Arranged love

ALEXA

I WALK OUT of the room with the girls while the guys stay behind to be with Grave before he fights. I try to smooth my hair without the girls noticing that Cross’s hands were in it just minutes ago. My legs still shake, and my thong is now wet. I didn’t get a chance to clean up, and I hate that. I’m going to have to sneak away to the restroom shortly.

My hand tightens on the railing as I try to walk down the stairs in my heels. The place is crawling with people. Kingdom has one of the largest convention centers in Las Vegas with over ten thousand seats, and it’s a packed house tonight. They currently have the lights turned down low, making it already hard to see while “New Kings” by Sleeping Wolf blares through the speakers.

April is walking in front of me. She slows to meet my pace and whispers in my ear, “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s fine.” I dismiss her. Cross can sleep with whoever he wants. We never said it was exclusive. Hell, it was never supposed to be more than once. By the way that Rachel acted the first time I saw her at Tit for Tat, I knew they had something going on. Maybe not right then, but they definitely had a past.

“Hey.” She brings me to a stop, and the rest of the girls keep walking. “I know you, and you don’t do one-night stands. You don’t do hookups.”

I place my hands on her shoulders. “Thanks for worrying about me, April. But I’m fine. I promise. Cross and I are just hooking up. There is nothing else there.” I shrug. “If he wants to fuck someone else, then I can too.” I can’t say I’m lying, but the thought of him also fucking Rachel makes me sick to my stomach. Just because of who she is.

She bites her purple-painted lip and then wraps her arms around my shoulder before we descend the rest of the stairs.

I didn’t expect Cross to be a virgin, but I do expect honesty. So, maybe we just need to sit down and go over some guidelines. If we decide to continue this.

The girls and I make it down to our front row seats and sit right behind the ring card girls. The lights shut off completely, bathing us in darkness. So much for using the restroom. It’ll just have to wait. The lights start blinking, making it hard to focus on anything. The crowd is whooping and hollering as “King of the World” by WAR HALL begins to play.

They announce Grave’s opponent, and everyone boos him. When Grave starts coming down the aisle, the crowd’s noise is so loud, you can’t hear yourself think. I lift my hands, placing them over my ears. He enters the ring as the rest of the Kings stand next to it, watching and coaching him on.

The girls and I jump to our feet, watching intently. Jasmine stands to my right, her elbow linked through mine. I can feel pins and needles on my skin as I watch Grave block a hit and serve his own. I’m not sure why I’m so nervous. April stands to my left. I feel her hand curl around my forearm, and her nails dig into my skin.

“He’s going to be okay!” I shout over the crowd, trying to calm her even though I know it won’t do any good.

Grave gets hit and stumbles back a few feet. Her nails dig even deeper, and I hiss in a breath. “April, he’s …” I look over at her, and my breath catches. She’s bent over. Her dark purple hair shielding her face from me, but I know something’s wrong. “April?” I shout, bending over as well. The process pulls my arm free from Jasmine. “April? You okay?” I ask, pulling her hair away from her face.

Her eyes are tightly shut, her free hand rests on her stomach, and tears run down her face.

“What’s wrong?” Jasmine calls out, also noticing.

“I don’t know-”

“The baby,” April interrupts me. “Something’s … wrong,” she cries.

“Take her to the hospital,” Jasmine orders Haven and me.

“Get Grave!” Emilee shouts as the crowd roars, letting me know that Grave is pulling ahead.

“No …” April protests, shaking her head quickly.

As much as I hate to say it, it’s too late. None of us can stop the fight. And I don’t want Emilee trying to stop it just to cause a distraction and get Grave hurt.

“Take her to the hospital. Emilee and I will come with the guys as soon as Grave is done,” Jasmine orders, bending down and handing me April’s purse.

CROSS

THE THING YOU need to know about the Kings is that we are brothers-some by blood, others by choice-so when one of us is hurting, we are all hurting. And right now, we’re all in hell-burning alive.

