Page 43 of King of Liars

Was Corey an ex-knight?

“He was trying to start shit,” Ryan said. “Trying to ask about us…you.”

King seemed to relax. “I think it’s time for us to head out anyway.”

Thank fucking Christ.

I could tell Ryan was too rattled to stick around.

Ryan and I had driven together to the party, so we took his car while the other guys rode with Hole.

Ryan was tense, rigid. Clearly, there was more to the story than this guy asking about the knights and King. There had to be.

“You cool?” I asked once he seemed to have settled down.

“Yeah, just…Corey. Used to be a knight.”

“No shit. I’m not Stupid Three, remember?”

“Yeah, but ifI’mStupid Two, doesn’t that mean Three would be like a genius?”

I laughed, happy to release some of the tension I’d worked up during that fight. “So what happened with Corey?”

“His name was Assface when he was in the group, and he broke the rules.”

“How?”

“Rule Four. He hired a private investigator to look into King, so he got exiled.”

“Why would he do that?”

“You know that feeling we’ve talked about? Wanting to understand King. Wanting to maybe…I don’t know, fucking help him with whatever makes him want what we give him.”

I had to admit my curiosity had intensified the longer I’d been with the guys. How could it not?

I could see how, like my lust for King had expanded with time, so would my curiosity the longer I participated in satisfying his particular need.

“I wonder what he found out,” I muttered.

“We can wonder all we want, but we’re not allowed to know,” Ryan stated, as if annoyed by the fact himself.

However, there was something else bothering me about the exchange. “But if you hate this guy because he wanted to know the truth about King, why did it take you guys so long before you started fighting?”

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked, sounding particularly defensive, keeping his eyes on the road.

“You just… You guys were chatting for a bit, and then One came to talk to me, and…”

“At first I figured I could be cordial, but then he was on about wanting to get me to violate the rule myself. Wanted to tell me shit, so he was putting me at risk, you know?”

“That’s not what you said to King.”

His gaze shifted to me briefly, as though he was surprised by my remark.

“You know, it’s none of my business,” I said, throwing my hands up in surrender. “I was trying to make sense of it. I didn’t know the guy. Don’t even care about him. I’m just glad you’re okay, Ryan.”

He dragged out a breath, reaching his hand out to me and resting it on my thigh. “Sorry, Aiden.” He ran his thumb back and forth against my jeans, in a way that assured me we were still all right. “Just a lot on my mind with that…a lot of shit we went through that I’d rather not get into right now.”

“I’m fine with that. Like I said, it’s none of my business. Really, I was mostly just jealous when I saw you chatting with him.”