Page 19 of Dirty Crown
“It is, from my experience,” Ivan replied, and then he paused with his fork up and a piece of pancake on it. The sunshine was coming in through the windows around the breakfast nook and it illuminated his hair from behind. It was like a halo, but I could see even more grey hair around his temples and in his short beard. “It’s more than enough to simply know you had a hand in their demise.”
“Are you okay with that?” I asked, making sure he wasn’t making a mistake. “Because I could wait. In fact, waiting might feel better because they wouldn’t expect it.”
“The whole revenge is a dish best served cold thing, hey?” he asked with a chuckled before eating his pancake.
I could see him savor the flavor and I wondered how much we looked alike. I could see myself in him sometimes, but most of the time I thought I just looked like me. People said I took after Ivan more than my mom, but who knew? People were known to be wrong.
“Something like that.” I laughed quietly and felt embarrassed suddenly. I always felt like there was a part of me trying to impress Ivan. As if I was afraid he would be disappointed with me and would withdraw his support and money if he found me lacking. It was stupid, and I knew it was stupid, but I had that constant pressure inside my stomach about it.
Maybe I wasn’t as vicious as I assumed, maybe I was just trying to make Ivan proud with my murdering violent urges.
Then again, he hadn’t been on the scene when I’d taken the gun, aimed it at Reg, and pulled the trigger. That had been one hundred percent me. All Everly Hayes, and not Evie Popolov.
“Yo, did you leave anything for us?”
Kingston’s voice burst into the nook ahead of my boisterous, energetic Kings and everything shifted immediately when they sat down. They began to talk about the food and their night, and even the fact that they wanted to go target shooting in the large training center behind the house later on.
I looked at Ivan, raised my eyebrows, and we laughed together. Not because we were laughing at them, but simply because we both knew they balanced us. Like Amara did with Ivan when they were alone, my Kings kept both of us real and settled, or else we’d drive each other into intensity and violence in no time flat.
Without my Kings, we’d both be lost.
CHAPTER8
“We’re meetingwith our lawyer the moment we get into town,” I told Ivan as we loaded up our luggage to head home. We were going to fly and would be there in a couple of hours. I didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t have the staff to handle the house when we were gone and we hadn’t heard anything about the charges against me.
“You make sure he keeps you away from the cops until they guarantee your freedom,” Ivan said. “If he fucks up and you end up in jail again, he’s going to hear from me. And I promise, he’s not going to like what he hears.”
“I believe it,” Archer said. He was serious with a grave expression on his face. Ivan scared him on some level. Hell, he scared each of them on some level and I liked that.
“We’ll do our best to keep her out of trouble,” Kingston reassured him. “We’ll be there every step of the way.”
“I’m sure it will be cleared up today, if it isn’t already taken care of,” I told Ivan. “It will all be behind us and I can beg my professors to let me catch up.”
“I told you, if any of them give you any trouble at all just let me know. Everybody has a price and I can talk to them for you,” Ivan said.
I cringed at the image of him sending them big stacks of cash to bribe me backing the program, but at least I had a backup if they turned me down based on my begging.
We said our final goodbyes and climbed into the SUV that would take us to the airport. We were talkative in the car, but not about anything worthwhile. Just sexy talk, them complaining about getting their own classes back, and then the dirty things we were going to do to each other when we were finally alone in our own home.
The pilot was waiting for us on the tarmac and we exited the SUV, leaving it for somebody to drive back to the mansion.
“Welcome,” he said and helped us with our luggage. “We don’t have a flight attendant for this one, but I’ll do my best to get you there in comfort.”
“Oh my god, how will I survive?” I playfully rolled my eyes and picked up my own suitcase. “It’s okay, I’m sure we’ll be okay during the two hour flight.”
It was still funny to me that this was my life now. I had gone from never being on a plane to having the pilot of a private jet apologize for not having somebody to wait on us hand and foot.
The flight went off without a hitch, and we were back at Fincross before we knew it. There was no police presence waiting for me at the airport, which was a good sign, but my lawyer, Thomas Paquette, had sent a car to pick us up.
He still didn’t have any news, good or bad, about my case. I was all nerves and jagged edges as we made our way home. Driving past the college left me feeling sick to my stomach. I looked up at the tall main hall and the towers on the science building and a wave of nausea flooded through me.
It wasn’t enough that I might be able to go back here, if I was able to beg my professors and get back in. It was going to be awful as long as Seymour’s fate was unknown. I assumed Paquette hadn’t told me about her because there were no answers.
Avery knew, she was the one who had done it. That much was obvious even though she’d never outright admitted it. I regretted letting her go, I should have shaken her and gotten the answer from her before rewarding her with the money from Ilya.
“It’s going to be okay,” Archer said, leaning against me and looking over my shoulder at the buildings beyond. “My father has already talked to my profs and I’m back in.”
“Me too,” Valen said. “It’s just been a month and it’s not exactly hard when dear old dad offered up some cold hard cash to have me slipped back in like nothing happened.”
