Page 64 of King of Liars
One let Two and Boss in, then found a place opposite Hole and knelt before me.
Two and Boss eyed me from the doorway, glancing around the room, as though fearing some physical trap. I was certain they both knew the trap was set…and it would slip so effortlessly from my lips.
You’re mine, Boss, not Two’s.
Two had crossed the line, and fortunately, my One had caught him chatting up Assface, in a way that roused his suspicion, and reported his crime to me so we could keep watch and expose his treachery. Two sins he had committed against me, but I chose to exile him for the one publicly to keep Boss from knowing about the other.
I am his ruler. I decide what he should know.
“Are the guys gonna stick around while we chat?” Boss asked.
I sat up in the sling, resting my hand on one of the poles by my side.
“One and Hole, you are excused. I’ll let you know when I need you again.”
They excused themselves, walking between Two and Boss, eyeing them with the contempt they surely believed they needed to display on my behalf. They had been good to me the past few days, when I needed reminders that I could reclaim my throne in Boss’s heart and mind.
I wouldn’t lose to a traitor, no.
But it wouldn’t be much of a fight. Two appeared weak. Boss was far more confident, though his confidence was what I’d used to draw him in the first time, and I assured myself I could do it once again.
“Close and lock the door and come closer, boys,” I said, not respecting them with their previous titles.
Boss glanced me over, in that familiar way he had of trying to read what I was thinking…something he wasn’t terribly good at.
They stepped inside, closing the door behind them, leaving us in the quiet of the space, the only sound the humming of the air conditioner. As they approached, I didn’t get up from the sling. I reveled in the silence, if only because for a moment, all those voices that had been activated by his abandonment had finally quieted.
Boss said, “Did you want to talk, or should we just stand here staring at you?”
“But don’t you like staring at me? Don’t you like how hard I’m already getting just from seeing you?” I lounged in the seat so he could get a look at everything he and Two were missing as they kept to themselves.
Two bit his bottom lip. In his gaze, I could feel that fucking deceitful bastard’s hunger for me.
Why had he failed me? Why did they all have to fail me?
I reached back and glanced at one of the cuffs I’d affixed to the contraption to bind my wrists.
I noted the way Boss’s brows pulled together. “Ah, my suspicious Boss…reminds me of when I first met you. Trying desperately to figure out what I’m thinking by asking you both to come here tonight.”
“Doesn’t take a psychic for that one. I should go ahead and let you know, I didn’t respect your privacy.”
I ground my teeth.
“Guess that makes me a liar, same as Two,” he continued.
“Not quite the same as what Two did, though, is it? You walked away from the knights before Two talked to you, so there wasn’t a way for you to break your oath anymore. A little like breaking up with a boyfriend and then going and fucking a stranger. Can’t call it cheating anymore, can you? No, Two’s crime is his own. Although, I have been considering his crime and your loyalty to your fellow knight. Admirable, really. What if I offered you both a chance to return?”
“You would never,” Two said.
“Wouldn’t I, Two? Have I always seemed such an unjust king to you? Harsh, yes. Hasty, even, but if anything, I have always been fair. When the rules are broken, I must punish. Boss has reminded me that as the ruler, I have the power to redeem as well.”
“Why now?” Two asked.
Because no one leaves me.
“I have my reasons, but of course, among them, is the awareness that if my loyal knight saw so much in you that he would pledge his loyalty to you, perhaps I should see it within myself to give you another chance.”
Two’s expression relaxed, as though the mere suggestion of allowing him to return was enough to set his distressed mind at ease.