Revenge

Caspian

" C an you sit down?" Alister asked as I made my hundredth lap around the room. "We have court in an hour. You're not helping anyone by giving off all the nervous energy."

"I need to move to think." I shoved a hand into my hair.

Royal's hand shot out and grabbed my arm as I passed. "Chill."

I met his eyes. "I'm worried about Iris."

"Just let me kill him already," Royal grunted, sounding annoyed.

"No killing. Bad." Aspen bit Royal's shoulder.

"Please don't. I don't want to go to jail." I scrubbed a hand over my face.

Royal stared at me. "I'm not a snitch."

"You are always with us. I think it would be obvious we knew." All I could do was laugh because as much as I wanted Alexander dead, it couldn't be one of us. "That's not the solution here.

"Why are you worried?" Lowe says from where he's making himself a drink.

I didn't want to say, because maybe it was nothing, and I was overreacting. "I just am," I hedged, willing everyone in the room not to look at me.

"Do you need to talk?" Lowe asked, meeting my eyes.

I lifted my shoulders, not sure what I needed.

Lowe nodded to the back deck, and I followed him out.

"Spill, bitch," he demanded after he closed the door.

I shot Lowe a glare and took a heavy seat on the sofa. "Iris has been to see his drug dealer."

Lowe's face moved through a range of emotions, but he finally balked. "You can't be serious."

I pulled my phone out and opened my photos to the screen shots of his location.

Lowe flipped through them. "Why do you have these?"

"He shared his location with me after that night, so I had peace of mind for his walks." I pushed my palms into my eye sockets. "When he started going on walks again I checked, and for a while it was nothing, just walking along the lake which gave me anxiety, but I have to trust him, you know? And I stopped looking for a bit, but when I woke up one morning and he wasn't back yet, I panicked and checked." When Lowe didn't say anything, I looked up. "What do I do?"

"How long has this been going on?"

"A week that I know of." I got back up to pace.

"Have you asked him about it?" Lowe asked carefully.

I shook my head. "How do I do that?"

Lowe lifted both brows. "How about: I noticed you were at your drug dealer's house. Are you doing okay?"

"What if he lies to me?" I didn't really think he would lie to me, but all addicts lie, right?

"What if he does? You're not closer or further away, but I think after all your history together you should give him the chance to tell you the truth. Don't you think?" Lowe fixed me with a stare.

"You're right. Fuck, I'm stupid. I should have just asked him." I exhaled, knowing I had to, and sooner rather than later or it would eat me alive.

"Sometimes we get in our own heads—" Lowe started but was cut off by someone busting in the room.

"You will never fucking believe this. Come out here." River wore a huge grin.

"What?" Lowe asked.

"I cannot explain it." River grabbed his arm, half dragging him out of the room.

I followed, curiosity overpowering my anxiety. "What is happening?" I asked, finding everyone glued to the TV.

Lis shook his head and just pointed. I turned towards the TV, trying to understand what I was seeing.

Then I processed the headline:

Big Time Music Manager Arrested For Drug Trafficking

A video played of Alexander in handcuffs being walked out of his building on loop while the news anchors talked. But I couldn't hear them. My ears rang.

"How the fuck? He wasn't dealing?" I finally said.

"You'd think he was making enough money off our fifteen percent." Lis muttered.

"No shit," King replied.

"What are you guys watching?" Iris walked in, hair half in his mess, looking like a daydream. As beautiful as the first time I saw him. He shoved his hand into his hair, pushing it back, but finally he gave up gathering it all to twist it up. He reached for the pencil he usually had behind his ear, but his usual wasn't there. He started patting down his pockets one handed.

I slipped one hand around his back while I held up a pencil with the other. "Pretty Black."

A smile stretched over his face, and he pressed his cheek to mine. "I don't deserve you."

"It's me who doesn't deserve you." I brushed my lips over his.

He pulled away, fixing his hair again, and I eye fucked him the whole time.

"Have you seen this?" River asked, gesturing at the screen.

I'd nearly forgotten. I waited on bated breath, hoping it sparked some sort of joy in him.

