Savage Little Lies by Eden O’Neill

Chapter Three

Dorian

She’d fucking played me, but what was worse was how I’d let her.

I’ve been so fucking stupid.

I only wished I had time to deal with it, but the moment I turned into my neighborhood, my window filled with news vans and reporters. My normally quiet neighborhood was a clusterfuck of activity, and it didn’t take a scientist to figure out where all the activity led to.

Shit.

The radio had said the reporters were trying to get a statement from my family, and the chaos I drove through chillingly resembled the past. My neighborhood had held a similar look when Charlie had been first murdered, and that was only partially because of the fact that my uncle had been a golden boy in my town.

We were Prinzes, the Prinzes. Anything we fucking did required an audience, and the air horn only sounded louder when scandal surrounded us. People wanted in our business, point-blank, and I could only hope to God none of these people knew, in addition of my uncle being connected to Mayberry, that it’d been me to shoot that video of the headmaster. My grandfather had been right about one thing in regards to me. I had been sloppy, at least when it came to that situation. I definitely had my voice on the footage.

I’d lost control.

I’d been weak and in so many ways. Who knew how long he and Sloane had been working together?

Sloane…

I couldn’t think about her now, my family priority. I didn’t know what my grandfather was up to, but he had let me leave today. He’d let me go home, and if my rearview mirror told me anything, he hadn’t followed me. He may be just trying to play with me and let me know he was around. For all I knew, he really only would be here a few days.

I honked, the fuckers surrounding my car. They could only get to my street so close before the gates kept them back, but that didn’t stop them from trying. My family and I lived in a gated community.

“It’s Dorian Prinze,” one of the reporters said, and next thing I knew, my car was crowded on. One patted on my window. “Do you have a statement, son? For the press?”

“How is your family handling this?” another said. “This must be hard for everyone.”

“Did you hear about the murder, Dorian?” That woman who hit my car caused me to blink. “Do you feel Mayberry got what was coming to her? Revenge for your uncle?”

So they didn’t know about my arrest in connection to it… that was good, but still.

“Do you have comments about the viral video that was posted,” a man said, his big camera right in my face, and that was when I rolled forward. We had security at the gate, and the attendant let me in, saving me from doing it myself. I normally had to enter a code.

People backed off as I peeled down my street, and more than a little sweat bulleted my brow. Could I be lucky enough no one had put two and two together that’d been me on the video with Mayberry, I didn’t know. But I wasn’t sticking around to find out.

Everyone was here.

Like, legit, all my friends’ cars were here and even my god dad LJ’s car. They’d called him into town? I didn’t notice my other god dads’ cars, but Ramses’s message earlier had said that he was out looking for me.

Maybe the others were too.

This isn’t fucking good.

I buzzed the garage open to get inside, turning off my car immediately. I pushed myself inside and nearly ran into Wolf.

“The fuck, kid?” He had his phone to his ear, his eyes wild and his curly hair all over the fucking place. His face was bruised and battered from the job I’d recently done on him. I’d done it over a girl.

A girl.

I was stiff when my buddy hugged me, nearly dropping his phone. From what I wagered, he’d been trying to call me on it.

“D!”

Wells and Thatcher weren’t far behind, literally crowding into the hallway, and when I say all my friends crowded around me…

They hugged the shit out of me, a group fucking huddle like when we were on the field. This was different, though. This was intense, and I felt them all grab for each other. I felt them grab me.

I grabbed right back.

I was fucking shaking, and I didn’t realize why until, well, I did. A lot of intense shit just happened. A lot of overwhelming shit. My grandfather was back. He was here in town, and I didn’t know what that meant for me. It took a lot to shake me.

This fucking shook me.

“We didn’t know where you were, kid. Where were you?”

That was Wolf, the one who looked just as shaken as I felt when I pulled away. He started to say something, but Thatcher grabbed my shoulders. His face was red, like legit red like a goddamn tomato.

“You don’t go off the grid. You don’t not fucking answer calls.” He shot a finger at me, his earring dangling. “You don’t do that to your boys. We didn’t know what to fucking think.”

He’d been worried.

They’d all been.

Wells wasn’t even saying anything, squeezing his mouth. He forced a hand over his platinum-blond hair. “We thought you ran, but you didn’t have to. Our parents took care of—”

“Is that my son?”

Dad.

