Page 33 of Vengeful Princess

Yeah.

Not a good outcome for me.

I tapped my foot on the gravel verge and considered my options.

One: I could heave the body into Eden’s trunk and drive it to the nearby reservoir, toss it in, and then get the fuck out of there.

The downsides of that plan were significant. First, DNA evidence all over Eden’s car would link her to the crime. I liked Eden, and I wasn’t keen on the idea of her going down for murder. Second, the college’s drinking water came from that reservoir.Eww.

My second plan involved dragging the corpse away from the road, digging a hole, and burying it.

The downside of plan number two was I had no shovel, and it was fucking freezing.

Again, FUCK MY LIFE.

I was so busy yelling obscenities to myself that I failed to spot a vehicle approaching. It was only when its headlights temporarily dazzled me that I realized I’d massively fucked up and done the one thing my father warned me never to do: get caught with a dead body while in possession of the murder weapon.

“Well,” Kyril said when he hopped out of his fancy 4x4 and saw the dead body. “This is interesting.”

We both looked down at the rapidly cooling corpse. Me with a deep sense of resignation, because how the fuck was I supposed to explain a dead body, and him with what looked a lot like amusement.

Was he seriously laughing at me?

“This isn’t funny,” I pointed out, annoyed.

“Oh, it is.” He laughed harder. “Do I even want to know what happened?”

“No.”

Kyril smothered his laughter and cleared his throat. “OK, then. So what’s the plan?”

“Plan?” I looked up at him in puzzlement.

After rolling his eyes obnoxiously, he folded his arms across his broad chest. I fought the urge to lick my lips. God, Kyril was…big. My brain helpfully showed me a memory of him covered in sweat and blood as he fought in the ring. This was the kind of guy who’d have no problem hauling a corpse a few hundred feet. Or throwing me around the bedroom.

I should probably be nice to him.

“I assume you have a plan for getting rid of it.” He nudged the corpse with his toe and it barely moved. Rigor mortis had already set in. If only Eden kept a set of butchery knives and a tarp in her trunk. It would have made my life a lot simpler.

I might suggest she invest in both when I next caught up with her. Pretty sure Amazon did next-day delivery on shit like that.

“Um… no. I didn’t leave college with murder in mind.” I gestured down at my fluffy bunny leggings and pink sweater beneath the black padded jacket that was the only thing standing between me and hypothermia.

Kyril stared at my fluffy bunny leggings for way longer than was necessary. “Cute,” he said with a smirk. “I didn’t take you for a fluffy bunny-loving girl.”

“I like bunnies,” I replied defensively. Kittens, too, but I wasn’t about to admit that.

“Girls usually do like rabbits,” he said with a wink. It took a few seconds for his meaning to sink in before I looked away to hide my blush.

I didn’t own a vibrator, although I kinda wish I did. It might help with stress relief. Perhaps I could hide the purchase under ‘personal care items’. Then again, Torrance needed no excuses to perv over me and seeing that on my credit card statement would give him hours of sleazy fun.

“Look, if you’re not here to help, kindly fuck off. I have a dead body to get rid of and time is ticking on.”

“Of course I’ll help, my littlegadyuka.”

I didn’t like it when he spoke Russian words I didn’t understand, but when he pulled a tarp and a shovel out of the back of his 4x4, I no longer cared what he called me. He was officially my new best friend.

With Kyril’s help, it didn’t take long to dig a deep hole in an inhospitable location and bury the body. Once we'd finished, he tossed the guy’s phone in the truck and then I followed him while he drove it back toward town, abandoning it in a gravel parking area a short distance from a derelict pub.

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