Humiliation was all I knew at that moment, and I would have done anything to escape it. Almost anything, until I felt my Kings crowd around me and offer me support through their presence.
“You fucking assholes might laugh, but when you grew up with nothing, a million feels like a lot,” Kingston growled. “You pieces of shit should be ashamed of yourselves, feeding off the lives of this beautiful girl to feed your pathetic, fucking, dark souls. Disgusting. It’s really fucking gross.”
He spat the last word. Literally spat it on the floor of the conference room. It hung against the thick blue fibers of the rug and disappeared.
I laughed, a genuine sound of surprised joy, and leaned against him.
“You heard him,” I said, staring at the old man. “So, are you going to get on with this sham meeting, or should we just leave?”
“Please, sit,” the old man said, laughter fleeing his face. He wasn’t knocked down or anything. There was still nothing humble about him, but he did seem more serious.
We took our seats again, but this time Kingston sat closest to him. Archer was behind me and Valen behind him, but they were closer to me.
“Now, let’s start all of this over again. Tribute, Everly, darling,” he said and locked his eyes on mine. “We are going to reset this entire game and start from the beginning. You are going to go home and pretend none of this ever happened.”