I shot in his direction, my father behind my buddies. He had his phone to his ear, his eyes twitching wide.

He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

Worse, he looked like I’d scared him, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen my father frightened. He was so strong, never scared.

“It’s him, Ramses,” he murmured into the line, and it appeared as if on autopilot. He blinked. “He’s back. No. No. He seems fine. You can call the others to come back. Knight, Jax, and the girls?”

Fuck, they really were out looking for me.

And my dad was coming over, my friends immediately parting for him. He grabbed me, headfirst, and my dad wasn’t really a hugger.

He seemed to be today.

He held me so tight I thought he’d break me, and I didn’t know how I kept standing there in one fucking piece. I wanted to break. I felt like I was going to break.

“Why would you leave, boy? Why?” he gritted, shaking his head. “You come to me when you need something. You hear me? That goddamn video? What the hell were you thinking?”

I didn’t know. I thought I was helping.

And he obviously knew about that.

For all I knew, my friends could have told them everything. Or maybe, after the video had dropped, he’d just known. I mean, that was my voice in it.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and all he did was shake me, pulling back. His hands held my face.

“You don’t run. You hear me?” His face was serious, words serious. “If you feel like you’re in trouble, you don’t go AWOL.”

His throat moved after he said that, and I realized something.

He thought I’d run.

They all thought I’d run. Even my friends.

Their reactions to my arrival definitely said that.

They believed I’d dropped that video, then gone off the grid like Thatcher said. My mouth parted. “I’m so sorry, Dad.”

“Don’t apologize to me.” He took me by the back of the head, guiding me alongside him. I stood shoulder to shoulder with my father, but even with my size, he was bigger than me. “Your mother is worried sick.”

Mom.

She was in the living room, Bow, Thatcher’s sister, right next to her. She sat smooshed between her and Brielle, Wolf’s mom. Wolf looked a lot like his mom besides her lack of curly hair. Hers was nearly raven black it was so umber-toned, a single gray streak on the side of it like Rogue from my old comic books. Honestly, outside of that, no one would have guessed his mom was over a decade older than Wolf’s dad. The woman appeared to be in her early forties like my mother.

“December.” Brielle rubbed my mom’s back, and Mom’s head popped up. I didn’t know what to expect about her reaction. I mean, my dad looked about a half a second away from blowing a gasket, his reaction fear-based. My mom typically wore her emotion in a different way, but anger never had been it.

But that’s what I got today.

A clear anger laced her features as she got up, and when she raised her hands and left the room, I flinched.

Fuck.

I started to go after her, but Dad pulled me back.

He directed a finger toward the couch. “You sit and don’t move,” he said before leaving the room, and I did exactly that.

My friends joined me.

They crowded around on the other couches, Brielle making space for Wolf. She actually made him sit next to her, me on her other side. “What were you boys thinking with that video?” she asked, exchanging a glance between her son and the rest of the room. She landed on me. “And your mother was worried sick about you. We all were. How could you do that to us? Your parents?”

Only one person could intimidate me nearly as much as my father, and that was Brielle Mallick. She didn’t put up with any shit, and my god dad Ramses was definitely the one Wolf went to whenever he wanted something. Brielle didn’t play the fuck around.

But she loved just as hard, loved me. She brought her arm around me, really my second mom. All my buddies’ mothers had a place in my life, but with Wolf’s parents, it was different. It was like another layer, and considering Ramses was my mom’s best friend, that made sense. Ramses and Brielle were just closer, always checking in with me and making sure things were okay.

Out of all my friends, Wolf and I did spend the most time together. A lot of that had to do with our ages, yeah, but something about us had just always been in sync.

My buddy stared at me now, long and hard. He also rocked back and forth, his hands rubbing like his insides were spinning. He looked like he wanted to talk.

I wanted to talk too.

I needed to, but now especially wasn’t the time.

“Where were you?” Bow asked me from my other side. She hugged her arms. “We were all so worried.”

I was too, and had they all known where I’d been, they would be as well.

I obviously couldn’t say anything now with Brielle here, and I watched my mother return to the room. She was under my father’s arm.

But that didn’t mean he was the one to speak.

“Where were you today, Dorian?” she asked, her chin up. “The boys said you were going to our family cabin, and though your car was there, you weren’t. We know because we checked, and your phone was shut off, so we couldn’t even track that.”

