Savage Little Lies by Eden O’Neill

Chapter Twenty-Six

Sloane

Ares was in my brother’s room when I arrived back at the hospital, and I was surprised to see him. He’d stayed until visiting hours wrapped last night, and yet, here he was there again today.

He and my brother sat on his bed when I came in, playing a loud-as-fuck video game that bled into the hallway.

“Watch my back, kid,” Ares barked, laughing. “Next time, we’re not going to be on teams, bro, if you can’t cover me.”

He chuckled after it, but my brother rolled his eyes. They were playing some kind of first-person shooter, blood and guts everywhere. There definitely hadn’t been any games in my brother’s room when I’d left this morning.

Yet, here it was, along with Ares. It was a newer system too, the thing rigged up to the television the hospital had provided for my brother. The TV was ancient as fuck, so it looked pretty hilarious with that system.

“What’s going on?” I asked, sliding my brother’s bag off my arm as a character on the screen exploded. Really, its head had been completely blown off.

“Christ, sis.” My brother growled at me, and Ares did too when his guy, I guess, exploded in the same way.

Ares shook his head, and his hood was up again. I wasn’t sure what story he’d told my brother about his face, but he was still trying to hide it. The hood did pretty well for the most part, but his face was still another color. Ares tossed his controller. “Yeah, little. What the fuck?”

I raised my hands, rolling my eyes. I tossed the bag by the door. “I thought I was bringing your game.” I mean, it wasn’t this thing, but I’d brought it.

My brother exposed teeth with his grin. “Wolf brought this over. Pretty pro, right?”

I’d say, thing was sleek as fuck.

Ares stood as he slapped my brother’s hand. “No problem,” he said, bumping his fist after. “Kid looked bored as hell.”

“I brought him something.” I gestured toward the bag. “And what are you doing here?”

“Came to visit the kid like he said,” Ares returned, and I nearly fell on my ass. I’d heard what my brother had mentioned, but still, Ares was here again. Like stated, he stayed pretty late last night. Ares joined me by the door. “And what took you so long? The kid said you left hours ago.”

I really didn’t want to rehash my last few hours with Dorian. I scrubbed into my hair. “Had some interference.”

Ares’s thick dark eyebrows drew inward. At this point, my brother was playing his video game again.

Ares studied him before finding me.

“What kind of interference?” he asked, and though casual about it, I noticed an edge to his voice. He angled outside the room a bit. I joined him but didn’t really feel like talking about this. Especially because he was right about us not being friends.

I wagered he was only here now because of my brother. They at least played on the football team together and had hung out.

I opened my mouth but didn’t have the opportunity to say anything at the approaching steps of another. Callum came down the hallway, his driver, Lucas, behind him, and I was surprised to see them both. Callum had said he was staying behind to pay that bill.

He was apparently right behind me, his suit jacket over his arm, and I’d never get over the ritzy life he held. I mean, the man had a driver, the guy hanging back when Callum strode down the hall. Callum lifted a hand. “Sloane.”

“Hey, Callum,” I said, immediately turning toward Ares. I had to angle a bit.

Ares had distanced. Like legit, he was behind me, and I had to make a full rotation.

The football player was basically on my back, and I had to distance just to get some breathing room.

He glanced down at my few steps, his head shooting up when Callum joined us.

The older man grinned. “Hello, again. Finished up, so I thought I’d head on over here.” Callum’s attention directed to Ares. “A friend of yours?”

It was funny how that word kept coming up. Ares Mallick had definitely expressed he was no friend of mine, but for the sake of conversation, I nodded. “This is Ares. A friend from school.”

“I see. Nice to meet you, young man. My name is Callum Montgomery.” Callum put out a hand. “For all intents and purposes, I’m this one’s guardian. Her and her brother’s.”

I’d never seen Callum joke, but the smile in his voice gave that as an indicator. It was nice to see him being casual, like he really was starting to become a close friend, and I liked that. I didn’t have a lot of those. None actually.

Callum’s hand lingered in the presence of my friend, Ares merely studying him. I didn’t know what was up with that, but he made no move to shake.

“Ares,” the tall boy said, finally taking Callum’s hand. “Nice to meet you. Heard a lot about you.”

Once Ares had Callum’s hand, he didn’t let go, a nice long shake. Callum continued to shake Ares’s hand too, his head tilted.

“Ares,” Callum stated, a question in his voice. “A last name go with that, son?”

“Yeah. Mallick.” A noticeable snip hit Ares’s voice, and Callum let go of his hand.

The man returned it to his pocket. “I see.”

“Mmm,” Ares returned, being weirder than he already was. Really, he was being borderline rude. He took a step, but paused when Lucas approached.

Ares’s gaze flicked over to Callum’s driver, but his attention refocused when Callum regarded Lucas.

“You can wait in the car, Lucas,” he said to him before facing Ares. He smiled. “Good to meet you.”

Ares might have said something, but Callum had already entered Bru’s room. I heard his voice inside shortly after, greeting my brother.

Lucas tipped his hat at Ares and me, the large man nodding. He didn’t stay long before he was rerouting back down the hallway, and with his exit, Ares glanced into my brother’s room.

I did too. My brother and Callum were chatting in there, but more of my attention settled on Ares. “You okay?”

“Yeah. You?” The snip had returned, and my brow jumped. Ares looked at me. “You okay?”

