Page 34 of Triumphant Kings (Boys Of Kingston Academy #3)

I can’t help it, I burst into laughter. Everything about this night is surreal. I should be shocked and surprised, I mean, there’s a dead body down there. Someone I know is dead. Yet, I feel not one ounce of sadness that she’s gone. If anything, I feel pure relief.

Maybe that makes me a bad person, but there's only so much a person can take before they’ve reached their breaking point, and she was mine.

Tina only caused me pain and suffering. While I might not have known her outside of her torment, I highly doubt she treated her friends much differently.

The guys are all staring at me as I wipe the tears from my eyes, my laughter dying down. Walking over to the window, I let them step aside so I can get a good look at her.

How fucked up is it to admit that Grayson is kind of right? The way her arms and legs are, it’s something out of a horror film.

“So, what do we do now?” Declan asks. “Dead bodies bring a lot more problems than any of us need right now.”

Collin sighs. “So, how do you all feel about letting me make this all disappear and we pretend like this never happened?” Collin looks at me.

“Is that something you're okay with doing? If not, I can call the cops, and we can do this the legal way. We’d never ask you to keep something like this a secret if you don’t want to. ”

“I do,” I say quickly. “If you know a way to make her body disappear and none of this comes back to us, then do it. I’m so fucking tired of that woman ruining my life. She’s already taken enough of my time and energy, causing me hurt and pain. I just want her gone.”

“Okay.” Collin pulls me into his arms. “We’ll take care of this. She can’t hurt you anymore, Sunshine. You're safe.”

Safe. I don’t think I know what that word means anymore.

“Is it bad that I wish she suffered more?” Grayson asks, looking back out the window. “Like, it would have been fun to recreate scenes from the Saw movies and watch her try to escape."

“You really are a sick, morbid fucker,” Preston mutters.

“Please.” He snorts. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t enjoy watching that.”

“Good point.” Preston shrugs.

“This isn’t the movies and we’re not some bad ass mafia family.” Collin sighs heavily.

“Still vote that it’s a possibility.” Grayson pouts.

“How is this our life?” Declan mutters, running a hand through his hair. I reach for him, pulling him into my arms.

“I’m so glad you're safe,” he murmurs, burying his face into my neck.

“Me too.” I sigh. “Me too.”

A FEW HOURS LATER, I’m in Collin’s house, wrapped in a blanket on the couch, the guys sitting next to me while we wait for answers from Collin.

When he steps back into the room after hours of phone calls and a visit from someone I don’t know, we’re all on our feet.

“So?” Preston demands.

“Everything is taken care of,” Collin answers.

“Just like that?” I ask, brows furrowing. “It can’t be that easy.”

“It is when you know the right people,” Collin says.

“And that would be?”

“None of your business, Sunshine.” He winks. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. Just trust that your men have you, okay? We’ll do anything to protect you.”

“I know.” I let him pull me into his arms. “I believe that with my whole soul.”

“She was a very well-known person,” Declan says. “People are going to start asking questions when she’s never seen or heard from again.”

“From what I was told, Tina didn’t tell anyone about her return to the States.

And my people have made any evidence disappear that she was.

Women go missing in the UK all the time.

When she doesn’t show up to class, people are either going to think she ran away, or is just another missing person's case. Either way, it won’t come back to this school, tonight, or any of us. ”

“So, it’s over?” I ask. “That’s it?”

“For Tina. Yeah." Collin nods.

“What about your dad? The threats aren’t all gone.”

“That’s the thing about life.” Collin looks pissed, like he doesn’t want to say the next words but knows they’re the truth.

“There’s always going to be some sort of enemy in our lives, it comes with the lifestyle, the money and power.

It’s either we keep running, or we stand our ground and face it.

I’ll never stop trying to find my father and bring him down, but we also can’t spend every waking moment doing it.

We can’t stop living our lives and let him have that power over us.

So, the best we can do is keep living, keep moving forward, and tackle anything that comes our way.

” He looks between the group of us. “Together. As a family. They can’t take on all of us at once.

As long as we fight side by side, we’ll come out on top. I’ll fucking make sure of it.”

We’re all silent, eyes drifting over one another. And I know Collin’s words are true.

Not everything can be tied up into a nice little bow. We can’t make everything disappear. Sometimes there are things that are out of our control, and the best we can do is learn to navigate around them.

For now, I plan on moving forward. Living my life with my men, my best friends, and my family at my side. It’s not going to be easy, and I’ll always be looking over my shoulder. But I know I’ll have four other sets of eyes doing the same thing.

We’ll be okay. Something inside me just knows it will be.