My parents had access to my whereabouts through my phone, my friends too.

The police must have shut it off.

“Where were you—”

Mom started to come forward, but LJ appeared in the room. He came from the direction of Dad’s study, his hair up and his tie loose like he’d been here for a while.

He also had his phone in his hand, one he pocketed when he faced the room.

“Your son was apparently at Maywood Heights’s county lockup,” he said, bracing his big arms. The dude towered. There were vaulted ceilings in this room, and the guy could probably touch the point with a slight jump. He frowned. “My guy at the force tells me he was arrested.”

Dad’s gaze shot in my direction. “Arrested?”

“Dorian?” The shocked reaction was my mother and Brielle, and their responses matching didn’t surprise me. Like stated, Wolf’s mom was pretty much mine too.

LJ nodded. “Arrested in relation to the murder of the same woman who happened to be the subject of you boys’ video.” LJ directed a hand toward the room. “He was released because the actual murderer was arrested around the same time.”

“Dorian.” My mother had her hands together, touching her lips with her eyes closed. It was like she was doing all she could not to freak out on me and the situation. She pulled her hands away. “Tell me you had nothing to do with what happened to that woman like you did with the video.”

Wait. She thought…

I shot up. “No, Mom.” I had nothing to say. She thought I killed that bitch? Or at least hired someone to do it.

But is that so far-fetched?

I shut down the thoughts, swallowing. “I had nothing to do with what happened to Mayberry. The murder, I mean.”

“No, you only kidnapped her, Dorian,” she whisper-shouted, causing me to blink. She directed a finger. “How would you not think your voice couldn’t be recognized?”

I said nothing, and Wolf leaned forward. He nodded. “We told her what we did, D. We had to when our parents all asked us.”

The rest of my friends nodded too, Thatcher’s and Wells’s gazes escaping. They hadn’t had a choice but to admit what we’d done, and I got that. Bow was the only one not involved in all this.

“As if it wasn’t obvious,” my dad barked, then pinched the bridge of his nose. He rubbed my mom’s shoulders. “You’re only lucky the press hasn’t picked up on the fact.”

“No, they’re too busy talking about the woman’s early demise.” This came from LJ, his face nearly as red as my buddy Thatcher’s before. “And that was a nice little fire I got to tame for you, Dorian. To keep your arrest in relation to the murderfrom being found out by the press.” He placed a hand toward my dad. “I took care of it, brother. My guy at the precinct’s got my back. As far as anyone at the precinct knows, your son never set foot in the place.”

He’d wiped it away, shielded me.

Though I was sure that wasn’t without cost. Financial if anything else.

I admit I’d been arrogant, and maybe that was why I’d gotten so sloppy when it came to that video. I knew my family and the people in my life would take care of me. I did what I wanted to do.

“I guess we all just got lucky the cops found the guy who the woman got wrapped up with. Some kind of drug dealer, I guess,” LJ continued. He faced me. “So the police just let you out after they brought the perp in? Didn’t give you any trouble after that?”

Everyone in the room faced me, and I realized something else, something big.

He didn’t know about my grandpa’s place in all this. Either his guy hadn’t mentioned it, or the dude hadn’t thought to.

And why did that relieve me?

After all that had happened with my grandpa, I thought the next thing I would be doing was blowing the horn on his ass and outing his place in whatever happened to me today.

But as I watched my parents, my mother sitting there awaiting my next words…

I wet my lips. “No problems.”

“Good.” LJ stood tall. “I’m going to go make a few more calls. Make sure this thing all stays controlled, and the narrative continues to go in our favor. I also got to call Billie.” His eyebrows narrowed. “She was trying to find flights to come into town too. She was worried.”

I didn’t know where he and his wife had been, but obviously not in town. They did like to travel a lot.

And I definitely had everyone’s eyes now.

LJ left the room, and I wasn’t surprised he was the one doing damage control. He had many contacts and was the only one of my dad’s friends who built his wealth from the ground up. He wasn’t born into it like the rest of us, and since he didn’t have kids, he probably wanted to do the grunt work for the rest of the parents.

Of course, that was just a theory, and I heard his voice right after he disappeared into the hall.

“Yeah, he’s back,” he said, his voice drifting into the room. “He’s in the living room with the others, and I’m sure very happy with himself.”

Shit, he was pissed. Everyone was pissed, and the next thing I knew, my parents’ living room filled with more annoyed parents.