I sit at the conference table on the thirteenth floor of tower one at Kingdom. Titan sits across from me, silently staring at the skull carved out of the table that easily seats twenty people. Bones takes his seat at the head of the table. Silence fills the room. No one really knows what to say. We’re not men who make small talk. And nothing any of us say could change what happened last night.

“Okay …” Bones starts but is interrupted.

The door opens, and Grave enters. He looks like shit. His hair is standing straight up, going every direction. Eyes red and face splotchy. He holds a bottle of water in his hand, looking hungover. But I know that’s not the case. Grave has come a long way in the past few months from who he once was before April entered his life.

“Kyle.” Bones jumps to his feet, calling his brother by his real name with concern. “What are you doing here?”

Grave makes his way over to the table and falls down beside Titan. “Where else would I be?” he asks, unable to meet his brother’s eyes. His voice sounds as tired as he looks.

Bones runs a hand through his hair and lets out a long breath, softening his voice. “You should be at home. With April.”

He doesn’t say anything to that. Just sits there staring off into nothing. After he won his fight last night, we went back to the room to celebrate. Jasmine and Emilee had come running in to tell us that they didn’t know what was going on, just that Haven and Alexa had taken April to the hospital.

Grave ran out of there so fast we couldn’t keep up. Once we arrived at the hospital, we found out April had lost the baby. As much as my heart breaks for Grave and April, I’m also terrified that this will throw him over the edge. Grave is a recovering addict, and he’s been doing so well. I couldn’t be prouder of him, but this? How do you get through such a loss? Grave has always felt things more than anyone I’ve ever known. He would drown those feelings with booze, sex, drugs. Whatever he could get his hands on.

Bones walks around the table to stand behind his brother and places his hand on his shoulder. Grave jumps at the contact and pulls away. “Go home, Grave,” Bones tells him with sad eyes. “Go home and be with April.”

Grave’s eyes drop to his hands resting on the table. “She doesn’t want me there,” he whispers. “She got up this morning and went to work.”

I look at Titan, and he’s frowning. I mean, I know everyone handles loss differently, but this? They lost their child. Why aren’t they at home grieving together? How are they up and functioning? I’ve never wanted children, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sympathize with what they’re going through.

Titan licks his lips. “Grave, it’s okay to feel-”

“Don’t tell me how to feel!” Grave explodes, knocking his fists on the table. “I’m here to fucking work. Let’s work,” he snarls.

Silence follows his outburst, and I sigh, fidgeting with my Zippo. Bones walks back over to his chair and nods once. “Okay. Let’s start the meeting. Have we heard anything about the shipments?”

“No,” I answer.

Bones growls. Everyone is getting extremely irritated about these damn shipments. Someone somewhere has to know what’s going on.

“Maybe we should just order a shipment of our own,” Titan suggests.

“That’d be too suspicious.” I shake my head.

“How so?” he asks.

“Because we don’t buy diamonds,” I answer with a growl. “I think it would look obvious that we killed one of Kale’s men when we walk in and start purchasing shipments worth millions in diamonds from him.”

Bones rubs his chin, thinking it over. Grave stays silent, staring off into nothing. Physically, he came into work today, but mentally he’s in another universe.

“What if we partnered with the Masons?” Titan offers, sitting up straighter looking over at Bones. “They make the order, but Cross and I go with him to pick it up. They can say they’ve hired us for protection.”

I give a rough laugh. “Everyone knows the Mason brothers are like us. They are their own protection.”

“What do you suggest?” Titan snaps at me. “That we do nothing?”

“You know how I feel about the Masons,” Bones adds, ignoring Titan’s outburst.

“I’m not a fan of them either, but we need to get to the bottom of this before our client comes after us for not getting the information that we promised,” Titan adds.

Bones lets out a frustrated sigh, and I know Titan has won. “Fine. But take Nite with you. Three is better than two.” With that, he gets up leaving the room.NôvelDrama.Org owns this.