Royally Flushed

The Reveal

~Malia~

"Is Malia your real name?"

I scoffed at his unabashed attempt to rattle me right out of the gate. We had just started our questioning to glean information from each other and Prince Louis was already off to a rocky start.

"Malia Echols. I actually didn't know I was a Spencer until Mar told me all about the family."

Louis seemed skeptical of this as he rested his arms on the kitchen island and I was glad we had moved our conversation from the cramped loveseat as my heart had been beating overtime due to his nearness.

The setting sun cast a sultry shadow across Louis' tanned skin, making him seem all the more dangerous in that situation but it was as if I were cornered by a lion desperate to catch his prey.

I had no choice-if I was going to escape Robert then I needed friends in high places, and there was no higher place I could find in my circumstances than the actual prince.

I braced myself to ask my next question, grateful that I was sitting on the other end of the kitchen instead of directly across from him.

"What do you know of the local gangs, powerful drug lords, and mass crime in London?  Who is the leader, who has the most control of the lower lackeys, things like that."

I could tell that he was more than thrown by that question. The wheels in his head began turning and then grinding to a screeching halt as he realized he had no idea why I wanted to know these things."

"Why do you even want to know that?"

"Uh uh uh, no follow up questions. This is an answer for answer scenario."

He sighed and raked a hand through his dark messy hair and I could tell that he was trying to conjure up the information from the back of his mind.

"I only remember bits and pieces but the King is always in the media. Not the actual King-that's just the given name he chose to make people fear him I suppose. He leads all of the cocaine and heroine distribution in the city and to the residing towns. Local police have done all they could but he is very elusive. My turn to ask a question now. Why are you wanting to know about crime and drugs when it should be the least of your concerns?"

That was it. The question. The one I had been dreading since we began playing this little game of ours.

Deep breaths. In and out. In and out.

I closed my eyes and stood up, Louis matching me step for step until we met in the middle of the kitchen.

I began pulling up my shirt when I felt his warm hands placed on mine as if to stop me from what I was about to show him.

"If you think I can be distracted with sex, you're wrong. Well you're right but once we're done I'll still ask you the same question."

I rolled my eyes and swatted his hands away even though I enjoyed how they felt on my skin and took a small step back from him.

"I'm not trying to have sex with you, I'm trying to show you the answer to your question."

Only when I gradually lifted my shirt and exposed my scar along my ribcage from a particularly nasty beat down from Robert did Louis' eyes show some understanding, if not a fair amount of masked anger as well.

His eyes flickered to the scar and then back to my eyes as he reached out with a few tentative fingers, the question on his tongue but never asked and I made the decision for him as I guided his hand to touch it, the roughness of the scar still apparent from the rusted razor blade that had made the forever intention into my skin.