They all really were here now, the closest people in my life. Well, all but my great-aunt Celeste. She’d moved out of state when Grandfather Lindquist died. She’d just wanted a change in scenery after all that, so much pain that day.

Thatcher and Bow’s parents, Knight and Greer, arrived in the room first. Their father married a short (little) blonde, and little was about the only thing that could explain, well, Bow. The timid thing was an anomaly in our group, but the outward perception of her could definitely fool. Thatcher’s little sister had some fight in her. She may even have gotten that from her mom. 

The small woman did nothing but mean mug me the moment she graced the room, her arms crossed. Jax and Cleo, Wells’s parents, were behind her and Knight.

A weird story about Wells’s parents was that they were stepbrother and stepsister. Though, they hadn’t grown up together. They met later in life, I guess, but still, all us kids thought that was… different.

Let’s just say, it wasn’t something Wells preached from the rafters, and he wasn’t a thing like either of them. My god dad Jaxen was basically that corny uncle with all the fucking fart jokes. He had my buddies and me roaring during the holidays, and Cleo couldn’t be any different. She didn’t talk a lot and was pretty shy.

“Oh my God,” she said, seeing me. She had her hand on her chest. “Thank God.”

“Damn fucking right.” Jax said that, two faces to him. He had his funny side, then the don’t-mess-with-me fucking side. He propped his hands on his hips. “You got a lot of explaining to do, boy.”

“He does.”

I missed Ramses, Wolf’s dad, behind the group. Though, I had no idea how.

He was taller than everyone.

Wolf definitely got that from his dad. In fact, my god dad daunted with his size. He was just as beast-like as my buddy but was incredibly laid-back. The two were basically yin and yang, his son the crazier-than-shit version of him.

His dad didn’t come closer.

Actually, Ramses kept his distance, his hands cuffing his big arms. The guy wore a trench coat over his suit, his tie undone like he too had been at the office, which caused me to wonder how many lives I had disrupted today. Ramses looked pissed, and he had to have been because Brielle left my side and went to her husband. Let’s just say, normally he calmed her down.

So yeah, this wasn’t good.

She pressed a hand to his chest, rubbing, and he shook his head, parting his attention from me. It was like he couldn’t deal.

“Who wants to go first?”

My dad said the words, and I realized my mom wasn’t looking at me either. She was holding my father’s hand, her face turned toward him. He still stood behind her chair, his other hand rubbing her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, but that Mayberry bitch had what was coming to her after how she did Charlie.” Thatcher, surprisingly, was bold enough to make the statement.

He regretted it immediately.

His dad’s eyes expanding in his direction told the room that. Thatcher’s dad was already fucking big, but he seemed to grow three sizes in the few words his son voiced. Knight shot a finger that way. “Your first warning, boy. You talk, then talk some goddamn sense.”

Thatcher shrunk a little, shifting in his seat. He tried to hide behind his hand like that fucker could. He was big enough and barely fit in my mom’s easy chair.

Wolf raised his head. “We did what we had to do.”

“What you had to do, huh?” Ramses brought his arm around his wife. She was still holding him, the man’s jaw tight. “So you kids really feel you’re equipped to take things into your own hands?” His eyes narrowed. “The same kids who are roughing the hell out of each other?”

Ramses directed a finger between Wolf and me, the evidence of our fight still on his face.

And my knuckles.

They were still split and roughed up. I tried to hide them, but not fast enough.

The room saw, my mom saw. She covered her face, and my teeth dug into my lip.

“That was a misunderstanding.” I hadn’t felt it at the time, and though no one should be doing hazes, there were bigger factors going on here. I had new information.

There were things I couldn’t say in this moment now, my throat tight and constricted.

Greer, Thatcher’s mom, eyed in my direction. “And, Bow, you had nothing to do with this?”

She shook her head quick, and I didn’t blame her.

I almost wished I could shake my head.

I stood by what I’d done, though, but I hated it was hurting the people I cared about the most.

Thatcher came from behind his hand. “I told you, Ma. Bow had nothing to do with it. It was just the guys and me.”

Knight raised his fingers. “How about you not until we leave.”

“It’s true, though, sir.” Wells was brave enough to speak, which got more than an eye from his parents, his dad. “It is true. She didn’t do anything.”

