Page 4 of Triumphant Kings (Boys Of Kingston Academy #3)

Preston

I f I keep pacing back and forth like this any longer, I’m going to wear a damn hole in the floor of Grayson’s living room.

I’m going out of my fucking mind, unable to shut the damn thing off. It doesn't help that Tina hasn’t stopped calling my phone since I ditched her last night. Well fuck her. The last thing I want to deal with is that bitch.

After we got back last night, there was this awkward, tense energy, and no one knew what to do. With the bomb that was dropped on us last night, it’s a given.

Everyone went their own ways, Grayson and Sadie to their rooms and Declan to one of the guest rooms.

I stayed downstairs, wound up, and unable to pull myself out of the mindset the night had put me in, not getting a moment of sleep. My eyes are heavy and sore, my head is a fucking mess, and I feel like I’m on the edge of hysteria.

He fucking married her! That mother fucking snake. He couldn’t stand the idea of sharing her, not making it a secret that he wanted her to himself.

But to go this far, to marry her behind our backs, makes me want to wrap my hands around his neck and choke the damn life out of him.

They said it was to protect Sadie, and sure, their reasoning seems valid, but there had to be something else, anything else.

Maybe I’m just in denial, or it's the all-consuming jealousy coursing through my veins speaking. It’s not just that he’s married to the girl who has dug her claws into my heart and refuses to let go, but that he also got to sever ties to his last name.

The last name that linked us to a monster.

I hate it. I hate them. I hate everything about my whole fucking life.

But what I hate the most is that he’s right. His name holds a hell of a lot more power than most of the families in our world. One more fucking thing he can hold over me.

It wasn’t enough that he got a mom who loves him and a carefree life where he didn’t have to worry about any fucking thing, but now he gets a new name and my fucking girl?!

Sadie might have said that she’s not choosing, but it sure as hell feels like she is. She’s legally his. At any point, she could cut ties with us and be done. But him? He would never let her go. He’s got exactly what he wanted.

Well, fuck that!

I’m not going down without a fight.

I’m done with this little pity party. Fuck my dad, fuck my brother, and fuck the whole damn world. I’m done holding back. I’m taking what's mine: Declan and Collin’s pretty new wife.

Cocky bastard can watch me fuck his wife and listen to her scream my name as she cums around my cock, because I’m not going anywhere.

“Fuck it.” Storming out of the house, I get in my car and head in the direction of the club to grab what I need. There's a part of me that knows this isn’t going to work, and I’m about to make a fool out of myself, but I’m not ashamed to admit I’m pretty damn desperate right now.

Blame it on the delusion this stage of exhaustion has put me in.

A HALF HOUR LATER, I’m at Collin’s house, banging on his front door.

The door swings open and some old man stands there staring at me with wide eyes. “What can I–” he starts, but I push past him, not giving him time to finish his sentence.

Adrenaline is coursing through my body, and I know it’s about to make me do dumb things, but I can’t seem to find it in me to care.

All I can think about is undoing what he’s done.

“Collin!” I shout, and I probably look like a wild man right now, shoving open doors, not having a clue where I’m going. I’ve only been here a handful of times in my life.

“Excuse me, sir, if you don’t leave now, I’m going to have to call the cops,” the man who opened the door calls out from behind me.

“Then fucking call them!” I snap back as I shove open another door.

Collin’s head snaps up, a pair of reading glasses perched on the edge of his nose.

“What's going on?” he asks, placing the papers in his hands down on his desk and staring at me with narrowed eyes.

“Fuck you, that’s what's going on,” I snarl, taking a few steps to his desk and slapping the piece of paper that's in my hands down before him.

A smile slowly spreads across my lips. “You think you're so smart, huh?” I chuckle. “But I’m three steps ahead of you.”

Raising a brow, he gives me a look that grates on my last nerve.

“And how is that?” he asks, leaning back in his chair, crossing his arms like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

“This!” I stab the paper with my finger.

With a heavy sigh, he shoves his glasses up his nose with his finger and leans forward, taking the piece of paper from the desk.

Leaning back, I cross my own arms with a cocky grin on my lips, watching his face as he reads it.

A burst of male pride surges through me as I watch his face morph with anger. “What the fuck is this?”

“It’s exactly what it looks like,” I chuckle. “You can’t be married to Sadie, big brother. Because she’s already married to me.”

Sadie

“GO AWAY,” I GROAN, rolling over to blindly slap at my phone. It’s currently blaring an alarm I didn’t set. “Five more minutes.”

