Page 26 of Dream On, Liar

Once she’d finished making them, instead of giving me any, she’d tucked the whole tray out of reach like she already knew I’d try stealing some. The second I did, she smacked my hand away and told me I wasn’t getting a single piece unless I explained what happened after seeing Dad. Which made the fact she’d brought me a couple pieces now even stranger.

Suspicious, even. My sister was nice—nicer than the rest of us in the clan—sure, but she was still a journalist at heart. She knew exactly how to bait answers out of people, and apparently warm pastries counted as a valid interrogation technique.

“…Did you poison them?” I asked, just as she placed the plate on my bed.

“I debated it.” She replied dryly, before dropping on the bed. “To speed up the dying process and all, you know?”

“Ha-Ha.”

“You started it.” She raised a brow.

Fine.

“Two days, and I only get four pieces?” I asked. “I thought you made them for me.”

“And if you had come clean two days ago, you could’ve had half a slab.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Oliver wiped them clean, huh?”

“Yup. You’re lucky you’re getting this many as is.” She studied me for a moment, her expression softening just slightly.

“Why aren’t you in your gaming room?” she asked. “I checked there first.”

I shrugged. “Wasn’t in the mood.”

That earned me a small frown.

Usually my gaming room was my bunker. Neon lights, multiple monitors, enough expensive tech to bankrupt a small nation. If I disappeared in there, everyone knew to leave me alone because it meant one of two things:

I was either in a great mood.

Or in a catastrophically terrible one.

Tonight apparently landed somewhere beneath even that scale.

Before she could say anything further, the sharp ring of the front doorbell echoed through the house.

Lilli’s head snapped instantly, and the next second she sprinted down the stairs.

I frowned, my gaze shifting at the alarm clock that sat on my side table.

11:22 PM

“Who’s here this late?”

“No idea.” She replied, already moving as I pushed myself of the bed and followed her down the small hallway to the stairs.

The bell rang again, and both of us watched Oliver cross the landing with Milo hot on his heels.

“Is he expecting Sean?” I whispered to Raina. At that hour, it wouldn’t exactly have been shocking if Sean had decided to appear out of nowhere.

“He is the Devil,” Raina whispered back, still staring through the narrow gap toward the front hall. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his peak business hour.”

“Where’s Rihaan?” My chest tightened instantly as Dev’s voice reached me.

Of course.

“Upstairs.” Oliver replied tersely, still on questionable terms with him. Oliver King may have been a patient man, but when it came to Raina and her own brothers upsetting her, we’d quickly learnt that he wasn’t a forgiving one.