Page 37 of Wild King
Truer words have never been spoken. Unlike the man she’s with now, Theo knew how to have a good time. He made it his life’s mission to find fun wherever he could. That’s what made him such a great person.
Shaking my head to rid myself of memories of that night, I stare at the picture and wish Theo was here now. He’d understand what happened wasn’t the crime everyone is making it out to be. He’d be on my side, unlike the rest of my brothers.
I sit down on the edge of the bed unable to stop the past from filling my brain. More nights like that one when we took the picture come back to me. More nights when Theo left Ava alone to go with someone else.
Every time, she never said a bad word against him for it. I even asked him one night after he was finished with some girl and came back to the house to hang out if he liked Ava why he never acted like it.
His words echo in my mind.Ava’s the type of girl you settle down with. I’m way too young to think about that. When I’m ready, though, I’ll find her and I’ll marry her. Until then, I’m all about enjoying life and having a good time.
I know he loved her. He just wasn’t ready to be tied down yet back then. Who could blame him?
Everyone knew how Theo felt about Ava. Including Matthias.
How he could betray the person he was closest to in this world still baffles me. Matthias will claim what he’s doing to me now is for my own good, but what’s his excuse for taking Ava away from his own brother?
I don’t know how Theo forgave him. When he called me that Sunday before he died and told me he was fine with them together, I couldn’t believe it. He’d loved Ava all his life, so how could he turn off those feelings now that he’d decided he wanted to settle down with her?
“She’s made her choice, Kellen. Matthias is the one she wants. I have to accept that. I can’t hate either one of them. How could I? He’s my brother, and she was my best friend for my whole life. Sometime in the future I’m going to show up at the house and we’ll all have a good laugh about it. Not now, but maybe for the holidays.”
The holidays never came for him. He was dead before the week was out, and all we had left with him was watching his casket descend into the cold ground.
I’ll never forget that day. I’d lived through it with my mother and then my father, but burying a brother was a whole new level of misery.
If only I could shake that feeling, but with very few moments of reprieve, I’ve felt angry at the world and at Matthias and Ava ever since Theo died.
Staring up at the white ceiling above my head, I realize this was the room where Ronan and I slept whenever we all came over to visit my grandparents. They’d put us to bed and go downstairs for the night, but Theo, Marius, and Matthias would sneak into the room to hang out with us. Sometimes they’d take us outside through the window and we’d climb down bed sheets tied together to the ground. Other times they’d bring candy for us to gorge ourselves on so we ended up with stomach aches. Our grandparents could never understand why we’d end up sick when we came to visit.
Ronan and I were lucky to have older brothers who included us in their mischief. Never once did they abandon us because we were so much younger.
How much has changed since those days when it was the five of us against the world.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Salem
For two weeks,Kellen has avoided me. I shouldn’t care, but I can’t stop myself from being bothered by the fact that a man I spent nearly twenty-four incredibly sexy hours with now wants nothing to do with me and can’t even muster up enough kindness to care that I’m one floor down from him.
Thankfully, I have work to keep me occupied. Three online sites have run stories about him and how successful he was in school, and they didn’t even tack on a comment about what the hell happened to him. While I’m happy some sites are willing to investigate the better parts of his past, none of the larger media outlets have done so. Nonetheless, I continue to reach out every day trying to promote a different, more appealing side to Kellen King.
My contact at CNN has been off on vacation, but he sent me a message to let me know he’d be back in the office today, so the first thing on my to-do list today is giving him a call. Curtis has always liked me, so I’m hoping he’ll give my newest troubledclient a chance to be something other than the worst man in the world currently.
His phone rings only once before he answers. “Salem Roberts, how the hell have you been?”
I love how informal Curtis always is with me. Others might have a problem with it or think it shows a lack of respect, but if he’s casual, I know I have a chance to get what I want. To be honest, it’s the proper ones who never want to give an inch but expect a mile.
“Curtis, what is this I hear about you on vacation? Who told you there was time off in that job?” I joke, teasing him even though I don’t think he’s taken even a week off from work in all the time I’ve known him.
“It got to me. The hours. The pressure. It all got to me, and I told Siara one morning a few weeks ago that if I didn’t get away, she was going to be visiting me in a rubber room. She had the flights booked and a hotel at the beach for seven days by the time I got home that night.”
I chuckle at the idea of Curtis ever not being a part of the news world. It’s in his blood. The guy may take a break every once in a blue moon, but he’s a newsman through and through.
“You sound like you had a good time. All rested and ready for another slog through the headline makers?” I ask, waiting for the right time to mention what I actually called for.
“You know me, Salem. I didn’t actually take much of a break. I just needed time away from the office. That’s all. You know, I didn’t think I’d miss the days of working at home during the plague, but damnit, I got used to having meetings in my shorts and taking walks with Toodles and Truffles.”
It always makes me smile thinking about Curtis walking those two little black and white Yorkshire Terriers around his gated community. He can be one tough son of a bitch, but gethim around those dogs and he turns into a softie who talks to them like they’re his babies.
“I guess now Siara has to do that job?”