Grabbing my phone, I click the button on the side to shut my alarm off and bury my face into the pillow to get some more shut-eye.

I’m just about to fall back to sleep when the alarm goes off again. “What the fuck?” I growl, shoving myself up, eyes heavy from sleep, frowning at the offending phone. As I go to shut the alarm off again, I see that it’s actually ringing with an incoming call instead of my alarm going off.

Collin’s name flashes on the screen, and my pulse picks up. “Hello?” I quickly sit up and answer.

“Hey, Sunshine.” His deep, husky voice sends a shiver of pleasure down my spine. “How's my wife this morning?”

I can’t help but bite my lip, holding back my smile at his question. But then I frown as I hear shouting in the background.

“Not your fucking wife!” I think I make out, but I could be wrong.

“What's going on? Who’s that?” I ask.

“Would you shut the fuck up?” Collin growls, and my eyes widen.

“Excuse me?”

“Not you, baby,” he huffs. “Can you come over to my place? Something’s come up, and we need you here to figure this out.”

My stomach sinks, pulse racing for a whole new reason. “Is everything okay? Is this about your father?”

“No, no, it’s not about him. I promise,” he reassures. “There’s just a little problem here we need to solve, and we can’t do that without you.”

“Okay... Should I be worried?” I throw the blankets off me and head over to my dresser for a change of clothes.

“That depends,” he says.

“Well, that sounds very reassuring,” I say sarcastically as I put him on speaker.

“Don’t worry, okay? Everything will be figured out. I’m sure this is all a mistake anyways.”

“The only mistake is you!” yells a voice from the other end.

“Who is that?” I frown, pulling a pair of jeans on.

“A pain in the ass,” Collin grumbles. “I’ll see you soon. I love you.”

The call ends, and I’m left standing there with so much damn confusion.

Once I’m done getting dressed, I grab my phone and head down to my car. A part of me thinks I should let the others know where I’m going, but I didn’t see anyone up when I came down, so I’ll worry about it later.

As soon as I pull up to Collin’s, nerves hit me. This has to be something to do with getting married, right? What else would be so important that I have to come over right away?

Why couldn’t he tell me what it was over the phone?

He said it wasn’t about his dad, but maybe someone else has an issue?

I mean, of course, a lot of people will, I’d be surprised if they didn’t. But who’s important enough for him to care?

Fuck. His mother? My mom took it a hell of a lot better than I thought she would, but I didn’t even think about how Carol would take it.

Only one way to find out now. Needing to know what’s going on before this anxiety eats at me alive, I get out of the car and head inside Collin’s place.

I don’t bother knocking.

Do I even need to? Isn’t this technically my house, too?

Shit, I didn’t even think about that. Or any of the finer details that come along with this very big life decision we’ve made.

Fucking hell, Sadie, what did you get yourself into?

The sound of harsh conversation snaps me out of my own thoughts. With my brows furrowed, I head towards the door slowly. Who’s in there with him?

Is it whoever he was arguing with when he called me? I still have no idea who that was. This whole thing is fucking weird.

Not bothering to knock on Collin’s office door, I push it open.

“Ahh, hello?”

Three heads turn my way.

Two I know. Collin is sitting at his desk, in a black t-shirt and messy hair, telling me he either hasn’t been up for too long, or he hasn’t gotten any sleep at all.

The other man is someone I’ve met before, but I’m not too familiar with him.

“I thought you said it wasn’t about your father?” I ask, stepping into the room as I glance toward his lawyer.

“It’s not,” Preston grunts from where he’s sitting, arms crossed and a moody as fuck look on his face. Nothing new there.

I hold his eyes, my heart racing. I want to go over to him, to step between his legs and wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. But I don’t know where we stand right now.

Does he hate me? Did this push him too far, and he’s going to walk away? What would that mean for him and Declan?

“Then who is it about?” I ask, then blink away the brain fog. “Also, how long have you been here? I thought you were at Grayson’s house?”

Preston says nothing, just shoots his brother a glaring look.

“Alright, now that Sadie is here, want to tell me why I’ve been called over here for an emergency?” Larry asks. Yes, Collin’s lawyer’s name is Larry. And yes, I laughed when I found out.

“You too?” I ask, taking the empty chair next to him.

“I’m just as clueless as you are.” He gives me a friendly smile.

“So, wanna tell us what's going on? Because I’m starting to think of a million different things that could go wrong right now, and I don’t like any of them.”