"Oh, that," Iris said in the most nonchalant way."That was me."

"Excuse me?" I said and was echoed by the same sentiment by the rest of the band.

"I had him set up." Iris spoke to only me, like there was no one else in the room. "Don't be mad. I was tired of him controlling every aspect of our lives, me whatever, but going after all of you and the turn discovery had taken, digging deep into all our lives making us look like the delinquents." Iris lifted his shoulder.

River ran at us. I put my hands up, but he grabbed both of us and scooped us up in a hug. He lifted our feet off the ground. "How did you do it?"

Iris grunted, but it was clear he couldn't speak. River set him down and he laughed, hunched over, catching his breath. The rest of the guys came over one by one and hugged him.

Finally, Iris sat, and we all gathered around like kids waiting for a much-anticipated bed-time story.

"No one is recording this, are you?" Iris dead-panned.

"Get on with it! I'm beyond fucking curious," Royal said. "You did better than I could do."

Iris grinned. "I heard a rumor that my drug dealer had the feds closing in. So I went and had a chat with him. He told me they offered him a deal, but he wasn't about to flip on his brother. We all have people we'd go down for. I completely understood. There was a time I would have gone down for anything with my brother."

The room stayed silent. Sombered, but we waited for Iris to finish.

He got his cigarette case and flipped it around his hand. "So it occurred to me when he was spilling this story to me that I had a guy for him to set up. It took some time, and I didn't know if it would work at first, but we did such a thorough job. There is no way he's not going to prison for a long time." He shrugged, looking at his hands like he was suddenly bashful about it.

All of the guys jumped at where we sat on the sofa in a dog pile of hugs.

"Okay, okay. I can't fucking breathe." Iris wore a smile as everyone took their seats again.

"Do you think he won't do shit from jail?" Lis' breath hitched.

"Don't worry, I'll make some calls." Royal sneered. "He won't if he knows what's good for him. He'll be dead or in solitary."

"I figured you might say that." Iris locked eyes with Royal. "I don't know what this will do to our case, but at least he won't be blackmailing us anymore."

I slipped my arm around him. "I don't mind waiting. We can keep writing in the meantime."

The guys agreed.

"It will be good to have some time off," River replied, pulling Emory into his lap. "It's kinda nice to feel normal. Maybe it will give the media some time to calm down too. It's been a circus for so long."

"I like the circus." Lowe laughed. "But I can't give it up, because Saint has his own."

Saint wiggled a finger at him. "You're not allowed to, husband."

"Any of you can have it." River put his chin on Emory's shoulder. "I don't mean to project."

"I'm teasing, man. It will be good for all of us to have some room to breathe for the first time in years." Lowe smiled. He looked good.

They all did. The time we'd spent hiding out might have been good for all of us.

Our lawyer called. The hearing was postponed due to recent circumstances. With nothing else to do, we kept watching it on repeat, like we'd get some answers somewhere. It felt final. More final than anything had felt in our lives in a long time.

"So you're not doing drugs?" I asked sometime later when the others had drifted out, leaving just Iris and I to our house on the lake.

"I'm not. If you want me to take a drug test, I will."

I shook my head immediately. "I trust you."

"I know trust is hard."

"It is, but I trust you." I slid my hand into his, lacing our fingers. "You're my forever."

"Because you believe in fate?" He got the hint of a smile.

"If it involves you, I do." I drew him forward.

"Are you going to ask me to marry you?" Iris looked up at me through his lashes.

"Do you want me to?" All the air went out of the room.

"Yes." He whispered, searching my face.

"You are going to have to wait for me to propose officially because I want to do it all." I wanted to do that for him. I wanted to surprise him and get down on one knee. To see how he looked at me when I did.

"Okay. As long as you don't make me wait too long," Iris said the words into my lips.

"I promise I won't."

If you want to read more, Pretty Obsessed is the first book in the series. The Pretty Broken Series is interconnected standalones. They can be read in any order except books four and five which are about Iris and Cas.

Pretty F*cked and Pretty Black.