Page 1 of Cruel King
CHAPTERONE
Ava
Nearly out of breath,I stop behind a tree as Theo yells from across the lawn, “I know you’re here somewhere, little Ava. Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
He still calls me that nickname his older brother gave me when I was no more than five years old, even though I’m nineteen now. I think he uses it to poke fun at him, although he’s rarely around to hear him say it these days.
“It’s cold out here,” Theo complains as he gets closer to where I hide. “Just give up so we can go inside already.”
I silently answer his plea. Never! I’ll never give up. We’ve been playing this game all our lives, the two of us on the lawn of the King estate, his family’s home and my father’s employer’s property, no matter the season or the weather. It’s our own private version of hide and go seek.
Theo’s been my best friend for so long I can’t remember a time when he and I weren’t running around on this grass. When he came to the house for me this morning, I didn’t hesitate to join him, even though it’s freezing cold out today like it has been every day of this week since Christmas. It didn’t matter, though. He called, and I said yes to our little game.
“Ava, I’m serious,” he says as he keeps moving toward the tree concealing me. “All you have to do is give up and I’ll win. Then we can go inside and get something hot in us.”
Coming from any other guy my age, that would sound sexy or perverted, but not from Theo. He simply hates winter and wants to go into the house, but he’s too competitive to let me win. I’ve always joked that he must have been stolen by the Kings from some other family who lived in someplace warm because he hates the cold more than anyone I’ve ever known.
I stay silent, knowing he’ll find me soon. Closing my eyes, I listen to the wind blowing across the grounds, happy to be shielded by this enormous maple tree’s trunk. The air smells crisp, like right before a snowstorm shows up. It freezes the inside of my nose when I take a deep breath in, but unlike Theo, I love this weather.
Sensing something behind me, I open my eyes and turn around to see him smiling at me. He grabs me and pulls me to him in a bear hug. “Gotcha!”
My cheek brushes against his black ski jacket as he holds me tightly to him and brags about his win. “That makes nearly two hundred this year to your measly fifty or so.”
I push him away, shaking my head at his incorrect calculations. “No way. I caught you at least one hundred times this year, so forget that fifty nonsense.”
He smiles in that way that reminds me of a pirate. “I think you’re crazy. We didn’t even play for two months this summer when I was away. That makes your claim of a hundred virtually impossible, Ava.”
“Oh, the two months when you were lounging on the beach looking for the future Mrs. Theo King?” I tease, rolling my eyes as I remember him telling me about all the girls he met when he was away on vacation this past summer.
Theo pushes his fingertips against my shoulder and laughs. “No way. You’re the future Mrs. Theo King, so those girls meant nothing.”
Since I was eight and he was ten, he’s claimed that we’re going to get married when we’re older and live here on the King estate in the big house together. I’ve never believed that for a second. I don’t think he actually believes it either.
“Have you been taking charm lessons from that brother of yours? Don’t you know it’s not nice to mention other women to your future wife?” I joke before I set off running toward my house.
Behind me, he calls out, “You’re going the wrong way. Come up to the house, and we’ll warm up!”
I look back and shake my head. “Not today. Until next time, that’s at least one hundred wins for me!”
He smiles and rolls his eyes. “Little Ava doesn’t know how to count. Come up when you’re finished at your house. I’ll have Eleanor make you her world-famous hot cocoa.”
As much as the thought of that sounds great, I can’t join him at the big house. My father warned me the weather might get nasty this morning, so he doesn’t want me too far from home. The main house on the King estate is nearly half a mile away from our house, and knowing my father, he’d definitely think that was too far today.
I slow down to a walk and look back to make sure Theo isn’t going to sneak up on me. That would be typical of him. He’s such a joker. I see he’s nowhere to be found, so I turn back around to head home.
My father’s been nothing short of overprotective since my mother died last year. She was fine for the holidays, but then in January, something changed. She started to feel worn down, but she assumed she had the flu and figured all she had to do was rest for a few days. Those few days turned into weeks, and when she finally went to the doctor to figure out what the problem could be, it was too late. Leukemia. I never knew anything about it before that day, and then two weeks later, she was gone, and that word filled my mind day and night.
It was worse for my father, though. My brother and I lost a mother, but he lost the love of his life. Ever since then, he’s been different. He worries about me twenty-four hours a day. When I wanted to go away to school, he begged me to wait a year. I think he worries if I go away he may never see me again.
Well, except to my Aunt Jessie’s. That’s the only place in the world away from this estate that he seems to be okay with me visiting for more than a day or so. Maybe it’s because she’s my mother’s sister. Or maybe it’s because she lives in New Hampshire away from anything and everything that could possibly hurt me.
Other than wild animals since her house is in the middle of nowhere.
By the time I get back to our house, he’s waiting for me at the front door, staring out through the glass with a look of pure worry in his eyes. As I step inside, he says, “It’s freezing cold out there. Why were you out so long?”
Sliding my coat off my shoulders, I shake my head at his nervous hen routine. “Because Theo wanted to play the game. I wasn’t gone that long, Dad. It’s not bad out.”
“It’s freezing,” he says as he closes the front door and follows me into the living room.