I shook my head, confused as fuck. I wasn’t really okay. Not by a long shot, but that had nothing to do with the weird way he was acting now.

I didn’t say anything, and Ares angled in. “Little…”

“It’s Dorian.” I hugged my arms, and though I hadn’t wanted to say anything, for some reason, I was flapping my lips. I kept doing that with him, and I didn’t get it. I sighed. “He was at the house when I got there.”

“What?” Ares got close. I started to say something more, but his eyes flashed. “Wait. Was he there when—”

Ares didn’t get to say because in the next moment, Callum returned to the hallway. He was putting his suit jacket back on, and I frowned. “Are you leaving?”

“I am.” He straightened his jacket. “But I’ll be back. Wanted to stop by and see Bru again before I checked into my hotel. I drove straight here from the airport, so I’m going to go take care of that now. Especially since you kids are entertaining.” He leaned in. “Don’t want to cramp your style.”

He wouldn’t be, but it was nice he was thinking about that.

Ares’s lips pulled tight. “Staying in town long, Callum?”

Callum’s sight fell on Ares. His head lifted. “I’m in town for Bru, so as long as he needs me.” He faced me. “But the way your brother was laughing and joking with me just now, I can’t imagine that will be for long.”

I hoped he was right about that.

“I’ll be back after a while,” Callum stated, then pointed at Ares. “Again. Good meeting you. It’s nice to see the kids have made some friends at school.”

Hands in his pockets, Ares didn’t get a chance to respond. Callum strode away, and Ares followed him with his gaze.

“What’s your deal, Mallick?”

“What happened at your house?” Ares swiveled in my direction. “You said Dorian was there. That you had interference. What happened while he was there?”

So, yeah. None of that was his business, and I definitely didn’t want to talk about that.

I was already embarrassed.

I gave in so easily to him, and I didn’t want to think about it.

“Sloane.”

My sight clashed with Ares’s, his eyes narrowed.

His jaw shifted. “Did something happen while D was there? Did Montgomery show up?”

I didn’t know what that had to do with anything. “Dorian wanted to talk, and yeah, Callum came by. I think they were actually talking for a second.”

Which I hadn’t liked, Dorian in my life and acting like he had a place in it. I didn’t know what they had been talking about when I’d come in, but I prayed Dorian hadn’t been rude to the one person outside of my brother who I had.

Dorian had been so out of line, and Ares’s cursing stole my attention.

He had his phone in his hand, his head shaking.

“It’s D,” he said, but his phone silenced in his hand. He messed around on it, his thumbs moving at rapid fire. His eyes bugged out. “Shit, he’s called me like five times. Texted too.”

The guy’s thumbs dashed on his phone screen like his friend hadn’t turned his face a completely different color yesterday. I could imagine Callum hadn’t mentioned it because he hadn’t wanted to be rude, but the evidence of what Dorian had done was there.

“I must not have heard him since Bru and I were gaming.” Ares pushed his hand over his hood. “He wants to meet.”

He had to be joking.

“Yeah, and he also did that to your face.” I was actually really angry at this point, angry that Dorian could think people would just bend and move for him. He’d done that to me.

I didn’t know why I cared he was doing that to Ares too or at least, cared enough to say something.

“It’s not so simple.” Ares’s focus didn’t leave from his phone. “He’s my brother, little. I’d take a bullet for that kid. Even when he’s being stupid, I would.”

I blanched. The guy was completely serious about what he said. “Why?”

“Because he’d do the same for me when I’m being stupid.” His gaze dragged up. “We’re there for each other. Same with Wells and Thatch. Those guys aren’t just my friends.”

They were family, something he’d said before, and Dorian too. This obviously all extended to Bow Reed too. Hell, I’d seen it firsthand.

“You think he’s being stupid?” I asked, for some reason that coming out of my mouth. “Stupid about me and everything?”

Last time we talked, the jury had still been out on me.

Ares’s head lifted, his eyes narrowed. “I need to go see about him. He says it’s important. I’m sorry.”

He breezed past my side, but stopped in the middle of the hallway.

He turned. “I was thinking, with your brother being sick, it might be a good thing to bring the project over to your house.” He waved a hand. “That way you can work on it and not be too far from him. You know, when he gets home?”

The project? I hadn’t even been thinking about that. My mouth parted. “You’d be willing to do that?”

“Not much of an adjustment,” he said. “That okay? I can bring it by. Today even.”

“I’m not sure when I’ll be able to work on it. Bru and I could be here for a little while.” My brother’s condition was temperamental at best.

He nodded. “That’s okay. I’ll work on it in the meantime, and you can join whenever.”

He was being so lax, and Ares had never given me an inch on his deadline. He’d been really serious about it.

“I’ll text you the garage code. It’s the same one to get past our gate,” I said, shrugging. “That’d be nice to work on it from home and thank you.”

“No problem. Tell the kid to feel better. He can text me if he needs anything.” His mouth moved. “You can too. I’ll be around.”

His phone rang again, and he gazed down at it.

His hand lifted before I could answer, and shifting around, he strode down the hall. His phone pressed to his ear, his low words quiet and muted. He disappeared from my sight when he turned the corner, and I headed back into my brother’s room. I let Bru know what his friend had told me to relay to him.

Even if the conversation had, once again, left me confused.