emilee I think was her name.

And another woman I don’t know.

“Hey ladies, this is April.” She introduces me before she slides into the booth. I sit down beside her since both women are on the other side, facing us.

“It’s good to see you again.” Emilee nods.

“I’m Haven.” The brunette reaches out her hand to shake mine.

“Nice to meet you.”

We all open our menus. “What’s good here?” I ask.

“Everything,” Jasmine answers, licking her lips. Then she lifts her eyes to look over at the entrance. “Haven, how long is Nite gonna be on babysitting duty?”

I follow her eyes over to a man I didn’t see when we entered the place.

He’s standing with his arms over his chest and legs spread wide. His eyes are on our table, and he’s dressed in a black three-piece suit with an earpiece in his ear. He looks like he belongs in the Secret Service. Who is this Haven chick?

Haven sighs. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Emilee rolls her eyes, and Jasmine just laughs. Then a silence falls over them.

“So, uh, Jasmine mentioned you girls have lunch here often,” I add, breaking the silence. I like Jasmine, but I’m confused as to why she brought me here.

“Yeah.” Emilee nods and then it’s quiet again.

I look over the menu trying to figure out what I want when I hear Haven speak. “Hey babe. That was fast.”

I look up and meet a set of dark eyes that I know well.

“April,” Luca says my name in surprise.

“You know her?” Jasmine is the one who asks.

“Yeah.” He places his hands on Haven’s shoulders “April is my favorite florist.”

“Oh.” Haven’s eyes light up. “I love all of the flowers he brings home.

And your vases, they are gorgeous.”

“Thank you.” I blush at her praise. But it’s not hard to figure out who she is—his wife.

“You own a flower shop?” Emilee smiles at her own question.

I nod.

A man I remember seeing on my computer comes to stand next to Luca behind Emilee. His name is Weston Mathews—aka Titan—one of the owners of Kingdom. Now shit is starting to make sense. The dots connecting. “Do you do weddings?” he asks me.

“I do.”

“Oh, my gosh. Will you do our wedding?” Emilee asks. “I’ve been

looking for a florist.”

“I’d love to but …”

“Yay.” She claps her hands excitedly. “I’ll come by after lunch, and we can go over what I have in mind.”

“Okay,” I say smiling, happy to help them out. “How many people are you thinking of?” I ask. I’m not a baker, but the number of guests will give me an idea of how big it’s going to be.

She looks up over her shoulder at Titan. “How many were on our final list, babe? I think it said two hundred and twenty.”

If I was eating food, I’d choke on it. “That’s a lot.” I almost gasp.

“Yeah.” He nods. “Something around that.”

“There was more, but she started scratching names out.” Titan adds.

“When is the wedding?” I ask.

“We’re thinking November.”

“That’s in two months.” My eyes bug out.

“What’s the rush?” Jasmine asks.

“We just don’t want to wait.” Emilee shrugs. “And I put you down for a plus one.” She winks at Jasmine. “Who are you bringing?”

She waves her off. “I’m riding solo.”

“You’ll be riding something.” Emilee laughs.

“As long as it’s not Trenton.” Haven pulls her lip back with disgust at the name.

“Okay, ladies, we have to go. We just came by to say hello.” Titan leans down and kisses Emilee on the forehead. “We have a meeting with the rest of the Kings in ten.”

The couples say their goodbyes, and once we’re alone, Jasmine speaks.

“We need to go shopping after this.”

“I’m down,” Emilee says. “Then I’ll come over to your shop?” she asks

me.

“Of course,” I answer.

“Sure.” Haven nods. “Occasion?”

Jasmine elbows me. “April has a date with Grave tonight.”

“No fucking way!” Emilee gasps.

“That’s awesome.” Haven tilts her head to the side, smiling. “This must mean he’s done with Lucy.” She shakes her head. “She’s as bad as you are with Trenton.” She points at Jasmine.

“Who is Lucy?” I ask. I know nothing about Grave except what I read on the internet. And all that told me was that he is the youngest heir to Kingdom and the most likely to end up in prison. He had a few mugshots.

Mainly for DUIs and reckless behavior. It’s no secret why Kyle Reed is known as Grave. The guy has a death wish. He’s an adrenaline junkie.

“Lucy is a train wreck,” Haven answers.

“They have a bad past,” Emilee adds.

Haven snorts. “I was never friends with her. Hell, I didn’t even know who she was until recently. But she’s bad for Grave. Feeds into his addiction.”

I go to ask what she means by that when the waitress walks up to our table and takes our orders.