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"Don't worry, we'll send Renee along with you for backup. Last I checked Andrew only wins half their fights, so you might actually survive. Uh. Neil?"
"Are we?"
Tonight it almost meant something, though what, Neil didn't know. Realizing Nicky couldn't follow his twisting train of thought, Neil forced himself to say, "Friends?"
Having friends wouldn't change anything. But would it really hurt? He didn't know. There was only one way to find out.
"It's not really about the food. It's about family. Not necessarily the one we were born with, but the one we chose. This one,"
"The people we trust to be part of our lives. The people we care about."
"Thanks, but I can handle him," Neil said. "We noticed,"
He didn't intend to break that promise. "Neil" might be an easily-spooked runaway, and "Nathaniel" was a hunted young man, but "Abram" was the one shielded from and untouched by his father's bloody business. Neil would pull on every murder he'd seen and every endless, desperate night, and he'd face Riko unflinching. It was the least he could do. It was all he could do.
"Take that look off your face before I carve it off."
Neil hadn't realized he was smiling too, a cruel look he'd inherited from his father. Neil lowered his cup so Riko could get a better look at it. "I would love to see you try. You think I'm afraid of your knife? I'm the Butcher's son."
"He tried," Neil said. "It didn't take."
"I am not a dog. I'm a Fox." "You are nothing but what I tell you to be." "We talked about your delusions." "I warned you to learn your place." "Let go of me, King." "I am King," Riko agreed, "and you are going to spend Christmas at my castle. You're coming to Evermore for winter break. Don't," Riko said when Neil opened his mouth to argue, "push me again. I am the only thing keeping you alive." "No, you're not," Neil said.
"Ah, but that's right. I heard they carted him away. Something about his brother fucking him brainless, yes? How scandalous. How traumatizing." "Don't," Neil said.
"That isn't even the best part." Riko smiled when Neil shook his head and continued. "Did you know I've bought one of the doctors at Easthaven, too? Unless you want these little therapy sessions of his to turn into therapeutic reenactments, you will be on a plane to West Virginia tomorrow morning. Jean will give your ticket to Kevin. Do you understand me?" Neil didn't have words, so he answered with his fist. He didn't have a lot of room to swing but he made do and caught Riko right in his vulgar mouth.
"You even fucking think about touching him—"
Neil wanted a gun. He'd settle for Andrew's knives, but those were hidden under his pillow at Palmetto State.
"I'm going to kill him," Nicky said. "No," Neil said, with a ferocity that had even Matt eyeing him warily. "We've got to break him first. If Exy is the only thing he cares about we're going to take it away from him. First we destroy his reputation, then we destroy him. I don't want us to lose a single game this spring. Can we do that?"
"Do you know what he'll do to Andrew if I don't go?" Neil said. "I don't have a choice. I have to go. You have to trust me." "He will break you." "He wishes he knew how," Neil said. "Trust me. I promise I'll come back, and when I do I'll bring Andrew back with me. It's going to be fine. So do you have my ticket or don't you?" Kevin pressed his lips into a hard, white line and looked away. "I have it."
When he finally slept, he dreamed of death and blood.
He'd been raised to run, to sacrifice everything and everyone to ensure his own survival. His mother had never given him ground to stand on. Maybe that was why he hadn't been strong enough to save her in the end. A jumble of lies had nothing to fight for. But Neil Josten was a Fox. Andrew called this home; Nicky called him family. Neil wasn't going to lose any of it. If two weeks with Riko was the price to keep his team safe, Neil would pay it.
"Riko's in denial," Neil said. "Someone should tell him Kevin isn't coming back." "You don't know anything," Jean said. "Put your things down and let's go."
Tetsuji crossed the room to stand before him. "Nathaniel Wesninski," he said, like he found every syllable wanting. "Kneel." Neil hid his hands in his pockets so he could clench them into fists. "No."
"Who is your King, Nathaniel?" Riko asked. Neil spat in his face. Riko froze, then slowly reached up to touch the glob on his cheek. He eyed his slick fingers for a moment, needing to see the mess to believe it, and then seized Neil's face in an iron grip. He pried Neil's mouth open and spat in it. A hand over Neil's mouth kept him from coughing it back up. Jean climbed onto the bed and sat on his legs before Neil could knee Riko in the back. Riko
pressed the knife to Neil's chest and slipped the edge under his skin. "I'm going to make this as terrible as I know how," Riko promised him. "When it's too much for you, don't hesitate to cry."
He'd let Riko take him apart time and time again because it was the only way to survive, because bending should have kept him from breaking, but Neil didn't know if he could pull himself back together one more time. He wasn't strong enough for this. He never had been. His mother had held him up but she was gone now.
He was their family. They were his. They were worth every cut and bruise and scream.
Facing the Foxes on the court this spring would be the last mistake Riko ever made.
