To Become King (Book One)

Five: Flesh

*Rule 5*
The Gathering occurs once a year where all of the criminals gather in one place to celebrate the King.

One Week Later

Grace's P.O.V~
We moved hotels after a few days, driving to the next state and settling after a few hours on the road.  Knight and I didn't talk much to one another before we kissed, but we talked even less after it, so I spoke to Josh more, who seemed to just enjoy my company.  Knight seemed like he either hated me or didn't have much of an opinion to begin with but each day it was as if I caught him staring more and more. Though I couldn't be completely sure, so I would often ignore it.

When I woke up, I changed into a small maroon v-neck t-shirt and a pair of jeans. I left my hair down, did a small amount of make-up, brushed my teeth, and put on my glasses before strolling into the living area. Knight and Josh were both sitting on the couch, their phones in their hands. Knight had a cigarette between his lips and his feet up on the coffee table. I sighed.

"How could people be on their phones so much?" I thought, walking over to pick up the empty beer bottles and cans from the table. Knight drank almost every night. From what I could tell, he didn't really seem to get drunk, he just drank because he wanted to or because he could. I never understood drinking that much either. It seemed like such a meaningless thing to have in order for adults to have fun.

"Grace, you don't have to clean. They have maids come in for that." Josh reminded me.

"I'm just bored," I replied. "Are you guys hungry? If we get some food, I can cook breakfast." I added. Knight sat up to put his cigarette out in the ashtray.

"There are some eggs in the fridge. I went out and bought some stuff last night." Josh answered. I went into the small kitchen and opened the fridge to see what we had. Josh bought eggs and some bacon. It looked like he also bought milk and batter to make pancakes. I started pulling out the stuff to make pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I took the hair tie from my wrist and pulled my hair back into a low bun before getting started on making the batter. I pulled out two pans from underneath the cabinet.

***
Knight stepped out onto the balcony for a phone call before coming back in to see me beginning to climb onto the counter to reach for the salt and pepper that were in the cabinet. He sighed and I heard his heavy footsteps come behind me. His large hands suddenly gripped my waist and pulled me off of the counter.  He kept his hand on my lower back while he grabbed the salt and pepper and handed it to me.

"Thank you," I uttered. "I'm almost finished. I was just going to put the salt and pepper on the eggs. Do you want some?" He looked at the stack of pancakes before looking back down at me.

"Sure." He answered.  His expression seemed as if it never changed from the cold scowl.  If there was one thing that I noticed from the short week it'd been with them, it's that Knight always looked like he was angry at something.  His gaze was cold towards everything he looked at.  Those hypnotic jade eyes looked as if they experienced 1,000 deaths.  I fixed he and Josh a plate and put them at the table.  I got a plate for myself and sat at the table with the two men.  After a few moments of silence, I watched them eat their food as if it'd been days since their last meal.

"You guys eat as if you've never had breakfast before."  I chuckled, giving them a small smile.

"Its been a while since we've had a cooked meal rather than going out.  It's really good."  Josh replied.  I could feel Knight's gaze on me, but again, I decided to ignore it.  When we all finished eating, I took their plates and hummed an old aria that I learned in college as I scrubbed them.  I liked singing contemporary songs, but my favorite type of music was always classical.  Opera, in particular, was so pure and didn't use technology to warp it.