His phone went off again, and he looked down, reading the text. I caught Kingston’s eyes and smiled at him, reassuring him that I was okay. That everything would work out. Now that I’d shed the strange affliction that had been plaguing my soul, I felt lighter. Like the kind of girl I’d always wanted to me, cool and unaffected by what the world had to hammer against me. I could absorb it all and come out on top.
“Shit,” Lewis said, and Archer and Valen both frowned at his exclamation.
“What now?” I asked.
“You didn’t tell me she was the Tribute!” Lewis said to Archer. “You should have told me this from the very start. You know I can’t touch this case.”
“Why not?” I asked. “How does that change anything?”
“You don’t know?” Lewis asked, looking back at me. His round, red face got even redder and the suit he was wearing seemed to strain at the seams to contain his indignant huff. “You don’t know how being the Tribute would change the outcome of a potential murder trial in this town? You need to get a little more educated on your role. Until then, I suggest you wait here and find out what they want you to do now. How they want you to respond to all this.”
He stood up and snapped his notebook shut, slid it into his messenger bag, and squared his shoulders.
“And that’s it then?” I asked, standing with him. Kingston, Archer and Valen stood as well, and Lewis was left looking a little like a mole in an expensive suit next to my gorgeous, handsome boys.
“That’s it,” Archer said and took a step towards Lewis. His entire demeanor changed, and he scuttled out of the room and out of the mansion like a scared little rat. I hated to see him go, because I’d rather take my chances with a jury trial than whatever forces decided my fate in the Dirty Kingdom.
But at least I wasn’t alone. I had the three Kings with me, and I knew they wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me without fighting it with everything they had.
“Can we find out more about Reg?” I asked. “Did your father mention anything about him when you called?”
I asked that last part of Kingston. He had called his dad to find out, but his dad had been useless. He’d spent the time babbling about me being a psychotic bitch and a killer. Kingston had called me his killer queen, and that had filled me with a level of pride I’d never had before.
“Nothing at all, but we can try again if you’d like. Or we could chill out here and wait for the inevitable,” Kingston said.
“And what’s inevitable?” I asked.
“The town leaders and those running Dirty Kingdom will contact us to discuss your behavior and our fault in it. We were supposed to keep you in line until the final fight at the end of the school year. We were tasked with making you our girlfriend and keeping you too busy to worry about being Tribute,” Valen said, coming to stand next to me. “I’m sorry we never told you the extent of it.”
“I wish you had,” I replied. “I wish I’d known what more I was getting into.”
“Would you have stopped yourself from shooting him?” Archer asked.
“Probably not,” I replied. “When it comes right down to it, I’m really fucking glad I did.”
“So am I,” Kingston said, touching my shoulder with his hand. “I’m really proud of you, too, Evie. That fucking pig had it coming.”
We all agreed on that at least, the one thing that brought us all together. Our mutual, shared disgust with Reg and Rick and the way they’d terrorized me over the years.
* * *
“I just got a text,”Archer said late that evening. We had decided to go for dinner at the country club’s restaurant earlier in defiance of what everybody would expect from us. I knew they would want me to stay quiet and hidden, quaking in the shadows. But we’d made the choice to behave exactly how we wanted. Besides, Archer told me to pick a dress from his mother’s closet. Luckily, as with most extremely wealthy women, she had excellent taste, and we were close enough in size that it fit perfectly. I’d never felt so beautiful before, power made me confident.
On top of feeling extraordinary, it had been really freeing being out in public with the three of them. They were all so attentive and caring for me, I actually did feel like their little killer queen.
We’d gotten our fair share of people gawking at us like we were a carnival sideshow, but I had zero fucks to give about anything at that point. I let them fawn over me, and I exchanged the favors despite the judgement of those around us.
We’d come back to Archer’s place and went for a late night swim, then we wound up where we were, in his rec room, playing video games and talking shit.
Well, they played video games, and I talked shit. I’d choose one of them for each head-to-head match and throw my support behind them, then laugh like crazy as they battled it out on screen for my affections. It didn’t help that I offered a kiss for each one who beat the others. But the text interrupted us.
“What does it say?” Kingston asked, pausing the fighting game he and Valen were playing.
“They want to see us tomorrow afternoon,” he replied.
It was a Monday, but we had the day off school for a professional development day. It would buy me another twenty-four hours before I had to face Mom and Nat.
“Who wants to see us?” I asked.