Bow’s head turned in his direction, but Wells wasn’t trying to make eye contact with her. He broke it just as quick as he had it.

Jax braced his arms. “You kids are something else.”

I was happy LJ chose to come back in the room at that point. He broke up the tension a bit. He still had his phone in his hand, but it wasn’t to his ear.

“You’re all good,” he told the room. “Your children have managed to avoid scandal. The woman’s murder has basically covered this whole kidnapping thing up from the press, the police, and thank God for that. I’m glad you kids at least had the sense to not put any of your faces on camera.”

Yeah, sense.

Our parents didn’t look relieved at all. Just disappointed.

Especially mine.

My own mother couldn’t even look at me, my father’s gaze heated in my direction. He may have been worried that I might have run earlier, but that was all in the past. There was nothing but anger in his eyes now.

LJ pocketed his phone. “But with the press at your house here, buddy,” he said, causing my dad to face him. “You might want to get yourself and your family out of town for a little while. It’ll probably be unbearable here, and…” He sighed. “It’ll probably be like it was the first time. You know how those people are leeches.”

They were, point-blank. They’d harassed my family and me after Charlie died, stalking us for a news piece. They didn’t care about us. They just wanted the story.

And I noticed he said the first time.

LJ spoke of a time that I barely remembered.

I’d been too young.

Charlie’s murder hadn’t been the first time my family had gotten wrapped up in the press and scandal, and as bad as the media had been following what happened, my dad hadn’t been advised to leave town. No, only one event had caused my dad to actually uproot his family to relieve us from the burden of the press. Only one man had caused that.

This family still felt the burdens of my grandfather’s dirty deeds. His release from prison had caused a similar uproar, one I gratefully hardly remembered. I’d been spared.

I swallowed hard, then again when my mom left her chair.

“Mom?”

It was obviously too much, us having to leave again too much. The room watched her leave, and my dad and I followed her. He was too busy going after her to stop me this time.

The staff had to have been dismissed because normally, this room was filled with smells. The air was constantly warm with home cooking, but not now. Our family was dealing with a crisis, and when my dad and I arrived in the kitchen, we came to find my mom with her arms folded, her back to us.

“Em?” Dad brought her in, coming around her. He called her Em, his nickname for her.

He soothed her once he got to her, his hands down her arms, and I swallowed, feeling the guilt that he had to soothe her. They took a moment, several like this, and I continued to be blown away by the type of man my father was. He also had two faces, one that was completely different in the outside world.

But when he came home, he was this, a father, a husband. He was a provider in every way he needed to be for me, my mother, or Charlie. He’d been this way for my uncle too, even though Charlie wasn’t his son.

I stood quietly, waiting. Some steps came into the kitchen, and when our family’s Labrador, Chestnut, arrived, I realized she must have gotten out. Mom and Dad tended to put her in their room when they knew people were coming by the house. She could be shy.

Chestnut was basically my mom’s dog, and the dog rubbed at my mother’s ankles for her attention. I called her over, and she came to me.

“How long did you know about all this?” my mother asked me, turning around in my father’s hands. She had her fingers to her lips. “How long did you know about what really happened to my brother?”

My throat tightened, the guilt extremely heavy at this point. Standing up from Chestnut, I pocketed my hands. “Since it happened.”

“What?” My dad shot the words, his eyes emerald fire.

I cringed. “I didn’t know the details, which was why I had her do the confession. I didn’t know what she’d say. I just had a feeling something more happened that night.”

“Why?” Dad asked.

I swallowed. “I knew Charlie was seeing her.” At this point, my parents wouldn’t even look at me. I continued on. “I caught them together my sophomore year.”

“You what?” Mom approached me, her eyes expanded. “You’ve known about it for that long and said nothing?”

“I thought I was protecting him.” I felt stupid about that now, and none of this would have happened had I said something.

I think they saw that, that all of this could have been prevented had I made different choices. Better ones. I was still messing up today.

The thought sobered me where I stood.

I definitely couldn’t say anything about my grandfather now, and at this point, my mom turned away from me. I started to move toward her, but Dad halted my attempt with a raised hand.

“Go to your room, son,” he said. “Don’t say goodbye to your friends. Don’t say a goddamn word. Just go. To. Your. Room. While we all figure out what to do next.”

I blinked, nothing more than that. I left the room.

I didn’t need to be told twice.